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Job 16:12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
Job 16:13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
Job 16:14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
Job 16:15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
Job 16:16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
Job 16:17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
Job 16:18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
Job 16:19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and myrecord is on high.
Job 16:20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
Job 16:21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
Job 16:22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Introduction

This is the last half of Job 16 which is Job’s answer to Eliphaz’s declaration to Job that Job is a very evil man who must confess his sins to God and beg for God’s mercy if he is ever to be delivered of the judgment God has brought upon Job.
Job is in the position of knowing that his life, from the perspective of any human being, is above reproach and that he has done nothing to deserve the trials and afflictions he is enduring, any more than Eliphas, Bildad or Zophar. We are told Job was a good man who loved God and hated evil:

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

We are not told that this is true of Eliphaz, Bildad or Zophar. These men have decided that Job, simply because he is being so sorely afflicted, must be a sinner above all men. Of course the fact of the matter is that the only reason this is all happening to Job is that Job is the Old Testament type and shadow of all those who later will be the first to be judged and be granted to be in that blessed and holy first resurrection. As such, in type, he being tried and proven and judged first. According to the scriptures, this is all being done simply for our sakes who have the firstfruits of the spirit and “upon whom the ends of the world [ Greek, aions] have come”.

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [ Greek – tupos, types of us]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

According to Peter, Job’s trials as well as all the messages in all of the stories and the lessons of all of the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets is not for themselves, but is rather for our benefit, in the aion of this world.

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

What the holy spirit is telling us through the apostle Peter is that Job’s entire story of the loss of all of his possessions, the loss of all ten of his children, the torment he suffered from the boils that covered his entire body, the mental torment he suffered at the hands of men who were supposed to be his friends and were supposed to comfort him at this time of his great suffering, were all done simply for the benefit of those who were later to become the firstfruits to God and His Christ.
In type the story of Job is the story of the judgment which must come first upon the those who are chosen to be the first to be judged and who are the first to suffer the death of their old man and all that pertains to him. It is in this same epistle of 1 Peter that we learn we too, if granted to be in that elect group, must come to know the same fiery trials of Job, and must learn that our old carnal- minded man really is the enemy of God and that He must be destroyed through the fire which is these words of God:

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

So Job’s sufferings are simply the Old Testament type and shadow of “Christ’s sufferings” which must be ‘filled up in our own bodies…’

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Col 1:24 Now, am I rejoicing in the sufferings on your behalf, and am filling up the things that lack of the tribulations of the Christ, in my flesh, in behalf of his body, which is the assembly, (REV).

It is God who has thus judged all flesh, even the flesh of our Lord:

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

God tells us that all flesh is “corruption”, and for that reason alone, it is not fit to inherit the kingdom of God. Here is what we are told about the natural mind of mankind:

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

What is very instructive to know is that the Greek word translated as ‘flesh’ in 1Co 15:50 is the same Greek word which is translated ‘carnal’ in Rom 8:7. Both are translated from the Greek word ‘sarx’. So the carnal mind is a fleshly mind, a mind that thinks in natural fleshly terms and flesh, therefore is itself “enmity against God” with a mind which ‘cannot’; “neither can” it be “subject to the law of God”.

1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The ability to think and discern spiritually was impossible for any human before the death and resurrection of our Lord, simply because God’s spirit was not available until our Lord ‘went away’ and returned in the spirit of His Father to dwell within each of us.

Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Joh 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

This concept of becoming spiritually aware and spiritually minded was unheard of in the Old Testament. While we have stories like God’s judgment of the sin of Adam and Eve who disobeyed God’s commandment to eat of every tree of the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the story of the the flood of Noah because the thought of the heart of mankind was always evil continually, and the story of Job, who was judged for reproving, contending with and condemning his Creator, the Truth is that all of these supposed ‘judgments’ upon mankind were really nothing more than mere types and shadows of the real judgment of all the flesh of all men of all time.
Job is completely unaware that “the old… natural man… the first man Adam” has to be destroyed so “the new man… the last man Adam” can be born through that death. But Job does know that he will one day be resurrected from among the dead. This was revealed to us back in chapter 14 where he asked God to let him die now and just await the resurrection.

Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job 14:15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

This is one of the earliest direct references to a resurrection in scripture. But it is a very general statement with no hint of being “raised a spiritual body”.
So Job believes there will be a resurrection from the dead, and he knows that God is his enemy, but he is at his wits’ end to understand why. So he continues with his reproving, contending with and condemnation of his Creator.

Job 16:12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

The Hebrew word translated ‘mark’ in this verse is ‘mattarah’, and it means both ‘imprisoned’, so as to be restrained’, and it also means to be the mark of one’s arrows.

1Sa 20:20 And I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark [ Hebrew – mattarah].

God is the avowed enemy of the carnal mind in all of us. He has both restrained our ‘old man’ carnal mind, and He has marked that beast in all of His elect, and He is in the process of destroying that old, carnal- minded man, and our “old man” does not appreciate it one little bit:

Job 7:20 I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark [ Hebrew – miphga, “an object of attack”] against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?
Lam 3:10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
Lam 3:11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
Lam 3:12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark [ Hebrew – mattara, jail… in the sense of being closely watched] for the arrow.

Lamentations is written by Jeremiah, who also knows that God has made him His mark and is intent on destroying and “making desolate” his physical life. This is all true only in type and shadow, but it is just as true spiritually today as it was physically in the time of Job or Jeremiah. God is in the process of destroying the old carnal- minded man in all of His elect. It is through the destruction of that “old man” within all men that our “new man” is birthed. Here is how Paul words this process of ‘losing our life for the purpose of finding our life’.

1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Here is how it applied to Christ:

Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

It is a rare and chosen person who sees “His flesh through death” in personal terms, rather than externally as “Christ and Him crucified”.

1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Not one of us sees our self as “the flesh and bones [ of] Jesus of Nazareth” at first.

Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Act 22:7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.
Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

It is as “His flesh and His bones” that we are “dying daily… [ being] crucified with Christ”, and “through death” presenting our bodies as a “living sacrifice”, “crucified with” Him nevertheless living for Him.
This is what Job, in his ignorance, typifies:

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

So Jeremiah is not saying anything new in Lam 3 about God being an archer who is intent on destroying and “not sparing” him.

Job 16:13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

“His archers compass me round about… and doth not spare” is the essence of this last half of this 16th chapter of Job, and “He teareth me who hates me…” is the essence of the first half of this chapter. Both are intended to let us know that the “flesh and blood [ of our ‘old man’] cannot inherit the kingdom of God”.

Job 16:9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

As noted above, our old carnal mind “is enmity against God” and does not like being made God’s mark and the object of His wrath:

Job 16:14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.

But this is all about being torn ‘in God’s wrath’ which must be poured out upon the carnal mind of our “old man… the first man Adam”.

Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Heb 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Since “no man is able to enter into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled” it is obvious that enduring God’s wrath is an essential part of the process of salvation, and Job is the Old Testament type of that process which we must endure as “the patience and faith of the saints”.

Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Now let’s add this all up. ‘No man is able to enter the temple, till the seven last plagues of God’s wrath’ which the seven angels must pour out is fulfilled. Any man who worships the beast and his image and receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand, will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God’, and we are informed that all of this “is the patience and faith of the saints… [ and of] they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”. So as portrayed by Job, we do not realize it while we are going through this fiery trial, but this trial is actually a sign of our election, and we are blessed to be judged now rather than later.
“If any man worship the beast”, refers to all who dwell on the earth:

Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

“The first man Adam” is “that wicked” who is in all of us, and he has been in all men of all time, and that is the “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” who God hates and who God is intent upon destroying:

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Not understanding this, Job continues:

Job 16:15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

Our “horn” is “defiled… in the dust”. Considering the fact that we ‘are dust’, it becomes easy to understand where our horn is defiled. Our ‘horn’ is defiled in our own dying flesh. But what is our “horn”? Here is where this word first appears in scripture:

Exo 21:29 But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.

It was a crime worthy of death to allow a bull which “was wont to push with his horn” and was not “kept… in, but that he had killed a man or a woman”. A bull’s strength and power is directly related to its horns. So it is also with a ram and a goat. Their strength and power is in their horns:

Dan 8:3 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.
Dan 8:4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.
Dan 8:5 And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.
Dan 8:6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.
Dan 8:7 And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.
Dan 8:8 Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

So when the scriptures speak of exalting or ‘setting up the ‘horn’ of a nation or ‘cutting off’ the horn of a nation, they are speaking of the work of God in either exalting or humbling that nation.

Lam 2:3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
Lam 2:17 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.<

Spiritually speaking both the physical nation of Israel and the nations of the Gentiles are within each of us. These nations are all Biblical types of the dust, which was given as food to the serpent. In other words, our “old man, the first man Adam”, is designed by our Creator as food for the adversary. The “old man… the first man Adam” is nothing more than an indispensable, yet disposable prototype of the spiritual “new man, the last Adam” who is “conformed to the image of His Son”.

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

So when Job tells us, “I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust” he is telling us that he is simply mourning in sackcloth the loss of his ‘skin’ which encloses the flesh which is the ‘dust’ in which the horn of his carnal strength, power and pride reside.
His pride and self- righteousness are still intact, and while his ‘horn’ is being “defiled in the dust”, it is still there and is simply in the process of being destroyed:

Job 16:16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
Job 16:17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.

“Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure” is what we tell ourselves, as we point out to our Creator just how unjustified He is in abusing us in this fashion.
The word ‘foul’ in verse 16 is translated from the Hebrew word ‘chamar’. It appears five times in the Old Testament, and three of those five times are translated with the English word ‘troubled”. So we are ‘troubled with weeping’, and being in “the valley of the shadow of death” is what life in “the body of this death” is all about.

Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Job 16:18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
Job 16:19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.

Judah and Jerusalem are the Old Testament type of God’s own apostate people. God addresses them as the ‘heavens and earth’.

Isa 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isa 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

“O earth, cover not you my blood, and let my cry have no place” is nothing less than a condemnation of God for putting us through this trial for no good reason in the mind of our old man. Of course the Truth is that by being born into bodies of sinful flesh and blood, even our ‘heavens’ are defiled and are in need of being purified.

Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [ the blood of “calves and goats”, verse 19]; but the heavenly things themselves [ our hearts and minds] with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

As Job we cannot see our heavens as being defiled, and our suffering seems completely unjustified. Yet we feel we are being tormented for no reason at all:

Job 16:20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
Job 16:21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

If only we could talk with the great God and show Him just how mistaken He is in afflicting us thus as a spectacle to our friends, and to the very angels of heaven. While this is true, it is a grave mistake which we all make in contending with our Creator for His judgments upon our “old man, the first man Adam”. Here is the answer of the holy spirit to this self- righteous spirit which is just naturally within us all:

1Co 4:7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
1Co 4:8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
1Co 4:9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
1Co 4:10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

“God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men” is the lot of those who are granted to die to this world. “Ye are wise in Christ… ye are strong… ye are honorable” are all sarcastic statements, which are made from the perspective of our carnal- minded ‘old man’, who prefers death to the trials which must come upon all who would aspire to ruling and reigning with Christ over the kingdoms of this world.

Job 16:22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Job knew there would be a resurrection.

Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job 14:15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

Nevertheless he is expressing the same sentiment he expressed back in both chapters 14 above and chapter 7:

Job 7:21 And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

That is the stubbornness of our old man, the first man Adam, and that is what must be destroyed from within us all.
Next week, if the Lord wills we will hear the rest of Job’s answer to Eliphaz, and his despair with His Creator who he asks: “Where is now my hope?”

Job 17:1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
Job 17:2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
Job 17:3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
Job 17:4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
Job 17:5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
Job 17:6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
Job 17:7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
Job 17:8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
Job 17:9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
Job 17:10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
Job 17:11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
Job 17:12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
Job 17:13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
Job 17:14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
Job 17:15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
Job 17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust. <