Job’s response is to utter three heartfelt requests: first, a plea to his friends for sympathy (Job 16:1–14); then, a plea to God for justice (vv. 15–22); and finally, a plea to God to end his life and relieve him of suffering (17:1–16).
A plea for sympathy (Job 16:1–14). Job’s friends still had not identified with his situation; they did not feel his agony or understand his perplexity. Job had already called them deceitful brooks (see 6:15) and “worthless physicians” (13: niv), but now he calls them “miserable comforters” (16:2). All of their attempts to comfort him only made him more miserable! As the saying goes, “With friends like you, who needs enemies?”
Job assured them that, if they were in his shoes, he would treat them with more understanding than they were showing him. Instead of making long speeches, he would give them words of encouragement. He would listen with his heart and try to help them bear their burdens. Sometimes we have to experience misunderstanding from unsympathetic friends in order to learn how to minister to others. This was a new experience for Job, and he was trying to make the most of it. However, whether Job spoke or kept quiet, he was still a suffering man (v. 6).
In his appeal for loving sympathy, Job told his friends what he was receiving from the hand of God (vv. 7–14). Job is worn out; his family is gone; he is gaunt and weak. Both men and God attack him. Job feels like God has painted a target on his back and handed everybody bows and arrows! There is no relief—God keeps assaulting him like a relentless warrior. “I didn’t attack God—He attacked me!” God was his enemy (16:9; 13:24), and nothing Job could do would bring about a truce. If Job looked up, God was against him. If he looked around, his friends were against him. Where could he turn?
A plea for justice (Job 16:15–22). How had Job responded to God’s attacks? He put on sackcloth, wept in humiliation and contrition, and buried his face in the dust. In spite of the accusations of Eliphaz (15:4–6), Job knew he was right before God and that God would hear his prayers (16:17).
Job was caught on the horns of a dilemma. His suffering was so great that he longed to die, but he didn’t want to die before he could vindicate himself or see God vindicate him. This explains his cry in verse 18: “O earth, do not cover my blood, and let my cry have no resting place!” (nkjv) The ancients believed that the blood of innocent victims cried out to God for justice (Gen. 4:8–15) and that the spirits of the dead were restless until the corpses were properly buried (Isa. 26:21). Even if Job died, he would be restless until he had been proved righteous by the Lord.
Job’s repeated cry has been for a fair trial before the Lord (Job 9:1–4, 14–16, 19–20, 28–35; 10:2; 13:6–8, 19). He has lamented the fact that he had no advocate to represent him before God’s throne (9:33). None of his friends would defend him, so his only hope was that God in heaven would defend him and bear witness to his integrity (16:19). But Job yearned for someone to plead with God on his behalf (v. 21).
The Christian believer has this heavenly Advocate in Jesus Christ (1 John 2:1–2). As our interceding High Priest, Christ gives us the conquering grace we need when we are tempted and tested (Heb. 2:17–18; 4:14–16). If we fail, then He is our Advocate to forgive us and restore us when we confess our sins to Him (1 John 1:5—2:2).
Of course, Job wanted a “lawyer” to plead his case before God and convince Him that he was innocent. Once Job had won his case, then God would vindicate him before his critical friends and restore Job’s honor. God’s people don’t need that kind of intercession because the Father and the Son are in perfect agreement in their love for us and their plan for our lives. The Lord Jesus ever lives to make intercession for His people (Rom. 8:31–39; Heb. 7:25) and to perfect them in the will of God (13:20–21). We come to a throne of grace, not a throne of judgment; and we have confidence that our loving Father will do that which is best for us.
A plea for death (Job 17:1–16). One reason Job wanted his heavenly Advocate to act quickly was because he sensed that death was very near, “the journey of no return” (Job 16: niv). When people suffer so much that their “spirit is broken” (17: niv, nasb), then they lose their “fight” and want life to end.
Job’s friends were against him and would not go to court and “post bond” for him (vv. 3–5). People treated Job as if he were the scum of the earth (v. 6). His body was only the shadow of what it had been (v. 7), and all of his plans had been shattered (v. 11). His friends would not change their minds and come to his defense (v. 10). In fact, they would not face his situation honestly, but they kept telling him that the light would soon dawn for him (v. 12). Is it any wonder that Job saw in death the only way of escape?
However, at no time did Job ever consider taking his own life or asking someone else to do it for him. Life is a sacred gift from God, and only God can give it and take it away. On the one hand, Job wanted to live long enough to see himself vindicated; but on the other hand, he didn’t know how much more he could endure. Once he was in Sheol, the realm of the dead, he could not be vindicated on earth unless God brought him back.
Job pictured Sheol as his home, where he would lie down in the darkness and be at rest (v. 13). Since he had no family, he would adopt the pit (or “corruption”) as his father and the devouring worm as his mother or sister. They would give him more comfort than his friends!
But would there be any hope in the grave? Could Job take his hope with him to Sheol? Paul answers the question: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:19–20 nkjv). Our hope does not die, nor is it buried and left to decay; for our hope is a “living hope” because Christ has won the victory over death and the grave! Christians sorrow, but they must not sorrow “as others who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13).
God did not answer Job’s plea for death because He had something far better planned for him. God looked beyond Job’s depression and bitterness and saw that he still had faith. When I was a young pastor, I heard an experienced saint say, “I have lived long enough to be thankful for unanswered prayer.” At the time, I was shocked by the statement; but now that I have lived a few more years myself, I know what she was talking about. In the darkness of despair and the prison of pain, we often say things that we later regret; but God understands all about it and lovingly turns a deaf ear to our words but a tender eye to our wounds.
If only the next speaker would have expressed compassion to this hurting man! But Bildad is all primed to frighten Job out of his wits with the most vivid pictures of death found anywhere in Scripture.