Job -- The Suffering Prophet (9): "I Know My Redeemer Lives"

Reflections on the Book of Job (9)

Job’s Faith Is Re-Kindled

Despite all appearances to the contrary, and despite the cruel counsel coming from his friends (most recently Eliphaz), Job still expects vindication. Job knows that God is good, keeps his promises, and that some how and in some way, his ordeal will end and it will be clear to all that Job is not hiding some secret sin.

As the dialogue between Job and his friends continues to unfold, in Job 16:18-17:3, the glowing embers of Job’s faith reappear. With this hope arises, as Job calls out his erst-while friends for their cruel and self-righteous counsel. He calls them “mockers.”

O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor. For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return. `My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me. Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation. Lay down a pledge for me with you; who is there who will put up security for me?’

Job now realizes that the answer to the “why?” question (which he has asked of YHWH), along with his personal vindication before his friends, might not come until after his own death. But yes, Job will get his answer. He will be vindicated—if not in this life, then certainly in the next. His friends do not understand nor, apparently, do they care to.

Because of this glimmer of hope and because Job still has faith in the God of the promise (however, weak that faith may be under the circumstances), Job knows his friends cannot help him. He sees their efforts are futile, if not cruel. There is nowhere else to go. Job’s only hope is in God. Yet, his mood still swings wildly, bringing him right up to the point of despair. But in the balance of Job 17, Job possess enough of his prior faith to continue to call out his friends for their faithless response.

My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me. Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation. `Lay down a pledge for me with you; who is there who will put up security for me? Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph. He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property— the eyes of his children will fail. `He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit. My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow. The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless. Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger. But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you. My days are past; my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart. They make night into day: ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’ If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness, if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?

Not only is Job giving back as good as he is getting from Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, but only a man who has done nothing wrong will fight so hard to be vindicated–as Job is now doing.

Bildad’s Second Speech—More “Belly Wind”

As Bildad makes his second speech one thing is becoming clear–Job, the suffering prophet, is longing to probe deeper into the mysteries of God’s providence, while Job’s friends focus entirely on the their distorted views regarding the suffering of the wicked. Bildad is clearly resentful of Job’s low estimate of his three friends’ theological abilities.[1] Whereas Eliphaz tried to moderate his second speech, Bildad is much more cantankerous. In verses 1-4 of Job 18, Bildad responds to Job with words which reflect the former’s growing frustration and anger. “Then Bildad the Shuhite answered [Job] and said: `How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak. Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?” Bildad’s challenge is that if the law of divine retribution is immutable (God must punish wrong-doing), and if Job refuses to repent, he will foolishly continue to throw himself against the fixed law that God must punish all sin.[2] How dare Job think that he is above the fixed laws of YHWH’s sovereign will!

As Bildad sees it, the moral order of the universe is set in stone. Since God will punish the wicked for their sins, in the balance of the chapter, Bildad recites a catalogue of the troubles of the wicked, all designed to appeal to Job’s conscience so that he is convicted of sins. The problem with Bildad’s speech is that Job’s conscience is clean. Says Bildad,

Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp above him is put out. His strong steps are shortened, and his own schemes throw him down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on its mesh. A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare lays hold of him. A rope is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him in the path. Terrors frighten him on every side, and chase him at his heels. His strength is famished, and calamity is ready for his stumbling. It consumes the parts of his skin; the firstborn of death consumes his limbs. He is torn from the tent in which he trusted and is brought to the king of terrors. In his tent dwells that which is none of his; sulfur is scattered over his habitation. His roots dry up beneath, and his branches wither above. His memory perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the street. He is thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world. He has no posterity or progeny among his people, and no survivor where he used to live. They of the west are appalled at his day, and horror seizes them of the east.

Job’s Speech — He Knows His Redeemer Lives

With that, we come to one of the most remarkable speeches in all the Bible (Job 19:25-27). Job’s words inspired Handel when writing the Messiah, and they continue to profoundly move all who read them. Job’s speech is so profound because it is not as though Bildad’s words contain no truth. Yes, God will punish the wicked. But Bildad’s cold and formulaic “canned” answer does not fit the facts at hand. This may be true of the wicked when they suffer. But what about the righteous? They suffer too. Thus the issue is not what fixed moral law Job has broken. For Job, the issue is “why has God turned his back on him?” And so Job presses on, seeking understanding of the great mystery which now stares him in the face: “Why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer.?”

In verses 1-12 of Job 19, Job describes his frightful sense of isolation–even though his friends have come to comfort him.

Then Job answered and said: `How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me? And even if it be true that I have erred, my error remains with myself. If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me, know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me. Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths. He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree. He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary. His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

Job longs for that day when God will respond. His suffering is bad enough. Waiting for an answer from God is even worse. YHWH’s silence pushes Job back to the point despair again. Job is all alone—or at least feels like he is all alone. He cries out in verses 13-19,

He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me. My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me. The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes. I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy. My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me?

In these words, we see that things are changing—Job has had enough of the accusations and false charges from his “friends”! A remarkable confession of faith is about to come! Since even his closest friends don’t believe him, in verses 23-24 Job demands that a record of his integrity be written down for all to see. Job demands, “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!” Job wants an indelible record so that all who come after him will know that he is innocent and that long after he is gone, his name and reputation will be vindicated. Given the very early stage of redemptive history in which he writes, Job looks ahead to a time when he will finally be declared “not guilty!” His ever-increasing hope that a redeemer will come (hinted at in Job 9:33 and in Job 16:18 ff.), now comes to full-flower. Despite all that he has endured, despite the terrible counsel from his friends, in verse 25 Job declares, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” Although everyone else doubts him and has deserted him, Job knows that a heavenly go el (a redeemer, the next of kin, who rights wrongs and settles estates) will do what his friends, wife, and townspeople will not–believe his testimony and vindicate his good name.

But Job does not stop. In verses 26-27, he declares, “after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” Job longs for the resurrection from the dead–a time when his current suffering will be nothing more than a dim memory and his sick and afflicted body will be renewed. As one writer puts it, “here are the beginnings of what progressive revelation would ultimately enunciate in the doctrines of the coming of Christ at the end times, the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment.”[3] Remarkably, Job desires the same thing Paul describes in Philippians 3:7-11. “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

With his eyes set upon the future, Job warns his friends that the coming resurrection will impact them as well. He tells them in verses 27-28, “I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him.”

Zophar Again — And Job’s Response

In Cycle two–round three, Zophar has been listening. He regards Job’s words of faith in a coming redeemer as an insult. Job’s three friends have been using the same tired script–focusing exclusively upon the fate of the wicked and placing Job in that category. As Meredith Kline puts it, “Job [has just] struck chords of redemptive truth as to thrill angels, but Zophar, having ears, hears not . . . . Zophar . . . is content to draw the inspiration for his lyrics from the dunghill where the friends found Job.”[4] So Zophar lets fly in verses 2-14.

Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me. I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me. Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment? Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night. The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him. His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth. His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust. `Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue, though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth, yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him.

All Zophar can do is rant. As Job sees it, his friends have offered no explanations at all. Rather, they have denied the mystery of suffering and affliction, simply because their view of retributive justice does not fit with reality. There are wicked people who flourish and righteous people who suffer. Yes, Job’s friends are right–God will punish all sin and reward good. But Job is starting to see that this punishment will come at the end of time (on judgment day) and not beforehand. With faith and hope stirring his heart, Job rises above his disappointment and answers Zophar with words of hope.

In Job 21:2-3 Job challenges his friends. “Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort. Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.” In verses 4-9, we see that Job looks for an answer from God: “As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient? Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth. When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh. Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.” The fact of the matter is that the wicked do live on regardless of their sin. The ground does not open beneath them and swallow them. The fate that has befallen Job does not fall upon the wicked. Oh, they will be judged, but on the last day. Their ultimate fate—YHWH’s wrath—does not always come in the course of this life.

The answer is slowly beginning to come to Job, as apparent in verses 14-20 of Job 21.

They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’ Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me. `How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger? That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away? You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it. Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

Though his friends are convinced they are right and that Job is still lying, Job is fully convinced they are wrong. In fact, as he ends his reply to Zophar (v. 34), he tell his friends, “How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

The smoldering embers of faith are still burning in Job’s heart. He is sure that Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, however sincere, have no answers, only falsehoods. Job is a justified sinner. He is a righteous man, and yet still he suffers. The words of his friends hurt deeply, and do not heal. They cannot explain the obvious–wicked people do prosper, and righteous people do suffer. As Job is beginning to understand, God may indeed have a purpose in his suffering which does not fit with Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar’s insufficient grasp of the situation. As the dialogue progresses, Job’s heart is now stirred and moves him to confess his faith in a coming redeemer, even through tears of pain, doubt, and fear! Job knows that his redeemer lives! Job knows his redeemer will one day stand upon the earth. And Job knows that he will see that redeemer with the eyes of a resurrected body! In the midst of his terrible circumstances, the suffering prophet nevertheless confesses “for I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.”

And the Lord will soon answer all of them from the midst of the storm.

To read the first in this series: Job: The Suffering Prophet (1)

To read the next in the series: God Answers Job from the Whirlwind (10)

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[1] Kline, Job, 475.

[2] Kline, Job, 475.

[3] Kline, Job, 476.

[4] Kline, Job, 476.