Job 16:18 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Job 16:18

Comments

Why does God treat him so harshly, and why is his life being taken away from him without reason? Job calls for the earth to witness to the shedding of his innocent blood, as it cried out for the blood of Abel. He asks that his cry of anguish should have no place, that is, no resting place, but should continue to sound out and protest his innocence. In saying this he is asking God to act as witness against himself; he is crying for God’s kindness and mercy to testify against witness against the harshness and severity that he believes God is showing to him, for of course it was to the Lord that Abel’s blood cried out from the earth, and it was God who cared about the wickedness of Cain’s act and promised to revenge it. But now it is God who is acting against Job, and it is to the Lord that he is appealing for help. This pathetic cry of the believer will he heard. As he fears that his quiet appeal to God is lost in the noise and confusion of this world, he comforts himself that God will not allow the gentlest cry to be lost, for he is the God who delights to protect the weak and to succour the needy. Let us never cease praying to the Lord, knowing that the feeblest petition will be noted and answer in due time.Calvin says, ‘Here Job appeals to God as the only competent judge, because he had been wrongfully condemned by men, and he does not hesitate to appeal to God because he knows his case is good.’ He encourages himself by this appeal to heaven and from his consideration of the impossibility of God finally breaking his promise and abandoning his servant. Job’s witness is in heaven because his covenant God is in heaven and he is eternally faithful. God witnesses there to the truth and preserves the evidence that his servant has acted and spoken in integrity. Being in heaven, this witness will endure when earth has passed away; it will prevail over all contrary witnesses that rise up to condemn him, and over all the confusion that tries to suppress this evidence during earthly life. The fact that it is on high means that it is already accepted by God as the final evidence and he who knows all that takes place below is not moved by anything else to change his mind.

Application

This must be the confidence of all believers in their trials, for they rely on the declaration of the triune God who has pronounced them to be innocent in his sight on account of the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having made this justifying declaration, he will never revoke it or change his mind. Since it is in heaven, it is out of reach of unbelieving men and women, and of Satan. There is nothing any of these can do to change the evidence or to interfere with the finished work of Christ.

What is this depression? we may ask. Is it on account of sin, or is it an attitude of mind? Can it be cured? Job has suffered trauma; he is sick but there is also self-righteousness within him. It may be that depression is part of our personality. You cannot deal with it in a simplistic way. It is also something which can be provoked by guilt or illness. A great many people have depression after childhood and at adolescence. The key think may not be to agonise about what is the cause of it when it is frequent and possibly due to personality, but to say, how can I cope with it? Job was sick and traumatised, but he is still judged for self-righteousness. Even if we are liable to depression due to our personality, we are still in danger of thinking only in a self-interested way, preoccupied our condition. It is like a person who has broken their leg and is in plaster, and who becomes centre stage. Depression is invisible and therefore people are less likely to run around after us, but we can become preoccupied with it ourselves.

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Job 16:18 Commentary and Bible Study