I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Reading:

Job 18:1-6

Job 19:23-27

Job 20:1-11

Job 21:7-16

Introduction

There is a term that’s gained a lot of popularity in recent years that you’ve probably heard: gaslighting. The pop psychology definition of the word is that it is a form of emotional abuse where someone manipulates you into believing something you know to be true. It usually involves denial, twisting facts, and attempts at making the victim feel like they don’t have a grasp on reality.

If we wanted to read Job’s friends uncharitably, I think it would be fair to say that they are gaslighting him. Job was their friend, he had a track record of righteousness and wisdom, and there is no evidence to suggest that his friends had grounds to accuse him of anything nefarious. The very first verse of the book makes it clear that Job was blameless and upright, he feared God, and eschewed evil. Yet in the section we just read, we hear Zophar accuse Job of having crushed the poor and stolen from them. What would possess a friend to throw such a heinous accusation against a friend like that?

I said that we can read Job’s friends uncharitably and say they are gaslighting him, but a more charitable reading would take other factors into consideration. Job is a very interesting book in the canon of scripture, but it isn’t the only book from the time that shows a man wrestling with God’s justice. The Sumerians had a story called “A man and his God” and the Egyptians had a story called Instruction of Amenemope. In both stories, the main character suffers for some unknown reason. At the end of the book, however, you discover that it was either because they neglected to properly worship their god, or there was some moral failing that they haven’t atoned for.

Job’s friends were wise and well-read men who probably would have known these stories, so from their perspective, they were defending a worldview that had already been argued and whose answer was already clear: Divine retribution lies at the heart of all things and if you suffer, it must be that you either failed to worship God or you did something evil. Bildad and Zophar are making a logical argument if their belief system is true.

It would go like this: Suffering only befalls those who fail to worship God or who do some great evil. Job is suffering. Therefore, Job must have failed to worship God or did something evil. They are trying to be good friends and help Job see what he did to deserve his suffering so he could repent, but Job digs his heels into the ground denying that he did anything wrong. But the account of Job makes it crystal clear that he was scrupulously righteous in everything.

In Job’s time, the question of God’s justice was a settled issue. Everyone had firmed up beliefs about how God governed the world and it conveniently was wrapped up in a nice bow: do good, get good. The truth is that our attitudes and expectations haven’t changed much since the time of Job. We also misunderstand God's justice: We tend to believe that suffering must be a sign of some personal wrongdoing and that the wicked will receive judgment. But if we believe that, it just leads to confusion and despair. We learn in this section of Job that hope is not found in what we can call “neat bow theology” where God resolves every injustice here and now. Instead, Job confidently proclaims, “I know my redeemer lives.” Job knew that help wasn’t going to come in the form of a massive reversal of his situation. He looked instead to a redeemer in heaven that would plead his case.

When we face suffering and confusion about God’s justice, we must trust that our hope rests not in the fairness of life, but in the person and promise of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. It is interesting that we find these amazing words of Job in the middle of one of his speeches. You would expect a revelation like this to be the climax of the book, but it isn’t. The book of Job continues with Job further lamenting his situation. I, however, want to end on what Job says to Bildad, so we are going to look at this backwards and start by examining Zophar’s argument and Job’s response to his accusations, and then examine Bildad’s case and Job’s response.

Zophar

In Job 20:4, Zophar says to Job, “Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, that the exulting of the wicked is short and the joy of the godless but for a moment?” This is essentially what Zophar argues throughout this chapter. He tells Job that it is a well-established fact that we’ve known for a long time that the wicked only prosper for a while. Zophar is probably thinking about the Egyptian and Sumerian stories when he speaks to Job here. All the wealth and blessing that he witnessed Job having must have been the prelude to some upcoming downfall that Job brought on himself.

Up until this point, Job’s friends have alluded to some possible sin but have been vague about what must have caused his downfall, but Zophar comes out and says what he is thinking in 20:19-20: For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build. “Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.” Zophar is accusing Job of crushing the poor, abandoning them, and stealing property that he did not build. This is a bold accusation, but it reflects what Job’s friends must have been thinking. How else could you explain someone losing absolutely everything? The only explanation that makes sense in “neat bow theology” is that Job did something very bad because his suffering is very bad.

Zophar goes on to detail all the terrible things that the wicked should expect once God decides to act. The wicked will die like dung (v7), they will disappear like a bad dream (v8), their children will beg to the poor (v10), they will work but not enjoy the fruits of his labor (v18), and everything in their house will be taken away on the day of God’s wrath (v28). Why will this happen? Zophar tells us in verse 29: This is the wicked man’s portion from God; the heritage decreed for him by God.” All of this is inevitable because God has decreed it. It is like an inescapable rule woven into the very fabric of reality.

Job response to Zophar is different from how he’s responded so far. Instead of lamenting his abandonment or asking for sympathy, he actually starts to put up a fight. In 21:2, Job says: “Bear with me and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.” I know we’re doing this backwards and will be looking at Job’s response to Bildad a little later but I want you to notice that while the trajectory so far has been that Job has softened while his friends have hardened in their words, it looks like after being emptied out by his friends accusations and coming to the point where he latches onto the hope of his redeemer that he finds new strength.

This is the paradoxical nature of saving faith. It’s only when you’ve been emptied out and reached the very end of yourself and begin to cry out for a savior, that that Holy Spirit gives you strength. The prophet Isaiah says tells us in Isaiah 40:29, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Job waited on the Lord and God sustained him throughout his entire ordeal. Are you facing your own ordeal? Do you think God will fail to strengthen you if you wait on him?

In the rest of the chapter, Job goes onto systematically disprove “neat bow theology” by showing how it fails to make sense of life. He starts in verse 7, “Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?” Job points out that their entire belief system about how the world is governed can’t possibly be true, because there are so many examples of wicked people that don’t face punishment in life. Zophar makes it seem like God is a cosmic referee, calling fouls whenever someone breaks the rules, but Job points out that there are too many fouls not being called to call the game fair.

The world resembles the NBA in this sense. I remember watching reel of Lebron James clips where he was flagrantly travelling with the ball – like it was bad – he would walk a good 5 steps and dunk the ball. Yet, none of the refs would call the foul because, well, he’s Lebron James – the superstar of the league. I want to be crystal clear here. I am not comparing God to the starstruck referees in the NBA. God is not a referee, and if you are expecting him to right wrongs like the ideal referee, you need to listen to Job here: The wicked have children, their houses are safe from fear, their bulls breed without fail, they send out their children like a flock, they spend their days in prosperity. In short, the wicked don’t always get what’s coming to them.

So, if the wicked don’t always get what’s coming to them, isn’t also fair to say that the righteous can suffer too?  If the wicked prosper, isn’t that to the detriment of the righteous? Job gives us the sobering reminder that if in this life we have only justice to cling to, we will be sorely disappointed. I want to ask you, are you beating yourself up because you think you’ve made a shipwreck of your life and believe that God is punishing you? God is sovereign to be sure, but don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that God’s only purpose is to administer justice here and now. Job did not know it at the time, but God was using him to be an example of faithfulness for all generations. Paul tells us in Romans 15:4, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Job suffered so that you can have hope in your suffering. And this takes us to our second point about where you can anchor your hope, and we find that in Job’s response to Bildad.

Bildad

Like I mentioned, Bildad’s case against Job is not all that different from Zophar’s. Zophar accused Job of some great evil because only such an evil could warrant the kind of suffering Job was experiencing. Bildad’s case to Job is that the wicked eventually get what’s coming to them. He says in 18:5, “Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.” Throughout the rest of his speech, he paints a vivid picture of how the wicked are eventually destroyed using images in life and nature. He talks about a lamp being put out, a trap catching its prey, strength expending itself, roots drying up, and dying childless. At the end of it, Bildad concludes, saying: Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, such is the place of him who knows not God.” Frankly, this way of thinking is still popular today. People talk about karma all the time. I’ve had co-workers tell me, in all seriousness, that you should be honest with other co-workers because karma eventually finds you. Karma says, you should want to do good because eventually you’ll be rewarded, and you should avoid doing wrong because, somehow, you’ll get punished.

Job doesn’t respond to Bildad in the way he does Zophar a little later. Job here is at his breaking point. He doesn’t see karma in what he’s faced. He believes that he has been unjustly assaulted by God. He responds to Bildad, “How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with your words. These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?” The number 10 is significant here. In scripture it can mean a cycle of something being completed. I believe that is precisely what is going on here. Job has reached rock bottom after repeated attempts by his friends to accuse him, and can respond with nothing other than complete exasperation, “how long will you torment me?”

Job then recounts how, from his perspective, God has broken him down and kindled his wrath against him. He then describes how everyone else in his life abandoned him. His brothers are far from him, his relatives failed him, servants treat him as a stranger, his wife is estranged from him, and his friends abhor him. Both God and man have left Job all alone. Maybe you’ve felt this way as well. I certainly have. When I got struck with health issues during the lockdown (not covid related), I felt utterly alone. I could have stayed in the dark corner I painted myself in, which was tempting, but I remember repeating Philippians 4 to myself constantly. “Do not be anxious about anything.” I had the blessing of looking back to the cross of Christ, but Job wasn’t so fortunate.

Instead, it is as if Job looks to the sky and screams, “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God”. When everything has been taken away from him, Job looks to his redeemer in heaven, who he confidently says will stand upon the earth and he will see in the flesh. This is a truly amazing thing to find in the book of Job. Job probably lived in the time of the patriarchs yet here he is so clearly describing the redeemer that did come. It may have been one of the graces that God gave to Job in the midst of his great suffering to reveal this truth to him, a truth that even the angels longed to see. It may be that nothing else could sustain Job through his sufferings other than a glimpse of the tail of Christ’s robe. It was enough for Job to know that he had a redeemer in heaven that would plead his case and justify him before the throne of God.

This, right here, is the anchor of Job’s hope and ours as well. Job had a hazy picture of who this coming redeemer would be. God promised in the Garden that the seed of woman would crush the head of the serpent, so wise Job may have known that one was coming to right the wrong caused by sin, but he had nowhere near the knowledge we have this side of the cross. If Job, in his desperation could cling onto a hazy picture of Christ, shouldn’t we even more so knowing what we know? But knowing that we have a redeemer doesn’t change that we need a redeemer and feel it so. We still live in a world marred by sin and death and wait for all things to be made new, so maybe we can understand with some sympathy why there are another 23 chapters of Job fighting for his faith. The hope of our redeemer is the anchor of our soul, but an anchor is meant for a storm and tumultuous waves. We will continue to face trials, knowing that Christ has already defeated death, but we can press on with even greater expectation of what lies ahead because Christ is our forerunner. We know that even while we grieve in this life, we don’t grieve as those without hope, because we will be like Christ in the resurrection – glorified, imperishable, and shining like the sun.

So how should we respond when things don’t go our way or when the wicked prosper? I thought about our former Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who after having destroyed our country in so many ways has now retired and is dating a popstar. Do we wait for some inevitable downfall? Or maybe you have a dishonest co-worker that’s doing well. Do you wish for something bad to happen to them? The hope of our redeemer casts in a new light how marginal and insignificant these concerns should be in light of what Christ has secured for us. We should be aloof to these concerns because we know that this world is passing and that we won’t. No, brothers and sisters, we don’t need to worry about the wicked, beat ourselves up, or wait for some reversal of fortune. Christ is surely enough. A hazy glimpse of our redeemer was enough to strengthen Job. Is there a trial you are facing? Paul was in jail and wrote for our instruction in Philippians 4, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” You don’t need to be removed from your trial to be content amid the storm. Let Christ be your anchor – He will take you through it and bring you where you need to go.