I Know My Redeemer Lives
Notes
Transcript
Context
Context
If you’re familar at all with Job, you know that he experienced inense suffering. Within the span of two days he lost all that he has, his children and his health. On top of that, his wife, in her distress says to Him:
9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”
But as Job suffered and looked to God for answers, his friends came to offer their counsel. When they saw the pitiful display of Job’s condition, and learned all that had happened to him and his family, they made certain assumptions. Much of what they suspected about Job was based on their presupposition that God punishes the wicked. For anyone to suffer the way Job suffered was explainable, in their minds, only by this idea that God respnds to sin with punishment.
Now certainly, the sin of God’s people has been punished. Jesus Christ paid the penalty of their sin.
But not all human suffering is God’s response to sin. But this is what many of Job’s friends assumed about him. Bildad, for example, thought Job was making excuse after excuse for his plight and not taking the responsibility he should. So he says:
2 “How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and then we will speak.
3 Why are we counted as cattle?
Why are we stupid in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself in your anger,
shall the earth be forsaken for you,
or the rock be removed out of its place?
He’s frustrated with Job’s claim of innocense. He was insulted that Job thought they would buy his woe is me story. Bildad described people like Job:
5 “Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out,
and the flame of his fire does not shine.
6 The light is dark in his tent,
and his lamp above him is put out.
7 His strong steps are shortened,
and his own schemes throw him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he walks on its mesh.
9 A trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare lays hold of him.
10 A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him in the path.
He goes on, and ends by saying this of the wicked, again to whom he associates Job:
18 He is thrust from light into darkness,
and driven out of the world.
19 He has no posterity or progeny among his people,
and no survivor where he used to live.
20 They of the west are appalled at his day,
and horror seizes them of the east.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
such is the place of him who knows not God.”
Bildad has no sympathy for Job. All that is happening to him is his own doing. Job should stop is complaining, take responsibility. People who do what Job must have done, and respond by passing the buck deserve all the judgement that God pours out on him.
Job responds in chapter 19
2 “How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
So, clearly Job rejects Bildad’s accusations. He disagrees with his premise that Job’s sin brought his suffering on.
Job’s plea for vindication (23-24)
Job’s plea for vindication (23-24)
But we get to verses 23-24, and Job cries out for vindication:
23 “Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
Job feared he would die before his vindication, so he wanted his testimony written down for the record. He wanted his testimony written and inscribed (v. 23) and engraved (v. 24). Similar to what we see on tomb stones. A bible verse with a description of wife, moth, etc. For Job, he wanted it to be known that despite all these accusations, he was innocent of it all.
That brings us to verse 25-27 which is our memorization passage for this week.
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
The Central Affirmation (25)
The Central Affirmation (25)
The central affirmation of these verses is, my redeemer lives. There is a great deal of discussion concerning how we are to understand Job’s words here. Here are some interpretive issues to help us think through Job’s words:
Job stakes his honor on his future justification by providing a written record of his claim of innocence. The language of inscribing or engraving suggests that this record was carved into a tablet of clay or metal or stone. Not sure.
There is a great deal of emphasis on seeing God (end of verse 26-27).
It appears that Job had some expectation that he would experience his vindication physically. His references to his flesh and eyes suggests this. This is not to suggest however that a spiritual vindication is not also part of this.
We may have made this assumption already, but I don’t think there should be any doubt that the Redeemer here is God. The ESV’s translation makes its interpretation clear by capitalizing Redeemer. And given this conclusion that the Redeemer is God, and keeping in mind Job’s desire that his claim of innocence be on the record, we know that he believes God Himself will vindicate him and will speak in court as job’s witness and act as his defense counsel.
Job’s Hope
Job’s Hope
Perhaps a reference to a personal, bodily resurrection is not as explicit as we might prefer is not present in this text, but it seems to me to be the best way to understand the basis for Job’s hope.
Job expects a favorable meeting with God after his own death, and I think Job may have thought that his death was imminent.
Job wanted a written record of his vindication because he expected to die. Perhaps Job was not certain of much in this moment of his life, but of his own death he was certain.
The word earth at the end of verse 25 is often connected with Sheol, which is a reference to the place of the dead, and Job’s comfort in his own death is that his Redeemer lives. This is our hope in death, that our Redeemer lives.
The hope of the resurrection lies at the very heart of Job’s hope. Now, our flesh may be destroyed, but for those of us who hope in God and in the fact that He is alive, we can be sure we will see God.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
So, before we turn our attention to prayer, let’s either read or recite the memory passage:
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
