Job Chapter 19
Please read: Job 19 –
Job is not the fool his friends think he is. He understands that the righteous judgement of God does come down on the sinner. He does understand that suffering and death are judgements of God. What he does not understand is why God is bringing this to his door when he did not commit a sin, or a sin that was not confessed. Job tells it like it is. He tells his friends that they are tormenting him and he wants them to be the good friends they claim that they are, and to understand his position.
Maybe you have been in such a position at one time in your life where you felt misunderstood and all alone like Job did. Maybe you felt like everyone was passing judgement on you for something you knew you didn’t deserve. Despite feeling all alone, scripture teaches us that God never leaves us nor forsakes us. He is still there. And in this passage Job, despite feeling all alone, feeling rejected by friends and family, knows that God was still there, still with him. He might not have understood why God had sent this punishment on him, but he knew that God was real and He was still there.
Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
Let's Reflect
1. According to verse 3, what question did Job ask of his friends?
2. His friends can argue about why he is in this predicament, but Job explains that it is between him and God. For some unknown reason God has suddenly caught him up in a net like a criminal might do to an unsuspecting innocent man. Job cries out “violence” like someone would cry out if kidnapped, but he is not being released. Job gives several more examples of how God has come at him. Job sees his suffering as God having wrath against him and coming at him like what? See verse 12.
3. In verses 13-22 Job describes how alone he feels. Everyone in his life has deserted him. Apparently, his appearance was so bad that his own household servants would not do what?
4. What did Job say about his own wife?
5. Job said that his friends whom he loved had done what?
6. In verse 20 we get another insight as to how the disease that ravaged Job’s body was affecting him. What did he say about his body?
7. Then Job says something that is very profound. He says that he knows that his Redeemer lives and that he will see him face to face. Who does this sound like Job is prophetically talking about? Maybe Job had a vision and could see His redeemer’s face. We are not told this, but we know that this has happened to many all over the world. Regardless, Job knew in his heart that God was still there and would redeem him.
8. Job then warns his friends about their false judgement of him. God will come after them. Then they will know what?
Little did Job know that his words and his story would be written down for generations to read and to meditate upon. Job’s flashes of faith during a season of terrible distress are an example to us all. Job never lost faith in God through it all. He knew that his Redeemer was real and that he would see him.
