(Job 16–17 | Chapter XII of Jessie Penn-Lewis’s *The Story of Job*)
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…” —Job 13:15 (KJV, echoing the tone of Job 16–17)
Job opens with words that should humble every would-be comforter:
“Miserable comforters are ye all.” (16:2)
He’s no longer hoping his friends will help.
He turns instead to God—even though God seems silent.
A Prophet in the Ashes
In chapter 16, Job sees deeper than his own pain. He begins to speak what some call a shadowed prophecy:
“My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.” (16:19)
He knows he has an Advocate—someone who will plead for him before God.
Jessie Penn-Lewis draws attention to this:
“Here is the breath of the Spirit—the cry for an Intercessor, a Mediator, a Heavenly Witness.”
Job’s hope pierces through the gloom. He believes someone in heaven is on his side.
Surrounded by Darkness, Reaching for Resurrection
Job’s pain is still raw:
– “My face is foul with weeping…”
– “My days are extinct, the graves are ready for me…”
– “Where is now my hope?”
Yet within the lament rises faith:
“He will maintain mine integrity, and mine eye shall behold him…”
Job is not sustained by feelings—but by faith in a righteous God.
Penn-Lewis explains:
“True faith speaks clearest when every visible light is gone.”
This is the Trial of Faith
Not the trial of sin.
Not the consequence of wrongdoing.
But the furnace where gold is refined.
Job doesn’t deny his grief. But he won’t let it define his view of God.
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” (13:15)
Though it’s spoken earlier, that statement hangs over these chapters as Job’s anchor.
Overcomer’s Checkpoint
1. Do I trust God even when I cannot feel Him?
2. What hope do I hold when everything seems lost?
3. How can I point others to the Mediator Job longed for—and we now know?
“True faith speaks clearest when every visible light is gone.” —Jessie Penn-Lewis