Let us turn to God's Word in
the chapter we've just read Job 16 and I'll read for our text from
verse 19 through 21 the end of the chapter in Job chapter 16
reading at verse 19 through 21 now Also, or rather, also now,
he says, also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my
record is on high. My friend scorneth, that mine
eye poureth out tears unto God, or that one might plead for a
man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor. This remarkable book, the book
of Job, of this book, Luther said it is magnificent, above all the other books that
we find in Holy Scripture. Magnificent, sublime, says the
great Protestant reformer then, with regards to the contents
of this book. And so I want us to look for
a while to these few verses that we've just read and to say something
with regards to Job's weeping and his witness. Really I suppose
the theme I want to address is the truth that his witness is
in heaven. As he says in verse 19, also
now behold my witness is in heaven and my record is on high. my
friends call me, but mine eye poureth out tears unto God, or
that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleaded for
his neighbour. The main part of the book of
course is made up with a series of speeches that run from chapter
4 through chapter 31 And in these speeches we have
Job answering his three friends. Remember how the opening chapters
set the scene? We're told of how Satan appears
with the sons of God. He's no free agent, although
God is not the author of sin. Satan is the author of sin, but
God is sovereign. And Job is in a sense left in
the hands of this arch foe Satan is permitted to touch him but
cannot take his life and what calamities come upon him he loses
his children he loses his health and so forth and we see him there
then at the end of chapter 2 and he's sitting amongst the ashes
covered from head to foot with awful boils and he's scraping
himself and we're told how his friends come to visit him in
all this great dilemma in chapter 2 and verse 11 there when Job's
three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him they
came every one from his own place Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad
the Shuite, and Zophar the Naamathite for they had made an appointment
together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. And as I say in what follows
from the fourth chapter really to the end of chapter 31 we have
these men speaking by turn and each time Job will answer the
words that they speak. And in the previous chapter,
chapter 15, we have a speech being made by one of the men,
as we're told there in the opening verse of chapter 15, how then
answered Eliphaz the Temanite. And so he speaks. And then here,
at the beginning of chapter 16, Job answers the words that had
just been spoken by this man. And what does Job say? concerning
the words of the so-called friends. Then Job answered and said, I
have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are ye all. Miserable comforters are ye all. Job is answering those words
that had been spoken by Eliphaz and amongst other things. He
had accused Job of restraining prayer. The beginning of chapter
15, verse 4, Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer
before God. And really the words that I've
read tonight for a text for us to consider are an answer to
that particular charge. Job can say in answer to what
Eliphaz has said with regards to him straining, giving over,
praying. He can say, Behold, my witness is
in heaven, my record is on high. My friend scorn me, but mine
eye poureth out tears unto God. Or that one might plead for a
man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor. And so as we
look at the words As I was saying, I want us to consider these two
things. Here we have Job's weeping and
Job's witness. So, considering those two particular
points. He is turning now from his imagined
friends and he's going to turn to the Lord God himself. That's what he says in the 20th
verse, my friends, scorn me, but mine eye poureth
out tears unto God." He turns from them and he turns to God. When he accuses them of being
miserable comforters, the margin gives the alternative reading
troublesome. They were troublesome comforters. As they failed him so much they
had nothing really of any comfort to say to him. He felt, you see, how men failed
him on every hand. He says as much there in chapter
19. And verse 13, I have put my brethren
far from me, and mine acquaintance are very estranged from me. my
kinsfolk have failed, my familiar friends have forgotten me, they
that dwell in mine house and my mate, count me for a stranger,
I am an alien in their sight." What a lonely, miserable existence
this man was having to endure in his life at this time. He
felt so utterly outcast. Hart says in one of his hymns
Lord, pity outcasts, vile and base, the poor dependents on
thy grace, whom men disturb as cause, by sinner and by saint
we stood. For thee is too bad for those
too good, condemned and shunned by all. That was the case certainly
with Job and his only comfort really was to pour out his tears
to the Lord God himself. In the 142nd psalm we're going
to sing the metrical version of that psalm at the end of our
service, but it's interesting the summary that we have with
regards to the contents of that psalm. The title tells us it's
a Massacre of David, a prayer when he was in the cave, and
it's summed up really by simply saying that here David finds
comfort in prayer. David's comfort is simply and
solely in prayer. He says there in the psalm at
verse 4, I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was
no man that would know me. Refuge found me, no man cared
for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord. I
said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the
living. Attend unto my cry. for I am
brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are stronger than I." What experiences these saints
of Scripture knew, these men in the Old Testament, who had
not the great privileges that we have in the day of the Gospel
and the fullness of the revelation of God. We know continually that
to turn and look to the Lord, we see it of course repeatedly
in the language of the book of Psalms. Again, Psalm 69 and verse
20, I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and
for comforters, but I found none. No comfort in any person at all. And so, what does Job say? My friends scorn me, but mine
eye poureth out tears unto God. Because the strange thing was,
in a sense, that God himself was the one who was behind all
of these things. And Job knew that. Job believed in God. He believed
that God was sovereign. As he says there in that 19th
chapter, He hath put my brethren far from me. and my acquaintance
are verily estranged from them. These things didn't happen merely
by chance. He seems to recognize something
of God. Does he not say elsewhere, when
he has tried me? Oh, he knoweth the way that I
take when he hath tried me. I shall come forth as God. God
was behind these things. And to Job it sometimes appeared
as if God himself was hiding himself that even God was estranged
from him look at the language that we find later in chapter
23 verse 8 he says behold I go forward but
he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him on
the left hand where he does work but I cannot behold him he hides
himself on the right hand that I cannot see him but he knoweth
the way that I take when he hath tried me I shall come forth as
God here is his comforting he has to look to God, he has to
rest in God even in the midst of all these troubles there's
still a real desire and a seeking after God but it's interesting
how it is that he he prays to God here in verse 20 he doesn't
say my mouth poureth out words no he says mine eye poureth out
tears unto God again at verse 16 my face is foul with weeping
and on my eyelids is a shadow of death this man is one who
is in very deep waters in great trial and difficulty What does he say in another psalm,
Psalm 56 and verse 8 there, David speaks, Put down my tears into
thy bottle, Are they not in thy book, he says. Praying with tears
as it were, My soul ran in the night, And cease not, we read
again in the Psalms. Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear, The upward lifting of an eye, where none
but God's is near." There's real earnest desire in the language
that Job is speaking as he answers that accusation that his life
hasn't put to him. That he was restraining prayer,
he was not at all. But how could he pray? David
says, all my desire is before thee, my groaning is not hid
from thee. And isn't that the blessed ministry
of the Holy Spirit? Now we need that ministry time
upon time. There's words that are spoken
by the Apostle there in the 8th chapter of Romans, how the Spirit
helpeth our infirmities, maketh intercession for us with groanings
that cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the heart
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit. For he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. Or when the Spirit
is in our prayers and we know Him as our Spirit of grace and
supplications. Those are real prayers. When
we cannot really find adequate words to express what we desire
before God. Though to speak they'll be not
able. Always pray. and never rest prayers a weapon
for the feeble weakest souls can wield it best that weak soul
knows how to wrestle with the Lord God and to cry to him God
calls us to that look unto me he says and be beside all the
ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else when we
are at the end of the earth when we are far off from the gods
of salvation then we have to cry in the language of the psalmist
from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart
is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I here
then is the prayer of this man it's weeping prayer the language
that we have surely The words that are spoken in this 20th
verse express something of his great desire to come before God
and to have some answer from God. He goes on, or that one
might plead for the man with God as a man pleaded for his
neighbor. He needs one to be his intercessor,
his mediator. And so, that is the one who he
speaks of when he makes mention of his witness. In verse 20,
Behold, my witness is in heaven, he says. My record is on high. Two things really with regards
to this appeal to his witness. we see how in the context he
is very much protesting his own integrity in the previous verses
verses 17 and 18 he says not for any injustice in mine hand
also my prayer is pure oh earth cover not thou my blood and let
my cry have no place what are we to make of this these strange
words that are just previous to the words of the text. Well,
here we have parallel verses really and one is positive and
one is negative in its contents. The positive statement is what
we have in verse 17, the more negative statement is what we
have in verse 18. and look at the language that
he uses there in the 18th verse, there's the negative a word he
says cover not thou my blood and let my cry have no place
now I want you to understand the words that he's speaking
here when he uses the word blood Looking at the commentators,
looking at Gill and also Matthew Poole, each of them really are
in agreement that the reference to my blood here is really to
any guilt that he might have in being one who was the shedder
of blood. Remember after Cain had murdered
his brother Abel there in Genesis chapter 4, We read of how Abel's
blood was crying from the ground. Abel's blood. He'd been murdered.
His blood was crying from the ground. And then we have that
language of the prophet Isaiah speaking of Israel in the opening
chapter of the prophecy. When you make many prayers, he
says, as the mouthpiece of God, when you make many prayers, I
will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
They were bloody men. They were guilty of many sins.
Again, later in the prophecy, he says, the earth also shall
disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slime. And this is what Job is saying
here, in the 18th verse, O earth, cover not thou my blood, if he
is guilty. if he's guilty of some terrible
sin he wants that sin to be exposed he doesn't want it to be concealed
he would that it was revealed and he is also really protesting
his innocence and as he protests his innocence
so he also makes mention of his sincerity If his prayer was only
words, and nothing more than words, he would have it to be
rejected. Let my cry have no place, he
said. He's making negative statements
concerning himself. If he's guilty of these sins,
if he's not an innocent man, if he's not a sincere man, He wants to know that God will
receive him for his integrity really. If I regard iniquity in my heart,
says the Psalmist, the Lord will not hear me. And so he can state
in positive terms in the previous verse that his prayer is pure. verse
17, not for any injustice in mine hands he says also my prayer
is pure he's not claiming sinless purity, sinless perfection but he is one who is sincere
in his desires before God he comes with that singleness of
heart His affections are set upon things
above where God is. He is like Nathaniel there in
John 1, an Israelite indeed who is guileless, he's guileless. Doesn't the Lord God say through
the prophet Jeremiah, you shall seek me and find me when you
shall search after me with all your hearts? And Job is wholehearted
in his desires after God. He would seek to have a conscience
void of any offense before God and before men. And he can appeal. He can appeal
to the heavens and he can appeal to the earth. That's what he
does in verse 18 and then in verse 19, O earth, he says. And then in verse 19, Behold
my witness is in heaven, my record is on high. He is one then who is no hypocrite
when it comes to the things of God. He is wholehearted. He seeks after God with all his
soul. And where does he look? He is
looking ultimately to his priestly intercessor, he's not looking
to himself he's not trusting in anything in himself he knows
that he needs one in heaven to plead his cause or that one might
plead for a man with God he says as a man pleaded for his neighbor remember John Bunyan so troubled over
righteousness. Righteousness in the sense of
his justification before God. And what does he say? He saw
it one day so sweetly as he looked up into the sky. My righteousness,
he said, is in heaven. And that's what Job is saying.
That's where his righteousness is, before God. It's in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Apostle John tells us there
at the beginning of the second chapter in that first general
epistle, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ
the righteous. Jesus Christ the righteous. Or says Job then, my witness is in heaven, my record
is on high. There is one there before the
very throne of God who is all my righteousness. And that's
the one in and through whom he finds acceptance. He's able to
say to the uttermost all that come to God by him. Job confesses earlier in the
chapter that His all nature is a constant witness against Him.
Verse 80 says, I was filled with wrinkles, which is a witness
against Me, and My leanness rising up in Me beareth witness to My
face. He has nothing of Himself to
plead other than His wretchedness. And His sincere desires after
God, He can make mention of those. but ultimately his witness is
there in heaven. There is one pleading for him
before God. Remember how previously he speaks
of his great desire for a daismon, an umpire. Back in chapter 9 and verse 33,
neither is there any daismon betwixt us that might lay his
hand upon us both. And how all of that is realized
of course ultimately. in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And
that one who is the mediator is also the one that he speaks
later of as his shorter. Or the Lord Jesus is that one
who has stood in his place and answered for him. in verse 3
of chapter 17 lay down now put me in a surety with them who
is he that will strike hands with me throughout Job we have
these tremendous statements in which he is clearly referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ Christ is in Job as in any other part
of Holy Scripture and it is Christ's presence of course that makes
the whole book so wonderful, so sublime as Luther says He
has a witness in us, this man in heaven, even before the very
throne of God. God is the judge, but there is
a righteous advocate, even the Lord Jesus, the Lord our righteousness. Remember how John speaks of the
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the word and the
Holy Ghost and these three are one and then he says and there
are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit and the water
and the blood and these three are green. For this man knew
a witness in his own heart as there was that witness in heaven
and where was that witness? It was all together in the Lord
his God. Through the Lord Jesus Christ
as he comes here with his weepings, his tears through Christ he has
access boldness, access with confidence by the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ this is what he knew as he answers the hard, harsh, bitter words that
had been spoken against him by Eliphaz and now behold my witness
is in heaven, my record is on high my friends call me but mine
eye poureth out tears unto God or that one might plead for a
man with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbours and we have
to come that selfsame way as we come to the Lord tonight to
pray we have to look to one who is there as our witness before
the very throne of God or we look to Christ through whom we
have access by one Spirit unto the Father. We know all the persons. We come by Christ's mediation.
We come by the Spirit's blessed ministry. And we come to meet
with God and to pour out our hearts, even to weep our tears before
the throne of grace. Will the Lord be pleased to bless
these truths to us? We're going to sing as our second
praise tonight the hymn 1002. Prayer is the soul's sincere
desire, uttered or unexpressed, the motion of a hidden fire that
trembles in the breast. Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
the falling of a tear, the upward glancing of an eye, where none
but God is near. The tune is St. Flavian, 220,
hymn 1002.