Do you know the Living Redeemer?
Text Job 18, 19 Time 02/07/00 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church
The third part of Handel’s Messiah follows the famous Hallelujah Chorus at the end of part two. It begins with a soprano aria (you may know it) which commences with the words, "I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Though thou destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God."
Where do those words come from? It is the old King James version of Job 19:25, 26. They are among the most famous words in Job, perhaps in the whole Bible. They come towards the end of Job’s reply to the second speech from the second of the three so-called friends, Bildad the Shuhite. Bildad’s speech is pretty unremarkable, chiefly a repetition of wrong views already expressed, to the effect that as Job has suffered as badly as he has, he must have committed some sin, regardless of his protests to the contrary. He was obviously a wicked man and was getting what all wicked people deserve and receive in this life. Though Job’s words in 19:25, 26 are wonderful ones full of great insight and worthy material for a Handel aria there is not really anything even in Job’s own words (19:1-22) to lead us to expect such a wonderful outpouring. Yet in verses 23 and 24 Job suddenly says Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock for ever! This prepares us for these wonderful words (25-27 NIV) I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! I want us to focus on these words today but let’s begin with what leads up to them, first in Chapter 18 and then in 19:1-22.
1. The dangers of a closed and one track mind
Where do those words come from? It is the old King James version of Job 19:25, 26. They are among the most famous words in Job, perhaps in the whole Bible. They come towards the end of Job’s reply to the second speech from the second of the three so-called friends, Bildad the Shuhite. Bildad’s speech is pretty unremarkable, chiefly a repetition of wrong views already expressed, to the effect that as Job has suffered as badly as he has, he must have committed some sin, regardless of his protests to the contrary. He was obviously a wicked man and was getting what all wicked people deserve and receive in this life. Though Job’s words in 19:25, 26 are wonderful ones full of great insight and worthy material for a Handel aria there is not really anything even in Job’s own words (19:1-22) to lead us to expect such a wonderful outpouring. Yet in verses 23 and 24 Job suddenly says Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock for ever! This prepares us for these wonderful words (25-27 NIV) I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! I want us to focus on these words today but let’s begin with what leads up to them, first in Chapter 18 and then in 19:1-22.
1. The dangers of a closed and one track mind
In Chapter 18 we have the second of three speeches by the second of the three friends, Bildad the Shuhite. He begins by rebuking Job, then describes the certainty of God’s judgement on the wicked. It is clear that he includes Job among these wicked ones. That is why Job suffers – because he has sinned against God. One writer summarises Bildad’s speech like this
‘Job, you are behaving like an idiot. How long are you going to argue like this? Let me spell it out to you again: wicked people are punished. They lose their health, their homes and their offspring. Do I need to say any more? Everyone else can see it, Job, except you. Are you really that stupid, or what?’
Bildad carries on where Eliphaz left off and says nothing new. In fact, much of it repeats Eliphaz. Other parts are similar to his own first speech. Some of what he says is also like Eliphaz’s first speech. The only difference is that Bildad stresses the way the wicked cause their own downfall and the outward signs of their fall. Also there is much less reference to God and a more caustic attitude to Job than the first time he spoke.
In verses 1-4 he denounces Job and in verses 5-21 he describes the downfall of the wicked.
1-4: When will you end these speeches? he asks Job. Be sensible, he says and then we can talk. Why are we regarded as cattle and considered stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger (it is Job doing it not God), is the earth to be abandoned for your sake? Or must the rocks be moved from their place? Why should God change the course of nature for Job?5-21: This description of the fall of the wicked is obviously intended to apply to Job. He begins, The lamp of the wicked is snuffed out; the flame of his fire stops burning. The light in his tent becomes dark; etc. His life is extinguished and his apparent flourishing comes to an end.
In verses 8-11 there are references to all sorts of traps - His feet thrust him into a net and he wanders into its mesh. A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare holds him fast. A noose is hidden for him on the ground; a trap lies in his path. He goes on, Terrors startle him on every side and dog his every step. Calamity is hungry for him; disaster is ready for him when he falls. Then in verse 13 he heartlessly refers to Job and says It eats away parts of his skin; and death’s firstborn devours his limbs. And so he comes to death itself - He is torn from the security of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors. Fire resides in his tent; burning sulphur is scattered over his dwelling. He is not finished though. After death His roots dry up below and his branches wither above. The memory of him perishes from the earth; he has no name in the land. He is driven from light into darkness and is banished from the world. He has no offspring or descendants among his people, no survivor where once he lived, etc. So it is the same old message from Bildad. Why?
1. His mind is closed. The idea that Job could be suffering for any other reason is not contemplated.
2. He has a one track mind. All he can think of is persuading Job to agree with him. The idea of comforting Job or standing back a little to consider does not occur to him. What a danger for us all.
2. Why you need a Redeemer
‘Job, you are behaving like an idiot. How long are you going to argue like this? Let me spell it out to you again: wicked people are punished. They lose their health, their homes and their offspring. Do I need to say any more? Everyone else can see it, Job, except you. Are you really that stupid, or what?’
Bildad carries on where Eliphaz left off and says nothing new. In fact, much of it repeats Eliphaz. Other parts are similar to his own first speech. Some of what he says is also like Eliphaz’s first speech. The only difference is that Bildad stresses the way the wicked cause their own downfall and the outward signs of their fall. Also there is much less reference to God and a more caustic attitude to Job than the first time he spoke.
In verses 1-4 he denounces Job and in verses 5-21 he describes the downfall of the wicked.
1-4: When will you end these speeches? he asks Job. Be sensible, he says and then we can talk. Why are we regarded as cattle and considered stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger (it is Job doing it not God), is the earth to be abandoned for your sake? Or must the rocks be moved from their place? Why should God change the course of nature for Job?5-21: This description of the fall of the wicked is obviously intended to apply to Job. He begins, The lamp of the wicked is snuffed out; the flame of his fire stops burning. The light in his tent becomes dark; etc. His life is extinguished and his apparent flourishing comes to an end.
In verses 8-11 there are references to all sorts of traps - His feet thrust him into a net and he wanders into its mesh. A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare holds him fast. A noose is hidden for him on the ground; a trap lies in his path. He goes on, Terrors startle him on every side and dog his every step. Calamity is hungry for him; disaster is ready for him when he falls. Then in verse 13 he heartlessly refers to Job and says It eats away parts of his skin; and death’s firstborn devours his limbs. And so he comes to death itself - He is torn from the security of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors. Fire resides in his tent; burning sulphur is scattered over his dwelling. He is not finished though. After death His roots dry up below and his branches wither above. The memory of him perishes from the earth; he has no name in the land. He is driven from light into darkness and is banished from the world. He has no offspring or descendants among his people, no survivor where once he lived, etc. So it is the same old message from Bildad. Why?
1. His mind is closed. The idea that Job could be suffering for any other reason is not contemplated.
2. He has a one track mind. All he can think of is persuading Job to agree with him. The idea of comforting Job or standing back a little to consider does not occur to him. What a danger for us all.
2. Why you need a Redeemer
Here in Chapter 19 we come to one of the great peaks that forms a highlight in the beautiful skyline of this masterpiece. In the first part of Job’s reply he begins by expressing his understandable unhappiness with his friends. He then goes on to express his resentment against God and indeed against everyone around him. None of us has been through what Job has, nevertheless it should not be so difficult to imagine how he felt. It is the way we all feel when everything seems to be against us. It is when we feel like this that we realise our great need of a Redeemer.
1. Have you found that those who seek to help you often seem only to work against you?
1. Have you found that those who seek to help you often seem only to work against you?
Both of Bildad’s speeches began How long? Here Job comes back with How long will you torment me and crush me with words? He goes on Ten times (perhaps we may say umpteen) now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me. In verse 4 he says If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone. He was not admitting to sin but says even if he had sinned it was not against them and their job was not to be God and deal with him, as they seemed to think. And so he says If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me, then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me. They needed to know that in fact it is God who had trapped Job and (as far as he was concerned) wronged Job. Now thankfully, not all counsellors are as useless as Job’s were. However, often we find in this life that those who seek to help us also do us harm. Certainly, when it comes to unbelieving counsellors who do not point us to Christ, their efforts will work against us. Have you seen this? To realise this is to take a step in the right direction. While we still rely on human counsel alone we have not found the Redeemer Christ.
2. Have you found that God appears to be against you?
2. Have you found that God appears to be against you?
Job is insistent that not only have his friends let him down but God has wronged him too. He complains Though I cry, I’ve been wronged! I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice. In verses 8-12 he lists the things that God has done to him:
There seems no way forward - He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness. Further, He has stripped me of my honour and removed the crown from my head. He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree. His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies. Job is under siege - His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent. That is how it seemed to Job. Job has said before that God is his enemy. Here he repeats the idea. As we have said, the one thing that all agreed on was that God was doing this. The friends said it was because of Job’s sins; Job said it was simply unfairness.
There seems no way forward - He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness. Further, He has stripped me of my honour and removed the crown from my head. He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree. His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies. Job is under siege - His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent. That is how it seemed to Job. Job has said before that God is his enemy. Here he repeats the idea. As we have said, the one thing that all agreed on was that God was doing this. The friends said it was because of Job’s sins; Job said it was simply unfairness.
Can you identify? Do you feel at times that you are in the position where God seems to be against you and there seems no reason for it? He seems to be turning everything against you. Why would God allow us to feel like that? Why would he put someone through something like that? One of the reasons is that we need to see our need of a Redeemer. We need to see that on our own God is against us.
3. Have you found that everyone seems to be against you?
3. Have you found that everyone seems to be against you?
To be paranoid is to believe that everyone is out to get you. It is merely a state of mind. The joke is often made that just because it is a state of mind does not prove that they are not out to get you anyway. Job is certainly convinced that he is alienated from everyone. In verses 13-19 he says He has alienated my brothers from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My kinsmen have gone away; my friends have forgotten me. My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger; they look upon me as an alien. I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own brothers. Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me. All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me. It is a complete alienation. And may be you can identify with such feelings. ‘There is no-one willing or able to help me’ you feel. It is not a pleasant conclusion to come to but when you do come to it you will see that you need a Redeemer.
4. Have you come to the end of yourself?
4. Have you come to the end of yourself?
Finally in verses 20-22 Job says I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped by only the skin of my teeth. That has become a cliché in English although it could mean ‘I’ve escaped only with my gums’ his teeth having fallen out. And so he cries out Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me. Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh? In frustration he bursts out. He is at the end of himself. Now it is from this point that he begins to rise. We too need to come to this point. We need to come to an end of ourselves. Have you? If you do not, you will never see your need of a Redeemer.
3. Have you found a Redeemer in Christ?
3. Have you found a Redeemer in Christ?
Convinced that death must be near it is at this point that Job expresses his desire to have his greatest longing recorded for permanent preservation. I went to see my mother’s gravestone recently. It is a very simple thing – black stone with gold engraved lettering recording her name, dates and the words ‘Now at rest’. Such things are done in stone to make them last. In verses 23 and 24 he says Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, or better that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock for ever! Of course, although Job’s desire was not met in one sense (as far as we know) yet it has been met way beyond what he could ever have imagined. Today (perhaps 4000 years later) we are reading the very words he uttered then.
‘What do you know?’ is an expression that can be used in different ways. What did Job know? Already he has told us, rightly or wrongly, that he knows God is his enemy, he will soon be dead; he has no hope of vindication from God; he is innocent. But here, rather unexpectedly, he tells us something else he knows. Already (in 9:33, 14:14, 16:18-22) he has come close to saying this sort of thing but this is the climax of his expressions of faith. There is a paradox here – at perhaps his lowest point in many ways, here he gives his highest expression of faith in the Lord. As Paul wrote so much later out of his own bitter experience of suffering When I am weak, then I am strong. It is when we come to the end of ourselves that we are ready to know the blessings of the Redeemer. Job tells us what he knew. Do we know the same things?
1. Do you know your Redeemer lives?
‘What do you know?’ is an expression that can be used in different ways. What did Job know? Already he has told us, rightly or wrongly, that he knows God is his enemy, he will soon be dead; he has no hope of vindication from God; he is innocent. But here, rather unexpectedly, he tells us something else he knows. Already (in 9:33, 14:14, 16:18-22) he has come close to saying this sort of thing but this is the climax of his expressions of faith. There is a paradox here – at perhaps his lowest point in many ways, here he gives his highest expression of faith in the Lord. As Paul wrote so much later out of his own bitter experience of suffering When I am weak, then I am strong. It is when we come to the end of ourselves that we are ready to know the blessings of the Redeemer. Job tells us what he knew. Do we know the same things?
1. Do you know your Redeemer lives?
Verse 25 I know that my Redeemer lives. The word used for Redeemer is sometimes translated Kinsman-Redeemer as the Go’el was always a near relative. Near relatives had various duties under Israel’s Law including hunting down and killing someone who murdered a family member or buying back (redeeming) family property for one who had fallen on hard times or buying them out of slavery where necessary. In Ruth you remember, Boaz took on the duty not only to deal with Ruth’s need of food and land but also married her to raise up children in her dead husband’s line. The idea of redemption was a common one in Israelite law – all first born sons had to be redeemed and in certain cases a man who deserved death could redeem his life by a payment of money.
When Job talks about a Redeemer then, he is thinking of a near relative who would be willing to pay the price, whatever it was, to get him out of the terrible situation he finds himself in. He believes that such a person exists and is willing to pay the price necessary to set him free that is to give him back his life. Even though everyone else has let him down, he is sure that there is one who will not. Now Job did not understand about the Lord Jesus in the way we can now in this New Testament era but he did by faith look forward to what God was going to do. It is not that there are two Gods as such but that God is a Trinity, including Father and Son. Have you seen it also? Are you looking to Christ as your only Redeemer? Whatever God allows to happen to us – we can be confident if we know the Redeemer.
2. Are you confident of vindication through him?
When Job talks about a Redeemer then, he is thinking of a near relative who would be willing to pay the price, whatever it was, to get him out of the terrible situation he finds himself in. He believes that such a person exists and is willing to pay the price necessary to set him free that is to give him back his life. Even though everyone else has let him down, he is sure that there is one who will not. Now Job did not understand about the Lord Jesus in the way we can now in this New Testament era but he did by faith look forward to what God was going to do. It is not that there are two Gods as such but that God is a Trinity, including Father and Son. Have you seen it also? Are you looking to Christ as your only Redeemer? Whatever God allows to happen to us – we can be confident if we know the Redeemer.
2. Are you confident of vindication through him?
Job continues and that in the end he will stand upon the earth literally dust which could be taken as "on my grave". Job was confident that even though it all seemed so unfair in this world there was one who would vindicate him in the end, in the world to come. He looked forward to the day of judgement with confidence because of his Redeemer. Are you the same? Can you say ‘I am ready for the judgement for I am looking to Jesus Christ the Redeemer who through his perfect life and death will vindicate me’? If we are looking to Christ, we can be totally confident that there will be no injustice, no unfairness. He will vindicate us.
3. Are you confident of resurrection through him?
3. Are you confident of resurrection through him?
There is some debate about this but what Job seems to do next is to look forward to his own death (which he thinks is imminent) and then beyond that to the resurrection. It could be an anticipation of the turn around that comes at the end of the book but it seems more than this. It is more than just a wish too. He says with great confidence (26, 27) And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! The final phrase expresses Job’s intensity of feeling. Liberal commentators do not like the idea of such a strong statement of resurrection in the Old Testament but it was clearly an Old Testament belief, one held to by the later Old Testament students the Pharisees and by others. There should be no surprise that Job states it so well. Do you have the same confidence – that through Christ the Redeemer you will live again, regardless of what may happen here on earth? If you are truly looking to him, you ought to. Those who trust in him know life forever.
ConclusionVerses 28, 29 do not seem the obvious thing to say after such a high point but Job is turning confidently to his persecutors and warns them that they too need a Redeemer. If you say, How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him, you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgement. We all need a Redeemer.
There is no slick answer to the question of how we can have a relationship with a God who does bring innocent suffering but as we struggle (as Job struggled) in God’s grace we will see that there is a living Redeemer in whom we can trust. One writer on Job 19 takes us to the story of Jairus’s daughter and the point where the daughter dies and people tell Jairus to give up. But Jesus says ‘Don’t be afraid. Just trust in me.’ That is the message this morning. It will not bring immediate and automatic relief from suffering or trouble but it means that God is no longer simply an enemy, someone who makes life a misery but one who saves from hell and who gives a glorious future to all his own.
ConclusionVerses 28, 29 do not seem the obvious thing to say after such a high point but Job is turning confidently to his persecutors and warns them that they too need a Redeemer. If you say, How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him, you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgement. We all need a Redeemer.
There is no slick answer to the question of how we can have a relationship with a God who does bring innocent suffering but as we struggle (as Job struggled) in God’s grace we will see that there is a living Redeemer in whom we can trust. One writer on Job 19 takes us to the story of Jairus’s daughter and the point where the daughter dies and people tell Jairus to give up. But Jesus says ‘Don’t be afraid. Just trust in me.’ That is the message this morning. It will not bring immediate and automatic relief from suffering or trouble but it means that God is no longer simply an enemy, someone who makes life a misery but one who saves from hell and who gives a glorious future to all his own.
