Day 11

19 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. 20 My intercessor is my friend[a] as my eyes pour out tears to God; 21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend. Job 16:19-21

These words were penned long before Jesus lived on earth as God inside the body of a man.

What a unique perspective. Job lived very close to the creation of the first people, before Abraham.

He had wonderful conversations with God – “Where were you…” God sets Job straight on his power, majesty, creativity, and provision.

And Job feels the very real actions of someone interceding for him.

“My witness” he says. Someone who sees inside him, who knows not only what he does but the state of his heart when he does or thinks anything.

John 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word and that in the beginning, through him, ALL things were made.

Even Job.

Who better than your creator to give witness to how you are made and everything you are capable of doing?

“My advocate…” The word means a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy. Synonyms are champion, upholder, supporter, promoter, and protector, to name a few.

Job was in the middle of being put through everything Satan could throw at him short of taking his life, and he felt someone in heaven was his champion, his protector.

And he seems to look at this supporter as different from the person of God, the one he feels he has not spoken against.

“My intercessor is my friend…” I just LOVE this! If someone were advocating for me, I wouldn’t want it to be a stranger who is just out to promote their own agenda and finds that if I am on their team, it makes them stronger. And it’s not someone who knows me casually who is okay with me joining them, again to help their own cause have more support

Job sees his intercessor as his friend! Someone who knows and loves him, who cares about his well-being, who has contributed good to his life.

Someone who would one day lay his life down for his friend.

A great definition for “intercede,” from a Beth Moore Bible study, jumps to mind here.

“When someone who has the right to speak to another, the right relationship and the authority, takes the other person’s face in their hands, looks them in the eye, and once they have their full attention, speaks on someone else’s behalf.”

So whenever I read “intercede” in the Bible, I picture it.

Jesus, equal with, part of, intricately related to God the Father, faces him. He takes the Father’s face in his hands and looks him straight in the eye.

And says, “Becky needs…”

“On behalf of a man, he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.”

I read Job’s words, and I get the sense that he had an image of someone looking Father God in the eye, pleading with him.

“Job needs…”

But I see a difference between Job and me, between that time in history and today.

Jesus always was and always will be, but in the course of human history, he had not yet inhabited the body of a man and lived a human life. He knew exactly how Job was made and what he had designed him to be able to do so that he could speak with authority.

Job could trust his maker to look out for him.

How much more can we? Can I?

Jesus not only made me, but he lived on this earth and was tempted in every way. Every way I ever have or ever will be.

He knows what it feels like to be me.

So I can trust him to know what I need.

And so can you.

Reflection: Witness. Advocate. Friend. Whenever you approach Jesus, you can be sure that he sees the deepest motives of your heart, he pleads for you, and he loves you so much he laid his life down for you. Can you picture Jesus holding God's face in his hands, speaking on your behalf? Ask Holy Spirit to let you in on that conversation.