Job 16 Devotional 
by Pastor David Groendyk

Job responds now to Eliphaz for a second time. Eliphaz has essentially doubled down on his previous speech that Job has somehow sinned and brought this disaster upon himself. In verses 2–5, Job goes off on Eliphaz and the rest of his companions. They’ve been absolutely lousy counselors and comforters. Pastor Mark wrote yesterday that Job didn’t need answers; he needed friends. By further pummeling Job into the dust after God himself had so torn him down, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are proving themselves worthless to Job. Even if there is sin present in the life of the sufferer, it does no good to focus solely on that. Godly counsel must include some sense of Christ’s comfort, hope, and grace in the gospel. This is what Job is trying to get his friends to see. He’s trying to put his friends in his own shoes. Although it’s not the only guide for giving good counsel to friends, Matthew 7:12 should be taken into account: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Would the advice and comfort you’re giving someone else be edifying for you if you were genuinely in their shoes?

The rest of this chapter describes the paradox that Job is experiencing and that we as Christians experience in suffering too. Verses 6–17 are a brutal description of the pain that Job is going through. Job feels worn out, shriveled up, torn up, broken, dashed into pieces, like a target, and slashed open. Opposing Eliphaz’s accusation that wicked men cover themselves with fat and abundance, Job is doing his best to show that he has not bloated himself with riches and possessions blatantly in the face of God. His leanness and shriveled up state is a “witness” that God is against him and treating him as an enemy (v. 6) despite the fact that he’s done nothing wrong (v. 17). Can you relate to Job’s descriptions of himself? Do you know someone who can? What is the Christian supposed to do when God does this to him or her? Here’s the paradox: even though God may cause the Christian to walk through the “deep darkness” (v. 16), he’s also the shepherd who’s with us at all times and whose rod and staff give comfort to us when we walk through the “valley of deep darkness” (Psa. 23:4). When God is with us, even though the world might fall down all around us, we are not to fear. That same God’s goodness and mercy are pursuing you through it all.

As Job has done earlier in the book, you hear him pleading for someone to act as his “witness” before God in heaven to plead for his innocence and God’s mercy (vv. 19–21). He’s pleading for some sort of priest and intercessor. Who is this witness that Job is referencing? It’s not clear whether or not Job knows at this point, but as the book progresses, it’s getting clearer that there is someone and who that someone is. Earlier Job had said that there was no arbiter (9:33). Now, Job is pleading for someone in heaven to argue his case (v. 21). Later, he confesses that the Redeemer, God himself, is his only hope (19:25–27). As Christians, we know that Jesus Christ is constantly interceding for us at the throne of the Father (Rom. 8:34). He is our perfect mediator, the God-man, who knows us and loves us without fail and went so far as to sacrifice himself to make us right before God and make a way for us to dwell with him. Remember that even in your tear-filled pleading with God, Jesus Christ is also pleading on your behalf, and remember that nothing can separate you from God’s love. Christ has assured you of that and ever lives to keep assuring you of that.