Even Now - Job 16:19-21

Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is in the heights! My friends scoff at me as I weep before God. I wish that someone might argue for a man with God just as anyone would for a friend. Job 16:19-21

His Heartfelt Cry

Believers pray for each other. We intercede. We get between the person we are praying for and the Lord and argue for that person!

Job was a man of tragedy for sure. His family got wiped out, his wife became embittered, all of his property was stolen or destroyed, and he was struck with a painful disease.

But that’s not what Job dwells on. Rather, his narrative poem zooms in on Job’s relationships with his friends.

So, it seems we can add another grief to the list. For not only did his friends misinterpret what happened to Job, adding unmercifully to his agony, they did not intercede for him. And they should have.

I’m struck by his heart felt cry, “I wish that someone would argue for a man with God…” And notice that he says that after he declares that God is his advocate! In all his pain and misery, he knows God is for him.

Going Before My Father and Arguing

As a believer, I am incredibly powerful. Not because I'm so great, but because the Spirit works in and through me.

Possibly, the most potent power I have is that of prayer. Real prayer flows from my real relationship with God. It is never just words. But in my immaturity, I can treat it like I just left a message on God’s answering machine and hope He listens to it later. Or even worse, like I sent him an email and hope it didn’t end up in the spam folder.

God never ever treats my prayer like that. He listens to me like no other person in my life. He does this with all of His children.

Because of that, because the blood of Jesus has saved me, because the Holy Spirit translates my words into their most potent form, I can go to Him for others. I can and I must intercede.

Why would I add to my friend’s tragedy by not going before my father and arguing his case?

May I not be like Job’s friends who in his moment of greatest need, would not go to the supreme potentate and argue his case!

Lord, I am your friend and I serve you. You place people in my life who need prayer. They need someone to argue their case before you. Lord, prick my heart. Teach me the discipline to pray powerfully for others, especially for my brothers and sisters in Christ. May I pray, never doubting that you hear and care about every thought. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.