MY ADVOCATE IS ON HIGH

Job 16:1-22 / Keywords 16:19

Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.

 

Job

16:1 Then Job replied:

2 “I have heard many things like these;

    you are miserable comforters, all of you!

3 Will your long-winded speeches never end?

    What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4 I also could speak like you,

    if you were in my place;

I could make fine speeches against you

    and shake my head at you.

5 But my mouth would encourage you;

    comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

6 “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;

    and if I refrain, it does not go away.

7 Surely, God, you have worn me out;

    you have devastated my entire household.

8 You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;

    my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

9 God assails me and tears me in his anger

    and gnashes his teeth at me;

    my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

10 People open their mouths to jeer at me;

    they strike my cheek in scorn

    and unite together against me.

11 God has turned me over to the ungodly

    and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

12 All was well with me, but he shattered me;

    he seized me by the neck and crushed me.

He has made me his target;

13     his archers surround me.

Without pity, he pierces my kidneys

    and spills my gall on the ground.

14 Again and again he bursts upon me;

    he rushes at me like a warrior.

15 “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin

    and buried my brow in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping,

    dark shadows ring my eyes;

17 yet my hands have been free of violence

    and my prayer is pure.

18 “Earth, do not cover my blood;

    may my cry never be laid to rest!

19 Even now my witness is in heaven;

    my advocate is on high.

20 My intercessor is my friend[a]

    as my eyes pour out tears to God;

21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God

    as one pleads for a friend.

22 “Only a few years will pass

    before I take the path of no return.

Footnotes

a. Job 16:20 Or My friends treat me with scorn

1. Job’s friends were miserable comforters. If their roles were reversed, Job could speak like them: words of accusation, a disappointed shaking of the head. Or Job could speak encouragement, comfort and relief. Words are so important. We need each other to speak words of comfort and relief.

 

2. Job’s own words couldn’t comfort him. He was suffering unbearable loss and physical pain. He didn’t know why this was happening. Although he cried out to God, there seemed to be no answer. Having such a respect for God’s sovereignty, Job believed it was God who devastated his household. God was assailing him; God turned him over to the ungodly, God seized him by the neck and crushed him. Was there any advocate, anyone who was truly on his side? His friends were implying guilt as the cause; God was not answering. But Job had faith that there was a witness in heaven who heard his pure prayers. He believed that there was an intercessor, a friend, who was not like his three friends, but who was pleading his case.

 

3. We too have an advocate with the Father: Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He always lives to intercede for us.

 

Prayer Father, thank you for Jesus, our friend and advocate. What a comfort to know he pleads for us when we don’t know why suffering happens. Help us to be such advocates and friends for others.

One Word Jesus is our friend and advocate