Lenten Study of Job Ch 16
Today’s chapter is a little shorter. It is somewhat fitting as well. Job has given up. He has given up trying to figure this out and has just accepted God is punishing him. He is dismissive of his friends who blame him for his troubles and wishes he could just talk to God like another person, but he knows he can’t, which also makes him sad because he knows he has some time left on earth before he dies where I think he believes all will be revealed to him, and I hope that too someday.
"There was a man in the land of Uz" by andrevanb is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.Caption
1 Then Job answered,
Job 16:1 (NASB)
It is good that they announce who is speaking at the opening of each chapter. Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar would get confusing with all four of them. When God enters the conversation, it will get still more confusing.
2 “I have heard many such things; Sorry comforters are you all.
3 “Is there no limit to windy words? Or what plagues you that you answer?
4 “I too could speak like you, If I were in your place. I could compose words against you And shake my head at you.
5 “I could strengthen you with my mouth, And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.
Job 16:2-5 (NASB)
Job has run through all the ideas and suggestions the three friends have because they’ve all done this before. He has already eliminated everything they usually would say to someone in Job’s situation. All Job wants from his friends is their companionship, not their suggested solutions. However, I don’t think Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar can help themselves.
6 “If I speak, my pain is not lessened, And if I hold back, what has left me?
Job 16:6 (NASB)
Nothing is helping. Venting isn’t making Job feel better, and neither is being quiet. He has run out of options.
7 “But now He has exhausted me; You have laid waste all my company.
8 “You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face.
Job 16:7-8 (NASB)
Job is giving up. All the trials and tribulations have broken him. He accepts his punishment from God and what is occurring as punishment from God, but he is not turning away from God.
9 “His anger has torn me and hunted me down, He has gnashed at me with His teeth; My adversary glares at me.
10 “They have gaped at me with their mouth, They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt; They have massed themselves against me.
11 “God hands me over to ruffians And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.
12 “I was at ease, but He shattered me, And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target.
13 “His arrows surround me. Without mercy He splits my kidneys open; He pours out my gall on the ground.
14 “He breaks through me with breach after breach; He runs at me like a warrior.
Job 16:9-14 (NASB)
Job laments all the things God has done to him.
15 “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin And thrust my horn in the dust.
Job 16:15 (NASB)
When you read “sackcloth,” hear burlap, rough, coarse, and meant to contain raw grain products. This is not what someone used to wearing the finest clothing would wear. It is a sign of poverty, mourning, and loss. When people celebrated, they drank wine or other fermented, alcoholic beverages. They wanted the largest portions of this they could get. Drinking horns were a simple, easy to come by vessel. His thrusting his horn in the dust is meant that he is no longer using it, meaning he isn’t celebrating anymore.
16 “My face is flushed from weeping, And deep darkness is on my eyelids,
Job 16:16 (NASB)
We’ve all seen someone’s face flush from crying and lack of sleep. Job is no different, given what he has been through. His appearance is far from the jovial, happy Job from a time not so long ago.
17 Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.
Job 16:17 (NASB)
When bad things happen to us, the instinctive human reaction is to find someone to assign blame to for the incident. If someone is readily to blame, we often lash out at them to exact revenge. This can take the form of punishment or just our desire to see a similar bad thing befall them. We see this as somehow a befitting form of justice. We need to be careful attempting to exact justice from others because we will be judged in the way we judge others. If we do not show grace and forgiveness in the face of offenses committed against us, how do we expect to receive grace when facing the final Judge?
18 “O earth, do not cover my blood, And let there be no resting place for my cry.
19 “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate is on high.
Job 16:18-19 (NASB)
Even now, when Job has given up on solving his problems and figuring out what to do to keep more calamities from happening, Job still clings to God. Here he is openly declaring that God knows Job’s heart. He knows the truth of the situation, and he trusts God to be good and fair.
20 “My friends are my scoffers; My eye weeps to God.
21 “O that a man might plead with God As a man with his neighbor!
22 “For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.
Job 16:20-22 (NASB)
Job has given up on his friends and turns his gaze one-hundred percent to God. His wish that he could talk with God as we have a conversation with one another is something I have often wished for. Here, Job knows if he could have that conversation, both he and his friends would discover why all this is happening. In any case, Job knows he will continue living before death claims him.