#651 Will You Represent Me That I May Be Represented By You

Then Job answered and said:

2 “I have heard many such things;

miserable comforters are you all.

3 Shall windy words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

4 I also could speak as you do,

if you were in my place;

I could join words together against you

and shake my head at you.

5 I could strengthen you with my mouth,

and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

6 “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,

and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

7 Surely now God has worn me out;

he has made desolate all my company.

8 And he has shriveled me up,

which is a witness against me,

and my leanness has risen up against me;

it testifies to my face.

9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;

he has gnashed his teeth at me;

my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth;

they have struck me insolently on the cheek;

they mass themselves together against me.

11 God gives me up to the ungodly

and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart;

he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

he set me up as his target;

13 his archers surround me.

He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;

he pours out my gall on the ground.

14 He breaks me with breach upon breach;

he runs upon me like a warrior.

15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin

and have laid my strength in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping,

and on my eyelids is deep darkness,

17 although there is no violence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

18 “O earth, cover not my blood,

and let my cry find no resting place.

19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

and he who testifies for me is on high.

20 My friends scorn me;

my eye pours out tears to God,

21 that he would argue the case of a man with God,

as a son of man does with his neighbor.

22 For when a few years have come

I shall go the way from which I shall not return. Job 16 ESV

Yes, what goes up must come down, so it must be my fault, I sat under this apple tree. You are miserable comforters, I could do the same thing to you if the roles were reversed, we could make everything about this, swap sayings of the ancients, I know the same things you know. Why can't Job just vent, why can't they admit even the possibility of not comprehending this situation? This is the locust, the frogs, mosquitos and hail, all the words that come with no mercy. It is the insult upon the injury.

Job could say the same things to his friends if they were found in this same way, but I do not believe after this that he would. If pain doesn't teach us empathy then we are of all people lost not to a lack of self esteem, but to it's over indulgence.

You win God, for though we know there to be another adversary, yet even so it is to God's purpose. I am worn out, there is nothing left. When he speaks of God making his company desolate, I think it isn't the loss of family or servants, but rather the empty vessels of mercy that cast so many pearls of wisdom before him. Look at these scars, the wounds are deep both in my flesh and my soul, a battle that I could not win has been fought. My "friends" see it as the testimony against my integrity, but I am at a loss, there is no violence committed on my part, but look at my injuries. This takes the mind down trails through Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. Christ suffered the insult from His own people, they would not accept that His suffering could be to God's greater good. Job's contention that he is without blame here goes without consideration, he must be guilty of great treason against the God of the universe, as Christ must be as well to become the object of God's wrath. When he says his gall is poured on the ground, this would resound of the poetry that speaks to the end. His face is red as Christ tears were blood in the garden, for he is also at the point of breaking. His prayer has remained pure though, he is still faithful to God, though he does not agree with his friends assessment of his situation, though You slay me, I will still praise You, for You are God, and he has wanted to be the friend of God.

I need an advocate, someone to stand before God knowing of me what these men do not know. I need God to take up my case, for these that talk as though they represent Him, are only pretending. Even the most well meaning among us is too blind, for if they could see my heart they would know that I did not wish, set out, or do to become the enemy of God. I have loved God, and so I hope, like Abel, that my blood will not disappear unnoticed, but that it will cry out. Life is not long enough for me to figure it out, what I thought I knew not long ago has become bitter now in my ears. 

                                                         

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2: 5-6