Perhaps This Was Job's Biggest Test of All

  Does Job's intercession foreshadow Jesus?

Vitaly Gariev

JOB ENDURED NUMEROUS trials, but his last test may have been the most difficult.

After his encounter with God, Job admitted he had "uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know" (42:3). And, in response, he said:

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

    but now my eye sees you;

therefore I despise myself,

    and repent in dust and ashes. 

Job 42:5-6

Such is the natural response when confronted by a pure, holy God. Think of Isaiah who said, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (6:5). Or recall Simon Peter's response to Jesus after the miracle of the large catch of fish. He fell before the Lord and said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8).

When confronted with God's holiness, one cannot help but "despise" himself, for we are all sinful people with unclean lips and unclean hearts. Even the best, most faithful of us pale in comparison to a holy, perfect God. As Isaiah wrote, "All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (64:6). And as the Psalmist wrote, "There is none who does good, not even one" (14:3).

But if fear and self-loathing are the natural responses to an encounter with God, what Job had to do next was anything but instinctual.

After our protagonist repented "in dust and ashes," God turned to Job's companions. The LORD expressed anger at Eliphaz and his friends for slandering God. He commanded they bring seven bulls and seven rams as a sacrifice to atone for their sin. But here's the twist: Job would be their intercessor.

God told them to bring their burnt offerings to Job who would pray for them. Can you imagine it? These are the very people who added insult to anguish for Job. They effectively told him he was to blame for his own calamity. For example, Zophar said, "God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves" (Job 11:6).

Now God was telling–not asking–Job to pray for them? This might have been his biggest test of all.

This is pure speculation on my part because the Scripture gives no indication Job struggled at all with God's command. But I know I would have trouble doing anything for these guys who metaphorically rubbed salt in my wounds.

Keep in mind this occurred before God restored Job to health and wealth. At this point Job has received his audience with God. He has repented. But he's still a disgusting destitute wretched mess of a man. Yet in this state, Job received the offerings of his companions, and in obedience interceded on their behalf.

Millenia later, Jesus would preach a sermon on a hillside in which he said radical things like "Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt. 5:44) and, "if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matt. 6:14-15).

These sayings were radical then and they remain revolutionary to this day. Why? Because it's not in our nature nor in our culture to forgive. Enemies are to be vanquished. They must be punished. Yet as far back in human history as Job, we see a picture of forgiveness. It is brief and without fanfare, but I'm convinced Job could not have officiated the sacrifices and prayed for his frenemies unless his heart was right with God and unless he meant what he prayed.

Job's act, small as it may seem, foreshadowed Jesus Christ, because Jesus didn't just preach words about forgiveness–he lived them. After his arrest, unlawful trial, arbitrary sentencing, scourging, mocking, and, ultimately, crucifixion, Jesus, in agony, uttered some of the most powerful words ever spoken: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

Can you imagine being humiliated and tortured though innocent and yet have the fortitude to ask God to forgive the humiliators and torturers? But Jesus didn't just forgive the first century Jewish leaders who demanded his crucifixion. He didn't only forgive the Romans who executed Pilate's order to crucify him. No, through the act of self-sacrifice Jesus interceded for the entire world, for all sins ever committed.

Every sin, from the bite of fruit in Eden to the white lie you told yesterday is a sin against God, and all sin has consequences. God told Adam and Eve that should they eat the forbidden fruit they would die. Paul wrote that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). In other words, when we sin, we earn death. We deserve it because we turn our backs on God. But God did not want this to be the end of the story so he sent Jesus, God in human flesh, to pay the price for our sins.

While Job officiated the sacrifices for his mockers and interceded for them in prayer, Jesus sacrificed himself for the very people who sinned against him because of his great love for us. All we must do is place our faith in him and he will forgive our transgressions.

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