How did he survive?

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I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. (Job 16:5)

Job’s sufferings reveal Job’s heart. What he says in suffering opens a window into his soul. He is under intense pressure. He has lost his wealth, position, children, and health. But the worst pressure is that his so-called comforters accuse him of unforgiven sin. They say that his accursed state proves he is under the curse of God; the fact that he is “shriveled... up” is “a witness against” him (Job 16:8). There is something of Job’s comforters in us all. We hear of someone’s misfortune, and we can hardly help but wonder if, in some way, they deserved it; in the same breath, the thought occurs to us that perhaps our own happy state shows we deserve that too. How wrong we can be!

In this speech, Job's heart is described in two remarkable ways. First, despite how badly they are treating him, Job longs to comfort and bring solace to his friends (v. 5). Far from wanting to “get back at them,” he would love to be a real comforter to them when they face trials. This is quite different from how we instinctively feel.

The second remarkable attitude we see in Job is that, despite feeling that God is against him (vv. 6–15), he knows in his heart of hearts that he must and can appeal to God (vv. 16–19). Because he has not sought to repay evil with evil (Rom. 12:17) and there is “no violence” in his hands (Job 16:17), he can offer a “pure” prayer from a pure heart, calling on God to vindicate him (vv. 18–19). He can do this only because he has an absolutely pure conscience.

Only Jesus does perfectly what Job foreshadows. In the extremity of suffering on the cross he prays for his persecutors, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). Despite accusation and false witness, his heart is pure before the Father and he knows he can appeal to the Father for vindication and can commit his spirit to him (Luke 23:46).

It is wonderful when, by the Spirit of Jesus within us, we begin to meet evil with good, to pray for those who treat us badly—in marriage, in family life, in the workplace. Then we have the confidence that springs from a clear conscience so that we can pray in our deepest distress, sure that our heavenly Father hears us.

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