Job 19: 1 – 29
Good Interruptions
1 Then Job answered and said: 2 “How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 3 These ten times you have reproached me; You are not ashamed that you have wronged me. 4 And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me. 5 If indeed you exalt yourselves against me, and plead my disgrace against me, 6 know then that God has wronged me, and has surrounded me with His net. 7 “If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard. If I cry aloud, there is no justice. 8 He has fenced up my way, so 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 breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; 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. 12 His troops come together and build up their road against me; They encamp all around my tent. 13 “He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. 14 My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me. 15 Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants, count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. 16 I call my servant, but he gives no answer; I beg him with my mouth. 17 My breath is offensive to my wife, and I am repulsive to the children of my own body. 18 Even young children despise me; I arise, and they speak against me. 19 All my close friends abhor me, and those whom I love have turned against me. 20 My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21 “Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me! 22 Why do you persecute me as God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh? 23 “Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! 24 That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, 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, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! 28 If you should say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’—Since the root of the matter is found in me, 29 Be afraid of the sword for yourselves; For wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”
Have you been abused by a Pastor who should have restored you but instead chose to condemn you (or worse). I do not deny that many of us have been victims of the sinful, selfish, and hurtful acts of those in and around the church. One great comment I heard regarding this issue stated that many churches kick out the people they should minister to and minister to the people they should have kicked out of their church fellowship
What is it about us that we stay and get beat up? Sometimes we choose to remain victims when we have the opportunity to move on. The apostle Paul teaches us in his second letter to the Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17, “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.”
It is a waste of our spiritual potential to fixate on how events of the past could have or should have been different. The past is gone so why should we try to live in it. We cannot change anything. The Lord Jesus taught us as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 6 verse 34 to just focus on today, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” In other words one day at a time.
We need to focus that our Lord holds the future. In the letter to the Philippians chapter 1 verse 6, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ You see it is up to Him to do all in us and for us.
Understand this point which is - No amount of time spent dwelling on how someone in the church hurt us will change our present situation.
Imagine that you have been physically hurt by another person and had to be rushed to the emergency room. Would you spend all of your time worrying about the person who hurt you? Or do you think your first concern might be to survive?
With physical hurts, we immediately seek help. But emotional and spiritual hurts seem to engender a response unlike any other wound. When we are hurt by people in the church, we tend to focus on the perpetrator, not the Healer. This is one of our Enemy's most effective distraction strategies—he knows that healing is available, and he does not want us to get it.
You and I need to grasp what the book of Job is teaching. If we are physically able to move on - then move on. I like to say that we are ‘settlers’. We are loyal and settle into jobs, towns, friends, and churches. Often the Lord creates a fire which has the tendency to burn us severely. We then get the idea to move on. Many times this is the Lord’s work to get us moving. However, there are also some situations in which we cannot move on. Perhaps it is family, or a job, or something else that keeps us anchored in the same place.
This is exactly what is happening to Job. He is stricken with physical, financial, family, and friends’ problems. It appears that he cannot get away. The thing for all of us to consider is this; can Job get away any other way?
In the book of Isaiah chapter 26 verse 3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. As difficult as it really is we need to do all we can to mentally separate ourselves from situations and focus only on our Great Master – Jesus Christ.
1 Then Job answered and said: 2 “How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 3 These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you have wronged me. 4 And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me. 5 If indeed you exalt yourselves against me, and plead my disgrace against me, 6 know then that God has wronged me, and has surrounded me with His net. 7 “If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard. If I cry aloud, there is no justice.
Job’s friends had passed a very severe censure upon him as a wicked man because he was so grievously afflicted; now here he tells them how ill he took it to be so censured. Bildad had twice begun with a How long back in chapter 8, and therefore Job, being now to answer him particularly, begins with a How long too. When you do not like something you consider it ‘long’. For example you go to a boring ballet. Someone asks you how it was? You answer, ‘It was long!’ That says a lot of how you did not enjoy the show.
1 Then Job answered and said: 2 “How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 3 These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you have wronged me.
Job begins to describe the three so called friends’ unkindness to him. They have set about to torment his soul, and that is more grievous to him than the physically striking him. Do you remember the old kids rhyme –‘Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me!’ This statement does not apply here. They were his friends; they said that they came to comfort him, and pretended to counsel him for the best; but with a great deal of gravity, and affectation of wisdom and piety, yet they set themselves to rob him of the only comfort he had now left him in a good God, a good conscience, and a good name; and this ripped him to the core of his being.
Please note Job’s remark about how the three guys broke him in pieces with words, and those were surely hard and very cruel words that would break a man to pieces: they grieved him, and so broke him. You might pick up this point from watching Law and Order. Once the police think they have the right person who committed the crime they keep up their interrogation until they break the person. Breaking a person is when the people has had enough of the torture and cry uncle and will spill the beans.
When you are being harshly treated you remember every occurrence. Job is letting these guys know that they have wrongly charged him so far 10 times. Five times they had spoken, and every speech was a double reproach. You think they would understand and say, ‘gee, I guess we are wrong in our understanding of your condition. Perhaps all that you are going through Job must have another reason.’ Sure, you would think that they would come to reason?
4 And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me.
Have you ever watched people of notoriety who have done something sinful? When caught do they just say I was wrong in what I did? No, if they say anything they say that they have made an ‘error’. If you have been with us from the beginning of our study of Job you understand that throughout Job’s self inspection he cannot come up with something that he did against God’s Holy rules.
Job implies that if they were an error that he possibly has done. It is on him not on these guys. They are not God. He is not answerable to them. His acknowledges that if did commit an error it stays on him until our Holy God will reveal what it is so he can repent of it.
Job answers well to their accusations. He tells them, "If I have done something in error, I keep it to myself, and do not impose it upon others as you guys do. I only prove myself and my own work by it. I do not meddle with other people’s issues, either to teach them or to judge them.’’
You can see this point brought out by Job in the next verse.
5 If indeed you exalt yourselves against me, and plead my disgrace against me
Why is it that people love to ‘kick a man when he is down?’ if you really want to destroy a person, you can certainly do so when he's down. Most fights or conflicts are not about destroying the opponent, but about proving your dominance or superiority. What you want is for the enemy to acknowledge the fact that you can beat him/her, so that they can be compliant or submissive. Once you've got him/her down, you've already proven your point. Kicking would only have a benefit if your intent is outright destruction.
6 know then that God has wronged me, and has surrounded me with His net. 7 “If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard. If I cry aloud, there is no justice. 8 He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass; And He has set darkness in my paths.
Three things he would have them consider that his trouble was very great;
1. He was overthrown, and could not help himself, enclosed as in a net, and could not get out. That God was the author of it, and that, in it, he fought against him
2. He could not obtain any hope of the redress of his grievances. He complained of his pain, but got no ease—begged to know the cause of his affliction, but could not discover it—appealed to God’s tribunal for the clearing of his innocence, but could not obtain a hearing, much less a judgment, upon his appeal: I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard.
3. He has thrown me into prison and thrown away the key
Satan must be on the sidelines licking his lips. It seems that Job is ready to break. Job has not cursed our Holy God but he now charges that all his woes are God’s fault. This is an incorrect accusation. Job feels like an animal trapped in a net. He has been trapped for the kill by God. My favorite movie is ‘Groundhog Day’. The main character Phil Connors is played by Bill Murray. The great line he says is, ‘Every day – February 2 - I wake up here in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and I can do nothing about it.’
Have you ever seen an animal caught in a trap? If you look at their eyes they almost are pleading for their lives since they are docile while waiting to be killed. This is not good. Do you see this same type of thought brought forth by Job?
Job looks around and feels like he is in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison. There is no hope of escape. All hope is gone and the only thing left is darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. 10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; My hope He has uprooted like a tree.
What was the ‘glory’ Job was stripped of and what crown was taken from him? – His children. In the book of Proverbs 17: 6 we read, “Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children is their father.” They were taken from him.
Job concludes that, "I am gone, quite lost and undone for this world; my hope has He removed like a tree cut down, or plucked up by the roots, which will never grow again.’’
We need to remember though that hope in this life is a perishing thing, but the hope of good men and women, when it is cut off from this world, is but removed like a tree, transplanted from this nursery to the garden of the Lord. We shall have no reason to complain if God thus remove our hopes from the sand to the rock, from things temporal to things eternal.
11 He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His enemies. 12 His troops come together and build up their road against me; They encamp all around my tent.
Job’s present apprehension was that God counted him as one of his enemies; and yet, at the same time, God loved him, and gloried in him, as his faithful friend. It is a gross mistake, but a very common one, to think that whom God afflicts he treats as his enemies; whereas, on the contrary, as many as he loves he rebukes and chastens; it is the discipline of his sons. Which way so ever Job looked he thought he saw the tokens of God’s displeasure against him.
Job perceived that God was giving these visitors their military commission, and their orders were to attack him. What trouble Job so much was that he thought they were God’s troops, in whom it seemed as if God fought against him and intended his destruction.
If we remember back to the beginning chapters of Job we learned Satan’s complaint against God was that He had surrounded Job with a hedge of protection. Now we learn that Job sees that it is not God surrounding him but his enemies have surrounded him to destroy him.
13 “He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. 14 My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me. 15 Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants, count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. 16 I call my servant, but he gives no answer; I beg him with my mouth. 17 My breath is offensive to my wife, and I am repulsive to the children of my own body. 18 Even young children despise me; I arise, and they speak against me. 19 All my close friends abhor me, and those whom I love have turned against me.
In these verses we learn that Job has been completely abandoned. In truth no one should be surprised at being abandoned. I truly believe that it is not because our relatives, friends are cruel per say. They just don’t know how to cope themselves; they don’t know what to say or how to behave around us. People don’t want to live in discomfort and being with someone who has lost someone dear or is facing a severe disease is so scary, because it reminds that no one is protected from that. And don’t we ourselves somehow close down? Don’t we just assume that others do not have to see our pain and help? [Please tell everyone, I do not want any visitors.] It is as it is.
Our Master and King Lord Jesus Christ was called "man of sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3). He was oppressed, afflicted, despised and rejected, to the point where people would turn away to avoid seeing His face.
Sufferers should be able to recognize other sufferers. As a sufferer, you should recognize our Lord Jesus' sufferings; He certainly recognizes yours and all others. A deep sigh gives it away. When The Messiah Jesus healed a deaf man, He let out a deep sigh as He looked up to heaven (Mark 7:34). He was moved by the suffering He saw around Him, and as the risen Lord He continues to be moved by ours today.
Have you noticed that sometimes, in the presence of someone whose suffering seems greater than our own, our suffering seems lighter, less intense? It is as if the suffering of another can temporarily take us out of ourselves. The sufferings of Jesus can, indeed, elevate us and take us out of ourselves.
The cross says that life will not be easy. If our Master Jesus serves, we will serve. If God’s Son Jesus suffers, we too will experience hardships. No servant is greater than the master. Yet things are not always the way they appear. Suffering is part of the path that leads to glory and beauty. "He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him" (Psalm 126:6). Suffering has a purpose. It is changing us so that we look more and more like Jesus Himself.
It is hard to argue when we are reminded that Jesus shared in our sufferings and has compassion for those who suffer. It is easier to protest, however, when we hear the proposition that God is both good and generous. If He takes your suffering away, you are persuaded. If not, you remain a doubter.
But remember what you already know. First, Jesus suffered, and Jesus was dearly loved as the only Son of the Father. When we suffer what seems like endless pain, it is hard to believe that God loves us, but Jesus' suffering proves that it can be true. That doesn't mean that we always understand what is going on behind the scenes, but it is true nonetheless. Somehow, temporary suffering and love can go together.
Second, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). The cross is the only evidence that can fully persuade you that God is, at all times, good and generous. There is no arguing with someone who is willing to make this ultimate sacrifice. If someone gives his only child for you, you can't doubt that person's love. When the memory of such a costly sacrifice becomes distant, and life's frustrations tempt us to doubt, all we need is a quick reminder. Our God says, "If I have sacrificed my Son for you, do you really think I am going to be stingy and withhold my love now?"
20 My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21 “Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me!
The term ‘By the skin of one’s teeth’ means ‘narrowly’ or ‘barely’, and referring usually to a narrow escape from disaster. It refers to the thin porcelain exterior of the tooth (rather than the gums). In other words, Job escaped with his teeth, but just barely. Job is comparing the narrow margin of his escape with the shallow ‘skin’ or porcelain of a tooth: the equivalent, in fact, of a ‘hair’s breadth’.
Job is wearing down by his mental and physical anguish. He cries out to these three guys to please have ‘pity’ on him. If what they keep accusing him is true then it is God Who is causing all these horrible things. You would expect that a friend would show pity to another close associate. Even more so you would not expect a friend to go out of his way to add pain and persecution to someone who thought of him as a friend as Job cries out against them.
22 Why do you persecute me as God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Our Holy God does not have to give account of any of His matters, but we must give account of ours. If these guys did delight in his calamity, let them be satisfied with his flesh, which was wasted and gone, but let them not, as if that were too little, wound his spirit, and ruin his good name. Great tenderness is due to those that are in affliction, especially to those that are troubled in mind.
23 “Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! 24 That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, 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, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! 28 If you should say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’—Since the root of the matter is found in me, 29 Be afraid of the sword for yourselves; For wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”
There comes times when we are able to see someone having a direct revelation from the Lord. Many times when I have visited a dying person you witness the person seeing and talking with our Lord Jesus. Throughout the Bible you see this situation occurring. If you want to dive into this awesome happening I encourage you to do a word study using the words, ‘I see’ To give you an example of this we read this in the book of Numbers chapter 27 when the Holy Spirit came upon Baalam, “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult. Now please notice something else that is neat with God breaking into a person’s life. In this case Jacob was dying so he gathered his sons to pass on to them his blessing. In the course of addressing each son, when he came to Judah look at the vision that interrupted him. We read in chapter 49 of the book of Genesis this, “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s children shall bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
Please note the prophecy of the word ‘Scepter’. It is an ornamented staff carried by rulers on ceremonial occasions as a symbol of sovereignty. Thus we see the amazing sudden break into a person’s thoughts by our Holy God to reveal an amazing wonder.
We see this same exact thing happen to Job. Through all the pain and suffering Job’s thoughts are directed by the Holy Ghost. Job had thought of a relief in sleeping the sleep of death but we see now that something else directs his thoughts. Instead of just wasting away Job speaks of a new life. He now focused on the fact that he should see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living; not in this world, for that is the land of the dying.
He is now so inspired that he desires for this revelation to be written in a book for future generations to read and understand. The prayer that Job passionately wished for, our Holy God graciously granted him. His words are written; they are printed in God’s book; so that, wherever that book is read, there shall this be told for a memorial concerning Job. He believed, therefore he spoke.
Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, that He Is in my life, and that He shall stand at last, or stand the last, or at the latter day, upon (or above) the earth. Please see with me the amazing significance of this point. He [our Redeemer] shall be raised up, so it points at His Incarnation; or, He shall be lifted up from the earth (so it points at His crucifixion), or raised up out of the earth (so it is applicable to His Resurrection), or, as we also understand it, at the end of time He shall appear over the earth, for He shall come in the clouds, and every eye shall see Him. He shall stand upon the earth, upon all His enemies; and he shall tread upon them and triumph over them.
The insight brought to Job through his strenuous ordeal is for our benefit as well;
1. There is a Redeemer provided for fallen man, and Jesus Christ is The Redeemer. The word is Goël which is used for the next of kin, to whom, by the law of Moses, the right of redeeming a mortgaged estate did belong. Our heavenly inheritance was mortgaged by sin; we are ourselves utterly unable to redeem it; Christ Is near of kin to us, the next kinsman that Is able to redeem; He has paid our debt, satisfied God’s justice for sin, and so has taken off the mortgage and made a new settlement of the inheritance. Our persons also want a Redeemer; we are sold for sin, and sold under sin; our Lord Jesus has wrought out redemption for us, and proclaims redemption for us, and proclaims redemption to us, and so He Is truly the Redeemer.
2. He Is a living Redeemer. As we are made by a living God, so we are saved by a living Redeemer, Who Is Almighty and Eternal, and Is therefore able to save to the uttermost. We are dying, but He lives, and has assured us that because He lives we shall live also.
3. There are those that through grace have an interest in this Redeemer, and can, upon good grounds, call Him theirs. When Job had lost all his wealth and all his friends, yet he was not separated from Christ, nor cut off from his relation to Him: "Still he is my Redeemer.’’ That next kinsman adhered to him when all his other kindred forsook him, and he had the comfort of it.
4. Our interest in the Redeemer is a thing that may be known; and, where it is known, it may be triumphed in, as sufficient to balance all our griefs.
5. There will be a latter day, a last day - a day when time shall be no more as we learn from the book of Revelation chapter 6 verse 14, “Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.”
6. Our Redeemer will at that day stand upon the earth, or over the earth, to summon the dead out of their graves, and determine them to an unchangeable state; for to Him all judgment is committed. Job believes the happiness of the redeemed, and his own title to that happiness, that, at Christ’s second coming, believers shall be raised up in glory and so made perfectly blessed in the vision and fruition of God; and this he believes with application to himself.
Job knows that he is destined to die and to waste away but to the dust of the earth. Yet he proclaims that it will not be the end. Look again at these words. Write them down and memorize them. ; 26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
Even though our Lord Jesus Christ’s body was beaten beyond human recognition please note that it saw no corruption, but ours must. And Job mentions this that the glory of the resurrection he believed and hoped for might shine the more brightly.
This body which we now take such care about, and make such provision for, will in a little time be destroyed. But of its destruction and dissolution in the grave; we are not to be discouraged. Our hope is in our resurrection, for the same power that made man’s body at first, out of common dust, can raise it out of its own dust.
Please take special note that Job speaks of seeing God with eyes of flesh, in my flesh, with my eyes; a new and improved body that died shall rise again, a true body, but a glorified body,
I would say that almost everyone now is familiar with computers. Suppose you bought a lap top a long time ago. I think you would agree with me that you have some pretty valuable data stored in it. However, you now need a new computer. So, you save all the valuable data and place it on a disk. When you get your new computer you take the disk and enter all its data into your new system. Can you see the comparison here? All the things that have been stored into our current bodies [data] will be transformed into the new and improve system. Is that neat or what?
Job’s insight spoke comfort to himself, but he also saw some problems coming these three visitors way. Job spoke to them with a word of caution not to proceed and persist in their unkind attack of him. He had reproved them for what they had said, and now tells them what they should say for the reducing of themselves and one another to a better outcome than that which was in the background was ready to spring upon them.
They should be asking themselves, "Why are we persecuting him as such? Why do we grieve him and vex him, by censuring and condemning him, seeing the root of the matter, or the root of the word, is found in Job?’’
What does it mean to say regarding ‘the root of the matter’? We are all concerned to see to it that the root of the matter be found in us. A living, quickening, commanding, principle of grace in the heart is the root of the matter. Love to God and our brethren, faith in Christ, hatred of sin—these are the root of the matter; other things are minor in comparison with these. Job and his friends differed in some notions concerning the methods of Providence, but they agreed in the root of the matter, the belief of another world, and therefore should not persecute one another for these differences.
Job’s remarks were intended to be a word of terror to them. Christ’s second coming will be very dreadful to those that are found smiting their fellow servants as our Master Lord Jesus told us in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 24, “45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Men and women who do not follow our Lord and His Word need to be frightened from sin by the terrors of the Almighty, particularly from the sin of rashly judging their brothers and sisters. Those that are mean spirited with their brethren, censorious of them and malicious towards them, should know, They may expect to be judged for it in this world: It brings the punishments of the sword. Wrath leads to such crimes as expose men to the sword of the magistrate. God himself often takes vengeance for it, and those that showed no mercy shall find no mercy.
