04/22/2022 – Day 054 – Job: 15 – 16 / 16:20: “My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; ..”
Does verse 16:20 sound like a man that Eliphaz accuses Job of being: “Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?” Eliphaz and his friends will be getting a strong rebuke from the Lord at the end of this book. Job was in a terrible state of suffering. God honored his honest communication in the midst of such affliction. And how amazing is Job’s faith, without the full revelation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? In verse 21, my bible footnote is pointing to the Hebrew Sheol , a “foggy” ill-defined after-life.
I leave you with Matthew Henry’s commentary on this 16:20 verse:
“He had a prospect of death which would put a period to all his troubles. Such confidence had he towards God that he could take pleasure in thinking of the approach of death, when he should be determined to his everlasting state, as one that doubed not but it would be well with him then: When a few years have come (the years of number which are determined and appointed to me) then I shall go the way whence I shall not return. To die is to go the way whence we shall not return. It is to go a journey from the world of sense to the world of spirits. it is a journey to our long home. We must all of us very certainly go this journey; and it is comfortable to those who keep a good conscience to think of it, for it is the crown of their integriy.”
In Randy Alcorn’s book “Heaven” , I think he brings forward a rock solid scriptural case that the unfathomable joy of heaven will entail a physical world, perfect bodies and a physical world , a new earth, or a restored garden of Eden as God first designed it. So, our revelation is so far beyond Job’s so as noted, I think his peace and faith in God is so much more commendable. Thoughts?
Particularly at the end of the book, I think Job has a vision of His redeemer, His Savior and perhaps even the eternal life to come , without the benefit of the New Testament Gospel that we have had.
Soli Deo Gloria!