I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Continuing a study of the book of Job, Job answers the cold-hearted assessment from Bildad in the last chapter:

(Job 19:1) Then Job answered and said, (2) "How long will you vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? (3) These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you make yourself strange to me."

Job's friends make themselves strange to Job by acting as if they don't really know him; they act as if he were a stranger and they never knew his real godly integrity.

(4) "And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with myself."

Perhaps the sense is, "If I have erred, then I suffer enough from the consequences of my sins, and I need your pity and support, rather than your reproach."

(5) "If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach, (6) Know now that God has overthrown me, and has surrounded me with His net."

Job continues the thought from verse 4; he shouldn't have to suffer the reproach of his friends, but if they insist in it, they need to understand that it is God who has done this to Job. God has done this, and not that it is a result of what Job has done to himself. He may also be implying that this is between God and himself, and he doesn't need their reproaches. Either way, their reproaches are unwarranted and unwanted.

(7) "Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no justice. (8) He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass; and He has set darkness in my paths. (9) He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. (10) He has destroyed me on every side, and I am gone; and my hope He has uprooted like a tree. (11) He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His enemies."

Bildad's comments from the last chapter, blaming Job's own ungodliness for his afflictions, has Job describing in detail that these are God's actions against him, and not a result of his own actions that deserve them.

(12) "His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tent. (13) He has put my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. (14) My kinsfolk have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me. (15) Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. (16) I called my servant, and he gave no answer; I begged him with my mouth."

None of Job's family, friends, or acquaintances have anything to do with him anymore. He must beg his servant because he no longer expects obedience; even his servants have lost all respect for him and ignore him.

(17) "My breath is loathsome to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of my own body."

This is a difficult scripture to exactly translate, but I believe the sense is that he has become loathsome to his own wife, even though he sought to appeal to her through their most intimate past relationship as parents of their children together.

(18) "Even young children despised me; I arose, and they spoke against me. (19) All my close friends abhorred me, and they whom I loved have turned against me. (20) My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin of my teeth."

At this point, Job has only barely escaped death.

(21) "Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me."

Job makes a heartfelt plea to his friends to have pity on him in his distress. He described in great detail his distress at the hand of God so that they might finally have pity on him, rather than the disdain that they and all his acquaintances now seem to have.

(22) "Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?"

Why do his friends persecute his very soul, as if they were God, knowing his heart? Are they not satisfied enough with the destruction of his body, that they must devour his soul, as well?

(23) "Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were printed in a book! (24) That they were engraved with an iron pen and lead in a rock forever! (25) For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; (26) And after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, (27) Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me."

Indeed, Job's words have been forever preserved in the pages of the Bible. This is a most beautiful passage of how, even in Job's day, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, Job knew that even after all life was gone from him, he would see God in his own renewed body!

(28) "But you should say, 'Why persecute we him?', seeing the root of the matter is found in me?"

Then his friends will realize, although they originally thought that he was only persecuted by God for his sins, they will then see there was a deeper more important reason, that through the record of the trial of his faith and patience, he would be an example for others.

(29) "You be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment."

His friends should heed what Job says and understand correctly what his persecution means, because God will ultimately judge their words and actions.

Man's Cold-Hearted Judgment

Continuing my Bible study on the book of Job:

(Job 18:1) Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, (2) "How long will it be till you make an end of words? Understand, and afterward we will speak."

The original word I have transcribed as "understand" above is "biyn", and the KJV translated it as "mark", but this verse is the only place in the entire Bible where that word is translated as "mark". Most of the time is means "understand" or something akin to it like "consider" or "discern". I believe the KJV translators were probably trying to give the sense of marking or targeting those words and really trying to understand them.

(3) "Why are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?"

Basically, Bildad wants to know why Job considers his friends as ignorant, stupid, and unclean or impious.

(4) "He tears himself in his anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? And shall the rock be removed from its place?"

Bildad speaks of Job here, tearing himself in anger. He is basically asking Job if the world revolves around him; should everything be made to give way for him?

(5) "Yea, the light of the wicked will be put out, and the spark of his fire will not shine. (6) The light will be dark in his tent, and his candle will be put out with him. (7) The steps of his strength will be straitened, and his own counsel will cast him down."

Straitened, as "in straits", distressed, narrowed. His own plans will be the means of his fall.

(8) "For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks into a snare. (9) The trap will take him by the heel, and the robber will prevail against him. (10) The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the pathway. (11) Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will drive him to his feet."

Paraphrased, that last phrase means he will take to his heels.

(12) "His strength will be hunger bitten, and destruction will be ready at his side. (13) It will devour the strength of his skin; the firstborn of death will devour his strength."

The firstborn son held the chief place; the chief of death is the most strong and violent death.

(14) "His confidence will be rooted out of his tent, and it will bring him to the king of terrors. (15) It will dwell in his tent, because it is none of his; brimstone will be scattered upon his habitation."

"It" still refers to destruction that will be his constant companion, destroying his security and terrifying him, because nothing that he had gained was really his own, or at least, it is no longer his. Brimstone is the symbol of destruction and desolation.

(16) "His roots will be dried up beneath, and above will his branch be cut off. (17) The memory of him will perish from the earth, and he will have no name in the street. (18) He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. (19) He will neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings. (20) They who come after him will be astonished at his day, as they who went before were frightened. (21) Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him who does not know God."

In conclusion, Bildad seems to be saying that this is where Job finds himself, implying that Job is godless! Pretty rough treatment from people who are supposed to be godly friends of Job! Although his friends were religious men with head knowledge and book learning of the laws of God, they seemed to be totally ignorant of God's true nature. Their hearts were obviously not influenced by communion with God. Their arguments were an inaccurate and cold estimate of the exact justice of God. They acted like the Pharisees of the New Testament, so caught up in their laws that they missed the most important aspect of God.