Job 16:19–21 (NET) Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; and he contends with God on behalf of man as a man pleads for his friend.
The idea of intercession is all throughout the Scriptures, and I aim to unpack its meaning and how it applies to our lives today.
Intercession is simply prayer on behalf of “fill in the blank”. It is someone standing in the place of someone else to plead their case. It is like the legal term mediator, where a mediator is a go-between in order to reconcile to parties. When someone operates as an intercessor they go-between God and the other person and plead the case before Him on behalf of that person.
For example: I instituted an Intercessory prayer team as one of my first acts of leadership in the Worship Ministry, because I love having the comfort of having a team of people praying during the Worship services at Eagleville Bible Church during the time the services are happening. This team lifts up prayers and supplications before the Lord on behalf of everyone who is intently engaging in the Worship services, asking God to open their eyes and ears, so they can all see and hear the Gospel message and respond to it by faith! The people who are in these services might never know it, but they are being prayed over and I believe that the Spirit hears those prayers and responds in mighty ways! Thank God for people who passionately seek the Lord on this team, and may God raise up even more intercessors for Eagleville and whatever Church you are a part of!
Job is the one who is declaring that an Intercessor is his friend in our passage today. Job has been through hell, losing his children, his servants, his livestock, and so-on. He describers himself as pouring out tears before God, lonely, and destitute. This poor man has been the recipient of a Supernatural test, but has not fallen into the temptation of renouncing his allegiance to the God of the universe. He remains faithful, and now he is finding comfort in the fact that his Witness is in Heaven and that he has an Intercessor fighting for his cause.
Jesus Christ is our Intercessor
For you and me, the Bible makes it clear that one of the roles that Jesus takes when we invite Him to be our Lord and Savior is Intercessor. In my last post I told you about how Jesus is able to sympathize with all of our weaknesses, and that He is our High Priest. Well, in the following chapter it says that every year a high priest was taken from among the people in order to represent them before God. This is the idea of Intercession, to represent people before God. To stand between God and someone else in order to offer up your gift of praise and prayer on their behalf.
Another two chapters later, in Hebrews 7:25, it states that Jesus is not only able to save completely those who come to God through Him, but that He “always lives to make intercession for them”! Jesus is standing between the Holy God of the universe and us, pleading our case and causing God’s anger to be turned towards favor! Hallelujah.
Another passage to describe Christ as our Intercessor is Isaiah 53:12. It says, “Therefore, I will divide to him a portion among the many, and with the strong ones he will divide bounty, because he poured his life out to death and was counted with the transgressors; and he was the one who bore the sin of many and will intercede for the transgressors. (LEB) So, we can see through this text that it is Jesus who is bearing our sins and standing in the gap for all of us transgressors! Thank You Lord!
If we go back to our original verses we can see in Job 16:19 that Job knows his Intercessor/Advocate is in heaven fighting for him. When he says advocate, it reminds me of that great verse in 1 John 2:1 that assures us that God does not want us to sin but that if we do sin then we have an Advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ the Righteous One! An advocate is someone who publically pleads the case of someone else in the court of law. Jesus is pleading your innocence before a Holy God right now, using His innocence to cover our transgressions! His perfection is what makes our imperfections acceptable to God the Father. He forgives them, cover them, and removes them from our account as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12).
Finally, John 15:13-15 says that Jesus is our friend. The title of this blog is, My Intercessor is My Friend. If we love Jesus and obey His commands He says that we are His friends. A friend lays down his life for others, and that is exactly what Jesus did for us! No greater love has anyone but that one lay down his life for them, and we have that love as our own in Christ Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is our Intercessor
Romans 8:26-27 is one of my favorite passages and brings me much comfort! It says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.” It is God’s will for the Holy Spirit to offer our imperfect prayers up to the Father and He takes what is in our hearts and delivers it perfectly to the Father! Sometimes I hear people saying that they are not good at praying, or they don’t know what to say, well this Scripture should relieve us of this concern. The Spirit is taking what is in our hearts and translating it into what will be pleasing to the Father.
I wonder how much of my words are actually even reaching the Father? I wonder if it is only that part of my heart that is pure and longing to see God that actually even touches the ears of my Father? Thank You Holy Spirit for helping me to communicate my needs and the needs of others perfectly! Which takes us to my next point.
We are to be intercessors for others
As I consider Job, I am struck by the reality of his statement. He is saying that there is an Intercessor in heaven pleading his case before God the Father, partly (I Think) because he can’t count on his friends who are with him to do that for him! His friends have been terrible for him during this whole experience (minus the first seven days Job 2:13). They are trying to get him to confess his wrong doings, because in their minds only people who have gone against God’s commands would go through such atrocities as he is. They aren’t pleading his case for innocence, they are trying to prove his guilt! They are the worst kinds of friends, not concerned about Job’s proven record of innocence but trying to get him to admit to something that is not true of Job. He was a righteous man, and he needed his friends to stand in the gap for him pleading his case before the Father. So, not only is Job going through the worst time of his life by losing those he loves and his estate, he is also fighting his friends for his own reputation. That is horrible, and I hope that I will never be that sort of “friend” to someone going through a difficult time in their lives!
Job actually tells his friends in Job 13:5, “If only you would keep completely silent! For you, that would be wisdom.” I think I can relate to that statement! When we see someone going through a difficult time our natural tendency is to try to say something to them that will bring them comfort, or hope, but we must be careful to pay attention to Job’s words and not speak too soon with words that might actually bring more grief than good to the people we love.
Our role is to offer up prayers and to stand between them and God, pleading their case before the Father. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2:1 that he wants all prayers, requests, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all people. It is so important to pray to God on behalf of our family, friends, and nation! God is listening and He is looking someone to stand in the gap for others (see Ezekiel 22:30, Isaiah 59:16). God desires to act upon the intercession of His children. James tells us that we have not because we ask not. Imagine if we would be able to ask God on behalf of someone else for His favor, and the Lord would respond favorably towards them based upon our request. That is possible, and it should give us all the more reason to cry out to Him on behalf of others!
Moses interceded on behalf of the children of Israel and the Lord relented from pouring out His wrath upon these people. God wanted to get rid of that whole race and give Moses another people to lead, but Moses pleaded with God not to do that because he was afraid that the other nations around them would mock the name of God. Moses said for Your Name’s sake do not do this thing (read Exodus 32-34, awesome Scripture!). Are we that bold? Do we plead the case of other people even if they don’t know they need it? Are we interceding on behalf of others?
One more point than I am done. When we have gone through something I believe that it positions to intercede for others. Hebrews tells us that Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through Him because He makes intercession for them, then again in Hebrews 4 it says that He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because He was also tempted at every point that we are and came through it without sin! Jesus went through the same temptations we go through, which places Him perfectly in position to intercede on our behalf.
I, and many others I know right now, am going through a trial called COVID-19. My family and I have been very fortunate to have only minor symptoms, but we are able to understand many things about this virus even better now and are able to pray more specifically for others who find themselves going through this trial. The worst part, in my opinion, is having to quarantine. Not being able to just pick up and do anything you want whenever you want to is a real burden, and I feel sorry for anyone that doesn’t have a strong support group of family and friends there to help them with any of their needs. I pray for anyone like that to receive the help and support they need to make it through this! We are praying for others with COVID-19 in ways we had not up to this point, and I think that is perfect intercession. Being able to sympathize with the pain and hurts of others and to lift those things up to the Father who is able to grant us mercy and grace in our times of need!
So, go and intercede! Pray for yourself, your family, your friends, your nation, etc. Pray often. Pray with passion. Pray persistently. Just pray! Remember Job’s words, “My Intercessor is my friend”!
God bless you!
