What is the value of suffering? To most people, the question makes no sense. Instead, we simply want our misery to come to an end, and as quickly as possible. But today’s passage reminds us that our suffering can, in fact, bring us closer to Christ.

Job knows full well that God, in His power and authority, could have given him relief at any time. And so he describes his misery in graphic detail as God personally attacking him, much as one warrior fights against another (16:14).

But much of what Job describes poetically happened to Jesus quite literally. Compare, for example, verses 10 and 11 to Jesus’ experience on Good Friday. He was mocked. His own people struck Him in the face. He was surrounded by His enemies, and given over into the hands of the godless Roman soldiers. In other words, as Job experienced suffering that he had not earned and did not deserve (16:17), he was walking in the footsteps of Christ.

But there’s another way that Job’s pain drew him closer to Christ. For in his anguish, he cries out for a witness in heaven to testify on his behalf (16:19). And that’s exactly what Jesus does for all of us. Because He chose to suffer and die in the place of all His people, He is able to stand in the presence of the Father, pleading His own blood as a substitute for the death penalty our sins deserve.

Now, we can allow the problems in our lives to make us bitter. We can allow our disappointments and discouragements to turn us away from Christ. But Job shows us another way. Like him, will we allow our sufferings to draw us closer to Christ, as we share in His pain, and as we beg that He plead our cause?

Job 16:9-22 (NASB)

9 “His anger has torn me and hunted me down, He has gnashed at me with His teeth; My adversary glares at me.
10 “They have gaped at me with their mouth, They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt; They have massed themselves against me.
11 “God hands me over to ruffians, And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.
12 “I was at ease, but He shattered me, And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target.
13 “His arrows surround me. Without mercy He splits my kidneys open; He pours out my gall on the ground.
14 “He breaks through me with breach after breach; He runs at me like a warrior.
15 “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin, And thrust my horn in the dust.
16 “My face is flushed from weeping, And deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, do not cover my blood, And let there be no resting place for my cry.
19 “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate is on high.
20 “My friends are my scoffers; My eye weeps to God.
21 “O that a man might plead with God As a man with his neighbor!
22 “For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.