Job 16:1-22 - Can Faith Survive Severe Suffering? (Session 21)

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 16, Reasoning Through the Bible follows Job as he answers Eliphaz and calls his friends exactly what they have become: miserable comforters. Instead of strengthening him, they have only added to his pain. This session explores what real comfort should sound like when someone is in deep suffering and why careless theology can wound more than it heals. 

This study also examines Job’s vivid language as he wrongly lays his suffering at God’s feet, feeling as though God has torn him, hunted him, and set him up as a target. The session explains why Job’s judgment is skewed by pain, why Satan is the one inflicting the torment in the narrative, and why believers must be careful not to let suffering distort their view of God. 

At the same time, Job 16 contains one of the most important statements in the book: “my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.” Even in darkness, Job has not abandoned the Lord. This episode highlights the difference between blaming God emotionally and actually cursing Him, and it encourages suffering believers to keep holding on to God because He remains the only true hope. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 16 explained 
•  miserable comforters 
•  what to say to the suffering 
•  why Job blamed God 
•  pain and distorted judgment 
•  Satan’s role in Job’s suffering 
•  when tragedy makes faith wobble 
•  my witness is in heaven 
•  an advocate on high 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

When Tragedy Makes Faith Wobble

SPEAKER_01 0:16

When tragedy strikes, are we to look at God and blame him because he's all powerful and therefore he is allowing it or doing it to us? Or is there some other solution? Well, today on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're going to meet Job and he is going to blame God for his problems. And we're going to see and explore whether that is a valid accusation or not. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We're in Job chapter 16. So if you have your copy of the Bible open there, follow along with us as we go. As we've seen, Job is in a really bad spot. His health is gone, his money is gone, his family is gone. And Job has three friends that are not very friendly, and they keep accusing him of being the cause of his problems. Well, today, Job is going to try to lay his problems at the feet of the Lord God, and we're going to see how that goes. So let's go ahead and dive in. Steve, can you read the first five verses of Job chapter 16?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Then Job responded, I have heard many things like these. Miserable comforters are you all. Is there no end to windy words? Or what provokes you that you answer? I too could speak like you, if only I were in your place. I could compose words against you and shake my head at you. Or I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the condolence of my lips could lessen your pain.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Job is responding to his friend Eliphaz, at least we're going to call him a friend. He hasn't been very friendly, none of them have. But Eliphaz has made the second round of accusations, and Job is here responding to that. Job says at the beginning of this, I have heard many things like these. So there, Steve, in verse three, what is he basically saying to Eliphaz?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

He said, You've said a lot of words, Eliphaz, but you haven't really said anything. You're just really like a big bag of wind, that there really no substance to what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Exactly. He says, Is there no end to windy words? He's saying, Your words are just a lot of hot air. Indeed, his friends have started to repeat themselves. They're saying the same accusations. They're laying Job's problems at his feet, saying there must have been some hidden sin. So he tells them, quote, miserable comforters are you all. The friends should have taken a clue because the friends started out trying to help. They're trying to, at least in their minds, give Job some advice. And he says, Here, your advice isn't really helping. So when people that we're trying to help think that we are making them more miserable, then it's a major clue that we should stop talking at that point. We're trying to help, and it's making the problem worse. Then it's time for us to really just stop. So, Steve, with that, what should we say if we run into someone that's in a suffering situation? We don't want to make it worse. So, what should we say to people that are suffering?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Well, we've talked about this a few times through the sessions that we've gone through with Job. Part of it is that sometimes you don't need to say anything at all. You just need to be there. Your presence is enough of a comfort to the person that is going through the suffering. And no words need to be said at all. I think sometimes we get to a situation where we think that we need to say something for a particular situation. But as I mentioned, just no words at all sometimes is sufficient. Now, if we are going to say something, though, we should be sensitive to the situation and we should be empathetic to them. We should give them words of encouragement. We should let them know what the larger picture is if they're fellow Christians as to what was in store for us and the promises that we have of eternal life and things like that. For sure, though, I don't think that we should take the approach that Job's friends are taking of coming in with very strong dogmatic theological statements of saying God punishes the wicked and you're being punished, Job. Therefore, there's something that you've done that is wicked. You're a sinner. And that's basically been the theme of all three of his friends in different ways. So they've been very dogmatic about it. And Job has been pushing back on them, and he continues to push back on them here at this first part of chapter 16.

What To Say To The Suffering

SPEAKER_01 4:55

What Job basically tells them is you're making it worse. You're giving a lot of hot air and it's not helping. And he flips it around in verses four and five and says, if I were in your place, or if the situation was turned around, I could speak like you, or I could strengthen you with my mouth and give you condolences, give you some degree of comfort. He's basically telling the friends, why don't you say something to me that helps? Why don't you say something that's comforting to me? Why don't you say something that lifts me up, that strengthens me instead of blaming me? This should be a major clue to the friends to if they can't think of something that's more edifying, it's time to stop talking. But let's go on and see what Job says next. Starting in verse six, Job says this. Again, he's still responding to Eliphaz. If I speak, my pain is not lessened. And if I refrain, what pain leaves me? But now he has exhausted me. You have laid waste all my group of loved ones, and you have shriveled me up, it has become a witness, and my infirmity rises up against me, it terrifies to my face. His anger has torn me and hunted me down. He has gnashed at me with his teeth. My enemy glares at me. They have gaped at me with their mouths, they have slapped me on the cheek with contempt. They have masked themselves against me. God hands me over to criminals and tosses me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but he shattered me, and he has grasped me by my neck and shaken me to pieces. He has also set me up as his target. His arrows surround me. He splits my kidneys open without mercy. He pours out my bile on the ground. He breaks through me with breach after breach, and he runs at me like a warrior. So here we have very descriptive language. It's very vivid language. Job again here is blaming God for all of his torment. In verse 6, Job says, whether he speaks or whether he stays silent, his pain stays the same. He thinks God is angry at him. Steve, is God angry at Job?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

No, God is not angry at him. And in fact, he is actually an advocate of Job. This is what started this whole situation whenever Satan challenged God regarding Job. God actually brought Job up as an example. Have you not seen my man Job, who is righteous and is a worshiper of me? And Satan actually challenges God and says, Well, yeah, you've given him everything. You've blessed him. If you take all that away from him, then he's going to curse you. So God gives Satan permission to do that. And Job doesn't curse him. Then Satan comes back for another round and God puts him forth again as being somebody that is righteous and a friend of his. And Satan says, Well, yeah, but if you actually touch him personally, then he's going to curse you. All of this situation is being done by Satan. It's not being done by God. God has limited Satan as to what he can do to Job. He can inflict pain on him, but he cannot take his life. So Job putting all the blame on God shows that he doesn't really understand what's going on. However, within himself, Job knows that he's innocent. So we can take away from all of these sections here is that maybe sometimes whenever we get into a place of suffering, we lay the blame in the wrong direction and we put it on God and ask God and cry out to him, God, why are you doing this to me? Whenever that's really not the situation, it's something else has happened. Maybe it's the consequences that we're paying for something that we've done. We've also talked about this in some of our sessions that we've gone through here with Job. So, no, God is not inflicting all of this suffering on Job. Satan is the person that is inflicting Job.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

And we see that here in verse 9. His anger has torn me and hunted me down, is what he's accusing God of doing. By contrast, if we look at other places in the scripture, we get, do we not, Steve, a view of what God actually does when he's angry and wrathful at people? What do we see in other places when God truly strikes out in wrath? What do we see?

Job Blames God With Vivid Pain

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Well, we have seen that God is our refuge and our strength, being that he is a place where we can run to for protection, and he is someone who will fight for us and inflict losses on our enemy. We see that the example of Israel, the nation, him working with them throughout all of their history, even though they turn and walk away from God multiple times, God says, I will be there and I will restore you, I will fight for you, I'm going to defend you. So we see God as a person that is involved with his creation, who loves his creation, even to the point that he sent his son that he might die, be buried, and be resurrected in order to pay for our sin debt. So God is a loving God from that standpoint in that he loves the ones who want to have a relationship with him. He loves the world in general. It is our responsibility to respond to God in a way of wanting to worship him and have a relationship with him or not. And that's another way, I think, Glenn, that God shows his love. For the people that don't want to have anything to do with God, he's not going to come and force them to have a relationship with him. It's totally up to us whether or not we want to have one or not. But for those that believe in him, he is going to fight for them and he's going to rescue them. And his wrath is not going to be poured out on them.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

His wrath is poured out at times, but it's always on the people that reject him. It's on the people that are actively rejecting him and not following him, actively working against him. And we see it both in the Old Testament and the New. So God's wrath is poured out on his enemies. And when it is, it's not a slow thing like what Job's seeing here. And it's not, well, is God doing it or is God not doing it? When God pours out his wrath, it's very clear that it's God doing it and it is total quick and it is sure. So we see God reaching out in wrath, but it's not like what Job is experiencing. Also, in this section, in verse 12, we see this very descriptive language. He says there, I was at ease, but he, he's talking about God here, he shattered me and he has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces. Job feels like God picked him up by the back of the neck and shook him like a rag doll. He is in a very low spot. If you remember, and Steve, you alluded to this earlier, Satan's original wager was that Job would curse God, that he would walk away from God and curse God. And Job never does that. He never curses God, but he does keep his faith. What he does do is lay his problems at God's feet. He thinks God is to blame for his suffering, but he's not cursing God. At the end of verse 12, quote, he also set me up as his target. His arrows surround me. He splits my kidneys open without mercy. He pours out my bile on the ground. A couple of verses later, he runs upon me like a warrior. Job feels like God has set him up as a target, and he's just shooting arrows at him for practice, intentionally causing him pain. Job feels helpless and hopeless, and he is blaming God for his problems. So, Steve, is Job's judgment biased? Is his view of God skewed because of the pain he's experiencing?

Satan’s Role And God’s Limits

SPEAKER_00 13:44

I think we can definitely say that it is. In a way, I want to say that's some sort of a natural reaction that we have because we don't know everything that's going on. But what we need to do is trust that God knows what is going on. And just as Job started out this chapter pushing back on his friends, saying you're not helping the situation by advice that you're giving me and the accusations that you're making, I think we could also say that Jehovah's not helping the situation by laying all of this at God's feet and saying that God has put a target on me. He has laid traps for me. All of this language that Job is saying that is attributing his affliction to God, that's not helping the situation. I think we can take from that back up and say, what approach should Job be having to God throughout all of this? While Job has not cursed God and he has not abandoned God, I think we could possibly say his language should be different as far as not laying this at God's feet, but saying instead, Lord, I worship you and I don't know what's going on. But whatever it is, I know that you know what is going on. And I put my life in your hands and trust that you're going to take care of the situation I'm in in your time. And I think that might be a better approach going back to God. I think that's going to help Job's situation more than it is laying accusations at God that aren't true. And once again, what do we see? We see that God is in control. He understands what's going on. We actually know the end of the story. Job doesn't know that yet, but his language to God should be should still be one of adoration and one of honoring and worshiping rather than complaining as to his situation and laying all of the complaints at God's feet.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

It is at this point, this point where Job is now, is where we see people in modern day walk away from God. They blame God for their pain and their suffering, and they walk away and turn their back on the Lord. And I think the message of the book of Job is that is a mistake. When we get to legitimately painful circumstances, and I don't want to minimize that, we see people that have true suffering. There are truly just very bad circumstances that happen to people like Job. When we get to the point where we realize that God has the power to change things, but he doesn't, and we are hurting severely, what do we do? The message of the book of Job is do not turn your back on God. We don't understand what he's doing, but there is a purpose, and we should not turn our back on him. That the only solution we do have is to stay with God. That's the message of Job is that even if we don't hear from God, if our prayers bounce off the ceiling, nevertheless, we should stay faithful with God. But we have no other solution. There's really no other pathway. If there's any hope at all, it is in God. And that's the lesson in the book of Job is when we do get to painful circumstances, my friend, hold on to the Lord. Let's see what happens when Job continues. Steve, can you start at verse 15 and read through verse 22?

SPEAKER_00 17:19

I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and thrust my horn in the dust. My face is flushed from weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids, although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. Earth, do not cover my blood, and may there be no resting place for my cry. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high. My friends are my scoffers, my eye weep to God, that one might plead for a man with God as a son of man with his neighbor. For when a few years are past, I shall go away of no return.

Darkness Despair And Real Help

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Job starts out in that passage saying, I've sewn sackcloth over my skin, sackcloth very rough, very uncomfortable. And he said, My sores were such I had to put rough cloth over me. In the second part of verse 16, he says, Quote, Deep darkness is on my eyelids. In the face of tragedy, Job is uncomfortable, and all he can see is darkness. He cannot see any light. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. Even if Job's friends thought they were correct, they seem to be beating him over the head with a biblical problem rather than helping Job. They seem to be creating this biblical theological question that they're berating Job with, and all he is saying is, here I am suffering, I can't see any light, and you're not helping. Job is overwhelmed by his suffering and he can't see the way out. He's so much pain that he really doesn't know where to turn. All he sees is pain and darkness. So, Steve, if we look at just human condition, is it true that some people get so overwhelmed by problems and don't have the emotional strength to see a way out of the problem?

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Yeah, it goes right in line with everything we've been discussing during this session and in other sessions as well. We're emotional people and we are not knowledgeable of everything. So when we reach a state where we don't know exactly what is happening, we don't understand what is happening. Many times we might just give up. And in a way, we should give up, but we should do it in a way, as I've mentioned before, of giving it up over to God and trust Him as to what is going on and what is going to happen, and that He holds our future. And He we should also think that we have spirit and body. And this body that we have currently is going to break down. We get old, we get diseases, we have things that are going to happen to this body. But what is being afflicted on our body and what we feel is not being afflicted on our spirit. Our spirit remains the same. And our spirit is the one, as Jesus told the thief on the cross, today you'll be with me in paradise on the day that the thief was going to die. And what Paul says to be absent of the body is to be present with the Lord. We should keep that in mind that our spirit is going to go and live on. And then at some point in the future, our spirit will be reunited with our glorified body, one that is not going to age and one that is not going to be susceptible to disease. So keep that in mind in our depths of despair. It's our body the thing that is decaying, has contracted the disease that is going away, that we feel pain with. It's our body, but our spirit, we have hope in Jesus Christ and through his resurrection of the promises of eternal life that he has given us. And so therefore we need to turn it over to him and in regards to that and hold on to that thought of eternal life and our spirit and not get caught up in just the despair of this body that is breaking down in this world.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Just like when people get physically sick, then there's a point of sort of no return where the body can't help itself. It's so weakened that the body needs help from the outside in order to get better. Well, the same thing can happen to our emotions. We can be so emotionally sick that we're not able to emotionally get better and we can't see our way out of it. That's what Job is saying here. All I see is darkness. He doesn't see a way. Way out. And it's possible for people to be so emotionally or mentally ill that they can't get their way out of it. They need somebody to come alongside them and help. And this is where a true solution can only come from the Lord. Christian counselors can help. Pastors can help, but sometimes they approach things from just a human psychology standpoint. That's not going to help much unless they come from a Christian perspective, a biblical perspective, then they could be helpful. But it has to be a biblical counselor based in something scriptural. We try to help, but oftentimes our statements, our words of encouragement come across like cheap religious cliches. We need people that are truly based in biblical principles to come along and help such people. But the answer really is not in abandoning the Lord. The answer can only be in the Lord and his principles. That's the message of the book of Job. In this section, Job cannot reconcile what he believes about God and what he believes about God being all-powerful, can't reconcile that with the pain and suffering that he's experiencing. So his conclusion is that God must be against him. And as we said, that's where a lot of people walk away from the faith. And it's exactly the place where our faith gets tested. Because of that, this next couple of verses here, we show us what Job actually does. Verse 19, quote, even now, behold, my witness is in heaven and my advocate is on high. So, Steve, what does that verse tell us about Job's faith?

SPEAKER_00 23:45

It tells us that he hasn't walked away from God and that there is going to be somebody that is going to stand up for him and be an advocate for him and plead his case. And where is that going to take place? Going to take place in heaven. So we see this idea of Job understanding and having this perception that even though this body, as I just mentioned, his body is breaking down and into decay, he still has this perception or idea that there's a heaven, that there's somebody there that is going to be an advocate for him to plead his case with God the Most High. So we see that Job, even though all of this is happening, and yes, he's laying some blame at the feet of God, he still hasn't walked away from God and he still has this right idea of what really happens whenever you worship and honor God. He realizes he has an advocate that's going to speak for him in heaven.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Even in the midst of severe suffering, Job trusts God. Job does not understand why God is doing what he's doing. And he feels, as we just read a few verses ago, he feels like I'm standing out here in the middle of a field and God's shooting arrows at me and spilling my insides all over the ground. But deep down, he still trusts the Lord. That was the purpose for Satan's challenge. Here, Job holds firm. He holds firm. He says, God is my only solution. Deep down, Job trusts the Lord. The question for us is, can we trust the Lord in the midst of pain? Can we hold on to our faith even in the midst of great tragedy? Sometimes we go to church, we get up on a Sunday morning and we put on our Sunday morning clothes and we put on our Sunday morning fake mask and we go to church and people say, How are you? And we say, Fine, when really we're in a lot of pain and suffering. That's when we should really ask ourselves, Am I going to hang on to my faith even in the midst of great pain and suffering? The question is, what is the alternative? The alternative is not to do what Satan wants, which is to turn from God and then suffer and die. The question is, will I still trust God no matter the circumstances? Am I only going to trust God when life is all downhill on greased grooves and I have a lot of money and power and fame and things are well? That's easier to trust then. But will I trust God even in times where it's painful? Job's friends' advice have several issues to them. Job's friends, just to kind of summarize at this point in the story, the friends believe that all suffering is caused by God, punishing the wicked, and all blessing is because God is rewarding the righteous. Whereas in reality, God sometimes allows the wicked to prosper on earth and sometimes allows the righteous to suffer. It tells us in this section that we cannot earn our way back to God. It's not true that we can obey enough that we're never going to have suffering. That's what his friends get wrong. They think if you were just obeying God, Job, you wouldn't have all this suffering. Well, that's a false assumption. His friends leave out God's grace. They have no room for God's mercy and grace. It's all a behavioral situation where if you do bad things, you'll suffer. If you do good things, you'll have pleasant things. There's no room in Job's friends' theological system for God's grace and mercy. Thankfully, God is gracious and he will forgive us when we repent. And forgiveness of our sins does not mean that we'll never going to experience problems and suffering in life. So, Steve, I think that's really the point is of the book of Job, and it keeps hammering this over and over again, is that yes, there's times where the righteous will suffer, and there's times where the wicked will prosper, but in the end, God is just. And in the end, God will bless the righteous.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

I think that's exactly right, Glenn. And I want to point out this picture that we have behind us of our title slide. I think it's a good depiction of Job. He's there in the depths of his despair, but where is he looking? He's looking up. He doesn't have his head down. He's looking upwards to God. And I think that's a great depiction of his attitude right now. He knows that he has an advocate in heaven, and he is going to make a big declaration whenever we get to chapter 19. So don't give up on God. Job hasn't given up on God.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

And we trust that our listeners, you won't give up on God because we won't either. We're going to continue to reason through the book of Job next time. Thank you so much for watching and listening.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

May God bless you.