I Know That My Redeemer Lives. What Hope This Sweet Sentence Gives!

3.31.24 Job 19:23–27 (EHV)

23 Oh how I wish that my words were written down. Oh how I wish that they were inscribed in bronze, 24 that they would be engraved in rock forever with an iron tool and letters filled with lead. 25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the end of time he will stand over the dust. 26 Then, even after my skin has been destroyed, nevertheless, in my own flesh I will see God. 27 I myself will see him. My own eyes will see him, and not as a stranger. My emotions are in turmoil within me.

I Know that My Redeemer Lives. What Hope this Sweet Sentence Gives!

The light shines brightest in the darkness. And isn’t that evident in the story of Job? When we think of Job, it’s most natural to talk about all of the trials that hit him right off the bat. All of his children die in the collapse of a structure caused by the devil. His cattle are stolen and also burned alive from fire sent from heaven. And if it couldn’t get any worse than that, the LORD causes boils to form on his skin. He sits out in the middle of a field and scrapes his boils, in pure misery.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. When you are going through a trial or a funeral, it is very helpful when you have friends and family by your side to love you and support you through it all. I’ve witnessed it first hand many times. It makes life so much easier. Ecclesiastes 4:10 says, “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” The worst part of Job’s problems was the reaction of his friends and even his wife. When Job was trying to hold on to some semblance of hope and faith his wife told him, “Just curse God and die.” Instead of being a support to Job, his own friends accused him of doing something terrible to deserve what had happened to him. They said that God was punishing him for something he did wrong. But Job KNEW that wasn’t true. All of these attacks were wearing Job down. Just listen to the verses that Job speaks just prior to today’s text.

God has wronged me and drawn his net around me. 7 “Though I cry, ‘I’ve been wronged!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice. . . .11 His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.

13 “He has alienated my brothers from me; my friends have forgotten me. 16 I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth. 17 My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own brothers. 18 Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me. 19 All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.

20 I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth. 21 “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me. 22 Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

As God was seeming to put Job to a slow and painful death, his friends and wife were bringing a shovel and trying to basically bury him alive. His servants were ignoring him. They were treating him as if he didn’t even matter, as if he didn’t even exist! It wasn’t just one person. It was EVERYONE.

What can we compare it to? Imagine an elderly parent who never hears from her children or grandchildren. They try to call, but their children don’t answer. You’re in the hospital and you need some help getting to the bathroom. You push the button but nobody comes for extended periods of time. Nobody visits. What does that say to the person? You don’t matter anymore? You don’t count? Is it any wonder when they give up on life?

It used to be that families would grow up with grandparents in the home to be taken care of in their older years. Not so much any more. We have no problem taking hours and hours of time to binge watch a show on television, but not so much time for needy friends and family. And our society is getting worse. It’s gotten to the point in Canada where they are now trying to talk elderly and homeless people into killing themselves so they won’t be a burden on society or the health system. They’re being told they don’t matter.