#7 Job continued

Job’s suffering continues unabated. It is heartbreaking to read his descriptions of sorrow and pain. As his friends continue their relentless assault on his character, Job continues to insist on his innocence.

Job thinks he is going to die soon and has no thought of surviving his illness. As he thinks about death, he seems to have mixed notions of what awaits him there. At times he sees it as a shadowy place of unconsciousness.

If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
if I say to corruption, 'You are my father,'
and to the worm, 'My mother' or 'My sister,'
where then is my hope?
Who can see any hope for me?
Will it go down to the gates of death?
Will we descend together into the dust? (Job 17:13-16).

At other moments he holds out hope that after death there will be a conscious life and that there will even be a resurrection of the body.

If a man dies, will he live again? 
All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come.
You will call and I will answer you;
you will long for the creature you have made (Job 14:14).

Another interesting feature of this section is in 16:19-21, “Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.” This remark is profoundly Christian and reveals the deep longing in a hurting and accused man’s soul for someone who stand beside him as his advocate before God. How blessed we are to live in the age when we know with perfect confidence that such and advocate exists in Heaven!