JOB 16:19-21 NIV
"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 one pleads for a friend."
These are incredible words!
The preceding chapters have made it clear that it was God who permitted all that happened to Job, and though the actions were all Satan's doing (Job 1:12), God Himself says that He did it (Job 2:3) - God does not divorce His permission to Satan from His own sovereign rule. So, when Job, with spiritual wisdom, starts his discourse in Job 16, he rightly acknowledges that it was God who was over the terrible destruction and less that knew.
But, Job knows God as his Saviour. And so this is not a complaint! He can't understand why, he can't see why, but He is not daunted by or turned from God because of the terrors he has endured. Rather, because we knows deeply that his God is also his Saviour, He rests in God and His love.
Looking to Jesus, he recalls that he has an advocate! Beautifully he proclaims loudly 'my intercessor is my friend!'; he recalls that, though all earthly helpers have let him down, his Saviour pleads for him!
How we need to have our eyes set on Jesus like Job did! Jesus told us clearly that 'in this world you will have trouble'. But we are not left alone! He goes on to tell us 'but I have overcome the world'. And in our trouble and difficulty our overcomer is also our intercessor! I am never 'on my own'. He is continually speaking on my behalf to His Father who loves me with the same love. If only my eyes would see this and know the security that is mine in God my Father, Jesus my Saviour and His Spirit who is His presence, power and guarantee within! Then my heart would also cry out 'My intercessor is my friend!'
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