Beloved, I am pleased to share with you today the above theme from Job 19:1-2 and following. Indeed “Until when?” – Bildad asked (Jb 18. 2). – until when?… Job replies whose tone warms up. There is indeed no reason for this “dialogue of the deaf” where everyone pursues his idea: “Job thinks that God is against him for no reason; his friends that God is rightly against him. In fact, all of them are wrong; for God is for Job” (Lm 3:1-20). We who are, for the most part, surrounded by the affection and understanding of our own – and what about that of the Supreme Friend! – let’s think how job must have felt alone in such pain without being able to open his heart to anyone! Vs. 13 to 19 give us a poignant echo of this feeling of loneliness, all the greater because he believes he has God against him: “He inflames his anger against me…” He cries out No Job! The divine wrath that you and I deserved struck someone else in our place. Those who belong to Jesus will never know her. Having before him the abandonment of God, Christ could not entrust his pain to anyone. He was misunderstood by all and neglected by his own (Mark 14:35-50). In a suffering that never had its equal, no one was ever alone like him.
As this speech was the worst of all those that had been spoken so far, Job being under the hand of God, is dragged far and out of himself. It may be slow and only for a little while, but the fact is there. However, after this discrepancy, there appears a bright glimmer of the One who is to come, the seed of the woman, whom the saints have been waiting for from the beginning. “How long will you afflict my soul, and overwhelm me with words?” Job knew that in their reproaches there was no foundation, nothing but words. Now consider what he says, in response to Bildad. “But if I really wandered, my mistake remains with me.” He felt that his friends had not corrected him in any way. “If you really want to rise up against me and assert my opprobrium against me” (for they were too hasty in taking advantage of his deep and multiplied afflictions), “know then that it is God who overthrows me and surrounds me with his net”. How bold he speaks now. And this language could not, in a certain sense, have been held without real faith, though it was far below the humble submission of our precious Savior. His friends said that God was against Job. He admits: “It is God who overthrows me.” If it was a consolation for them to know, he confesses that his trial came from His hand and declares: “He surrounds me with his net. Behold, I cry out for violence, and I am not answered; I scream, and there is no judgment. He closed my path and I cannot pass, and He put darkness on my paths. He stripped me of my glory, and took off the crown from above my head. He destroyed me on all sides, and I am leaving; he snatched away my hope like a tree. »
“Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, you my friends! for the hand of God has reached me.” This seems excellent to a certain extent on Job’s part. It was not the whole truth, but it was real, and the fact that he held firm the assurance that it was not for some iniquity that had attached itself to him that he was struck, did not weaken this truth. He had not consciously caressed any evil, and yet it was clear to all that God was hitting him. He did not blame others; he did not seek to explain it by human reasoning. Precisely because he felt that the trial came from God, it seemed to him all the more painful. Whatever the instruments, it was God who had allowed it, the One who until then had surrounded it with a hedge of protection and had continually blessed it. So he did not know how to reconcile the present with the past; for that he had to wait. The answer came at the end, when patience had had its perfect work.
For the time being, Job does not spare the remonstrances and reprehensions to his friends: “Why, like God, do you pursue me and are you not satisfied with my flesh?” The distress brought about by such suffering was sufficient, without the reproaches of his friends. Were they in the truth by destroying his trust in God? The result of their approach was to cause him to doubt the sincerity of his own faith, which was clearly the work of the Enemy. The Spirit of God never leads us to doubt: “Oh! if only my words were written! if only they were inscribed in a book, with a style of iron and lead, and engraved in the rock forever! And I know that my Redeemer is alive, and that the last one will be standing on the earth.” Here we come to the very formal trust of his faith. How touching it is in such a moment, in the deepest desolation and distress, when Job did not have a single friend among men and God himself struck him! What a resemblance to Christ to a certain extent in the circumstances He went through! But also what a difference between the unwavering confession of God’s holiness made by man of sorrows, as alien to any feeling of indifference as of complaint, and the lamentations of Job! However, we had a blessed statement, all the more beautiful because it was made in the midst of sadness, suffering and abandonment. “And after my skin this will be destroyed, and from my flesh I will see God” (Jb 19:26).
In short, therefore, Job says, “With my flesh I will see God, whom I will see for myself.” It is not only the hope of blessing for oneself, but a real and personal enjoyment of God, and this without the slightest fear or ulterior motive. “And my eyes will see it, and not another; my kidneys are burning in my breast.” In the meantime, he can be reduced to nothing, but in that day God will be everything, and He will prove it, establishing His own before Him in their entire personality. “If you say: How will we pursue it? and let the root of the thing be in me, tremble for yourselves before the sword!” Job also sees that on that day the divine judgment will be executed. Not only is there the prospect of the manifestation of the Redeemer, of the “Next Relative” who will defend his people, but, as all scripture declares, there will be at that time a time of judgment: “For the sword is the instrument of fury against iniquities; so that you may know that there is a judgment!”
With a simple and strong art supported by exuberant eloquence, the author has now thrown his hero on our sympathies, mixing a tension of expectation with a tender emotion. In shame and pain, sick almost to death, baffled in his attempts to overcome the apparent indifference of Heaven, the sick man lies, broken and dejected. Bildad’s last speech describing the fate of the ungodly man was deliberately planned to strike Job under the guise of a general statement about the method of retribution. The images of a person seized by the “firstborn of death,” of the lightless and desolate dwelling, of the parched branches, and of the decaying memory of the wicked, are clearly designed to reflect Job’s current state and predict his future fate. At first, the effect is almost irresistible. The judgment of men is turned backwards and as the forces of nature and providence have become implacable. The united pressure on a mind weakened by the disease of the body goes far to cause despair.
But it was God, Job said, who surrounded me with his net. Thus plunging again into the statement of his desperate condition as a decried, dishonored, broken man, the speaker always has in mind the harsh human judgment that counts him among the ungodly. He would melt the hearts of his relentless critics by arguing that their enmity is out of place. If the Almighty is his enemy and has brought him closer to the dust of death, why would men persecute him like God? Wouldn’t they have mercy? There is indeed resentment against providence in his mind; but the anxious desire for human sympathy reacts on his language and makes him much less ferocious and bitter than in previous speeches. Mourning rather than revolt is now his mood.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
In the end, my redeemer will intervene:
- Spiritual enemies
Ps 71:10 For my enemies speak of me, And those who watch my life consult each other, Ps 86:14 O God! proud people have risen up against me, A troop of violent men resent my life; They don’t carry their thoughts on you. Luke 22:31 The Lord said, Simon, Simon, Satan has claimed you, to sift you like wheat. Eph 6:12 For we do not have to fight against flesh and blood, but against domination, against the authorities, against the princes of this world of darkness, against the wicked spirits in the heavenly places.
- Suffering stigma
Luke 6:22 Blessed will you be, when men hate you, when you are chased away, when you are insulted, and your name is rejected as infamous, because of the Son of man! 1 Tim 4:10 We work, indeed, and we fight, because we put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially believers. Hb 10:33 on the one hand, exposed as if in show to opprobrium and tribulation, and on the other, associating you with those whose position was the same. 1 Pet 4:14 If you are outraged by the name of Christ, you are happy, because the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, rests upon you.
- Human limitations, man subject to
-Closed path Jb 3:23 To man who does not know where to go, And may God circle on all sides?
-Feet locked in shackles Jb 13:27 Why put my feet in the vines, Watch all my movements, Draw a limit to my steps, Jb 19:8 He has closed all exit to me, and I cannot pass; He spread darkness on my paths.
-Limited time Ps 90.10 The days of our years amount to seventy years, And, for the most robust, to eighty years; And the pride they derive from it is only pain and misery, for it passes quickly, and we fly away. Ec 8:8 Man is not master of his breath to be able to hold it back, and he has no power on the day of death; there is no deliverance in this battle, and wickedness cannot save the wicked.
-Limits of life Ps 139:5 You surround me from behind and in front, And you put your hand on me. Lm 3.7 He surrounded me with a wall, so that I would not go out; He gave me heavy chains.
-Unable to change a single hair Mt 5.36 Do not swear by your head either, because you can not make white or black a single hair.
-Unable to increase the size Mt 6.27 Who of you, by his worries, can add a cubit to the duration of his life?
- Sword of the Lord
Dt 32:41 If I sharpen the flash of my sword and if my hand seizes righteousness, I will take revenge on my adversaries and punish those who hate me; Ps 45:3 You are the most beautiful of man’s sons, Grace is poured out on your lips: That is why God has blessed you forever. Isaiah 34:6 The sword of the Lord is full of blood, covered with fat, of the blood of lambs and goats, of the fat of the kidneys of rams; For there are victims of the Lord at Botsra, And great carnage in the land of Edom, Rev 19:5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying: Praise our God, you all his servants, you who fear him, big and small!
From all of the above, we note that fromslow cycles of change, the vast plan of divine providence is moving towards glorious consumption. The believer awaits him, seeing the One who preceded him and will come after him, the Alpha and Omega of all life. The fullness of the times will finally arrive, the time in advance, ordained by God, foretold by Christ, when the throne is established, the judgment will be rendered, and the eons of manifestation will begin. And who on that day will be the sons of God? Which of us can say that he knows himself worthy of immortality? How imperfect the noblest human life is, how often it falls into the madness and evil of the world! We need it to free ourselves from the imperfection that gives to all that we are and to make the character of evanescence, to free ourselves from our entanglements and bring us to freedom. We are poor lost creatures. Only if there is a divine plan of grace that extends to the unworthy and frail, if there is redemption for the earthly, if a divine Savior has committed himself to justifying our existence as moral beings, can we look to the future with hope. Job was looking for a Redeemer who would shine a light on a righteousness he claimed to possess. But our Redeemer must be able to awaken in us the love of a justice that only we could never see and clothe ourselves in a holiness that we could never attain by ourselves. The problem of justice in human life will be solved because our race has a Redeemer whose judgment when it falls into the most tender mercy, who has endured our injustice for us and will justify for us that transcendent justice that is forever one with love. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom as I walk in your ways.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “Tsophar’s second speech to Job.” (Jb 20)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.