Job 19 “Job’s Redeemer”

Message Details

Passage: Job 19

Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives
19 Then Job answered and said:

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

13 “He has put my brothers far from me,
and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives have failed me,
my close friends have forgotten me.
15 The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
17 My breath is strange to my wife,
and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me;
when I rise they talk against me.
19 All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

23 “Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.[b]
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in[c] my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’[d]
29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.”

Intro: We need the big picture of justice and redemption. God will justify. God will redeem His people. He is FOR them. Job 19 shows the Christian that God is for them and will bring final justice and vindication. Is God for me always?

Outro: Child of God, God is for you in Jesus. If you are a Christian, you know this. You know the redemption Jesus has brought and when times are dark and you are otherwise alone, you can rest that God is for you. Not just a little for you, he sent His Son Jesus to save you. That’s how for you He is. He has freed you from your sins. You are no longer a slave to your selfish desires. You are a servant of God on high and he will see things through for you. You will see God.

Job’s brief application is correct. “My heart faints within me.” Ya. Mine, too. Be blown away that the God of the universe, the creator of all, is for His people.

And if you are not a child of God – if you have not known this Redeemer, Jesus, and are not trusting in His work on the behalf of lawbreaking people, you don’t have to leave here today still a slave to your sin. You can be a child of God today through placing your trust in Jesus and the work he’s done so that broken people can be counted as blameless before God. You can know that today.

If you’re here today and you’re not a Christian – you’re not trusting in Jesus, I thank you for being here. And I ask you to not participate. That wouldn’t be genuine. It wouldn’t be right. This is for followers of Jesus. The Bible is clear on that. But if you’re not a Christian, would you please stay until we’re finished? Would you think about where you stand with God? Ask yourself, “In what am I trusting to be made right with God?”

If the answer isn’t the finished work of Jesus, you’re in desperate need of the truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”