“Job, you’re a pompous windbag.” So begins Eliphaz’s second lecture to the broken man. I’m not going to dwell on chapter 15. It appears to me that Eliphaz is turning Job’s own words against him. Job has insisted on his innocence and Eliphaz basically says, “Aha! See? Only a proud and sinful man would claim he is innocent and without a fault. Therefore you, Job, are proving my point! Ha! Checkmate!”
I would also draw your attention to the fact that in verses 14-16, Eliphaz brings back up (from the beyond 👻😏) the words of the mysterious “spirit” from back in 4:15-19. Eliphaz seems to have bought in to that whole experience and what the spirit told him. So weird…
Verses 20-35 of his speech sound like they would fit rather comfortably in the book of Revelation. They’re all about the calamity that falls on the wicked. And there is truth here. That will happen. Eventually. But there are plenty of really really bad people who somehow escape this fate- for the present.
I could digress here to talk about Nazis who escaped and were brought to America and given homes and college educations for their children. Or Hollywood kingpins who took advantage of young women yet lived out their days like royalty. Or actual royals who have used their wealth and influence to hide their sins… But I won’t. 🤨
If Solomon could sit down with Job and crew, I think he would give a few speeches of his own. And they would go something like this:
“I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other. I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless. When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless!“
Ecclesiastes 8:9-12, 14 NLT
Ok, finally on to chapter 16… 😏
Job defends himself against Eliphaz (again) only, this time, there is no pretense of respect. He starts out by basically saying, “You’re a big fat windbag yourself!”
Totally off topic but verse 2 is where the old-timey idiom of “Job’s comforters” comes from. I’ve run across it in books where an author uses it to refer to people who show up to pontificate on why something bad has happened. (I’m looking at you, Mr. Collins.) The author might say something like, “He was now destitute. And those he thought to be his friends turned out to be nothing more than a lot of Job’s comforters.” But those were the days when writers could make oblique references to the Bible and the average much-better-informed-than-we-are-despite-the-internet reader would understand what he meant.
Ok. Getting off my soap box. For now. 🤨
After the opening volley of insults, Job says something that makes me wonder about the message of the whole book.
Here’s your assignment: Go read (or re-read) Job 16:7-17. Next, turn to Psalm 22 and read down thru verse 21. Then come back here and we’ll chat about it. Go ahead. I’ll just go make my morning coffee.
☕️ ☺️
☕️ 🤓📰
☕️ 😙🎶 do do de doo
☕️ 🤔⌚️
Welcome back. 😁
Ok. Similarities, right? Could it be that Job is something of a prophetic picture of the divine mediator, (Jesus), he so longs for?
You have a man that God calls “blameless,” – a man in whom God is well-pleased. The Satan is allowed to test him. He passes the test. He remains loyal to the Lord. He is falsely accused. Repeatedly. He is mocked. His body is wracked with wounds and even lacerations. His accusers insist that he has sinned though they fail to bring any shred of proof. He is despised and rejected. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He is brought face to face with death.
“My spirit is crushed, and my life is nearly snuffed out. The grave is ready to receive me.” Job 17:1 NLT
If I didn’t know better I’d think these were the words of Jesus from the cross itself. Then, this:
“God has made a mockery of me among the people; they spit in my face. My eyes are swollen with weeping, and I am but a shadow of my former self.” Job 17:6-7 NLT
This sounds like it came straight out of Matthew’s gospel. “Then they began to spit in Jesus’ face and beat him with their fists. And some slapped him, jeering, “Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who hit you that time?”
Matthew 26:67-68 NLT
And look at this from the famous prophetic passage about Jesus, Isaiah 53:4, “we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!”
Does that not describe the response of Job’s friends?!
Y’all… there is no way this is a coincidence. Could it be that Job is living out a prophetic picture of this Redeemer he hopes for? The One Who will place one hand on God Almighty and the other on Job to mediate between them? I strongly suspect that this is what’s happening. Job is living out prophecy and he has no idea.
This happened to David too. Psalm 22 was written out of real anguish. It wasn’t theory. David had to experience feeling abandoned by God to have written it. But it’s so prophetic it might as well be printed in red letters. Did David know he was speaking the future words of Christ? Or did he just think he was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day?
What about you and I? Could it be that our individual lives – the griefs and sorrows, our triumphs and tests – are a microcosm of God’s glorious redemption story? I think they might be. And so many days, we have no idea. We just think it’s a bad day.
Paul knew though. Look what he wrote:
“I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.” Colossians 1:24 NLT
Paul connected his battered, imprisoned physical body to the suffering of Jesus for the salvation of the Body of Christ. Many Christian martyrs have written of these same ideas. Paul called it “the fellowship of His suffering.” You want to know Jesus better? There will be a cost. We cannot fully know Jesus if we do not know Him in His suffering.
But it’s not just any kind of suffering. The suffering of Christ was unjust. Undeserved. (If we bring mess upon ourselves, that’s not martyrdom. That’s just stupidity.) This is why the Apostles and martyrs could rejoice in unjust suffering- it meant they were given an opportunity to identify with Christ; to be united with Him. To participate in the cross.
But poor Job- he doesn’t get it. Yet. He doesn’t know as we do about the undeserved suffering of the Redeemer. He doesn’t know that his anguish is literally prophecy in 3D. (Or as the kids put it: IRL) He ends his defense on the lowest possible note.
“What if I go to the grave and make my bed in darkness? What if I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister? Where then is my hope? Can anyone find it? No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We will rest together in the dust!”Job 17:13-16 NLT
Let me just sit another passage right next to this one for your consideration…
“I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.”
Psalms 139:7-12 NLT (emphasis mine)
Job may feel that hope will die and be buried with him but David is saying, Even if you go down into the grave, don’t forget to pack up your hope and take it with. (Because you’re not staying.) The Lord is there. Wait- did we just find another prophecy? Yes. Yes, I believe we did. When was God in the grave? Hmmm. 🤔 Did He stay there? So what does that mean for Job? For us?
Hang in there Job. It’s far from over.
To The Reader 