49. My Redeemer Liveth

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Hymns: RHC 243 The Comforter Has Come; 244 Fill Me Now; 246 Open My Eyes, That I May See

Job 19:1-29

1 Then Job answered and said, 2How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 3These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. 4And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. 5If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: 6Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. 7Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. 8He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. 9He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. 10He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. 11He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. 12His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. 13He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. 14My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. 15They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. 16I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. 17My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body. 18Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. 19All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. 20My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. 21Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. 22Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? 23Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! 24That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! 25For I know thatmy redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. 28But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? 29Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment. (Job 19:1-29 KJV)

My Redeemer Liveth

OUTLINE

Job’s Defense – Lament and Hope Unspeakable (19:1-29)

  • His Torment (v1-21)
    • Friends’ Torment – Unbearable (19:1-5)
    • God’s Antagonism – Unfathomable (19:6-12)
      • Judge No man’s Heart Condition
    • Kinsfolks’ Contempt – Utter Loneliness (19:13-20)
    • Cry for Pity (19:20-22)
  • Confession of Hope (19:23-27)
    • Fullness of Knowledge (19:25)
    • Fullness of Hope (19:26; 14:7, 14; 13:15; Isaiah 40:28-31)
    • Fullness of Life (19:27)
  • Judgment for Friends’ Hostility (19:28-29)

INTRODUCTION

A man under trial bears the full weight of the blows that threatens to produce the knock-out blow that will find no recovery. The end of the battle seemed to be in sight. Our man Job has been slowly but surely worn down in his trial. Having lost his wealth, children, health, his loved ones, friends deserted him. Tormented by the accusations of his friends, he was left as a defeated man.

When our Lord Jesus was upon earth, He saw the fainted and the lost, He was moved with compassion upon them.

Matthew 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

They fainted – to physically become weary or exhausted, give out, to lose heart and become discouraged.

They fainted and were scattered abroad. 

These are two word-pictures – two perfect participles used as adjectives; their tense describes a present condition as resulting from a past action.

The first word – they fainted, the word literally meant, “having been flayed,” or milder, “having the skin torn,” as this happens to sheep wandering among brambles and sharp rocks. 

The second word translated, “they were scattered abroad”. It comes from root word which means, “thrown down prone and helpless“, exhausted, totally drained of energy. 

This verb is used with reference to corpses lying prostrate on the ground. 

Both participles are made vivid by the comparison: “like sheep not having a shepherd.” 

They looked abject, torn and exhausted, a sight to rend the heart, most pitiful sight. 

As He saw their lost estate, it drove Him into action. What follows shows that Jesus was thinking of the spiritual condition of the people.Their souls received no wholesome spiritual food and care, for, as far as that was concerned, they were left to shift for themselves. 

Material and physical destitution moves man deeply to provide humanitarian aid, but Jesus’s care goes beyond the physical for He saw for even their spiritual distress?

Jesus felt deeply for them. He is the good Shepherd who cared for His sheep. The good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep.

This unconditional and sacrificial love is God’s power flowing in the life of God’s children. It comes as an overflow of the Holy Spirit’s power in the believer’s heart. 

It comes because the child of God has been touched by God’s love. Jesus demonstrated the greatness of this love in His ministry on earth. 

For us who are saved, it is a love that flow out of gratitude and indebtedness. We have been forgiven much, though undeserved. 

Unless we realize our lost estate and experienced in our hearts the reconciliation with God by the finished work of Christ on the cross, we cannot live out this love. It keeps us humble and loving.

This unconditional and sacrificial love is God’s power flowing in the life of God’s children. It comes as an overflow of the Holy Spirit’s power in the believer’s heart. It comes because the child of God has been touched by God’s love. 

Jesus demonstrated the greatness of this love in His ministry on earth. For us who are saved, it is a love that flow out of gratitude and indebtedness. We have been forgiven much, though undeserved. Unless we realize our lost estate and experienced in our hearts the reconciliation with God by the finished work of Christ on the cross, we cannot live out this love. It keeps us humble and loving.

God reached out to Job in the time of his distress and delivered him.

  • His Torment (v1-22)
    • Friends’ Torment – Unbearable (19:1-5)
    • God’s Antagonism – Unfathomable (19:6-12)

                  i.          Judge No man’s Heart Condition

  • Kinsfolks’ Contempt – Utter Loneliness (19:13-20)
    • Cry for Pity (19:20-22)

1 Then Job answered and said, 2How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 3These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange (very dubious) to me. 4And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. 5If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: 

It has become so unbearable for him to face the reproach of his friends. They have misunderstood him. They were wrong in their accusation of Job that his sufferings came as a result of his sins.

6Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. 7Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. 8He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. 9He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. 10He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. 11He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. 12His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. 

He traced his sufferings to God allowing him to be tried as such. He could not understand why. He knew that his suffering has reached a most excruciating point. He pleaded for answer and find none. It is as if God was against him when he faced his suffering. Yet he maintained his integrity.

13He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. 14My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. 15They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. 16I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. 17My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body. 18Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. 19All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. 20My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

He was isolated by everyone around him. His kinsfolks, his servants, even his wife. He is despised even by young children. His friends hated him and attacked him. He seemed to have lost all human support.

21Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. 22Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? 23Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! 

He cried for pity. He sought their sympathy. He acknowledged that God has allowed him to be in this state. He sought relief from his friends that they may not continue to torment him.

He sought that his trials be recorded for posterity so that they may learn from his experience. Indeed, it has been engrafted in Scriptures for our learning today.

  • His Confession of Faith (v23-27)
    • Fullness of Knowledge (19:25)
    • Fullness of Hope (19:26; 14:7, 14; 13:15; Isaiah 40:28-31)
    • Fullness of Life (19:27)

23Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! 24That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! 25For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

This passage is the capstone of Job’s declaration of faith. How real is Jesus Christ to you? The godly man’s redeemer is alive? The redeemer is the vindicator, a blood avenger who has the responsibility of finding justice and also to redeem the inheritance of the lost relative, like marrying the deceased widow eg. Ruth and Boaz. Job is perplexed that all his friends and relatives have left him. 

Job saw eternity in God, the glory of the hope to come, seeing through a keyhole the future glory in his state of total hopelessness, he concluded he had fullness of life. 

The hope of life with God, the resurrection life is supernaturally bestowed by the Holy Spirit when we repent of our sins and take hold of Christ.

John 1:4-5In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

John 1:9-13 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 3:15-19 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

The man who is in the sickbed has to have the spiritual strength to see his Redeemer through the promises of the words of Scripture to find comfort and strength.

2 Corinthians 5:1-11 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Having a sober understanding of earthly life and its end will cause us to think and contemplate the Source of true hope. This is found in Jesus Christ. When one cannot take hold of himself anymore, he takes hold of Christ and find in Him great hope and strength, consolation and comfort.

  • Judgment for Friend’s Hostility (v28-29)

28But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? 29Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

His friends were warned of God’s judgment for their false accusation upon them. Later, God would ask Job to pray for his friends so that He may forgive them.

CONCLUSION

Thank God for the hope of eternal life, the resurrection of the dead. Let us take hold of this for our comfort. Amen.