Job 19

The Explanation

Job sat on the ground. His skin hurt everywhere. His children had died. His animals were gone. His house was quiet, and outside sat three men who used to be his friends.

They kept talking. And talking. Every word poked at Job like a stick.

"How long will you torment me?" Job said. "You crush me with words. Ten times now you have said I am bad. Aren't you ashamed?"

Job was so thin you could count his bones through his skin. He said something strange and true: "I have escaped by the skin of my teeth." That means: there is almost nothing left of me.

And it was not only his friends. Job's own brothers stayed away. His relatives walked past. The servants in his house looked at him like he was a stranger, someone they had never met. When Job called his servant, the man did not even answer. Job's wife turned her face away because his breath smelled sick. Even little children in the street pointed at him and said mean things.

Imagine that. Everybody who once loved you, standing far off.

Then Job said the hardest thing of all. "God has surrounded me with his net. He has walled up my way so I can't pass. He has set darkness in my paths." Job felt like an animal caught in a net. Like a man in a dark alley with a wall at the end. He shouted to God for help, and heard nothing back.

"Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends," Job begged. Twice he said it. Would you have said it a third time?

But then something rises up inside Job, like a light in a cellar. He wishes his words could be carved into rock with an iron pen, so they would last forever. And these are the words:

"I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth."

What Does This Mean?

A Redeemer is a rescuer. In Job's time, if you got into terrible trouble, a family member could come and buy you back and stand up for you. That person was called a redeemer.

Job had lost everything. His body was falling apart. But he says: Someone is alive who will come for me. He will stand on this earth. And after my skin is gone, I will see God with my own eyes. Not from far away. Up close. Face to face.

Job did not stop being sad. He did not suddenly feel happy. He was still sitting in the dirt. But deep underneath the sadness, he was holding on to one thing: my Rescuer lives.

The Common Thread

Job did not know His name yet. But we do.

The Redeemer who came and stood on the earth is Jesus. He walked on dust and grass, and He was left alone too. His friends ran away. People pointed at Him. He hung on a cross while everyone stared.

Jesus knows exactly what Job's kind of dark feels like. And He came out of the grave alive. That is why Job's words are true forever: my Redeemer lives.

For You

Some days everything goes wrong and nobody seems to notice. Maybe someone at school says mean things about you. Maybe you feel left out.

Two small things you can do. First: when you feel that dark, say it out loud to God, exactly like it is. Job did. God can handle honest words.

Second: look around for the person who is sitting alone, like Job was. Go and sit next to them. Don't preach at them. Just be there, the way Job's friends should have been.

Talk About It

Job's friends kept talking when they should have kept quiet. When is it better to just sit with someone?

What do you think Job felt when he said, "I know that my Redeemer lives"?

Praying Together

Lord Jesus, You are the Redeemer who lives. When things are dark, help me to say it out loud to You. And help me to see the one who sits alone. Amen.