by
Damien F. Mackey
‘Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high’.
Job 16:19
גַּם-עַתָּה, הִנֵּה-בַשָּׁמַיִם עֵדִי;
וְשָׂהֲדִי, בַּמְּרֹמִים
Who might be this ‘witness’ (עֵדִ) in heaven, this celestial ‘advocate’ (שָׂהֲד) to whom the beleaguered prophet Job refers in this verse?
Michael Oblath, in “Job's Advocate: A
Tempting Suggestion”, has ventured the extraordinary “suggestion” that it is none
other than Satan: “An analysis of the Advocate Passages in the
book of Job indicates that Satan may be proposed as that advocate”.
Another translation renders this verse as: ‘There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about
me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name’.
Now, who, in the
life of the holy Job could fit this description of one who, dwelling in heaven,
knew the truth about him?
Surely it must be
the archangel Raphael himself, who had befriended and protected Job (as Tobias)
when he was still a young man. That heaven
was the proper abode of the archangel Raphael is attested in Tobit 3:16-17: “As Tobit and Sarah were praying, God in heaven heard their prayers
and sent his angel Raphael to help them”.
And, after he had completed his mission on earth (12:21): “Then Raphael
disappeared into the sky”.
That Raphael ‘knew
the truth’ about everything pertaining to Tobias (Job) is clear from 12:11: ‘Now I will reveal
to you the full truth and keep nothing back’.
I suggest that it
is of the greatest advantage to have both the Book of Tobias and the Book of
Job, the one complementing the other, and invariably filling in the other’s missing
details.
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