HEAVENLY DEFENSE - DO I HAVE ONE?

THE WITNESS IN HEAVEN

"Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And He that voucheth for me is on high."—Job 16:19

"For Christ entered . . . into heaven itself, now to appear before . . . God for us."—HEBREWS 9:24

In these two passages we have another great cry of Job, and the answer to it found in Jesus. These particular words of Job occur in the second cycle of the controversy between him and his friends. In the first cycle Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar all addressed him, attempt­ing to account for his suffering in one way, declaring that it must be the result of personal sin. Job had hotly protested against the in­accuracy of their findings. Now in his second address Eliphaz had reiterated the same philo­sophy more vigorously than at the first. The whole of Eliphaz's speech may be summarized as a declaration that it is only the wicked who suffer. It is, of course, perfectly true that the wicked do suffer, but it is by no means all the truth. Again Job angrily reaffirmed his inno­cence. A sentence or two from the beginning of his answer will reveal its scorn:

    "I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are ye all, Shall vain words have an end?"

By which he meant, Are you going to say the same thing again? Will you never cease? Job was angry because he knew they were wrong, knew that his suffering was not the result of his own sin. Thus we hear him reaffirming his innocence:

"Although there is no violence in my hands,

And my prayer is pure."

In the midst of his angry reply, and his earnest protestations of innocence, and the outpouring of his soul in anguish, suddenly he said:

"Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

And He that voucheth for me is on high."

In these words he gave utterance to a great conviction. Evidently it was a sudden outburst. It would appear to have been as un­expected to Job as to those who listened to him. Yet it did express a conviction; and in the midst of turmoil, anguish, and anger, he gave utterance to it. The word "Behold" indicates the arresting nature of the thing he said. "Even now," amid the misunderstanding of friends, in the presence of his own bewilder­ment, he was conscious that there was One Who knew, and Who was able to attest the truth.

Immediately following upon the exclamation, he declared that his trouble was that he could not reach that One, or that the One thus referred to did not appear to be acting on His behalf. He cried:

"My friends scorn me;

But mine eye poureth out tears unto God;

That He would maintain the right of a man with God."

If we can imaginatively come into the experi­ence and consciousness of Job, we shall under­stand all he said. He found himself in the midst of turmoil, filled with anguish, facing the tragedy of listening to good men, true men, fine men, talking to him about his experiences, while yet ignorant of the facts concerning him. This great cry was uttered in close connection with a passionate appeal.

As we look back on Job's experience at this time in the light of subsequent events and of fuller revelation, we are conscious that Job was wrong. Not in his conviction concerning his witness in heaven, but in his opinion that God was not acting for him. We are quite prepared to admit the truth of the lines:

"Thrice blest is he to whom is given The instinct that can tell

That God is on the field, when He Is most invisible."

We realize that God is on the field and that there He is governing actively. But we also have known, sooner or later, what it is to pass through experiences when it seemed to us that He was doing nothing. That was Job's experi­ence at the moment. Nevertheless behind all the turmoil of his intellectual and emotional nature he had, and gave utterance to, this word of conviction. Let us therefore consider the conviction thus expressed, and how it has received ratification and interpretation in Jesus.

In considering the cry of Job we notice that he made an affirmation of a twofold nature. The first declared, "My witness is in heaven." By "witness" he intended a watcher, who knows, and knows all. He was surrounded by men who were perfectly honest, and were his friends, but who failed in what they were saying to him, because they did not know all. They thought they did. They were endeavoring to account for the experiences of a man by a partial and incomplete philosophy. In the midst of the suffering of this misunderstanding, he declared his conviction that there was One in heaven watching, understanding, knowing all.

Then repeating the same truth in a slightly different form, with perhaps a changed applica­tion, he said,

"And He that voucheth for me is on high."

The King James Version rendered that, "My record is on high," which was an entirely misleading translation. The Hebrew word there does not mean a record. Permissibly it might be rendered "my Recorder," that is, the One Who sees all, knows all, and Whose findings are according to this knowledge; the One able to vouch for him, or bear witness to the truth concerning him.

Thus we see a man in the dust, a man in agony, a man surrounded by the clamor of people who meant well, but who did not under­stand him. Suddenly his soul leapt beyond the bounds of time and space and the chatter of ignorance. He said, there is a Watcher Who knows. There is a Recorder Whose findings are according to perfect knowledge. It was the consciousness of the ultimate Tribunal, "Heaven," above the earth, "on high," beyond which there is no appeal.

It is quite true that Job immediately recoiled from his own affirmation, and spoke of his sorrow and his anguish, and the sense that filled him at the moment that he could not reach this Watcher and Voucher. There are senses in which this cry revealed human conscious­ness of need at its deepest; which is that of an ultimate court of appeal and judgment, uninfluenced by incomplete knowledge and the deceits of appearances. Such a court cannot be found on the earth level. It is perfectly true that our friends give us tender and kindly judgments, but they cannot do so upon the basis of perfect knowledge, and appearances will constantly deceive them. These friends of Job were all good men, mean­ing well, but their knowledge was incomplete, and what they saw misled them, because their philosophy was imperfect. The cry of Job revealed a conviction that there is a court where knowledge is not incomplete, and where the appearances of the passing hour cannot deceive. His outburst was that of conviction that the only hope of justice is that the Judge Himself should be the Advocate; and to this the deepest in human consciousness forever re­sponds. How perpetually we find ourselves in circumstances where we passionately desire to escape from human judgments, based upon imperfect knowledge. Perhaps no day passes in which false judgments are not formed, which nevertheless may be perfectly sincere.

We now turn to the New Testament and to the letter to the Hebrews. In order to under­stand our selection from there, we must remind ourselves of the general purpose and value of the letter. Its background is that of the Hebrew system of nationality and religion.

The Hebrew nation, according to the Divine intention, was a Theocracy, and to this all its religious ceremonial was intended to bear perpetual witness. If with the simplicity of children we call to mind the Biblical account of the camp, we shall be helped. The place of the Tabernacle was at the center of the national life, and around it the varied tribes encamped, underneath their respective banners. At the center of all the courts of the place of worship was the Holy place, and the Holy of Holies. The truth thus illustrated and insisted upon was that at the center of all life, is God; and that human conditions of life, and human life itself, can only realize their meaning and possibility as they revolve around that center, under that government.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews from beginning to end was showing that the symbolism has passed away, because everything that was symbolized had come into practical and historic fulfillment in Christ. In the particular passage from which the words we are considering were taken, the writer declares that "Christ hath not entered into the holy place made with hands." That is to say, the old economy has passed away, and the reason for its passing is found in the fact that "He hath entered into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us."

Here again the central facts of life are re­cognized, heaven and God; and the declara­tion is made that Christ has entered heaven and has appeared in the presence of God for us. Thus the argument of the writer is that there is now One Who is God in His own nature and yet is actually Man, Who stands in the presence of God, knowing perfectly, and He does so on our behalf. He stands before God, vindicating the sinner. He has become the Witness, by the mystery of His personality in human history, and of the work accomplished through that mystery. He came into human history super­naturally, lived on the earthly level, triumphing over all sin and earthly limitation; and then passed beyond the sight of earth-bound vision, but remaining, a living personality, this same Jesus. All that Job had felt the need of, and avowed his conviction concerning, in the process of human history, had come into historic visibility. Applying it to ourselves we may say Christ has entered in, and there is our Witness, our Recorder. He is the One Who perfectly knows, and therefore is able pre­vailingly to mediate.

In every human life the findings of God are the most important and ultimate things. That is, of course, equally true concerning the widest outlook on human nature and human history. For the moment let us apply it to individual human life. There is an account which has often been told, but is of value in this connection. It concerns Jowett at the time that he was Master of Balliol in Oxford. He was a great man in every way and characterized by rapier-like wit. One day at a dinner, a lady, hoping to draw some clever response from him, said to him, "Dr. Jowett, we would like to know what is your opinion of God." The Master's aspect at once became stern, and he said, "Madam, I should think it a great impertinence were I to express my opinion about God. The only constant anxiety of my life is to know what is God's opinion of me."

And in the last analysis, that is the one thing that is important. Job felt his need of that judgment and of a declaration concerning it. He was conscious of his own innocence, but he could not prove it to the satisfaction of men. One thing to him was a certainty. For the passing moment, even though the conviction seems to have been dimmed afterwards, it was that there was One knowing all the facts concerning him, and so able, to form right judgments concerning him.

If we are conscious of fear in the presence of the conviction of this knowledge of God, it is well that we ask ourselves why we are afraid.  If we do this, we shall find that our fear is the result of His holiness, and the consciousness that there is something in our lives out of harmony with that holiness.

This is the point at which the final comfort of the conviction of this ultimate Tribunal is found in the Person of Jesus. If our fear is created by our own moral failure, we remember that it is at that point that Christ begins to deal with us. He Who entered within the veil, Who passed into the presence of God, there to appear for us, came there by the way of the Cross. Let the holy and inspired language of Scripture be retained. He "entered by His own blood." He Who stands in the presence of God as my Witness, bears the scars that tell of suffering unto death, and testify that He is the Redeemer.

Sin being dealt with, He stands in the presence of God, my Witness, representing me as the Savior. To Him I may go at all times for judgment, passing all others by, careless in the last analysis of all other opinion, which may be mistaken through lack of knowledge, through the deceit of appearances. In Browning's great poem on Saul, he said:

"Tis the weakness in strength, that I cry for! My flesh, that I seek

In the Godhead! I seek and I find it. O Saul, it shall be

A Face like my face that receives thee; A Man like to me

Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever; a Hand like this hand

Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the Christ stand!"