Life Walk Bible Lesson 50 : Intercession
Job was speaking about those of his own family who were of fleeting, and unreliable, help to him. [Job 6:15] And yet these same people were there to celebrate with him after his healing. [Job 42:11]
Sirach 6:10 "Others are friends, table companions, but they cannot be found in time of affliction." (Catholic Canon)
I think we've all been down that road at least once in our lives, so we can empathize with Job in this also. Yet, as King David, however, finds true -- God places people in families. [Psalm 68:6]
Jesus Himself, Who ever lives to make intercession for us, announces, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." And He asks us to do the same for one another. [Isaiah 53:12; John 14:18; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 1Timothy 2:1]
Sirach 6:6 says, "Let those who are friendly to you be many, but one in a thousand your confidant."
Verse 8 goes on to instruct, "For there are friends when it suits them, but they will not be around in trouble. And verse 12, "If disaster comes upon you, they turn against you and hide themselves."
There is hope, however, in verse 14 "Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter; whoever finds one finds a treasure."
Although Job's friends were misrepresenting God, at least he had some. He had three faithful people who visited him in his sickness, depression, quandary over how or why, and his "What's going on?" moments which lasted a really long time. That had to be a miracle in itself -- that three people came to visit him. I find a contrast in Abraham's experiences, when three heavenly messengers came to him, because there was no one else to help Abraham in his situation. He had a promise, that it seemed everything in life came against. But God Who is faithful to keep all of His good promises, was always there for him, just as He promised the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah's prophecies.
Somewhere I read that Eliphaz was considered a prophet. So it stands to reason that he waxed a little prophetic. However, again, I reiterate that as we read the words of Job, when he is pouring out his heart to God, as often King David did, we might see with new eyes, and hear with new ears the heart of a man who loves God with all his heart, and doesn't understand why his prayers seem to go unanswered. Ask anyone who lives with a chronic illness how they are patient as they wait to be healed, knowing God as Healer as they do. Secondly, we look with new eyes, through the eyes of Jesus in fact, and read the words as though Jesus was saying them.
Job 9 In response to Bildad (Chapter 8), Job senses he is going to get to talk with God personally. He wrestles with it, and goes on to describe exactly what Jesus will do when He comes as Messiah.
In Job 6:8-11, Job is asking to be crushed, as in Isaiah 53, and recognizing that there is no other outcome, no hope, as even Isaiah says of the Messiah, who will see His offspring. [Isaiah 53:10-12]
Job's highest hope at this point in his journey is that he will be known for this one thing -- that he did not deny the words of the Holy One. [Job 6:10]
Look at verses 12-13 "Do I have the strength of a stone? Is my flesh bronze? Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?"
What did the enemy of our souls say to Jesus, through humans, while Jesus was dying on the Cross for us? Three times Jesus, our Intercessor, was insulted for all He had done for others which He could now not do for Himself, although He was always "about His Father's business".
Mark 15:29-31 About the building of the Temple
Mark 15:32 About saving people
Mark 15:35-37 About what He said -- misinterpreting what He said, or what they thought He meant to say
Look again at Job 10, where he is once again pouring his heart out to God, Who made him, just as Jesus was born of a human, and clothed with skin, and became flesh and blood in order to intercede for us. Again Job's words are so completely intertwined with David's in Psalm 139:13, where he was woven, or knit (depending on the translation) together in his mother's womb.
Psalm 22:9-10
9 "Yet You brought me out of the womb; You made me trust in You even at My mother's breast.
10 From birth I was cast upon You; from My mother's womb You have been My God."
I love Isaiah 44:1-5 because it gives hope to all who call upon the name of Jesus, that they will be saved, and included in what He is building -- the Bride of Christ, just as He first built [Hebrew meaning of made here] Eve from the rib of a man.
God's Will
Isaiah 46:3-4, 10-11
3 "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, you who have been borne by Me from birth [from the belly] and have been carried from the womb;
4 even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you.
Be encouraged that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the God of Job, and your God also. [John 20:17] In your daily journey with him, be it in struggles or wrestling or in joy and the God-given victories that come with His favor, know His heart -- I AM with you always. [Matthew 28:20]
In His capacity as Intercessor, that means to me that He is not only always carrying us close to His heart as little lambs, as in Isaiah 40:11, but while He is carrying us, or holding our hand and guiding us, He is also praying for us to His Father in heaven, that we would make the right choices in life, and be strengthened, for He knows what it is like to be fragile in a harsh world. [Isaiah 53:2]
Abraham saw this day coming when he chose a tender and choice calf to feed the Lord. [Genesis 18:7-8] That was Abraham's seed which he sowed into the miracle of birth which Job describes in chapter 10:10 "Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese."
And yet when you drop down to verses 18-19, Job is having that moment that we have all had at some point in our life's troubles -- "Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave."
Job didn't have Isaiah's words to encourage him at the time, however, there was a person who new the sound of God's voice, and the sense of His coming when He was about to talk with Job about his thoughts and words. I believe Job knew about God, and even spoke the words Jesus would think or say at some point in the fragility of His humanity.
Job's friend, Elihu, heard God coming, and was angry with Job and his three friends for how they misrepresented God to one another. Although he was the youngest among them, he knew the voice of God, and heard Him coming. Talk about knowing the times and seasons, like the sons of Issachar. [Job 32] In chapter 33 he makes sure to tell us that he is a human being, as different from an angelic messenger, who does not speak with the mouth. In verse 6, he verifies that he belongs to God just like they do.
He speaks for quite a while on Who God is, and then in chapter 37:1 "At this also my heart trembles, and leaps from its place." That's the moment he hears God coming! And in chapters 38-41 God speaks to Job while these four listen. And God asks Job to intercede for his three friends, but says nothing of Elihu.
Perhaps Elihu did not need interceding for, because he spoke the words of God, just as the angels spoke the same words as Jesus, immediately before Jesus spoke them to Mary at the tomb, when it was said, "Why are you crying?" [John 20:13. 15]
Taking it Personally
What makes you cry? I mean, deep down, where deep calls unto deep, where only God can touch it? That thing that makes you keep living, no matter what, or that thing that makes you weep because it just hasn't happened yet?
There is something in all of us that makes us burst into tears when God whispers it in our ear, or jump for joy, and feel like living again when He says, I Love you. But that is not even what I mean.
There is something deeper still, beyond "I Love you" that when God touches it, we are silent and without tears; stunned, perhaps that He even knew that thing was there, because we couldn't even bring it to speech.
This is the God I bring you today, Who knows our fragility, and our heart-cry. Be encouraged.
Because you love God, you have favor with God -- because He loved you first, you are known by God.
