Job's Sure Knowledge
(No. 2909)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 10, 1876,
"For I know that my Redeemer lives." Job 19:25.
I DARESAY you know that there are a great many difficulties about the
translation of this passage. It is a very complicated piece of Hebrew,
partly, I suppose, owing to its great antiquity, being found in what
is, probably, one of the oldest Books of the Bible. Besides that,
different persons have tried to translate it according to their own
varying views. The Jews stiffly fight against the notion of the Messiah
and His Resurrection being found in this verve, while many Christian
commentators see here everything that we can find in the New Testament
and translate the passage as though Job were as well instructed in this
matter as we are now that Christ "has brought life and immortality to
light through the Gospel." Others say that while there is, no doubt, a
reference to the Person and the Resurrection of Christ, yet it is not
so vivid as some seem to think.
Personally, I am quite satisfied with the translation given in our
Authorized Version, yet it has occurred to me that possibly, Job,
himself, may not have known the full meaning of all that he said.
Imagine the Patriarch driven into a corner, badgered by his so-called
friends, charged by them with all manner of evils until he is quite
boiling over with indignation and, at the same time, smarting under
terrible bodily diseases and the dreadful losses which he has
sustained– and, at last, he bursts out with this exclamation, "I shall
be vindicated one day. I am sure I shall. I know that my Vindicator
lives. I am sure that there is One who will vindicate me and if He
never clears my name and reputation as long as I live, it will be done
afterwards. There must be a just God in Heaven who will see me righted
and even though worms devour my body until the last relic of it has
passed away, I do verily believe that, somehow, in the far-off ages, I
shall be vindicated."
He throws his faith forward to some tremendous era which he anticipates
and he declares that there will be found then, as he believes there is
alive even now, a Goel, a Kinsman, an Avenger who will stand up for him
and set right all this wrong. He cannot conceive that God will permit
such gross injustice to be done to a man who has walked as he has
walked, to be brought so low and then to be stung with such unfounded
accusations. He is positive that there must be a Vindicator for him
somewhere and he appeals to that Last Dread Tribunal which he dimly
sees in the far-off future and he believes that someone will be found
to stand up successfully for him there.
If that is the case, you will see that Job was driven, perhaps beyond
his former knowledge, by his very pains and trials. He may but dimly
have perceived a future state, but his condition revealed to him the
necessity for such a state. He felt that if the righteous suffer so
much in this life, often apparently without any just cause–and if the
wicked prosper– then there must be another state in which God will set
right the wrongs of this and rectify the apparent inequalities of His
Providence here. Job realized that and, possibly, his deep griefs may
have been the channel of another Revelation to him, namely, that there
was a mysterious Divine Being concerning whom that dark prophecy had
been handed down from the Garden of Eden, itself, "The Seed of the
woman shall bruise the serpent's head." He felt sure that for those who
were wronged as he had been, there must be an Advocate provided. He had
before complained that there was no Umpire–no "Daysman"–to stand
between them both, but now he asks for an Advocate and he feels that
there must be one, yes, he knowsthat there is and he declares that
somewhere or other, there is an Advocate who will, some day or oth-
er, set right all that concerns him, let things go now as they may! So
possibly Job was seeing more than he had ever seen before of that
mysterious One who pleads the cause of those who are oppressed and
shows Himself strong on their behalf at the right hand of God!
I am not going to enter into any discussion of the matter, but shall
use the passage in the full Evangelical sense. Job may have known all
that we now know concerning Christ, for he may have had special
Revelations and manifestations. We do not find all that we know in his
Book, yet he may have meant all that I shall say in this discourse. If
he did not mean it, I trust that we shall, under the gracious guidance
of the Holy Spirit!
I. I shall speak first upon this point–JOB HAD A TRUE FRIEND AMID HIS
MISTAKEN FRIENDS. These men were miserable comforters, but Job had a
real Comforter. They were estranged from him, but he had a true Friend
left, so he said, "I know that my Goel lives." That is the Hebrew word.
I suppose you all know that it means the person nearest akin to him
who, because he was nearest akin, was bound to take up his cause. If a
man was slain by misadventure, the goel pursued the one who had slain
him and endeavored to avenge his death. If a person fell into debt and
was sold into slavery because of the debt, his goel, if he was able,
had to redeem him–and hence we get the word, "redeemer." Or if estates
became mortgaged through poverty, it was the duty of the next of kin to
redeem them, if possible, and so, again, we get the idea of redeemer.
But the word, "goel," is more comprehensive than the word, "redeemer,"
so we will begin with its first meaning.
Job, in the midst of his false friends, had One whom he called his
Kinsman. "I know," he said, "that my Kinsman lives." We interpret that
word, "Kinsman," as meaning our Lord Jesus Christ and we sing–
"Jesus, our Kinsman and our God, Arrayed in majesty and blood, You are
our life, our souls in Thee Possess a full felicity."
I want you, just now, to think of Jesus Christ as your Kinsman if you
are really in Him, for He is, indeed, the nearest akin to you of
any–bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh. "Forasmuch then as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also, Himself, likewise
took part of the same." Now, your own flesh and blood, as you call
them, are not so near to you in real kinship as Jesus is, for, often
you will find flesh and blood near akin by birth but not by sympathy.
Two brothers may be, spiritually, very different from one another and
may not be able to enter into each other's trials at all. But this
Kinsman participates in every pang that rends your heart. He knows your
constitution, your weakness, your sensitiveness, the particular trial
that cuts you to the quick–for in all your afflictions He was
afflicted. Thus He is nearer to you than the nearest of earthly kin can
possibly be, for He enters more fully into the whole of your life! He
seems to have gone through it all and He still goes through it all in
His constant sympathy with you.
Christ's kinship with His people is to be thought of with great comfort
because it is voluntary. We have some, perhaps, who are akin to us, yet
who wish they were not. Many a time, when a rich man has poor
relations, he is half ashamed of the kinship between them and wishes
that it did not exist. Shame upon him for thinking so! But our Lord
Jesus Christ's relationship to us is no accident of birth–it was
voluntarily assumed by him! He would be one with us because He loved
us. Nothing could satisfy Him till He had come to this earth and been
made one flesh with His Church. "For this cause," it is said concerning
marriage, "shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery," said Paul, "but I speak concerning Christ and the Church."
And, verily, so it was with Christ, as the poet sings–
"'Yes,' says the Lord, 'with her I'll go
Through all the depths of care and woe
And on the Cross will even dare
The bitter pangs of death to bear. This He did because He would be one
flesh with His people and that is a very near kinship which comes as
close as that, and which willingly does so–not by force, but by
voluntary choice.
And further, this is a kinship of which Jesus is never ashamed. We have
known or heard of the prosperous man who has been ashamed of his poor
old mother and of the educated young man who has looked down with scorn
upon the very father who has toiled and slaved in order to give him the
advantages of such an education. It is disgraceful that there should
ever be such ingrates, but it is written concerning our great Kinsman,
"He that sanctifies and they who are sancti-
fied are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them
brethren." He declares to the whole universe, concerning those
persecuted ones–those who are ridiculed as being fools, "They are My
brethren." The Prince of Glory, whose fingers are adorned with stars of
light like rings of priceless value, calls the poor bedridden woman who
is a child of God, His sister! And He calls the humble, toiling,
laboring man who walks with Him, His brother! And He is not ashamed to
do so. Think, Beloved, with most intense gratitude, of this great
Kinsman of yours who is so near of kin to you– voluntarily near of kin
and not ashamed to acknowledge the kinship!
Remember, too, that your Kinsman lives in this respect–that He will
always be your Kinsman! The closest ties of earthly relationship must,
to a great extent, end in death, for there are no husbands and wives,
as such, in Heaven. There cannot be, "for in the Resurrection they
neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God
in Heaven." There are other ties, of a spiritual kind, that will far
outshine the best of bonds that linked us together here, but, when all
other ties are broken, Jesus will always be our Kinsman, our Brother!
We shall find the fraternal relationship better understood, more fully
enjoyed and more clearly manifested up there than it can ever be down
here. When all other relationships are growing dim, this blessed
eternal kinship will shine out the more brightly! So I want all of you
who truly love the Lord Jesus Christ to interpret my text in this
way–"I know that my Kinsman lives"–and to feel how honored you are to
have such a Kinsman as Christ is! Ruth was highly privileged in having
such a kinsman as Boaz who was not content for her to glean in his
fields, but who took her as his wife. And your great Kinsman intends
that you should be betrothed to Him forever and He will bring you to
His heavenly home at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!
There was a second meaning to the word, "goel," arising out of the
first–Job's Kinsman would become his Vindicator. It was the kinsman's
duty to defend the rights of his needy relative, so Job intended here
to say, "I know that my Vindicator lives." And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the Vindicator of His people from all false charges. It is not easy for
Christians to live in this world without being slandered and
misrepresented. Certainly, those of us who live in the full blaze of
public life can hardly utter a word without having it twisted, tortured
and misconstrued. We are often represented as saying what we loathe
even to think–yet we must not be surprised at that. The world loves
lying–it always has done so and it always will. Even in private life
you may meet with similar cruel treatment–there are some of God's best
children who lie under reproach by the year together. The very things
which they would not tolerate for a moment are laid to their charge and
they are thought to be guilty of them–and even good people hold up
their hands in pious horror at them though they are perfectly innocent
all the while!
Well, Beloved, always remember that your Vindicator lives! Do not be
too much concerned to clear your own character. Above all, do not
attempt to vindicate yours in a court of law, but say to yourself, "I
know that my Vindicator lives." When He comes, "then shall the
righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father." His
people may now be under a cloud, but, when He appears, the cloud shall
break and their true glory shall be seen! The greater the censure under
which any of us have unjustly lived on earth, the greater will be the
joy and the honor which will be vouchsafed to us in the day when Christ
shall clear our character from all the shameful aspersions that have
been brought against us! All will be cleared up in that day, so leave
the accusations alone, knowing that your Vindicator lives.
There is another most comforting thought–that our Vindicator will
clear us from true charges as well as false ones. As for the false
charges, what do they matter? It is the true ones that really concern
us–can Christ clear us from them? Yes, that He can! Remember how the
Apostle John writes, "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous." You see, it is not merely if we
have been sazdto sin when we did not, but if we reallysin, "we have an
Advocate with the Father." O blessed Advocate, how do You clear Your
people of the sin which they have actually committed? Why, in this
way–He took it up Himself–the awful load of their guilt–and suffered
the full penalty for it! So there He stands before the Eternal Throne
to plead their cause and, as He does so, He says, "Those sins committed
by My people–I have taken them upon Myself and suffered in the place
of all who will believe in Me." O blessed Kinsman, how glorious are You
in Your Grace, in that You have so completely undertaken our cause that
You have been made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in You!
Yes, Beloved, Jesus will plead the merit of His precious blood and His
spotless righteousness and, before that powerful pleading, our sins and
our transgressions shall sink beneath the flood and shall not be
remembered against us any more forever!
In that day, too, our Vindicator will defend us against all the
accusations of Satan. Our great adversary often assails and attacks us
here–and the Lord says to him, as He did concerning Joshua the high
priest, "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan; even the Lord that has chosen
Jerusalem rebuke you!" We may tell the devil, when we stand foot to
foot with him and are sore beset, that our Vindicator lives and we may
quote to him that grand promise, "The God of peace shall bruise Satan
under your feet shortly," because our Vindicator, who is to bruise the
serpent's head, still lives! The old serpent may nibble at your heel
for a while, as he did at your Master's, but you, in the strength of
your Lord, shall bruise his head! And whatever other adversary of your
soul there may be at any time, you can rest in quiet confidence. Even
if that adversary is permitted to prevail over you for a while, say to
him, "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy: when I fall, I shall arise;
when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."
So you have two meanings of the word goel–my Kinsman, my
Vindicator–lives. I hope you who are greatly tempted and tried and you
who are persecuted and oppressed will catch that second meaning and
commit your cause unto God. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but
rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I
will repay, says the Lord." Be slow to anger! Fret not yourselves
because of the wicked man that prospers in his evil way and think not
of being revenged upon your oppressors! In patience and quietness
possess your souls knowing that your time of vindication will surely
come, for your Vindicator lives!
Then the third meaning of the word goel certainly is, "Redeemer," so
Job could say, "I know that my Redeemer lives." As I have already said,
the next of kin in the process of vindicating his poor kinsman was
accustomed to redeem him from bondage, or to redeem any part of his
estate that might be under mortgage. So, let us next think of how the
Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us from bondage. Having broken the Law
of God, we were in bondage to that Law. We had received the spirit of
bondage again to fear. But we who have believed in Jesus, our Kinsman,
can say that He has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a
curse for us, and that we are no longer in bondage. We were also in
bondage under sin, as Paul wrote, "I am carnal, sold under sin," but
Christ has come and broken the power of sin in us so that its reigning
power is subdued–and though it still strives to get the mastery and
often makes us to groan within ourselves, even as Paul did, yet do we,
with him, thank God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our
Lord!
There are two redemptions–redemption by price and redemption by power,
and both of these Christ has worked for us–by price, by His Sacrifice
upon the Cross of Calvary–and by power, by His Divine Spirit coming
into our heart and renewing our soul. Ought we not unceasingly to bless
the Lord who has redeemed us from under the Law, having paid the
penalty for the commands which we had broken and who has also redeemed
us from the power of sin? "I know that my Redeemer lives," then I know
that I am a free man, for if the Son makes us free, then are we free,
indeed! I know that He paid the price for my soul's eternal
redemption–then may my soul continually exult in Him and rejoice in
the liberty with which He has made me free!
But, as I have already reminded you, the redeemer was also accustomed
to redeem the estate as well as the person of his kinsman. We had lost
everything. Father Adam had put everything under a heavy mortgage and
we could not even meet the interest on it–but the whole estate is free
from a mortgage now, even to Paradise itself! Does someone ask, "Is
there not any mortgage even upon Paradise?" I answer–No, for Christ
said to the dying thief, "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." So
it is clear that He has entered Paradise and claimed it on His people's
behalf. Jesus Christ has said, in the words of the Psalmist, "I
restored that which I took not away." Bankrupt debtors, through the
Lord's Sovereign Grace you are no longer under any liabilities because
of your sin if Christ is accepted by you as your Goel and Redeemer! He
has restored the estates to you which your first father, Adam, had
lost. And He has made you heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus
Christ through the wondrous redemption which He worked for you on the
Cross of Calvary!
Suck the honey, if you can, out of these three glorious Truths of God
and you will be able to do so in proportion as you can personally use
the words of the text, "'I know that my Redeemer lives.' I know that He
lives who will vindicate my character and rectify my wrongs. I know,
too, that He lives who has redeemed me from sin and Hell–and even
though I die, I know that He will redeem me from the power of the grave
and that He will enable me to say, 'O death, where is your sting? O
grave, where is your victory?'"
Dwell on the remembrance that you have such a Divine Helper and then
let us pass on to another thought at which I will only briefly hint as
I proceed to another part of my theme.
II. The second point is this–JOB HAD REAL PROPERTY AMID ABSOLUTE
POVERTY.
Job had lost everything–every stick and stone that he possessed. He
had lost his children and he had lost his wife, too, for all practical
purposes, for she had not acted like a wife to him in his time of
trial. Poor Job–he had lost everything else, but he had not lost his
Redeemer! Notice, he does not say, "I know that my wife and my children
live," but he said, "I know that my Redeemer lives." Ah, "my
Redeemer"–he has not lost Him, so he has the best of all possessions
still left! Looking up to Him by faith, with the tears of joy standing
in his eyes, he says, "Yes, He is my Redeemer and He still lives. I
accept Him as mine and I will cling to Him forever." Can you, beloved
Friends, not merely rejoice in Christ as the Redeemer, but also as
yourRedeemer? Have you personally accepted Him as your Redeemer? Have
you personally trusted Him with your soul, wholly and really? And do
you already feel in your own heart a kinship to this great Kinsman, a
trust in this great Vindicator, a reliance upon His great Redemption?
Another man's redemption is of no value to my soul–the sweetness lies
in the little word, "my"–"my Redeemer." Luther used to say that the
marrow of the Gospel is found in the pronouns and I believe it is–"My
Redeemer." Say, with me, each one of you for himself or herself–
"My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Yours,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.
My soul looks back to see
The burdens You did bear,
When hanging on the cursed tree
And hopes her guilt was there." If you really do rely upon Christ's
atoning Sacrifice and so take Him as your Redeemer, you may not only
hope your guilt was there, but you may knowthat it was! There, poor
man, you may not have a penny in your pocket, but if you can truly say,
"my Redeemer," you are infinitely better off than a millionaire who
cannot say that! You who know not where you will have a lodging
tonight, if you can truly say, "my Redeemer," you need not envy the
very angels of God, for in this respect, you are ahead even of them,
for they can call Him, "Lord," but not "Redeemer"! He is not so near
akin to them as He is to you, "for verily He took not on Him the nature
of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham." He took your Nature
and mine, Beloved, for Christ became a Man!
So Job had something real and valuable left even when he had lost all
his property.
III. Thirdly, Job seems to lay stress upon the word, "lives"–"I know
that my Redeemer lives." This teaches us that JOB HAD A LIVING KINSMAN
AMID A DYING FAMILY.
All his children were dead. We cannot easily estimate the full force of
that blow upon the Patriarch's heart. The loss of one child is a very
painful event, even when the child is a very little one and the parents
have many others left. But it is a far worse bereavement when the
children who are taken away are grown up, as Job's were. They were
evidently a very united family who used to meet in each other's houses
for mutual fellowship. They seem to have been a very happy family and
they were certainly a family under very gracious influences, for Job
was accustomed, after their days of festival, to offer sacrifices for
them lest they should have sinned against the Lord. Altogether, it was
a fine family–seven sons and three daughters–and now they were all
gone at once! To lose all one's family at once like that is a heavy
stroke that none can measure but those who have felt it. All were
gone!–The whole ten at once! That was sad for poor Job, but it was
most blessed that he was able to say, "Though my children are all dead,
'I know that my Redeemer lives.' He is not dead and in Him I find more
than all that I have lost."
Look at your Lord, dear Friend, if you are mourning, just now, the sons
of loved ones and see whether He is not better to you than ten sons and
daughters! See whether there is not in His heart room enough for that
affection which has been so rudely snapped, to grow again. The tendrils
of your soul need something to cling to and to twist around–then let
them wrap around Him! Rejoice that He lives in a dying world. If you
walk through the cemetery, or stand by the open grave, how blessedly
these words seem to fall upon your spirit–like the music of
angels–"These are dead, but 'I know that my Redeemer lives–lives on,
lives in power, lives in happiness, lives with a life which He
communicates to all who trust Him. He lives and therefore I shall live
with Him! He lives and therefore the dead who are in Him shall live
forever." O blessed Truth of God!
You will yourself die soon, dear Friend. No, I must correct myself–you
will not die, for it is not death for one who knows the Savior to die.
You will fall asleep in Him one of these days at the very hour that God
has appointed–and
when you open your eyes, it will not be in the narrow death
chamber–you will not be on the bed of sickness. I think you will be
startled to find yourself amid such new surroundings! "What is this I
hear?" you will say. "Such music as this has never charmed me before!
And what is that I see?" But you will not need to enquire, for you will
know that face at once! You knew, while on earth, that Jesus still
lived, but you will know it better then–when you lay aside these heavy
optics that do but dim our sight and get into the pure spirit state and
then see HIM! Oh, the bliss of that first sight of Christ! It seems to
me as if that would gather up an eternity of delight into a single
moment! That first glimpse of Him will be enough to make us swoon away
with excessive rapture! I do verily think that some saints whom I have
known have done just that–swooned away with the excess of joy that
they have felt in their departing moments. I have, sounding in my ears
just now, the voice of a dear Brother by whose bedside I sat for a
little while before I came to this service. He said to me, "I shall be
Home tonight, Pastor. I wanted to see your face once more before I
went, but I shall be Home tonight and see the face of Jesus!" I hope
you will all be prepared to die after that fashion. The godly old Negro
said, "Our minister is dying full of life." That is the way to
die–full of life! Because Jesus lives, we shall also live and we may
well die full of life because of our union to Him!
IV. The last thought I want to leave with you is this–JOB HAD ABSOLUTE
CERTAINTY AMID UNCERTAIN
AFFAIRS.
He said, "I know that my Redeemer lives." Why, Job, I should have
thought you would not have known anything for certain now! I should not
have liked to insure Job's farm animals, or the houses in which his
children met together to feast. Nothing seemed to be certain with Job
but uncertainty–yet there wasone thing concerning which he felt that
he could put his foot down firmly and say, "'I know.' The winds may
rage and the tempests roar, but they cannot shake this rock. 'I know.'
'I know.' 'I know!'" Beloved, is everything uncertain with you in this
world? Of course it is, for it is so with everybody! But does it appear
to be more uncertain with you than it does with anybody else? Does your
business seem to be slipping away and every earthly comfort is
threatening to disappear? Even if it is so, there is, nevertheless,
something that is certain–something that is stable–Jesus your
Redeemer lives! Rest on Him and you will never fail. Let your faith in
Him be firm and confident–you cannot be too fully established in the
belief that Jesus, who once died, has left the grave to die no more and
that you, in Him, must also live eternally! Something may be wrong with
you for the next few days or weeks, but all is right with you forever
and "all's well that ends well."
There may be some rough water to be crossed between here and the fair
havens of eternal happiness, but all is right there forever and ever!
There may be losses and crosses, there may be tumult and shipwrecks,
but all is right forever with all who are in Christ Jesus! "Some on
boards and some on broken pieces of the ship"–but all who are in
Christ Jesus shall escape "safe to land." There are innumerable
uncertainties, but there is this one certainty–"Israel shall be saved
in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: you shall not be ashamed nor
confounded world without end." Spring on this Rock, man! If you are
struggling in the sea, just now, and waves of sin and doubt beat over
you, leap onto this Rock– Jesus lives! Trust the living Christ and,
because He lives, you shall also live! I could cheerfully take my place
with Job if I might be able to say as confidently as he did, "I know
that my Redeemer lives."
And if you, as a poor sinner, are trusting wholly and only in Christ,
then He is your Redeemer and you are saved forever! If He is the only
hope that you have and you cling to Him as the limpet clings to the
rock, then all is right with you forever, and you may know that He is
your Redeemer as surely as Job knew that He was his! The Lord bless
you, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOB 19.
Verses 1, 2. Then, Job answered andsaid, how long will you vex my soul
and break me in pieces with words?They struck at him with their hard
words as if they were breaking stones on the roadside! We ought to be
very careful what we say to those who are suffering affliction and
trial, for a word, though it seems to be a very little thing, will
often cut far more deeply and wound far more terribly than a razor. So
Job says, "How long will you vex my soul and break me in pieces with
words?"
3. These ten times have you reproached me: you are not ashamed that you
make yourselves strange to me. He means that they had reproached him
several times over–and hints that they ought to have been ashamed to
act so strangely, so coldly, so harshly towards him.
4. And be it indeed that I have erred, my error remains with myself. "I
have done you no harm. The error, if error there is, is within my own
bosom, for you cannot find anything in my life to lay to my charge."
Happy is the man who can say as much as that!
5. 6. Ifindeedyou will magnify yourselves against me, andplead against
me my reproach: know now that Godhas overthrown me, and has compassed
me with His net Job seems to say, "I did not bring this trouble upon
myself–it is God who has laid it upon me. Take heed lest in
reproaching me because of my trouble, you should also reproach God." I
suppose that we cannot, all of us, see into the inner meaning of these
words, but if we are in very sore trouble and those who ought to
comfort us are bringing cruel accusations against us, we shall read the
language of Job with no small sympathy and satisfaction.
7. Behold, if I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard: I cry aloud,
but there is no judgment Poor Job! When our prayer is not heard, or we
think it is not, then the clouds above us are indeed dark. You who are
passing through a season of unanswered prayer–do not imagine that you
are the first to travel that dreary way! You can see the footprints of
others on that desolate sandy shore. Job knew what that experience
meant. So did David and so did our blessed Lord. Read the 2nd verse of
the 22nd Psalm, and hear Jesus say, "O My God, I cry in the daytime,
but You hear not; and in the night season, and am not silent."
8. He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness
in my paths. God haddone this and done it to Job whom He called "a
perfect and an upright man." Then how can you and I expect to escape
trial and difficulty when such a man as the Patriarch of Uz found his
road blocked up and darkness all around him?
9. 10. He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my
head. He has destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and my hope has
He removed like a tree. That is, torn up by the roots and carried down
the stream to be forgotten by the people who once knew it and rejoiced
in its welcome shade.
11. He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me unto Him
as one of His enemies. Does God ever act like that towards His own
children? Yes, there are times when, without any anger in His heart,
but with designs of love toward them, He treats His children,
outwardly, as if He were an enemy to them. See the gardener going up to
that beautiful tree. He takes out a sharp knife, feels its edge to be
sure that it is sharp and then he begins pruning it here, gashing it
there and making it to bleed in another place as if he were going to
cut it all to pieces! Yet all that is not because he has any anger
against the tree, but, on the contrary, because he greatly values it
and wishes it to bring forth more fruit than it has ever done. Do not
think that God's sharpest knife means death to His loved ones–it means
more life and a richer, fuller life.
12. His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and
encamp round about my tabernacle. Troops of trouble, troops of
Chaldeans and Sabeans, troops in which Job counted the stormy winds as
terrible allies of the Most High–all these had come up against Job and
he seemed to be like a country that is beaten down and devoured by
powerful invaders.
13. He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintance are verily
estranged from me. He looks on those so-called "friends" of his and,
remembering the bitter things they had said, he tells them that they
are estranged from him.
14. 15. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten
me. They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger:
I am an alien in their sight What a long way a child of God may be
permitted to go in trouble! Ah, Brothers and Sisters! We do not know
how those who are most dear to God's heart may suffer all the more for
that very reason–"for whom the Lord loves He chastens."
16, 17. I called my servant, andhe gave me no answer; I entreated him
with my mouth My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for
the children's sake of my own body. He mentioned to his wife those whom
death had taken away and asked her to speak kindly to him, but even she
had hard words to throw in his teeth!
18-20. Yes, young children despised me; I arose, and they spoke against
me. All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned
against me. My bone cleaves to my skin and to my flesh, and I am
escaped with the skin of
my teeth. There is no skin upon the teeth, or scarcely any, and,
therefore, Job means that there was next to nothing of him left, like
the skin of his teeth.
21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends; for the
hand of God has touched me. How full of pity it is that he has thus to
beg for sympathy! This strong man–this most patient man–this perfect
and upright man before God has to ask for sympathy! Do you wonder that
it was so? HE, who was far greater than Job, ran back thrice to His
sleeping disciples as if He needed some help from them, yet He found it
not, for He had to say to them, "What? Could you not watch with Me one
hour?" Let this be a lesson to us to try and possess hearts of
compassion towards those who are in sorrow and distress.
22. Why do youpersecute me as God does, andare not satisfied with my
flesh? "If God smites me, why do you, who are round about me, do the
same? Is it not enough that God seems to be turned against me? Why
should you also be my enemies?"
23. 24. Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in
a book! That they were engraved with an iron pen and lead in the rock
forever! Inscriptions have been found, engraved in the rocks, that may
have been done in the time of Job and it was common, in ancient days,
to write on tablets of lead or brass. So Job desired that what he was
saying might be recorded for future reference, for he was persuaded
that he was being harshly dealt with and unjustly judged.
25. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth. "For I know." What a splendid burst of
confidence this is, right out of the depth of his sorrow, like some
wondrous star that suddenly blazes upon the brow of the blackest night,
or like the sudden rising of the morning sun!
26-28. And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall
behold, and not another; though my reins are consumed within me. But
you should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is
found in me?Job seems to say, speaking about himself, though in the
third person, "He is a devout man, can you not see that? He has faith
in God, my Friends, can you not perceive that? Why, then, do you
persecute him so?"
29. Be you afraid of the sword: for wrath brings the punishments of the
sword, that you may know there is a judgment Now Job carries the war
into the enemy's camp and he says, "You charge me with all sorts of sin
and yet you cannot deny that the root of the matter is in me. Would it
not be much wiser for you to be yourselves afraid lest God should cut
you off for falsely accusing me and slandering me in the time of my
sorrow?" There we may confidently leave Job, for the man who can truly
say what he has said about his Redeemer will come out all right at the
last.