Job 19

We may easily bear the unjust reproaches of men if we live in expectation of the glorious appearance of the great God, our Saviour, and that we shall be made like Him when we see Him as He is.

1 Then Job answered and said,

2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

4 And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.

18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

Job 19 – “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth”

   In Job’s melancholy condition his friends seemed only to add vexation and trial. The hirelings who sojourned in his household looked on him with disdain; his kith and kin were alienated; it seemed as if the Almighty had an antipathy against him. So great was his physical suffering that the only sound part of his body seemed to be the skin of his gums and his teeth, Job 19:20 (that is, all he could do was to speak). Then he suddenly breaks into the majestic utterance of Job 19:25-26.
   Among the Bedouins the institution of the goel—or kinsman representative—still exists for the avenging of wrong done to a kinsman: and Job believed that his divine Goel would one day stand on the earth for his vindication. Yes, and more, he felt that somehow he, too, would arise from the very grave to hear that vindication spoken by those just and true lips. Above all, he would see God Himself standing with him–whom I shall see for myself, Job 19:27. —Through the Bible Day by Day

Job 19:25—I know that my Redeemer liveth.

   Those words express the deepest and most radiant conviction of believing hearts. “He lives, the great Redeemer lives!” Man did his worst; the nail, the cross, the spear, were bitter; but He liveth! Death stood over Him as a vanquished foe; but He liveth! Captain Sepulcher and his henchman Corruption held earnest colloquy together about the best method of detaining Him; but He liveth! He ever liveth and because He continueth ever He hath an unchangeable priesthood.
   But it is not probable that His words meant all this to Job. The word translated “Redeemer” is Goel—the nearest kinsman, sworn to avenge the wrongs of blood relations. This conception of the kinsman avenger has been always in vogue in the East, where the populations are scattered and migratory, and our system of law impossible. Beyond the heavens Job thought there lived a Kinsman, who saw all his sufferings, and pitied, and would one day appear on earth to vindicate his innocence and avenge his wrongs. He was content to leave the case with Him, sure that He would not fail, as his friends had done.
   Beyond the sorrows and anguish of time he should yet see God; and he longed to see Him, that he might learn the secret purpose, which explained the sorrow of his lot. He had no dread of that momentous event, since his Goel would be there to stand beside him.
       “Sudden the Worst turns the Best to the brave,
          The black minute’s at end!–
       And the Elements’ rage, the fiend voices that rave,
          Shall dwindle, shall blend,
       Shall change, shall become,—first a Peace out of Pain,
          Then a Light, then thy breast.” —Our Daily Homily