But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
Parallel Translations
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But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
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For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
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But as for me, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He will witness at the last upon the dust;
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Job 19:25 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ephesians 1:7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
- Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of Armies is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called the God of the whole earth.
- Psalms 78:35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.
- Psalms 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Yahweh, my rock, and my redeemer.
- Proverbs 23:11 for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.
- John 5:22-29 For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him. “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Most certainly I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself. He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man. Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
- Isaiah 59:20-21 “A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says Yahweh. “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Yahweh. “My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your offspring, nor out of the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says Yahweh, “from now on and forever.”
- Jeremiah 50:34 Their Redeemer is strong: Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
- Isaiah 43:14 Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.
- Job 16:19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.
- Jude 1:14 About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,
- Job 33:23-24 “If there is beside him an angel, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show to man what is right for him; then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’
- Genesis 3:15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
- Genesis 22:18 All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.’ ”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain I do not so justify myself before the world,…
I do not so justify myself before the world, but I know that I shall come before the great Judge, who shall be my deliverer and Savior.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 19:25 For I know [that] my redeemer liveth,…
Job 19:25 For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:
Ver. 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth] Clarissima fidei confessio, saith Brentius, A most famous confession of his faith. Brevis et longa, totaque aurea, est haec apologia, saith another, This is Job’s short and yet long apology, but golden all over, and such as hath fulness of matter in fewness of words. Calvin and Mercer ( viri alioqui iudiciosissimi) are mistaken here, when, following the Rabbis, they interpret this text as a temporal restoration of Job to such an estate of honour and riches as he had enjoyed in the former part of his life; this they call Job’s resurrection and redemption, &c. But his thoughts soared higher than so. "I know," saith he; it is as if he should say, You take yourselves to be the only knowing men, and as for me, Bildad hath set me among such as know not God, Job 18:21. But hereby I know that I know him, 1Jn 2:3, because I know him whom he hath sent, Jesus Christ, Joh 17:3, not only as a redeemer, but as "my redeemer," by a particular application of him to myself, which is the very pith and form of faith. This great mystery of godliness I know, whatever else I am ignorant of; and I know it savingly, because I am secure in my interest in Christ, my kinsman and redeemer; and, therefore, I am no hypocrite or wicked man, as you would make me. Were it not for this word of possession (mine), the worst man alive, nay, the devil, might say as Job here doth; yea, repeat all the Articles of the Creed to as good purpose as he; but that which tormenteth the devil is, he can say "my" to never a one of them. I know, said Job, when condemned for a hypocrite, that Christ is my redeemer, and that this my redeemer liveth for ever, and is for ever mine. So Dr Taylor, martyr, when condemned for a heretic, subscribed his last will and testament in these words, Rowland Taylor, departing hence in a sure hope, without all doubting of a glorious resurrection, I thank God, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, my certain Saviour (Acts and Mon.).
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And that he shall stand] As keeping the field when all his foes shall be his footstool, Psa 110:1. So he standeth, Rev 10:2, setting his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth (opposing all heretics and antichrists that there hence arise), as Lord paramount of both.
At the latter day] Or last of all. Theodosius rendereth it, Novissime. A general judgment of quick and dead at the last day, was in Job’s time, and afterwards by Zoroaster, and other heathens (as Lucretius, Theopompus, Plato, Cicero, Ovid, &c.), believed and foretold. But, in process of time, this true and pure doctrine was darkened among them; and when once it was extinct, superstitions and other vain fopperies overgrew the greatest part of the world. The ancient tradition was that the latter age of the world should be so filthy all over, that, as it could not be washed with water, as once, so it should be wasted with fire, 2Pe 3:10.
Upon the earth] Or, Over the earth; to wit, in the air. For there it is probable Christ will sit in the clouds of the air near unto the earth, whither the elect shall be caught up to meet the Lord, and so shall they ever be with the Lord, 1Th 4:17. There the devils shall be subdued and sentenced, where they have ruled and played Rex, Eph 2:2; see Mat 24:30. Some read it, And this (pointing to his body) shall stand up at the last day upon the earth.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This is the reason of his great confidence in…
This is the reason of his great confidence in the goodness of his cause, and his willingness to have the matter depending between him and his friends published and submitted to any trial, because he had a living and powerful Redeemer to plead his cause, and vindicate his person from all their severe censures, and to give sentence for him.
I know: I have no knowledge, nor confidence, nor hope of restitution to the prosperities of this life; yet this one thing I know, which is more comfortable and considerable, and therein I rejoice, though I be now a dying man, and in a desperate condition for this life.
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My redeemer; in whom I have a particular interest, and he hath a particular care of me.
Quest. What redeemer and what deliverance doth Job speak of in this and the two following verses?
Answ. Some late interpreters understand this place metaphorically, of God’s delivering Job out of his doleful and desperate condition, and restoring him to his former splendour and happiness in the world; it being a very usual thing in Scripture to call eminent dangers or calamities by the name of death, as Psa 22:15; 88:4,5; Eze 37:11,12; 2Co 11:23; and great and glorious deliverances by the name of quickening and resurrection, as Psa 71:20; Isa 26:19; Rom 11:15. But the most interpreters, both ancient and modern, understand it of Christ, and of his resurrection, and of Job’s resurrection to life by his power and favour; which seems most probable for many reasons.
1. From that known rule, that a proper and literal interpretation of Scripture is always to be preferred before the metaphorical, where it suits with the text and with other scriptures.
2. From the Hebrew word goel, here used; which although sometimes it be used of God absolutely, or essentially considered, yet it most properly agrees to Jesus Christ; for this word, as all Hebricians know, is primarily used of the next kinsman, whose office it was to redeem by a price paid the sold or mortgaged estate of his deceased kinsman, Lev 25:25; and to revenge his death, Num 35:12; and to maintain his name and honour, by raising up seed to him, Deu 25:5; all which most fitly agrees to Christ, who is our nearest Kinsman and Brother, Heb 2:11, as having taken our nature upon him by incarnation; who also hath redeemed that everlasting inheritance which our first parents had utterly lost and sold by the price of his own blood; and hath revenged the death of mankind upon the great contriver of it, the devil, by destroying him and his kingdom; and hath taken a course to preserve our name, and honour, and persons to eternity. And if the places where God is called Goel in the Old Testament be examined, it will be found that either all or most of them may be, and some of them must be, understood of God the Son, or of Christ, as Gen 48:16; Isa 49:20. See also Psa 74:2; Isa 41:14; 44:16; 49:7; 52:3; 63:16.
3. Because Job was so far from such a firm confidence as he here professeth, that he had not the least degree of hope of any such glorious temporal restoration as his friends promised to him, as we have oft seen and observed in the former discourses, as Job 16:22; 17:12,13, &c. And therefore that hope which every righteous man hath in his death, Pro 14:32, and which Job oft professeth that he had, must necessarily be fixed upon his happiness in the future life.
4. Because some of the following expressions cannot without wresting and violence be applied to a metaphorical resurrection, as we shall see in the sequel.
5. Because this is a more lofty and spiritual strain than any in Job’s former discourses, and quite contrary to them. And as they generally savour of dejection and diffidence, and do either declare or increase his grief; so this puts him into another and much better temper. And therefore it is well observed, that after this time and these expressions we meet not with any such impatient or despairing passages as we had before; which shows that they had inspired him with new life and comfort.
6. Because this well agrees with other passages in this book; wherein Job declareth, that although he had no hope as to this life, And the comforts thereof, yet he had a hope beyond death, which made him profess, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him, Job 13:15. Trust in him; for what? Surely for comfort and happiness. Where? Not in this life, for that he supposeth to be lost; therefore it must be in the next life. And this was one reason why he so vehemently desired death, because he knew it would bring him unto God and unto true felicity. And this his hope and confidence in God, and in his favour to him, Job opposeth to those foul and false aspersions which his friends had cast upon him, as if he had forsaken God, and cast off all fear of him, and hope in him.
Object
1. If this place had spoken of the resurrection of the body, some of the Hebrew’ writers or commentators upon this place, who did believe that doctrine, would have understood it so, and have urged it against the Sadducees, which they did not.
Answ.
1. All the Jewish writers which are now extant lived and wrote since Christ’s time, when the doctors of that people were very ignorant of many great truths, and of the plain meaning of many scriptures, and very corrupt in their principles as well as in their practices.
2. There was a manifest reason why they could not understand this text thus, because they believed that Job in his agonies did deny God’s providence, and consequently the resurrection and the future judgment, which though it was a most uncharitable and false opinion, yet forced them to interpret this text another way.
Object.
2. How is it credible that Job, in those ancient times, and in that dark state of the church, should know these great mysteries of Christ’s incarnation, and of the resurrection and life to come?
Answ. 1. The mystery of Christ’s incarnation was revealed to Adam by that first and famous promise, that the seed of the woman should break the serpent’s head, Gen 3:15; which being the only foundation of all his hopes for the recovery and salvation of himself, and of all his posterity, he would doubtless carefully and diligently teach and explain it, as need required, to those that descended from him.
2. That the ancient patriarchs and prophets were generally acquainted with these doctrines is undeniably evident from Heb 11; 1Pe 1:9-12.
3. Particularly Abraham, from whom Job is supposed to have descended, had the promise made to him, that Christ should come out of his loins, Gen 12:3; and is said to have seen, Christ’s day, and rejoiced to see it, Joh 8:56, and had his hopes and desires fixed upon a divine and heavenly city and country, Heb 11:10,16. And as Abraham knew and believed these things himself, so it is manifest that, he taught them to his children and servants, Gen 18:19, and to his kindred and others, as he had occasion. And therefore it cannot seem strange that Job professeth his faith and hope in these things.
My redeemer liveth: I am a dying man, and my hopes are dying, but he liveth, and that for ever; and therefore though I die, yet he both can and will make me live again in due time, though not in this world, yet in the other, which is much better; and though I am now highly censured and condemned by my friends and others as a great dissembler and a secret sinner, whom God’s hand hath found out; yet there is a day coming wherein my cause shall be pleaded, and my name and honour vindicated from all these reproaches, and my integrity brought to light.
He shall stand: I am falling and dying, but he shall stand firm, and unmovable, and victorious, in full power and authority; all which this word
stand signifies; and therefore he is able to make me stand in judgment, and to maintain my cause against all opposers. Or, he shall arise, as this verb most commonly signifies, i.e. either,
1. He shall exist, or be born, as this word is oft used; as Num 32:14; Deu 29:22; Jdg 2:10; 1Ki 3:12; Mat 11:11. And it notes Christ’s incarnation, that although as he was God he was now and from all eternity in being, yet he should in due time be made man, and be born of a woman. Or,
2. He shall arise out of the dust; which had been more probable, if it had been in the text from or out of, as now it is upon, the earth or dust; for Christ’s resurrection from the dead might be fitly mentioned here as the cause of Job’s resurrection, which followeth.
At the latter day; either,
1. In the days of the Messiah, or of the gospel, which are oft called the
latter or last days or times; as Isa 2:2; Hos 3:5; Joe 2:28, compared with Act 2:17; 1Ti 4:1; 2Ti 3:1; Heb 1:1. Or rather,
2. At the day of the general resurrection and judgment, which, as those holy patriarchs well knew and firmly believed, was to be at the end of the world, and which is called the last day, Joh 6:39,40,44,51; 11:24; 12:48; 1Pe 1:5; for this was the time when Job’s resurrection, of which he speaketh here, was to be. Heb. at the last; by which word he plainly intimates that his hope was not of things present, and of worldly felicities, of which his friends had discoursed so much; but of another kind of, and a far greater, blessedness, which should accrue to him in after-times, long after he was dead and rotten. Or, the last; who is both the first and the last, Isa 44:6; Rev 1:11, who shall subdue and survive all his and his people’s enemies, and after others the last enemy, death, 1Co 15:26, and then shall raise up his people and plead their cause, and vindicate them from all the calumnies and injuries which are put upon them, and conduct them to life and glory.
Upon the earth; the place upon which Christ shall appear and stand at the last day. Heb. upon the dust; in which his saints and members lie or sleep, whom he will raise out of it. And therefore he is fitly said to stand upon the dust, or the grave, or death, because then he will put that among other enemies under his feet; as it is expressed, 1Co 15:25,26. Some render the words thus, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew, the last, or at the last, he shall arise or stand up against (for so this very phrase is used, Gen 4:8; Jdg 9:18; Psa 44:3) the dust, and fight with it, and rescue the bodies of the saints, which are held in it as prisoners, from its dominion and territories. Some understand this of God, that he should stand last in the field, as Conqueror of all his enemies. But this neither agrees with the words, the Hebrew aphar signifying dust, and being never used of the field or place of battle; nor with Job’s scope, which was to defend himself against his friends’ accusations, and to comfort himself with his hopes and assurance of God’s favour to be exhibited to him in due time; which end the words in that sense would by no means serve, because God might and would be Conqueror of all his enemies, though Job himself had been one of them, and though his cause had been bad, and his friends should with God have triumphed over him.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And though after my skin worms destroy this body,....…
And though after my skin worms destroy this body,.... Meaning not, that after his skin was wholly consumed now, which was almost gone, there being scarce any left but the skin of his teeth, Job 19:20; the worms in his ulcers would consume what was left of his body, which scarce deserved the name of a body, and therefore he points to it, and calls it "this", without saying what it was; but that when he should be entirely stripped of his skin in the grave, then rottenness and worms would strip him also of all the rest of his flesh and his bones; by which he expresses the utter consumption of his body by death, and after it in the grave; and nevertheless, though so it would be, he was assured of his resurrection from the dead:
yet in my flesh shall I see God: he believed, that though he should die and moulder into dust in the grave, yet he should rise again, and that in true flesh, not in an aerial celestial body, but in a true body, consisting of flesh, blood, and bones, which spirits have not, and in the same flesh or body he then had, his own flesh and body, and not another's; and so with his fleshly or corporeal eyes see God, even his living Redeemer, in human nature; who, as he would stand upon the earth in that nature, in the fulness of time, and obtain redemption for him, so he would in the latter day appear again, raise him from the dead, and take him to himself, to behold his glory to all eternity: or "out of my flesh" (f), out of my fleshly eyes; from thence and with those shall I behold God manifest in the flesh, my incarnate God; and if Job was one of those saints that rose when Christ did, as some say (g), he saw him in the flesh and with his fleshly eyes.
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(f) "e carne mea", Tigurine version, Mercerus, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens; so Gussetius, p. 446. (g) "Suidas in voce" & Sept. in ch. xlii. 17.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain For - This is the reason of his confidence…
For - This is the reason of his confidence in the goodness of his cause, and his willingness to have the matter depending between him and his friends, published and submitted to any trial, because he had a living and powerful Redeemer to plead his cause, and to give sentence for him. My Redeemer - In whom I have a particular interest. The word Goel, here used; properly agrees to Jesus Christ: for this word is primarily used of the next kinsman, whose office it was to redeem by a price paid, the sold or mortgaged estate of his deceased kinsman; to revenge his death, and to maintain his name and honour, by raising up seed to him. All which more fitly agrees to Christ, who is our nearest kinsman and brother, as having taken our nature upon him; who hath redeemed that everlasting inheritance which our first parents had utterly lost, by the price of his own blood; and hath revenged the death of mankind upon the great contriver of it, the devil, by destroying him and his kingdom; and hath taken a course to preserve our name, and honour, and persons, to eternity. And it is well observed, that after these expressions, we meet not with such impatient or despairing passages, as we had before; which shews that they had inspired him with new life and comfort. Latter day - At the day of the general resurrection and judgment, which, as those holy patriarchs well knew and firmly believed, was to be at the end of the world. The earth - The place upon which Christ shall appear and stand at the last day. Hebrew. upon the dust; in which his saints and members lie or sleep, whom he will raise out of it. And therefore he is fitly said to stand upon the dust, or the grave, or death; because then he will put that among other enemies under his feet.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth]…
Verse 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth] Any attempt to establish the true meaning of this passage is almost hopeless. By learned men and eminent critics the words have been understood very differently; some vehemently contending that they refer to the resurrection of the body, and the redemption of the human race by Jesus Christ; while others, with equal vehemence and show of argument, have contended that they refer only to Job's restoration to health, family comforts, and general prosperity, after the present trial should be ended. In defense of these two opinions larger treatises have been written than the whole book of Job would amount to, if written even in capitals. To discuss the arguments on either side the nature of this work forbids; but my own view of the subject will be reasonably expected by the reader. I shall therefore lay down one principle, without which no mode of interpretation hitherto offered can have any weight. The principle is this: Job was now under the especial inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and spoke prophetically.
Now, whether we allow that the passage refers to the general resurrection and the redemption by Christ, or to Job's restoration to health, happiness, and prosperity, this principle is equally necessary.
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1. In those times no man could speak so clearly concerning the general resurrection and the redemption by Jesus Christ as Job, by one class of interpreters, is supposed here to do, unless especially inspired for this very purpose.
2. Job's restoration to health and happiness, which, though it did take place, was so totally improbable to himself all the way through, so wholly unexpected, and, in every sense, impossible, except to the almighty power of God, that it could not be inferred from any thing that had already taken place, and must be foreshown by direct inspiration.
Now, that it was equally easy to predict either of these events, will be at once evident, because both were in futurity, and both were previously determined. Nothing contingent could exist in either; with them man had nothing to do; and they were equally within the knowledge of Him to whose ubiquity there can be neither past nor future time; in whose presence absolute and contingent events subsist in their own distinctive characters, and are never resolved into each other.
But another question may arise, Which was most likely to be the subject of this oracular declaration, the general resurrection and redemption by Christ; or the restoration of Job to health and affluence?
If we look only to the general importance of these things, this question may be soon decided; for the doctrine of human redemption, and the general resurrection to an eternal life, are of infinitely greater importance than any thing that could affect the personal welfare of Job. We may therefore say, of two things which only the power of God can effect, and one of which only shall be done it is natural to conclude he will do that which is of most importance; and that is of most importance by which a greater measure of glory is secured to himself, and a greater sum of good produced to mankind.
As, therefore, a revelation by which the whole human race, in all its successive generations, to the end of time, may be most essentially benefited, is superior in its worth and importance to that by which one man only can be benefited, it is natural to conclude here, that the revelation relative to the general resurrection, c., is that which most likely the text includes.
But to this it may be answered, God does not do always in the first instance that which is most necessary and important in itself, as every thing is done in that order and in that time which seems best to his godly wisdom therefore, a thing of less importance may be done now, and a thing of greater importance left to a future time. So, God made the earth before he made man, produced light before he formed the celestial luminaries, and instituted the Mosaic economy before the Christian dispensation. This is all true, for every thing is done in that season in which it may best fulfil the designs of providence and grace. But the question still recurs, Which of the predictions was most congruous to the circumstances of Job, and those of his companions; and which of them was most likely to do most good on that occasion, and to be most useful through the subsequent ages of the world? The subject is now considerably narrowed; and, if this question could be satisfactorily answered, the true meaning of the passage would be at once found out.
1. For the sake of righteousness, justice, and truth, and to vindicate the ways of God with man, it was necessary that Job's innocence should be cleared; that the false judgments of his friends should be corrected; and that, as Job was now reduced to a state of the lowest distress, it was worthy the kindness of God to give him some direct intimation that his sufferings should have a happy termination. That such an event ought to take place, there can be no question: and that it did take place, is asserted in the book; and that Job's friends saw it, were reproved, corrected, and admitted into his favour of whom they did not speak that which was right, and who had, in consequence, God's wrath kindled against them, are also attested facts. But surely there was no need of so solemn a revelation to inform them of what was shortly to take place, when they lived to see it; nor can it be judged essentially necessary to the support of Job, when the ordinary consolations of God's Spirit, and the excitement of a good hope through grace, might have as completely answered the end.
2. On the other hand, to give men, who were the chiefs of their respective tribes, proper notice of a doctrine of which they appear to have had no adequate conception, and which was so necessary to the peace of society, the good government of men, and the control of unruly and wayward passions, which the doctrine of the general resurrection and consequent judgment is well calculated to produce; and to stay and support the suffering godly under the afflictions and calamities of life; were objects worthy the highest regards of infinite philanthropy and justice, and of the most pointed and solemn revelation which could be given on such an occasion. In short, they are the grounds on which all revelation is given to the sons of men: and the prophecy in question, viewed in this light, was, in that dark age and country, a light shining in a dark place; for the doctrine of the general resurrection and of future rewards and punishments, existed among the Arabs from time immemorial, and was a part of the public creed of the different tribes when Mohammed endeavoured to establish his own views of that resurrection and of future rewards and punishments, by the edge of the sword. I have thus endeavoured dispassionately to view this subject; and having instituted the preceding mode of reasoning, without foreseeing where it would tend, being only desirous to find out truth, I arrive at the conclusion, that the prophecy in question was not designed to point out the future prosperity of Job; but rather the future redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ, and the general resurrection of the human race.
After what has been stated above, a short paraphrase on the words of the text will be all that is necessary to be added.
I know, ידעתי yadati, I have a firm and full persuasion, that my Redeemer, גאלי goali, my Kinsman, he whose right it was among the ancient Hebrews to redeem the forfeited heritages belonging to the family, to vindicate its honour, and to avenge the death of any of his relatives by slaying the murderer; (Le 25:25; Nu 35:12; Ru 3:13;) but here it must refer to Christ, who has truly the right of redemption, being of the same kindred, who was born of woman, flesh of flesh and bone of our bone.
Liveth, חי chai, is the living One, who has the keys of hell and death: the Creator and Lord of the spirits of all flesh, and the principle and support of all life.
And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. The latter day, אחרון acharon, the latter day, or time, when God comes to judgment; or finally, or at last, or in the last time, or latter days, as the Gospel is termed, he shall be manifested in the flesh.
He shall stand, יקום yakum, he shall arise, or stand up, i.e., to give sentence in judgment: or he himself shall arise from the dust, as the passage has been understood by some to refer to the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
Upon the earth, על עפר al aphar, over the dead, or those who are reduced to dust. This is the meaning of עפר aphar in Ps 30:9: What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Shall the DUST (i.e., the dead) praise thee? He shall arise over the dust - over them who sleep in the dust, whom he shall also raise up.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 19:25. For I know, &c. — Job proceeds…
Job 19:25. For I know, &c. — Job proceeds now to assign the reason of his confidence in the goodness of his cause, and of his willingness to have the matter depending between him and his friends published and submitted to any trial. I know that my Redeemer liveth — I have no knowledge, nor confidence, nor hope of being restored to the prosperities of this life; yet this one thing I know, which is much more comfortable and considerable, and therein I rejoice, though I be now a dying man, and in a desperate condition for this life; I know that I have a living and powerful Redeemer to plead my cause, and vindicate my person from all severe and unjust censures, and to give sentence for me: a Redeemer, whom I call mine, because I have a particular interest in him, and he hath a particular care of me. Hebrew, ידעתי גאלי חי, jadangti goali chai, I know my living Redeemer; that is, My Redeemer is living, is now living, and I know him: I am acquainted, truly, experimentally, and savingly acquainted with him, because he hath revealed himself to me, and hath given me an understanding to know him. Remember, reader, this knowledge of him, this acquaintance with him, is absolutely necessary to thy salvation. But what Redeemer, and what deliverance, does Job speak of in this and the two following verses? Answer: Some late interpreters understand this passage metaphorically, of God’s delivering Job out of his afflictions and troubles, and restoring him to his former splendour and happiness in this world; it being, they say, a usual thing in Scripture, to call eminent dangers and calamities death, and great and glorious deliverances a quickening or resurrection. But most interpreters, both ancient and modern, understand it of Christ, and of his resurrection, and of Job’s resurrection to life by his power and goodness. And this seems most probable, for many reasons: 1st, Because a proper and literal interpretation of any passage of Scripture is always to be preferred before the metaphorical, where it suits with the text and with other passages. 2d, Because the Hebrew word, גאל, goel, here used, although sometimes used of God, absolutely or essentially considered, yet most properly agrees to Jesus Christ: for this word is primarily spoken of the next kinsman, whose office it was to redeem, by a price paid, the sold or mortgaged estate of his deceased kinsman, Lev 25:25; and to revenge his death, Num 35:12, and to maintain his name and honour by raising up a seed to him, Deu 25:5. All which most fitly agrees to Christ, who is our nearest kinsman and brother, as having taken our nature upon him, Heb 2:11; who hath redeemed that everlasting inheritance which our first parents had utterly lost, by the price of his own blood; and hath revenged the death of mankind upon the contriver of it, the devil, by destroying him and his kingdom; and hath taken a course to preserve our name, and honour, and persons, to eternity. 3d, Because Job was so far from having a firm confidence, such as is here expressed, that he had not the least degree of hope of any such temporal restoration as that which his friends promised him, as we have often observed in his former discourses, as Job 16:22; Job 17:12-13. And, therefore, that hope which every righteous man hath in his death, and which Job often professes that he had, must necessarily have been fixed on his happiness in a future life. 4th, Because this is a more lofty and spiritual strain than any in Job’s former discourses; which generally savour of dejection and diffidence, and either declare or increase his grief; whereas, this puts him into another and much better temper. And, therefore, it is well observed, that after he uttered these expressions we meet not with any such impatient or despairing passages as we had before, which shows that he was now inspired with new life and comfort. 5th, Because this well agrees with several other passages in this book; wherein Job declares that, although he had no hope as to this life, and the comforts thereof, yet he had a hope beyond death, which made him profess, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him, Job 13:15. Trust in him for what? Surely, for comfort and happiness. Where? Not in this life, for that he supposes to be lost; therefore it must have been in the next life. And this was one reason why he so vehemently desired death, because he knew it would bring him unto God, and unto true felicity. And this his hope and confidence in God, and in his favour to him, Job opposes to those foul and false aspersions which his friends had cast upon him, as if he had forsaken God, and cast off all fear of him, and hope in him. But it is objected, How is it credible, that Job, in those ancient times, and in that dark state of the church, should know these great mysteries of Christ’s incarnation, and of the resurrection and life to come? Answer, 1st, The mystery of the Messiah’s incarnation was revealed to Adam by that first and noted promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, Gen 3:15; which, being the only foundation of his hopes, for the recovery and salvation of himself and of all his posterity, he would doubtless carefully and diligently explain, as need required, to those that descended from him. 2d, That the ancient patriarchs and prophets were generally acquainted with these doctrines is undeniably evident, from Hebrews 11. and 1Pe 1:9-12. 3d, Particularly Abraham, from whom Job is supposed to have descended, had the promise made to him, that Christ should come out of his loins, Gen 12:3; and is said to have seen Christ’s day, and to have rejoiced to see it, Joh 8:56; and had his hopes and desires fixed upon a divine and heavenly city and country, Heb 11:10; Heb 11:16. And as Abraham knew and believed these things himself, so it is manifest that he taught them to his children and servants, Gen 18:19, and to his kindred and others, as he had occasion; and, therefore, it cannot seem strange that Job professes his faith and hope in these things.
That my Redeemer liveth — I am a dying man, and my hopes as to this life are dying, but he liveth, and that for ever; and, therefore, though I die, yet he both can and will make me to live again in due time, though not in this world, yet in the other, which is much better. And, though I am now highly censured and condemned by my friends as a great dissembler and secret sinner, whom God’s hand hath found out; yet there is a day coming wherein my cause shall be pleaded, and my name and honour vindicated from all these reproaches, and my integrity brought to light. And that he shall stand in the latter day — In the days of the Messiah, or of the gospel, which are often called the latter or last days, or times, as Isa 2:2; Hos 3:5; Joe 2:28; compared with Act 2:17; 1Ti 4:1; and 2Ti 3:1; Heb 1:1. Or at the day of the general resurrection and judgment, which, as those holy patriarchs well knew, and firmly believed, was to be at the end of the world; for this was the time when Job’s resurrection, of which he here speaks, was to take place. So that, in these words, Job may either be considered as professing his faith in the incarnation of the Messiah; that, as certainly as he then lived, as God was in existence, and had been from eternity, he should, in due time, be made man, and stand in human nature upon the earth: or, that he should rise out of the dust, and stand up the first-fruits of them that sleep, by his resurrection. Or he may refer to the day of general resurrection and final judgment, which, as those holy patriarchs well knew and firmly believed, was to be at the end of the world; and which is often termed the last day: see Joh 6:39-54; Joh 11:24; Joh 12:48; 1Pe 1:5. Then shall Christ appear and stand upon the earth, or dust, as עפר, gnaphar, properly means; namely, the dust in which his saints and members lie or sleep, whom he will raise up out of it. And therefore he is fitly said to stand upon the dust, or the grave, or death; because then he will subdue and put that, among other enemies, under his feet, as it is expressed 1Co 15:25: or, as the Hebrew, ואחרון על עפר יקום, vaacharon gnal gnaphar jakum, may properly be rendered, The last, or he, the last, shall arise, or stand up against the dust, and fight with it, and rescue the bodies of the saints, which are held in it as prisoners, from its dominion and territories.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For I know that my Redeemer liveth - There…
For I know that my Redeemer liveth - There are few passages in the Bible which have excited more attention than this, or in respect to which the opinions of expositors have been more divided. The importance of the passage Job 19:25-27 has contributed much to the anxiety to understand its meaning - since, if it refers to the Messiah, it is one of the most valuable of all the testimonials now remaining of the early faith on that subject. The importance of the passage will justify a somewhat more extended examination of its meaning than it is customary to give in a commentary of a single passage of Scripture; and I shall
(1.) Give the views entertained of it by the translators of the ancient and some of the modern versions;
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(2.) Investigate the meaning of the words and phrases which occur in it; and
(3.) State the arguments, pro and con, for its supposed reference to the Messiah.
The Vulgate renders it, “For I know that my Redeemer - Redemptor meus - lives, and that in the last day I shall rise from the earth; and again, I shall be enveloped - circumdabor - with my skin, and in my flesh shall I see my God. Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another - this, my hope, is laid up in my bosom.” The Septuagint translate it, “For I know that he is Eternal who is about to deliver me - ὁ ἐκλύειν με μέλλων ho ekluein me mellōn - to raise again upon earth this skin of mine, which draws up these things - τὸ ἀναντλοῦν ταῦτα to anantloun tauta (the meaning of which, I believe, no one has ever been able to divine.) For from the Lord these things have happened to me of which I alone am conscious, which my eye has seen, and not another, and which have all been done to me in my bosom.” Thompson’s trans. in part. The Syriac is in the main a simple and correct rendering of the Hebrew. “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the consummation he will be revealed upon the earth, and after my skin I shall bless myself in these things, and after my flesh. If my eyes shall see God, I shall see light.” The Chaldee accords with our version, except in one phrase. “And afterward my skin shall be inflated, (משכי אתפת) - then in my flesh shall I see God.” It will be seen that some perplexity was felt by the authors of the ancient versions in regard to the passage. Much more has been felt by expositors. Some notices of the views of the moderns, in regard to particular words and phrases, will be given in the exposition.
I know - I am certain. On that point Job desires to express the utmost confidence. His friends might accuse him of hypocrisy - they might charge him with lack of piety, and he might not be able to refute all that they said; but in the position referred to here he would remain fixed, and with this firm confidence he would support his soul. It was this which he wished to have recorded in the eternal rocks, that the record might go down to future times. If after ages should be made acquainted with his name and his sufferings - if they should hear of the charges brought against him and of the accusations of impiety which had been so harshly and unfeelingly urged, he wished that this testimony might be recorded, to show that he had unwavering confidence in God. He wished this eternal record to be made, to show that he was not a rejecter of truth; that he was not an enemy of God; that he had a firm confidence that God would yet come forth to vindicate him, and would stand up as his friend. It was a testimony worthy of being held in everlasting remembrance, and one which has had, and will have, a permanency much greater than he anticipated.
That my Redeemer - This important word has been variously translated. Rosenmuller and Schultens render it, vindicem; Dr. Good, Redeemer; Noyes and Wemyss, vindicator; Herder, avenger, Luther, Erloser - Redeemer; Chaldee and Syriac, Redeemer. The Hebrew word, גאל go'al, is from גאל gā'al, “to redeem, to ransom.” It is applied to the redemption of a farm sold, by paying back the price, Lev 25:25; Rth 4:4, Rth 4:6; to anything consecrated to God that is redeemed by paying its value, Lev 27:13, and to a slave that is ransomed, Lev 25:48-49. The word גאל go'el, is applied to one who redeems a field, Lev 25:26; and is often applied to God, who had redeemed his people from bondage, Exo 6:6; Isa 43:1. See the notes at Isa 43:1; and on the general meaning of the word, see the notes at Job 3:5. Among the Hebrews, the גאל go'el occupied an important place, as a blood-avenger, or a vindicator of violated rights.
See Num 35:12, Num 35:19, Num 35:21, Num 35:24-25, Num 35:27; Deu 19:6-12; Rth 4:1, Rth 4:6,Rth 4:8; Jos 20:3. The word גאל go'el, is rendered kinsman, Rth 4:1, Rth 4:3,Rth 4:6, Rth 4:8; near kinsman, Rth 3:9, Rth 3:12; avenger, Num 35:12; Jos 20:3; Redeemer, Job 19:25; Psa 19:14; Isa 47:4; Isa 63:16; Isa 44:24; Isa 48:17; Isa 54:8; Isa 41:14; Isa 49:26; Isa 60:16; kin, Lev 25:25, et al. Moses found the office of the גאל go'el, or avenger, already instituted, (see Michaelis’s Commentary on laws of Moses, section cxxxvi.) and he adopted it into his code of laws. It would seem, therefore, not improbable that it prevailed in the adjacent countries in the time of Job, or that there may have been a reference to this office in the place before us. The גאל go'el is first introduced in the laws of Moses, as having a right to redeem a mortgaged field, Lev 25:25-26; and then as buying a right, as kinsman, to the restoration of anything which had been iniquitously acquired, Num 5:8.
Then he is often referred to in the writings of Moses as the blood-avenger, or the kinsman of one who was slain, who would have a right to pursue the murderer, and to take vengeance on him, and whose duty it would be to do it. This right of a near relative to pursues murderer, and to take vengeance, seems to have been one that was early conceded every where. It was so understood among the American Indians, and probably prevails in all countries before there are settled laws for the trial and punishment of the guilty. It was a right, however, which was liable to great abuse. Passion would take the place of reason, the innocent would be suspected, and the man who had slain another in self-defense was as likely to be pursued and slain as he who had been guilty of willful murder. To guard against this, in the unsettled state of jurisprudence, Moses appointed cities of refuge, where the man-slayer might flee until he could bare a fair opportunity of trial.
It was impossible to put an end at once to the office of the גאל go'el. The kinsman, the near relative, would feel himself called on to pursue the murderer; but the man-slayer might flee into a sacred city, and remain until he had a fair trial; see Num. 35; Deu 19:6-7. It was a humane arrangement to appoint cities of refuge, where the man who had slain another might be secure until he had an opportunity of trial - an arrangement which eminently showed the wisdom of Moses. On the rights and duties of the גאל go'el, the reader may consult Michaelis’s Com. on the laws of Moses, art. 136, 137. His essential office was that of a vindicator - one who took up the cause of a friend, whether that friend was murdered, or was oppressed, or was wronged in any way. Usually, perhaps always, this pertained to the nearest male kin, and was instituted for the aid of the defenceless and the wronged.
In times long subsequent, a somewhat similar feeling gave rise to the institution of chivalry, and the voluntary defenee of the innocent and oppressed. It cannot now be determined whether Job in this passage has reference to the office of the גאל go'el, as it was afterward understood, or whether it existed in his time. It seems probable that the office would exist at the earliest periods of the world, and that in the rudest stages of society the nearest of kin would feel himself called on to vindicate the wrong done to one of the feebler members of his family. The word properly denotes, therefore, either vindicator, or redeemer; and so far as the term is concerned, it may refer either to God, as an avenger of the innocent, or to the future Redeemer - the Messiah. The meaning of this word would be met, should it be understood as referring to God, coming forth in a public manner to vindicate the cause of Job against all the charges and accusations of his professed friends; or to God, who would appear as his vindicator at the resurrection; or to the future Messiah - the Redeemer of the body and the soul. No argument in favor of either of these interpretations can be derived from the use of the word.
Liveth - Is alive - חי chay Septuagint, immortal - ἀένναός aennaos. He seems now to have forsaken me as if he were dead, but my faith is unwavering in him as a living vindicator. A similar expression occurs in Job 16:19. “My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.” It is a declaration of entire confidence in God, and will beautifully convey the emotions of the sincere believer in all ages. He may be afflicted with disease, or the loss of property, or be forsaken by his friends, or persecuted by his foes, but if he can look up to heaven and say, “I know that my Redeemer live’s,” he will have peace.
And that he shall stand - He will stand up, as one does who undertakes the cause of another. Jerome has rendered this as though it referred to Job,” And in the last day I shall rise from the earth” - de terra surrecturus sum - as if it referred to the resurrection of the body. But this is not in accordance with the Hebrew, דקוּם deqûm - “he shall stand.” There is clearly no necessary reference in this word to the resurrection. The simple meaning is, “he shall appear, or manifest himself, as the vindicator of my cause.”
At the latter day - The word “day” here is supplied by the translators. The Hebrew is, יאחרין ye'achăryôn - and after, afterward, hereafter, at length. The word literally means, hinder, hinder part - opposite to foremost, former. It is applied to the Mediterranean sea, as being behind when the eye of the geographer was supposed to be turned to the East; (see the notes at Job 18:20;) then it means after, later, applied to a generation or age. Psa 48:14, to a day - to future times - (אחרין יום yôm 'achăryôn), Pro 31:25; Isa 30:8. All that this word necessarily expresses here is, that at some future period this would occur. It does not determine when it would be. The language would apply to any future time, and might refer to file coming of the Redeemer, to the resurrection, or to some subsequent period in the life of Job. The meaning is, that however long he was to suffer, however protracted his calamities were, and were likely to be, be had the utmost confidence that God would at length, or at some future time, come forth to vindicate him. The phrase, “the latter day,” has now acquired a kind of technical meaning, by which we naturally refer it to the day of judgment. But there is no evidence that it has any such reference here. On the general meaning of phrases of this kind, however, the reader may consult my notes at Isa 2:2.
Upon the earth - Hebrew על־עפר ‛al ‛âphâr - upon the dust. Why the word dust is used, instead of ארץ 'erets earth, is unknown. It may be because the word dust is emphatic, as being contrasted with heaven, the residence of the Deity. Noyes. What kited of an appearance God would assume when he should thus come forth, or how he would manifest himself as the vindicator and Redeemer of Job, he does not intimate, and conjecture would be useless. The words do not necessarily imply any visible manifestation - though such a manifestation would not be forbidden by the fair construction of the passage. I say, they do not necessarily imply it; see Psa 12:5, “For the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, (Hebrew: stand up - אקוּם 'āqûm, saith the Lord.” Psa 44:26, “arise (Hebrew קוּמה qûmāh - stand up) for our help.” Whether this refers to any visible manifestation in behalf of Job is to be determined in other words than by the mere meaning of this word.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Redeemer may be understood of the Deity, without confining…
Redeemer may be understood of the Deity, without confining it to the second Person; (Isaias xli. 14., and lxix. 7.; Piscator) though it may have a more peculiar reference to Christ: (Junius; Haydock) in whom he believed, as the Redeemer of all mankind. (Calmet) --- Earth. Yea, ere long I shall be restored to health, (St. Chrysostom; Grotius) as an earnest and figure of the resurrection. Nothing is more common, in Scripture, than for the same prophecy to have a double accomplishment; one soon after it is made public, and another more sublime and remote. Job seemed to have no expectation of surviving his present misery, (ver. 7., and chap. vii. 7., and xxiv. 15.) unless God now revealed it to him, as a figure of his future resurrection, founded on the hope of our Saviour’s, which he expresses in much clearer terms. Hebrew, "I know that my Redeemer is living, and that he will raise himself one day upon the earth," (Calmet) like a conqueror, (Haydock) or wrestler, having overthrown his antagonist: (Amama) or, "he will stand the last upon the earth, or dust," (Piscator) ascending his throne, to judge all. (Deodat.) --- Yet Luther translates, "and one day he will raise me up from the earth;" which is not conformable to the Hebrew. Others explain, "he....will place (26) this, my skin, after they (worms) shall have ruined it." (Pagnin; Montanus) --- But Amama suspects that the latter is not in earnest. Pineda defends the Vulgate and observes that yakum (Haydock) may signify, "will raise" himself, or "me;" the latter being at least a consequence of the former, if St. Jerome did not read it me in his copy. So St. Paul argues; If Christ be risen, we also shall rise again. Septuagint, "For I know that he is eternal, who will set me free," (Haydock) by death, (Calmet; or redemption; Greek: ekluain) "upon the earth."
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain redeemer--UMBREIT and others understand this and Job 19:26, of…
redeemer--UMBREIT and others understand this and Job 19:26, of God appearing as Job's avenger before his death, when his body would be wasted to a skeleton. But Job uniformly despairs of restoration and vindication of his cause in this life (Job 17:15-16). One hope alone was left, which the Spirit revealed--a vindication in a future life: it would be no full vindication if his soul alone were to be happy without the body, as some explain (Job 19:26) "out of the flesh." It was his body that had chiefly suffered: the resurrection of his body, therefore, alone could vindicate his cause: to see God with his own eyes, and in a renovated body (Job 19:27), would disprove the imputation of guilt cast on him because of the sufferings of his present body. That this truth is not further dwelt on by Job, or noticed by his friends, only shows that it was with him a bright passing glimpse of Old Testament hope, rather than the steady light of Gospel assurance; with us this passage has a definite clearness, which it had not in his mind (see on Job 21:30). The idea in "redeemer" with Job is Vindicator (Job 16:19; Num 35:27), redressing his wrongs; also including at least with us, and probably with him, the idea of the predicted Bruiser of the serpent's head. Tradition would inform him of the prediction. FOSTER shows that the fall by the serpent is represented perfectly on the temple of Osiris at Philæ; and the resurrection on the tomb of the Egyptian Mycerinus, dating four thousand years back. Job's sacrifices imply sense of sin and need of atonement. Satan was the injurer of Job's body; Jesus Christ his Vindicator, the Living One who giveth life (Joh 5:21, Joh 5:26).
at the latter day--Rather, "the Last," the peculiar title of Jesus Christ, though Job may not have known the pregnancy of his own inspired words, and may have understood merely one that comes after (Co1 15:45; Rev 1:17). Jesus Christ is the last. The day of Jesus Christ the last day (Joh 6:39).
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stand--rather, "arise": as God is said to "raise up" the Messiah (Jer 23:5; Deu 18:15).
earth--rather, "dust": often associated with the body crumbling away in it (Job 7:21; Job 17:16); therefore appropriately here. Above that very dust wherewith was mingled man's decaying body shall man's Vindicator arise. "Arise above the dust," strikingly expresses that fact that Jesus Christ arose first Himself above the dust, and then is to raise His people above it (Co1 15:20, Co1 15:23). The Spirit intended in Job's words more than Job fully understood (Pe1 1:12). Though He seems, in forsaking me, to be as one dead, He now truly "liveth" in heaven; hereafter He shall appear also above the dust of earth. The Goel or vindicator of blood was the nearest kinsman of the slain. So Jesus Christ took our flesh, to be our kinsman. Man lost life by Satan the "murderer" (Joh 8:44), here Job's persecutor (Heb 2:14). Compare also as to redemption of the inheritance by the kinsman of the dead (Rut 4:3-5; Eph 1:14).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 25. For I know — “For” — and. It…
25. For I know — “For” — and. It is not uncommon in the classics to commence a distinct poem or treatise in like manner. (OVID, Amo_3:8; PROPERTIUS, Job_1:17.) Ewald pertinently renders it but, in the sense of “Yet whereto other thoughts?” Or it may be used in a manner similar to the οτι of classic and N.T. Greek, which is often redundant before citations and declarative sentences. (Comp. THAYER’S Buttmann, pp. 245, 274.) And I, I know. The “I” stands forth with prominence as if to express the personal identity of the entire man. No one of the constituent natures answers to the “I;” but all — body, mind, and spirit together — constitute man. Thus in Job_19:27, “Whom I, I shall see for myself.” I know — By degrees has Job been rising to this wondrous sunlight of faith. There has been all along not only a progress of doctrine, but a steady advance in faith. He has sighed for a daysman (Job_9:33) who might intercede for man with God. (Job_16:21.) The fearful struggle in the fourteenth chapter disclosed, for the miserable service in sheol, gleams of hope that God would bring it to an end. (Job_14:14.) Still horrors and doubts have “compassed him about” until, in agony, he cries out to God that he himself should be his sponsor with himself. (Job_17:3.) And all this time his “attester in the heights” (Job_16:19) has kept silence. But now the clouds vanish, and he cries triumphantly aloud, I KNOW my Redeemer liveth, etc. It is to be remembered that from this time forth we hear no more of the gloom of sheol, or of dismal doubts concerning the state of the dead.
My Redeemer — Hebrew, Goel. The prime meaning of the verb is loose, set free. There is no word that, better than redeemer, expresses the fourfold duties of a goel or kinsman. On him devolved, first, the recovery of the lost possession of a kinsman; (Lev_25:25;) second, the deliverance of a kinsman from bondage; (Lev_25:48-49;) third, the avenging of the violent death of a kinsman; (Num_35:12;) fourth, care for the widow of a deceased and childless kinsman; (Deu_25:5.) See vol. 3:308, 314. Christ is our nearest kinsman. Through his veins coursed a tide of blood in common with that of our entire race. The extremes of our race unite in him — however remote the circle of humanity, its radii all centre in him. Each human being can lay claim to a relationship to this divine Goel as close and tender as that which bound the brothers and sisters of Jesus to himself. (Mat_13:56.) He stretches his arm of protection over our whole life, and draws to his heart each sorrowing child of Adam.
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Liveth — (Is) living. “He ever liveth,” “hath life in himself,” “in him was life.” Job’s Redeemer would be pre-eminently a living one. “Life, in the Hebrew and Semitic languages, is a more complete idea than being.” — Dillmann.
He shall stand — The posture of Christ in great emergencies. (Act_7:56.) Faith sees its future champion standing upon (not rising upon) the dust, as some would read the clause. The attitude is one of firmness, dignity, and endurance, like that of the angel of the last day. (Rev_10:5.)
At the latter day upon the earth — Though Merx and others render אחרון at the latter, at last, it is plainly a substantive: —
The last (Gesenius, Michaelis, Zockler, etc.) It is an attribute of Deity (Isa_48:12) which Christ assumes to himself, (Revelations Job_1:11,) and to which the apostle alludes (“the last Adam”) in his description of the resurrection. (1Co_15:45.)
The earth — The dust. That into which the dead body moulders; hence the “dusty death” of the classics. Shall the dust (dead body: De Wette) praise thee? (Psa_30:9.) Ewald and Merx read, instead of “upon the earth,” “on (my) grave.” a sense justified by the frequent use by Job of “dust” for the grave. (Job_7:21; Job_10:9; Job_17:16; Job_20:11; Job_21:26; Job_34:15.) The expression dust is peculiarly elegant in view of man’s origin and destiny. (Gen_3:19.) In the Arabic the tomb is called turbe, dust.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 25. For I know] Rather, but I know. This…
25. For I know] Rather, but I know. This is now something higher to which his mind rises. He desires no doubt to be vindicated before men, and would wish that all generations to come should know his claim to rectitude, when he no more lived himself to make it (Job_19:23-24); but what he desires above all things is that he might see God who now hides His face from him, and meet Him, for the meeting could not but be with joy (cf. ch. Job_23:6 seq.). Job’s problem is first of all a problem of religious life, and only in the second place a speculative one. And the speculative elements in it have no further meaning than as they aggravate the practical religious trouble. A solution of his problem, therefore, was possible in only one way, viz. by his seeing God (cf. ch. Job_42:5)—for to see God is to see Him in peace and reconciliation. And it is to grasp the assurance of this that Job’s heart now reaches forth its hand.
my Redeemer liveth] “Liveth” means more than is, exists. Job uses the word in opposition to himself—he dies but his redeemer lives after him. The term redeemer (Heb. gô’çl) is frequently used of God as the deliverer of His people out of captivity, e.g. very often in Isaiah 40 seq. (ch. Isa_49:7; Isa_49:26, Isa_54:5; Isa_54:8), and also as the deliverer of individuals from distress, Gen_48:16; Psa_19:14; Psa_103:4. Among men the Goel was the nearest blood-relation, on whom it lay to perform certain offices in connexion with the deceased whose Goel he was, particularly to avenge his blood, if he had been unjustly slain (Rth_2:20, &c.; Num_35:19). Job here names God his Goel. The passage stands in close relation with ch. Job_16:18-19, where he names God his “witness” and “sponsor” or representative. It is probable, therefore, that there is an allusion to the Goel among men—Job has in God a Goel who liveth. This Goel will vindicate his rights against the wrong both of men and God (Job_19:3; Job_19:7). At the same time this vindication is regarded less as an avenging of him, at least on others (though cf. Job_19:28-29), than as a manifestation of his innocence. This manifestation can only be made by God’s appearing and shewing the true relation in which Job stands to Him, and by Job’s seeing God. For his distress lay in God’s hiding His face from him, and his redemption must come through his again beholding God in peace. Thus the ideas of Goel and redeemer virtually coincide.
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he shall stand at the latter day] To stand means to arise and appear, to come forward (as a witness, Deu_19:15; Psa_37:12), or to interpose (as a judge, Psa_12:5). The word day has no place here. The expression “the latter” means either last or later. It is used of God as the first and the last (Isa_44:6; Isa_48:12), but also otherwise in a comparative sense, later, to come, following (Psa_48:13; Psa_78:4; Ecc_4:16; Job_18:20). Here the word is an epithet of God and can hardly describe Him as the last, for Job certainly does not contemplate his vindication being put off till the end of all things. The expression is parallel to “my Goel” in the first clause, and literally rendered, means: and he who cometh after (me) shall stand; or, and as one who cometh after (me) he shall stand. The trans., in after time he shall stand, is nearly equivalent. Ewald and other high authorities render, an afterman, i. e. a vindicator.
upon the earth] Better, the dust. The word does not mean earth in opposition to heaven; such an antithesis did not need to be expressed; if God came forward or interposed in Job’s behalf He must do so upon the earth. The word “dust” carries rather an allusion to the earth as that wherein Job shall have been laid before God shall appear for him—the same allusion as is carried in the words “Goel” and “he who cometh after me;” cf. ch. Job_7:21, Job_17:16, Job_20:11, Job_21:26, &c.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (25) For I know that my redeemer liveth.—We must…
(25) For I know that my redeemer liveth.—We must carefully note all the passages which lead up to this one. First, we must bear in mind that Bildad (Job_18:17-20) had threatened Job with the extinction of his name and memory, so he now appeals to the verdict of futurity, and with what success we ourselves who read and repeat and discuss his words are witnesses. Then in Job’s own speeches we have, as early as Job_9:32-35. his longing for a daysman to come between himself and God. Then in Job_10:7; Job_13:15-19, he emphatically declares his innocence, and appeals to God as conscious of it. In Job_16:19, he affirms that his witness is in the high heavens; in Job_19:21 of the same chapter he longs for an advocate to plead his cause. In Job_17:3 he calls upon God to be surety for him. Therefore he has already recognised God as his judge, his umpire, his advocate, his witness, and surety, and in some cases by formal confession of the fact, in others by earnest longing after and aspirations for some one to act in that capacity. Here, then, he goes a step further in expression, if not by implication, and declares his knowledge that he has a Goel or Redeemer. This goel was the name given to the next of kin whose duty it was to redeem, ransom, or avenge one who had fallen into debt or bondage, or had been slain in a family feud. In Ruth, for instance, the goel is he who has to marry the widow of his relative, and to continue his name. The various and conditional functions, then, of this Goel, Job is assured, God will take upon Himself for him; He will avenge his quarrel (comp. Psa_35:1; Psa_35:23), He will be surety for him. He will vindicate him before men and before God Himself; He will do for him what none of his professed friends would undertake to do. And as to this matter, he has not the slightest doubt: he states most emphatically that he himself knows that this Goel liveth. “And I, even I know; as for me, I know that my Vindicator is living, that He liveth, is a reality existing now, and not one to come into existence hereafter, though His manifestation may be a thing of the future, for He shall stand at the last upon the earth,” or, “He shall stand last upon earth” (comp. Isa_40:8), that is, after all others have passed away and gone down to the bars of the tomb. Now, this alone is assuredly a marvellous confession. It states the reality and eternity of God. It is faith in the I am. This same epithet of Redeemer is applied to God in Ps. 19:15; Isa_59:20; in the former passage it is coupled with rock, which was the term Bildad bad applied to God (Job_18:4).
Upon the earth is literally, upon dust; the word is thus used in Job_41:33. This usage of the same words in the same book, where the meaning is not ambiguous, is strongly against the rendering some have preferred: over the dust, or over my dust.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For I know that my Redeemer liveth. Numerous endeavours…
For I know that my Redeemer liveth. Numerous endeavours have been made to explain away the mysterious import of this verse. First, it is noted that a goel is any one who avenges or ransoms another, and especially that it is "the technical expression for the avenger of blood" (Froude, "Short Stories," vol. 1. p. 284) so often mentioned in the Old Testament. It is suggested, therefore, that Job"s real meaning may be that he expects one of his relatives to arise after his death as the avenger of his blood, and to exact retribution for it. But unless in the case of a violent death at the hands of a man, which was not what Job expected for himself, there could be no avenger of blood. Job has already expressed his desire to have a thirdsman between him and God, (Job_9:32-35) which thirdsman can scarcely be other than a Divine Personage. In Job_16:19 be has declared his conviction that" his Witness is in heaven." In ver. 21 of the same chapter he longs to have an advocate to plead his cause with God. In Job_17:3 he calls upon God to be Surety for him. Therefore, as Dr. Stanley Leathes points out, "he has already recognized God as his Judge"his Umpire"his Advocate"his Witness"and his Surety"in some eases by formal confession of the fact, in others by earnest longing after, and aspiration for, some one to act in that capacity." After all this, it is not taking a very long step in advance to see and acknowledge in God his Goel, or "Redeemer." And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; rather, and that at the last he shall stand up over my dust. wdja is not "one who comes after me;" but, if a noun, "the last one" as wOvari is "the first one"; (Isa_44:6) if intended adverbially, "at the lasti.e, at the end of all things. "At the latter day" is not an improper translation.
Vers. 25-27. The great hope.
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These monumental words are what Job desired to be written, noted in a book, "graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever." Certainly few words are more worthy of permanent publicity.
I THE ASSURANCE OF THE GREAT HOPE. Job says, "I know." He is not vaguely feeling after truth. He has it, and he holds it firmly. How different is this great passage from Job_3:1 In what way can we account for the new triumphant tone of the sufferer? How does Job know that his Redeemer liveth, etc.?
1. By inspiration. This passage bears its own evidence to its Divine origin in its tone and spirit and exalted thought. The patriarch is carried out of himself. He is almost like St. Paul in the third heavens. (2Co_12:2) Yet he is in no wild ecstasy; his tone is one of calm, solemn, glad assurance. The greatest truths of redemption and resurrection are from God.
2. Through the discipline of suffering. Job did not see all this at first. But sorrow has given him a marvellous power of intuition. It has trained him to see the highest truth. Thus God"s revelation comes to the prepared soul. Suddenly the black clouds are rent asunder, and the much-suffering man looks right up to the eternal blue, while the very light of God illumines and transfigures his countenance.
II THE GROUNDS OF THE GREAT HOPE. The living Redeemer. Job has a Goel, an Avenger, who will plead his cause and deliver him from his trouble.
1. Divine. Clearly he is thinking of God. He has no idea of another being who shall be his friend while God remains his persecuting Enemy. He flees from God to God. He knows that, though he cannot understand God"s present treatment of him, he will be ultimately delivered if he trusts in God. Although it was not given to Job to see further in this direction, we now know that his great hope and prophecy is fulfilled in Christ, who has come to be the sinner"s Goel, the great Redeemer of man.
2. Personal. Job says, "my Redeemer." Each must know Christ for himself. But all may know and own him. Christ not only redeems the innocent by vindicating them which was what Job expected. We now see that he goes further, and redeems the guilty by saving them even from their sin and doom.
3. Living. The Redeemer lives, though for a while we do not see him, We have a living Saviour.
III THE SUBSTANCE OF THE GREAT HOPE.
1. A future life. Though some suppose that Job is only thinking of the cure of his diseased skin and flesh, and a vindication of him in health during his earthly life, it is difficult to see how his words could be satisfied with this simple meaning. Taking them as prophetic of a future life when the worm-eaten body is left behind, we have a grand picture of the triumph of hope in Old Testament times. Here is the answer to Job_14:14. There will be a future life when the tabernacle of this body is laid aside.
2. A vision of God. Job had been longing to meet God. His prayer was lost in silence (ver. 7). God"s hand was only upon him for chastisement. Now he foresees the great apocalypse.
(1) This is for the vindication of righteousness. God will then explain the mysteries and put an end to the wrongs of earth.
(2) This is itself a g, eat joy. The beatific vision is an adequate compensation for all the sufferings of earth.
IV THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE GREAT HOPE.
1. Apart from the earthly body. This is no trouble to Job. His body has become a loathsome, tormenting encumbrance. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption". (1Co_15:50)
2. With personal identity. Job would not be content to be dissolved into the universe. The future life is one of personal existence. It must be linked by memory to the present life. Every one who knows Christ as his living Redeemer on earth will enjoy the personal fellowship of God in heaven. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain For I know that my Redeemer liveth.
Job_19:25-27
For I know that my Redeemer liveth.
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Of the resurrection (on Easter Day)
This text is a prophecy and prediction of our Saviour Christs glorious resurrection. A sacred truth, requiring not only the assent, but the devotion and adoration of our faith. Here Job foresees and foretells the resurrection of Christ. He tells us that Christ, who by His death redeemed him, hath again obtained an endless life. That after His fall by death, He is recovered and got up again; stands, and shall stand, at last upon the earth. And Job prophesies of his own resurrection, that, though he were now in a dying condition, death had already seized upon him; yet he knew there was hope in his death, that he should be raised from the grave of corruption to an ever-living and blessed state and condition.
I. Jobs belief concerning Christ. Here is--
1. The saving object of his faith; that is, Christ, his Redeemer; his Redeemer dead and alive again; and to appear again at the last day to judge the quick and the dead. Here is a personal interest he claims in Christ. My Redeemer.
2. Jobs assurance. I know. It fully expresses the nature of faith; it is strongly persuaded of what it believes; it puts it beyond ifs, and ands, and hopeful supposals. Faith is an evidence, not a conjecture; not a supposition, but a subsistence. This knowledge of Job will appear the greater and more admirable, as his belief was beset with three great impediments.
(1) There is the resurrection of the dead. That is a matter beyond all reach of reason.
(2) Things at a distance are not discernible.
(3) Distance hinders sight; but darkness and indisposition of the air, much more. Yet Job, in the thickest mists of contrariety and contradiction, sees clearly and believes assuredly.
3. Jobs close and personal application. The word mine makes Christ his own.
II. Jobs belief concerning his own resurrection. Although death had already seized upon him, yet he was assured he should rise again, and be made partaker of a joyful resurrection.
1. The several truths included in this faith of Job concerning his own resurrection. He apprehends the truth of the resurrection. It is easier to conceive of Christs resurrection than of ours. He lays the ground and foundation of his faith. Why is he sure he shall rise again? Because he is sure that Christ is risen. We may strongly argue, from Christs resurrection to the possibility of ours. Job expects a true, real, substantial, bodily resurrection. Nay, here is not only a reality, but an identity; he shall have a body, and the very same body.
2. The motions and evidences of piety his faith expresses. Here appears the great strength of his faith; the alacrity and cheerfulness of his faith, against present discouragements. It is a point of his piety, that he longs for the seeing of his Saviour, the beholding of God.
3. Notice the benefit Job makes to himself of this meditation. It supports his spirits under present afflictions. It settles and composes him. It is his defence and apology against the accusations of the friends. (Bishop Brownrig.)
I know that my Redeemer liveth
When was Jobs greatest conquest won? At what part in the malign struggle does he march forth in the greatness of his strength? The crown of the crisis is passed and the real victory won when there bursts forth, with all-enlightening ray from the dark-rolling clouds of Jobs sorrows, the sublimely strong convictions, chronicled in the familiar, immortal, and exhaustless words of the text. That is the hour and power of Job. There in his Gethsemane he triumphs.
I. Jobs supporting convictions.
1. At the outset we must take care lest we misjudge our facts, and fail to get at the precise power of Jobs convictions, through crediting him with more light than he beheld, and reading into his great sayings the ideas of a new and largely different world. Men have read into these verses such doctrines as eternal redemption; the humanity of the Redeemer; the resurrection of the flesh; and the so-called Second Advent. It is not perhaps surprising that a saying of such superlative wealth in itself, so impressive in its setting, stirring in its influence on the hearts of the sons and daughters of suffering, should have been enlarged by the gifts of loving hearts, and invested with the ideas of eager and admiring readers. It is, in fact, a bold challenge made by a suffering mart to the ages, an appeal from the accusations of clever but mistaken and unsympathetic friends, to the tribunal of the God of eternity. You cannot miss the ring of conviction in the mans speech. He says what he knows. He believes, and therefore speaks. It is not desire or caprice, wish or will, faith or hope, but unwavering, absolute knowledge, whose voice arrests our listening ear, and directs our expectant thought. Three distinct assertions follow the quickening preface.
I. He declares that God is the vindicator of right-seeking and right-doing men. The language is indicative of a state of thought and of social life wholly alien to our own, in which the administration of justice proceeds on lines with which we are no longer familiar. The sacred duty of kinsmen to avenge the damage done to their kin, is the one social form in which faith in the power that makes for righteousness finds expression, and kinship is the principal instrument for the execution of the decrees of justice, embracing and discharging the functions of police and witnesses, judge and jury, gaoler and executioner. God is Jobs Goel. He will act for him. Redemption from loss, and pain, and wrong, and calumny is in Him! Of the fact he is sure; of the how, and when, and where he says nothing, but an invincible faith that, before the last moment in his history comes, God will be his Redeemer from all the ills of which he is then the unfortunate victim, animates and sustains his suffering spirit. Nor is that all. Job is sure that he himself, in his own conscious person, will be the rejoicing witness of that Divine vindication. He sees beforehand the glorious reassertion of his integrity. He does not expect that clearing here. He is beyond that hope. It is personal and conscious witnessing of his vindicated character that neutralises the poison of the bitter cup he is drinking, and leaves him in full-toned spiritual health. But even that is not the most precious treasure in this chaplet of pearls. The chief, conquering, and most meritorious quality in Jobs mood of mind, is his clear and steadfast recognition of the real but dimly revealed law that the suspension of the accepted and outward manifestations of the Divine care and regard is not the suspension of the Divine sympathy, nor the withdrawal of the Divine love and help. Our difficulty, and Jobs, is to believe in the living God, in His unbroken love. The suspension of the ordinary signs of the Divine favour is no proof whatever of changed purpose, or exhausted love to God! Is not that the trial of our faith? Because happiness is not our portion, and power not to our hand, do we not conclude that God does not delight in us? We have no misgivings as to His existence, but if He is, why does He hide Himself? Resist the diabolical sophistry which identifies a cloudless sky with an existing sun, affirms the unseen to be the non-existent, and the unhappy to be the unholy. God is love. That is His nature, the essence of His being; not an accident, an occasional emotion, or a passing mood; and therefore He is, as Job saw and felt, the Redeemer and Vindicator of all souls that sincerely seek Him, and diligently serve Him; the guarantee that defeated, and humiliated, and oppressed man will be set free, and exalted to behold the triumph of eternal righteousness; and the witness that man is at present, and here in this world, scarred and defaced with evil though it be, the object of Gods pitiful sympathy, redeeming care, and constant protection.
II. The fruitful origin of these strength-giving convictions in the mind of Job. For it is often more important to know why a man says what he has to say, than it is to know what it is that he does say. It goes without saying that Jobs most far-reaching and comprehensive declaration falls unspeakably short of that abolition of death, and bringing of life and immortality to light, accomplished by the Gospel of Christ; but what it lacks in fulness and breadth, it gains in the burning intensity and glow out of which it springs, and the sublime motives which urge and impel him, not only to speak, but also to covet a monumental and immortal pulpit for his words. His sayings form a window through which we look into his soul; a lit lamp by whose clear ray we see the workings of his mind, and enter into partnership, not only with his ideas, but with himself, as those ideas are born in his soul, and take their place in his life. The impulse, the goad to Jobs heavenward ascent is suffering itself; the very sharpness of his tribulation causes the rebound, pushes his thought far afield to the things unseen and eternal, carries him over the dark river, and supplies the background for his vision of final triumph. But though the impulse to speak comes from the very sufferings which his friends cite as witnesses to his hypocrisy and insincerity, the power of wing, the motive force is obviously inward, and of the mind and spirit.
1. First in the genealogy of Jobs convictions comes his passion to set the great controlling and cleansed faith of his life in the spotless excellence and living sympathy of God with men, directly over against all the seeming contradictions, chaotic perplexities, and bewildering entanglements of his experience; and so to prove that the view of the three friends would receive its doom as essentially a lie and a libel, later, if not sooner.
2. We may fairly credit Job with the desire to guide the friends to the perception of the one true principle in the criticism of life. They are the victims of sense. They judge by appearances. And still men fasten on the trivial and accidental, and neglect the weightier matters of principle and aim and spirit.
3. The deepest reason and strongest motive of all with Job must have been an insatiable yearning that the truth he had lived and felt and suffered might secure an immortal career of enlightenment and benediction. God is better to us than our best desires, and gives a larger blessing than our fullest prayers. (J. Clifford, M. A.)
The Christians assurance of a glorious resurrection
I. The illustrious person spoken of. The Redeemer. The words redeem and Redeemer frequently occur in the sacred Book. To redeem is to buy or purchase, and the person thus buying is justly styled the Redeemer. As our Redeemer He was--
1. Divinely appointed. God sent forth His Son--made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Here the benevolent act of sending the Redeemer is attributed to God.
2. He is our Redeemer by price; He gave Himself for us.
3. He is our Redeemer by power; that is, He delivered us from the captivity and misery of sin, and, consequently, from the wrath of God and the punishment of hell.
4. He is the living Redeemer. The knowledge of a living Redeemer afforded unspeakable consolation to the mind of Job. My Redeemer liveth. Yes, He was alive in Jobs day, and, in some way, was engaged in promoting his temporal and eternal welfare; consequently, such a consideration dispelled his fears, enabled him to wipe away his tears in transports of joy, and furnished him with a bright prospect of a happy immortality. Since then, the Redeemer has made a visit to our world, to effect the work of redemption. After which, He ascended to the celestial mansion whence He came. He lives, and because He lives, we shall live also.
II. An important event anticipated. He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, etc. The latter day is sometimes called the last day, and the great day. It is the day to which all other days are pointing; the day in which all other days will end.
1. He will stand to redeem us from death; He will ransom us from the power of the grave. No matter where that grave may be. But Job anticipated not a resurrection only, but a glorious one, In my flesh shall I see God.
2. He shall stand at the latter day; stand to direct, or rather to invite His people to their everlasting habitation. Where I am, says He, there ye may be also. See the Redeemer standing at the last day, at the head of His people,--a number which no man can number--arrayed in spotless white, with imperishable crowns upon their heads. In my flesh shall I see God. In my flesh. Flesh no more liable to toil, sorrow, sickness, suffering, and death; the former things shall have passed away.
III. The Christians assurance. We do not profess to have any extraordinary revelation, or personal inspiration; yet we know that we have a living Redeemer, and that He will raise us up at the last day.
1. We know from the testimony of Sacred Writ. The prophets in the Old Testament, and the apostles in the New, have clearly and fearlessly furnished us with a treasury of sterling information on this subject. And, above all, our Lord Jesus, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, brought life and immortality to light.
2. But we have additional evidence of our resurrection in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
We shall conclude by remarking--
1. This knowledge of the Redeemer is interesting and capable of supporting the mind.
2. This knowledge is of the utmost worth, as it cheers the mind amidst the sorrows, tolls, sufferings, and trials of this unfriendly region, and whispers to the fainting spirit.
3. This knowledge calms the troubled breast in the hour of bereavement.
4. This knowledge supports the Christian, smooths his pillow, and brightens his prospect in the extremity of life.
5. This knowledge furnishes the good man with an assurance of mingling with the pious of his family and with Christian friends in the better land forever.
6. Is not this, therefore, the most interesting knowledge? (A. Worsnop.)
Faith triumphing over circumstance
I. The circumstances of Job when he delivered this prophecy. We have all heard of the patience of Job, and know well the series of trials which called it forth. We have sympathised with him in his adversity, and rejoiced with him in his first and latter state of prosperity. The injudicious conduct on the part of his friends greatly embittered the sufferings. It is such injudicious conduct as this which causes much mischief as well as misery in the world at large. If our misery is attributable to ourselves, we know whence is the disorder, and, in general, by the same knowledge, we know how to provide a remedy, if the case is not altogether hopeless. If God is afflicting us, when He speaks, He speaks to be understood. If He is pleased to put our faith and obedience to a severe but wholesome test, by a single blow, or a long series of trials, the matter is entirely between God and a mans own soul.
II. Observe the faith of Job. I know that my Redeemer liveth, etc. The hardest lesson that man has to learn in this school of his probation is submission to the will of God. The permission of evil in the world, as it is one of the hidden mysteries of Gods righteous government, so is it, as might naturally have been expected, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, with which unbelief is wont to impede the progress even of a Christian. Faith supported the holy Job, not only under his unparalleled privations, but under a far more galling load, the accusations and suspicions of friends. In this painful dilemma, unable to vindicate his innocence to them, who, notwithstanding, suspected him guilty, he is borne on the wings of faith, over the head as it were of many intervening ages, to that glorious time when he should stand before God in the imputed righteousness of his Saviour. I know that my Redeemer liveth. Would you then realise the glories and know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,--imitate the faith and patience of Job in his various states and complicated trials. (John Stedman, D. D.)
Jobs faith in the Redeemer
I. The character of Jobs Redeemer. There is only one Redeemer of guilty men.
1. His person. A Divine Person, possessing the true and proper nature, titles, and perfections of the Godhead. Possessed of perfect humanity. In all things made like unto us, except being sinless. Thus He became the kinsman of every child of man. He was therefore both human and Divine.
2. His work. How did He redeem us? From natural depravity, by the purity of His nature. From the demands of the law, by His perfect obedience to all its commands. From the infliction of the curse, by His death upon the Cross. Being made a curse for us. From the power of Satan and death, by His resurrection from the dead. He redeems from the power of sin, and into the image of God, by the influence of the Spirit which He sends down into the hearts of His people. He redeems into heaven by entering it for us with His precious blood, and by receiving the souls of His people to His right hand in glory. He will redeem by His almighty power, all the bodies of His saints, from corruption and the grave, at the last day.
II. Jobs profession of him. My Redeemer.
1. Appropriation. Angels, devils, and those in unbelief cannot say this. The humble, devout believer both realises it and says it.
2. Assurance. I know. In religion there is consciousness and certainty. He is ours because we are sinners, and He was given to save sinners. He is ours because we believe in Him. We know because we love Him.
3. Confidence. In Christs unchanging existence. He liveth now. Therefore His promises shall be fulfilled, His cause maintained, His Church glorified; and His saints shall live with Him forever and ever. Application--
(1) This subject should be the support and joy of the Christian in temptations, afflictions, and death.
(2) It will be the song of the redeemed forever.
(3) Urge all to come and experience the saving power of this living Redeemer. (J. Burns, D. D.)
I know that my Redeemer liveth
I. First of all, then, with the patriarch of Uz, let us descend into the sepulchre. The body has just been divorced from the soul. The body is borne upon the bier and consigned to the silent earth; it is surrounded by the earthworks of death. Death has a host of troops. If the locusts and the caterpillars be Gods army, the worms are the army of death. These hungry warriors begin to attack the city of man. The skin, the city wall of manhood, is utterly broken down, and the towers of its glory covered with confusion. How speedily the cruel invaders deface all beauty. The face gathers blackness; the countenance is defiled with corruption. Where is beauty now? The most lovely cannot be known from the most deformed. The vessel so daintily wrought upon the potters wheel is cast away upon the dunghill with the vilest potsherds. The skin is gone. The troops have entered into the town of Mansoul. And now they pursue their work of devastation; the pitiless marauders fall upon the body itself. There are those noble aqueducts, the veins through which the streams of life were wont to flow, these, instead of being rivers of life, have become blocked up with the soil and wastes of death, and now they must be pulled to pieces; not a single relic of them shall be spared. Mark the muscles and sinews, like great highways that, penetrating the metropolis, carry the strength and wealth of manhood along--their curious pavement must be pulled up, and they that do traffic thereon must be consumed; each tunnelled bone, and curious arch, and knotted bond must be snapped and broken. But these invaders stop not here. Job says that next they consume his reins. We are wont to speak of the heart as the great citadel of life, the inner keep and donjon, where the captain of the guard holdeth out to the last. The Hebrews do not regard the heart, but the lower viscera, the reins, as the seat of the passions and of mental power. The worms spare not; they enter the secret places of the tabernacle of life, and the standard is plucked from the tower. Having died, the heart cannot preserve itself, and falls like the rest of the frame--a prey to worms. It is gone, it is all gone! Mother Earth has devoured her own offspring. Why should we wish to have it otherwise? Why should we desire to preserve the body when the soul has gone? The embalming of the Egyptians, those master robbers of the worm, what has it done? It has served to keep some poor shrivelled lumps of mortality above ground to be sold for curiosities, to be dragged away to foreign climes, and stared upon by thoughtless eyes. No, let the dust go; the sooner it dissolves the better. And what matters it how it goes! What if plants with their roots suck up the particles! What if the winds blow it along the highway! What if the rivers carry it to the waves of ocean!
II. Now, having thus descended into the grave, and seen nothing there but what is loathsome, let us look up with the patriarch and behold a sun shining with present comport. I know, said he, that my Redeemer liveth. The word Redeemer here used is in the original Goel--kinsman. The duty of the kinsman, or Goel, was this: suppose an Israelite had alienated his estate, as in the case of Naomi and Ruth; suppose a patrimony which had belonged to a family had passed away through poverty, it was the Goals business, the redeemers business, to pay the price as the next-of-kin, and to buy back the heritage. Boaz stood in that relation to Ruth. Now, the body may be looked upon as the heritage of the soul--the souls small farm, that little plot of earth in which the soul has been wont to walk and delight, as a man walketh in his garden or dwelleth in his house. Now, that becomes alienated. Death, like Ahab, takes away the vineyard from us who are as Naboth; we lose our patrimonial estate. But we turn round to Death and say, I know that my Goal liveth, and He will redeem this heritage; I have lost it; thou takest it from me lawfully, O Death, because my sin hath forfeited my right; I have lost my heritage through my own offence, and through that of my first parent Adam; but there lives One who will buy this back. Remember, too, that it was always considered to be the duty of the Goel, not merely to redeem by price, but where that failed, to redeem by power. Hence, when Lot was carried away captive by the four kings, Abraham summoned his own hired servants, and the servants of all his friends, and went out against the kings of the East, and brought back Lot and the captives of Sodom. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ, who once has played the kinsmans part by paying the price for us, liveth, and He will redeem us by power. O Death, thou tremblest at this name! Thou knowest the might of our Kinsman! Against His arm thou canst not stand! Oh, how glorious the victory! No battle shall there be. He comes, He sees, He conquers. The sound of the trumpet shall be enough; Death shall fly affrighted; and at once from beds of dust and silent clay to realms of everlasting day the righteous shall arise. There was yet a third duty of the Goel, which was to avenge the death of his friend. If a person had been slain, the Goel was the avenger of blood; snatching up his sword, he at once pursued the person who had been guilty of bloodshed. So now, let us picture ourselves as being smitten by Death. His arrow has just pierced us to the heart, but in the act of expiring, our lips are able to boast of vengeance, and in the face of the monster we cry, I know that my Goal liveth. Thou mayst fly, O Death, as rapidly as thou wilt, but no city of refuge can hide thee from Him; He will overtake thee; He will lay hold upon thee, O thou skeleton monarch, and He will avenge my blood on thee. Christ shall certainly avenge Himself on Death for all the injury which Death hath done to His beloved kinsmen. Passing on in our text to notice the next word, it seems that Job found consolation not only in the fact that he had a Goel, a Redeemer, but that this Redeemer liveth. He does not say, I know that my Goel shall live, but that He lives,--having a clear view of the self-existence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Lord and giver of life originally, and He shall be specially declared to be the resurrection and the life, when the legions of His redeemed shall be glorified with Him. Let us look up to our Goel, then, who liveth at this very time. Still the marrow of Jobs comfort, it seems to me, lay in that little word my. I know that my Redeemer liveth. Oh, to get hold of Christ! I know that in His offices He is precious. But, dear friends, we must get a property in Him before we can really enjoy Him. What is honey in the wood to me, if, like the fainting Israelites, I dare not eat? What is gold in the mine to me? Men are beggars in Peru, and beg their bread in California. It is gold in my purse which will satisfy my necessities, purchasing the bread I need. So what is a kinsman if he be not a kinsman to me? A redeemer that does not redeem me, an avenger who will never stand up for my blood, of what avail were such? But Jobs faith was strong and firm in the conviction that the Redeemer was his. There is another word in this consoling sentence which no doubt served to give a zest to the comfort of Job. It was that he could say, I know. To say, I hope so, I trust so, is comfortable; and there are thousands in the fold of Jesus who hardly ever get much farther. But to reach the marrow of consolation you must say, I know. Ifs, buts, and perhapses are sure murderers of peace and comfort. Doubts are dreary things in times of sorrow. I would not like to die with a mere hope mingled with suspicion. Assurance is a jewel for worth but not for rarity. It is the common privilege of all the saints if they have but the grace to attain unto it, and this grace the Holy Spirit gives freely. Surely if Job in Arabia, in those dark, misty ages when there was only the morning star and not the sun, when they saw but tittle, when life and immortality had not been brought to light,--if Job before the Coming and Advent still could say, I know, you and I should not speak less positively. God forbid that our positiveness should be presumption.
III. And now, in the third place, as thy anticipation of future delight, let me call to your remembrance the other part of the text. Job not only knew that the Redeemer lived, but he anticipated the time when He should stand in the latter day upon the earth. No doubt Job referred here to our Saviours first advent, to the time when Jesus Christ, the Goel, the Kinsman, should stand upon the earth to pay in the blood of His veins the ransom price, which had, indeed, in bond and stipulation been paid before the foundation of the world in promise. But I cannot think that Jobs vision stayed there; he was looking forward to the second advent of Christ as being the period of the resurrection. We cannot endorse the theory that Job arose from the dead when our Lord died although certain Jewish believers held this idea very firmly at one time. We are persuaded that the latter day refers to the advent of glory rather than to that of shame. Our hope is that the Lord shall come to reign in glory where He once died in agony. Mark, that Job describes Christ as standing. Some interpreters have read the passage, He shall stand in the latter days against the earth; that as the earth has covered up the slain, as the earth has become the charnel house of the dead, Jesus shall arise to the contest and say, Earth, I am against thee; give up thy dead! Well, whether that be so or no, the posture of Christ, in standing upon the earth, is significant. It shows His triumph. He has triumphed over sin, which once like a serpent in its coils had bound the earth. He has defeated Satan. On the very spot where Satan gained his power Christ has gained the victory. Then, at that auspicious hour, says Job, Sin my flesh I shall see God. Oh, blessed anticipation--I shall see God. He does not say, I shall see the saints--doubtless we shall see them all in heaven--but, shall see God. Note, he does not say, I shall see the pearly gates, I shall see the walls of jasper, I shall see the crowns of gold and the harps of harmony, but I shall see God; as if that were the sum and substance of heaven. In my flesh shall I see God. The pure in heart shall see God. It was their delight to see Him in the ordinances by faith. There in heaven they shall have a vision of another sort. Please to notice, and then I shall conclude, how the patriarch puts it as being a real personal enjoyment. Whom mine eye shall behold, and not another. They shall not bring me a report as they did the Queen of Sheba, but I shall see Solomon the King for myself. I shall be able to say, as they did who spake to the woman of Samaria, Now I believe, not because of thy word who did bring me a report, but I have seen Him for myself. There shall be personal intercourse with God; not through the Book, which is but as a glass; not through the ordinances; but directly, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be able to commune with the Deity as a man talketh with his friend. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The living Redeemer
Job seems to have entertained no expectation of deliverance from his troubles in the present world. Therefore he looks forward to the world beyond death and the grave for perfect felicity and undisturbed repose. Make some general observations for opening up the passage.
1. God, in His abundant mercy, has provided a Redeemer for fallen man. The word redeemer here means next-of-kin.
2. The living Redeemer has been the hope of the saints under every dispensation of grace, and in every period Of the world.
3. No distress or suffering can pluck asunder those bonds that unite the believer to his Saviour.
4. When the believer has attained to the knowledge of his interest in the Redeemer, this will administer great comfort and encouragement to him in suffering and distress.
Consider now the support and consolation which believers should derive from the assurance that their Redeemer liveth.
1. It should afford Christians consolation and support when struggling with a body of sin and death, to know that their Redeemer liveth; who shall at last be glorified in His saints.
2. It may afford the Christian support and consolation in the season of poverty and want.
3. It may afford the believer support and consolation in the prospect of death and the eternal world.
4. And under all the distresses and afflictions to which the Church is exposed in this evil world.
5. And also with respect to the public calamities and judgments which threaten the place or country where the believers lot is cast.
(1) Hence see to whom we are indebted for all the privileges and blessings and security which we now enjoy.
(2) Let us be encouraged to trust in Christ in every future exigency and difficulty.
(3) Let Christians make it their great study to live to the honour and praise of this living and exalted Redeemer.
(4) Let perishing sinners make it their great concern to get an interest in the living Redeemer. (James Hay, D. D.)
Jobs confident expectation
In this confession Job declares the promised Messiah to be his Saviour; and professes his faith in His coming to judgment; the resurrection of the dead; and the beatifical vision.
I. The matter of the comfort.
1. That there is a Redeemer. It implies that He is our kinsman after the flesh, or by incarnation. That He paid a price to God for us in His Passion. That He pursueth the law against Satan, and rescues us by His power; all which are notable grounds of comfort.
2. That He is their Redeemer. Job, by a fiducial application, makes out his own title and interest. Faith appropriates God to our own use and comfort.
3. The next ground of comfort is that our Redeemer liveth. This is true of Christ, whether you consider Him as God or as man. Christs living again in His resurrection is a visible demonstration of the truth of the Gospel in general, and in particular of the article of eternal life. His living after death was the solemn acquittance of our Surety from the sins imputed to Him, and a token of the acceptation of His purpose. His living implies His capacity to intercede for us, and to relieve us in all our necessities. His living is the root and cause of our life; for He having purchased eternal life, not only for Himself, but for all His members, ever liveth to convey it to them, and maintain it in them.
4. Another ground of comfort is the certainty of persuasion. I know. This implies a clear understanding of this mystery; and a certainty of persuasion, which includes a certainty of faith, or of spiritual sense.
II. The applicability of this comfort in our afflictions. Such as public troubles and difficulties; spiritual distresses; outward calamities; calumnies and slanders; and death. Exhortation--Believe and be persuaded of this truth. Endeavour to arrive at the highest degree of assent. (T. Manton.)
The believers triumph
1. Afflictions do not dissolve the endeared relation between the Redeemer and the redeemed.
2. Jesus Christ, as He is the only Redeemer of fallen man, has been all along so, even from the beginning.
3. A believer may attain a comfortable evidence of a special relation to Christ and interest in Him.
4. A believer knowing his Redeemer liveth, hath therein a spring of abundant consolation, whatever affliction he here labours under, or is liable to.
I. How the title Redeemer belongs to Christ. He is fitly called a Redeemer upon a threefold account. In regard to the bondage state He finds us in. His relation to us. And what, in that relation, He does for us. As our kinsman, He redeems us by paying the price of our redemption; and by rescuing us from the tyranny of Satan.
II. Believers will and ought to betake themselves to Christ, the living Redeemer, for relief and comfort under all their troubles.
1. As fallen creatures, there is no coming unto the Father but through a Mediator.
2. Christ is the only Mediator between God and man.
3. He is provided and exalted of God to this very end, that the weary and heavy-laden, under whatever burden, might apply to Him for ease and rest.
4. To them that believe He is precious, from the experience they have had of His power and grace.
III. It is of powerful use to the consolation of believers, in looking to their provided Redeemer, to know that He liveth, and that He is theirs. That He liveth may be said of Him as God, and as Immanuel, God-man. As Divine, and as risen. The resurrection speaks the value and efficacy of His death and sacrifice. His living again confirms the truth of His doctrine and promises.
3. It is no small addition to a Christians comfort that Christ lives in heaven. And Christ also is theirs; in gracious, helpful, personal relations with them.
IV. How believers may fetch suitable support from hence, under the trials wherewith they may be most sorely pressed.
1. What they feel upon a public account; their tender sense of the Churchs troubles, and concern for their brethren in the same household of faith, by reason of the hard things they suffer, and the deep distress they are sometimes brought into. He liveth, and has the turning of all the great wheels of providence.
2. As to public calamities that may happen in our day, or reach the place where our lot is cast. Christs voice to all is, Be not terrified.
3. In poverty and want, ,pinching necessities and straits, we may look up with comfort while able to say, I know that my Redeemer liveth.
4. As to losses in substance, or near and dear relations, bodily pains, the injuries and reproaches of enemies, and hard censures of friends, with whatever the Christian may undergo from heaven, he hath enough to feed his comfort in being able to say, I know that my Redeemer liveth.
5. As deprived of the sense of Gods favour.
6. As to the temptations of Satan, the wiles and assaults of the power of darkness.
7. Under the afflictive sense of sin, as to guilt and corruption.
8. As in solitude about finding the way to heaven by reason of error and delusion.
9. Under persecution of suffering for the sake of Christ, and devotedness to Him.
10. The Redeemers living is the believers security against the dread and danger of apostasy.
11. As afflicted with the death of the righteous, private Christians or ministers.
12. That the Redeemer liveth may keep up the believers joy when he comes to die. Application--
(1) Let your faith be well grounded and firm in this great truth, that there is a Redeemer living.
(2) How much is everyonr concerned to look after an interest in a living Redeemer.
(3) In order to this, let every heart open to a living Redeemer.
(4) Having a living Redeemer, follow His example, and tread in His steps.
(5) Long to be with your living Redeemer. (D. Wilcox.)
Glory of the resurrection
Faith is most sorely tried when the hand of God touches ourselves. Yet even then the patriarch Job believed in the coming of Christ, whom on earth he was not to see; he believed that the Redeemer who was to come akin to us, had then, too, life in Himself, and should come to redeem him also. I know that my Redeemer liveth. He should at the end stand the Last, as well as the First, with power over the dust; and though the worms should prey upon and bore through this poor body, he himself, for himself, should, out of that very flesh, behold and gaze on God. I know, said the patriarch. True faith is solid, sure as knowledge. God writes it on the heart, and the heart knows what it believes, more surely than the senses know what they perceive. See how Job contrasts, not only life with death, but life as the produce of death. And so it must be. After our bodies had through sin become subject to corruption, it had been endless misery for them to have lived on forever. And so God the Son took our nature upon Him in its purity, to make it to us a new origin of being. For us He was born as man. For us, to pay the ransom for us, He died. For us, not for Himself, He rose again. Jesus rose to give us all which He is. After His resurrection, the very being of His body was spiritual. The glory of Christ began with the grave. As to Him, so to us, if we are His, the grave is the vestibule to glory. Claudius says, The tokens of decay are the cock crowing to the resurrection. Yet the change and transformation must begin here. It consists in first giving our whole souls to God, yielding ourselves to His transforming grace, that He would change us as He wills; and then, with steady, unwavering step to obey each impulse of His grace, This will seem hard until thou knowest the sweetness of pleasing God. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
Jobs sure knowledge
I. Job had a true friend amid cruel friends. He calls Him his Redeemer, and looks to Him in his trouble. The Hebrew word will bear three renderings, as follows--
1. His Kinsman. Nearest akin of all. No kinsman is so near as Jesus. None so kinned, and none so kind. Voluntarily so. Not forced to be a brother, but so in heart, and by His own choice of our nature: therefore more than brother. Not ashamed to own it. He is not ashamed to call them brethren (Heb_2:11). Even when they had forsaken Him, He called them My brethren (Mat_28:10). Eternally so. Who shall separate us? (Rom_8:35).
2. His Vindicator. From every false charge by pleading the causes of our soul. From every jibe and jest: for he that believeth in Him shall not be ashamed or confounded. From true charges, too; by bearing our sin Himself and becoming our righteousness, thus justifying us. From accusations of Satan. The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan! (Zec_3:2.) The accuser of our brethren is cast down (Rev_12:10).
3. His Redeemer. Of his person from bondage. Of his lost estates, privileges, and joys, from the hand of the enemy. Redeeming both by price and by power.
II. Job had real property amid absolute poverty. He speaks of my Redeemer, as much as to say, Everything else is gone, but my Redeemer is still my own, and lives for me. He means--
1. I accept Him as such, leaving myself in His hands.
2. I have felt somewhat of His power already, and I am confident that all is well with me even now, since He is my Protector.
3. I will cling to Him forever. He shall be my only hope in life and death. I may lose all else, but never the redemption of my God, the kinship of my Saviour.
III. Job had a living kinship amid a dying family. My Redeemer liveth. He owned the great Lord as ever living--As the everlasting Father, to sustain and solace him. As head of his house, to represent him. As intercessor, to plead in heaven for him. As defender, to preserve his rights on earth. As his righteousness, to clear him at last. Our Divine Vindicator abides in the power of an endless life.
IV. Job had absolute certainty amid uncertain affairs. I know. He had no sort of doubt upon that matter. Everything else was questionable, but this was certain. His faith made him certain. Faith brings sure evidence; it substantiates what it receives, and makes us know. His trials could not make him doubt. Why should they? They touched not the relationship of his God, or the heart of his Redeemer, or the life of his Vindicator. His difficulties could not make him fear failure on this point, for the life of his Redeemer was a source of deliverance which lay out of himself, and was never doubtful. His cavilling friends could not move him from the assured conviction that the Lord would vindicate his righteous cause. While Jesus lives our characters are safe. Happy he who can say, I know that my Redeemer liveth. Have you this great knowledge? Do you act in accordance with such an assurance? Will you not at this hour devoutly adore your loving Kinsman? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
My Redeemer
There is no need to push these words too far. We lose a great deal by attempting to find in a passage like this what in reality is not in it. Suppose that Job is referring to Goel, the elder brother of the family, whose business it was to redeem, and protect, and lead onward to liberty--suppose that this is an Oriental image, that is no reason for saying that it is nothing more. There have been unconscious prophecies; men have uttered words, not knowing what they were uttering; thus Caiaphas said to the council, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not, not knowing himself what he said. We must allow for the unconscious region of life, the mysterious belt that is round about so-called facts and letters; we must allow for that purple horizon, so visible, so inaccessible. He would be an unwise teacher who said, Job knew all that we understand by Christ, resurrection, and immortality; but he would be unwiser still who said that when his soul had been wrought up to this high pitch of enthusiasm in the ardour of his piety he knew nothing of the coming glory. Let Job speak literally, and even then he leaves a margin. Here we find a man at the utmost point of human progress; figure him to the eye; say the progress of the world, or the education of the world, is a long mysterious process; and here, behold, is a man who has come to the uttermost point: one step further and he will fall over: there, however, he stands until vacuity is filled up, until vaticination becomes experience, until experience has become history, until history, again, by marvellous spiritual action, shapes itself into prophecy, and predicts a brighter time and a fairer land. There have been men who have stood on the headlines of history: they dare not take one more step, or they would be lost in the boundless sea. Thus the world has been educated and stimulated by seer, and dreamer, and prophet, and teacher, and apostle. There have never been men wanting who have been at the very forefront of things, living the weird, often woeful, sometimes rapturous, life of the prophet. What was a dream to Job is a reality to us. We can fill up all Job would have said had he lived in our day; now we can say, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. When these words are sung, do not think they are the words of Job that are being sung; they are Jobs words with Christs meaning. Yes, we feel that there must be a Redeemer. Things are so black and wrong, so corrupt, so crooked, so wholly unimaginable, with such a seam of injustice running through all, that there must be a Goel, a firstborn, an elder brother, a Redeemer. It is the glory of the Christian faith to proclaim the personality and reality of this Redeemer. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the almightiness of God, the very omnipotence of the Trinity, to everyone that believeth. God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can we consent to change His name: what word sweeter than Redeemer? what word mightier? A poem in itself; an apocalypse in its possibilities; Divine love incarnated. Oh, come Thou whose right it is! Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. That same Son of Mary, Son of Man, Son of God. Accept Him as thy Redeemer! (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Jobs great hope
Let us clearly understand the point and value of the argument. It is not that a man who has served God here and suffered here must have a joyful immortality. What man is faithful enough to make such a claim? But the principle is that God must vindicate His righteousness in dealing with the man He has made, the man he has called to trust Him. It matters not who the man is, how obscure his life has been, he has this claim on God, that to him the eternal righteousness ought to be made clear. Job cries for his own justification; but the doubt about God involved in the slur cast upon his own integrity is what rankles in his heart; from that he rises in triumphant protest and daring hope. He must live till God clears up the matter. If he dies he must revive to have it all made clear. And observe, if it were only that ignorant men cast doubt on Providence, the resurrection and personal redemption of the believer would not be necessary. God is not responsible for the foolish things men say, and we could not look for resurrection because our fellow creatures misrepresent God. But Job feels that God Himself has caused the perplexity. God sent the flash of lightning, the storm, the dreadful disease; it is God who, by many strange things in human experience, seems to give cause for doubt. From God in nature, God in disease, God in the earthquake and the thunderstorm, God whose way is in the sea, and His path in the mighty waters,--from this God, Job cries in hope, in moral conviction, to God the Vindicator, the eternally righteous One, Author of nature and friend of man. This life may terminate before the full revelation of right is made; it may leave the good in darkness, and the evil flaunting in pride; the believer may go down in shame, and the atheist have the last word. Therefore a future life with judgment in full must vindicate our Creator, and every personality involved in the problems of time must go forward to the opening of the seals, and the fulfilment of the things that are written in the volumes of God. This evolution being for the earlier stage and discipline of life, it works out nothing, completes nothing. What it does is to furnish the awaking spirit with material of thought, opportunity of endeavour, the elements of life; with trial, temptation, stimulus and restraint. No one who lives to any purpose or thinks with any sincerity can miss in the course of his life one hour at least in which he shares the tragical contest, and adds the cry of his own soul to that of Job, his own hope to that of ages that are gone, straining to see the Goal who undertakes for every servant of God. By slow cycles of change the vast scheme of Divine providence draws towards a glorious consummation. The believer waits for it, seeing One who has gone before him, the Alpha and Omega of all life. The fulness of time will at length arrive, the time foreordained by God, foretold by Christ, when the throne shall be set, the judgment shall be given, and the aeons of manifestation shall begin. (Robert A. Watson, D. D.)
My Redeemer
Then there pass from Jobs lips words into which Christian translators have breathed a distinctness, a hope and certainty, which doubtless far transcends the sublime, but dim, faith of the original. I know, he cries, that my Redeemer, my Rescuer, my Vindicator, liveth. Liveth, for He is none other than the living God--no more mute inscription, no human Goel, or avenger--on whom Job rests his faith. And He, at the last, when all this bitter conflict is over, will stand upon the earth, or rather, on the dust, the dust of death into which I am sinking. And even after my skin, this poor skin with all that it encases, is destroyed--even when the first-born of death, and the King of Terrors himself, of whom you speak, have done their worst--yet, even then, not in, but rather from (in the sense most probably of removed from, or without) my flesh, though my body moulder in the dust, I shall see my God--the God now hidden, the God to whom he had appealed before to hide him for awhile from the world of the dead, and then to call him forth. He will manifest himself at last to his forgotten friend, who will have survived for this the shock of the meat Destroyer; whom I shall behold, he goes on, yea, I the prey of death, shall see Him, shall see Him for myself. (Or see Him on my side, the phrase is ambiguous.) Yea, mine eyes shall behold Him, I, and not another. My reins, my very inmost heart, consume, and melt within me at the vision . . . The sick heart faints with joy. Despair gives way to gladness. The poor tortured sufferer, who again and again has looked on the inevitable death which is waiting for him, as the limit of his days, as the final severer between himself and his God, rises to the region of a sublime, a rapturous hope. We dare not write into his words all the sure and certain hope of a joyful resurrection, which the Christian utters; still less that anticipation of a bodily rising from the grave, of a reclothing of his spirit in flesh, which the passage breathes in the great Latin translation, dear for ages to Western Christendom. We recognise even in the familiar words of our own older version, phrases and thoughts which outrun the patriarchs aspirations, the patriarchs faith. But for all that, when we have stripped the passage of all that is adventitious--all that even unconsciously imports into its framework the ideas and faith of another and later age--we still hear the cry of the saint of the old world, as he stands face to face with the King of Terrors; Though my outward man decay and perish, yet God shall reveal Himself to me, to my true self. He plants, as it has been well said, the flag of triumph on his own grave. And his words, in one form or another, have lived longer than he looked for. They will outlive the scroll for which he sighed, the very rock on which just now he wished to see them engraved. (Dean Bradley.)
The hope of restoration
Trans. thus, For I know that my Goel lives, and (my) Vindicator will arise upon the earth. The Fathers, both Oriental, and Occidental, regarded this passage as a proof text, not only of the imortality of the soul, but also of the resurrection of the body. Some even saw in it a conclusive proof of the divinity of Christ. This view prevailed through the Middle Ages. But this interpretation is now generally rejected by critics and commentators, though it was at one time almost universal. Two views need to be considered.
I. Job hoped for restoration in this life. This view has never been popular. Some scholars support it on the following grounds:--
1. The language requires such an interpretation.
2. Whatever there is in the passage which can be applied to a resurrection body, can also be referred with equal force to a restored body in this life.
3. If this passage refers to a future life, it is strange that this glorious doctrine is not more fully presented: Elihu passes it over in silence. Not a word is to be found regarding it in the sublime discourses of the Almighty.
4. The question of restoration to the favour of God in another existence is not even incidentally raised.
5. There is no force in the assertion often made that we cannot limit Jobs expectation for deliverance to this life without lowering the evidence and power of his faith. This is mere rhetoric. Instead of his faith being lowered, it is enhanced.
6. It would have been more satisfactory to Job to have been delivered from the unjust charges laid against him, and to have been justified by the Almighty, who could not err, in the presence of his friends and acquaintances, on the very scene of the conflict here on earth.
7. Certainly this would have been of more advantage to Jobs contemporaries, for whom the new revelation was intended.
8. The denouement, or final issue, favours this view.
II. Job did not expect deliverance in this life, bit in a disembodied state, after death. The following arguments for this view have been adduced.
1. This is evident from the plain meaning of the text. The two clauses in verse 26 are not antithetic, for the second has the same thought as the first, and must read, And after my skin is thus destroyed, and without my flesh (body) I shall see God. After my skin, without my flesh, and dust, are parallelistic equivalents.
2. That Job did not expect deliverance in this life is also shown by his desire to have his protestations of innocency engraved on the rock forever.
3. That Job expected no restoration here on earth is clear from his own words in other portions of the book . . . After carefully weighing the arguments pro and con, we are forced to the conclusion that Job expected restoration in this life. This is the most natural interpretation. It also accords with the development of doctrine in the Old Testament, for it is an intermediate step between Mosaism and Christianity in regard to suffering and retribution in this life. And in accepting this view, no one is forced to the conclusion that Job had no hope or knowledge of immortality, but only that the future life is not referred to in this passage. (W. W. Davis, Ph. D.)
Precious experience
I. The highest form of knowledge is the consciousness that we have a Redeemer.
1. This is the knowledge which diminishes the distance between us and God. Whatever else sin may be, it is the estrangement of the soul from the source of all its joys. Sin has made us to be far off from God. He is denied His place in thought. He is excluded from the counsels of the will. His own monitor--conscience--is indifferent to His presence. The heart has sought the fellowship of other lovers, but they all have left an aching void, which cries, Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. This has been attempted by many. Prophets, priests, and kings stretched their hands upwards towards God, and downwards towards man, but their arms were too short. Philosophers, moralists, and philanthropists have endeavoured to fill the gulf, and pave the way for the contending parties to approach each other, they also have all disappeared in that awful chasm. But there is One Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Have we felt the reconciling touch of His hand? I know that my Redeemer liveth, is the only answer.
2. This is the knowledge which removes all differences. We cannot meet God, we cannot enjoy God, with the burden of guilt on our soul. The voice of justice in heaven cries against us; the voice of conscience within is not less in its denunciation.
3. This is the knowledge which restores the full harmony between us and the Father. There is no other platform from which we may survey the whole situation.
II. That the highest form of consciousness is faith in a living saviour. My Redeemer liveth. If we possibly can, let us bring the text to a nearer touch of our life. One of the functions of faith is to convert historical Christianity into a living power in the soul, by enacting the life of Jesus in our own.
1. The living Redeemer is the life of faith. Faith leans on a living bosom, and draws its comfort from a living heart.
2. The living Redeemer is the stay of faith. The Hebrew Goel was the next-of-kin who avenged his brothers wrongs, and redeemed his life and property. Our Saviour is that next-of-kin who watches over our affairs, and will see that justice is done. Remember, brethren, He is the custodian of your character and reputation. The man who deals a blow at your circumstances, must meet Jesus, and settle the matter with Him. Avenge not yourselves, but cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.
3. The living Redeemer is the satisfaction of faith. He who can say My Redeemer! has enough. Things of life are transmissible. The man goes to his solicitor to have the property he has bought conveyed to him. When it is done, he says, I want you to make my will. Then runs the instrument, I give and bequeath, etc. But my Redeemer is not a transitory possession; it abides the inheritance of the soul forever. Thomas made a noble confession, My Lord, and my God.
III. The final triumph of faith will be the meeting of the saint and the Saviour. Whom I shall see, etc. Faith will launch her bark into the sea of His presence.
1. Your rights will be vindicated, and all your trials explained. A light will be thrown on all the difficult passages in your life. Faith said all the time that His judgments are righteous and true; you will understand that then. That day will be a commentary on all the chapters of life, for the day will reveal it.
2. Immediate communion with Jesus. In that day they will all turn aside, and our eyes will feast on the beatific vision, for we shall see Him as He is. These eyes, which have wept many times, shall see Him in the clear light of heaven. Thank you, a thousand times, ye noble prophets and apostles, for your beautiful photos of Him, now we see Jesus Himself.
3. Faith will realise all anticipations and hopes. What is your ruling passion; is it Poetry? Then the muse will be on the heights of Parnassus, Music? The melody of the cross will have attracted all the harmonies of the universe to itself. Beauty? The rose of Sharon will be there. Life? Live on. Regarding the wonderful utterance in the text in the light of the circumstances in which the patriarch was placed, we have here a marvellous picture of faith. In the presence of such a faith, shall we allow ours to fret and fear in the face of small difficulties? Put all the difficulties and sufferings of your life by the side of those endured by the patriarch, and they will pale and die. However, we may not be the strong men in faith that his stature would suggest. Look to your Goel. (T. Davies, M. A.)
The living Redeemer
Schultens suggests that the patriarch, in the previous verses, refers to an inscription upon a sepulchral stone. Job relies upon God for his ultimate and full vindication. Expecting to go down to the grave under the reproach of guilt, he would have it engraven upon the stone at the door of his sepulchre, that his trust was in his Redeemer.
I. The meaning of the term Redeemer, as applied to our Lord Jesus Christ. The word Goal has two significations. One, to be stained or polluted with blood; the other, to ransom, redeem, or purchase back. The duties of a Redeemer among the Jews included--delivering a kinsman out of captivity by force or ransom; and to buy him out when his liberty had been forfeited by debt, buying back an inheritance that had passed out of the hands of a poorer kinsman; advocating the right of those who were too weak to sustain their own cause. All these offices of the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus was fitted to sustain, and has executed, or will execute for us. To become our Redeemer He became our kinsman. Three principal things are intended by Christs title of Redeemer.
1. Atonement or satisfaction made to the Divine law in behalf of His people.
2. Deliverance and salvation of His people from all their enemies and difficulties.
3. The securing for them an eternal inheritance of life and blessedness.
II. The excellence of the Lord Jesus as a living Redeemer. He whom Job knew to be his Redeemer is the only-begotten Son of God in whom we trust. The excellency of Christ as our living Redeemer is seen in His resurrection, in His power, and in His glory. (Geo. W. Bethune, D. D.)
Jobs knowledge and triumph
I. A Redeemer is provided for sinners of mankind. This important truth Job plainly avows, in the solemn profession of his faith which he makes in the text. The character of Redeemer is, with peculiar propriety, ascribed to God our Saviour. That He might obtain complete eternal redemption for us, in the fulness of time, God sent forth His own Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Never was there such a glorious Redeemer as God manifest in the flesh. Never was such a price paid for redemption as the precious blood of Christ. He redeems us from all evil.
II. He is an ever-living Redeemer, who has accomplished our redemption. It is not said, the Redeemer hath lived, or shall live, but that He liveth. He is without beginning of days or end of life; the same yesterday, today, and forever. As God, He liveth forever and ever. As Redeemer, He is called a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in the purpose and promise of God.
III. The living Redeemer shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Lit., He shall stand the last upon the earth. He will again stand upon the earth, or over the earth, as the words may signify. He will come in glory, to raise the dead bodies of His people, and to judge the world in righteousness.
IV. The redeemed among men claim relation to their Redeemer. My Redeemer. Job expresses the confidence of a living faith in his intimate relation to the ever-living Redeemer, in whom he believed and trusted, with the other patriarchs of early ages.
V. The mortal bodies of the redeemed shall be consumed, but they shall see God. Though death doth no more to the soul of man than separate it from the body with which it is united, yet it entirely demolishes the curious structure of the body. The mighty Redeemer shall raise all His redeemed ones from the power of the grave. Their souls, when in the separate state, behold Him with the eyes of the mind; but after the resurrection they shall behold Him in their flesh with their bodily eyes.
VI. The knowledge of all this supports the servants of God under present trials, and the prospect of death. Job himself was a remarkable instance of the truth of this observation. (W. MCulloch.)
Jobs confidence
I. The title under which Christ is here spoken of. Redeemer. Our Redeemer has exceeded in His work the redeemers among the Jews. All they could do for their murdered relative was, put to death the murderer.
II. Job speaks of the Redeemer as living at the time when he spoke. And so He was. Before Abraham was, I am, He said of Himself. There never was a period when He was not. He was virtually the Redeemer of men, though He had not actually wrought out their redemption.
III. The personal interest which Job claims in the Redeemer. Here is no uncertainty or doubt, but the fullest assurance. A personal interest in Christ is absolutely necessary if you would be saved.
IV. An important truth respecting the future manifestation of the Redeemer. The time of the advent is sometimes called the last time, the latter, or last, days. It is, however, more probable that the words of Job refer to the second coming of Christ, which will be literally the latter or last day.
V. The blessed hope which the patriarch indulges. He refers to the inevitable lot of man at death. But we shall yet live again. Job could say, In my flesh I shall see God. When he should see God, he would learn the purpose of his affliction. Then his character would be cleared of the aspersions which had been cast upon it. Jobs confidence that he should see God would be a source of joy, inasmuch as to see God is heaven itself. (W. Cardall, B. A.)
Jobs confession
It regards--
I. The promised saviour. It speaks of Him--
1. As a Redeemer. A title peculiarly applicable to the Lord Jesus.
2. As a living Redeemer. Which applies to that grand and consolatory truth, the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. The words may, however, refer to His divinity rather than His resurrection.
3. As a Redeemer in whom he had a peculiar interest. His Redeemer in particular. My Redeemer liveth.
4. As a Redeemer who would stand at the latter day upon the earth. This may refer to the incarnation, but it must also refer to the great resurrection.
II. Jobs own joyful resurrection from the dead.
1. How he dwells on the effects which would be produced by death on his bodily frame.
2. How, in defiance of every difficulty which might obstruct or hinder it, he yet expressed his assured hope of a joyful resurrection.
We have here the views of this ancient believer respecting--
1. The resurrection of the body. The body, after the resurrection, would be true flesh, not a spirit, thin and subtle as the air, as some have vainly imagined. At the resurrection he would receive the very same body which he had on earth. The nature of that happiness to which the servant of God, after his resurrection, would be admitted, is indicated. It was the beatific vision of that God and Saviour in whose presence is fulness of joy. But those only will thus see Him who have received Him here as their Redeemer, by a faith which purifies the heart, overcometh the world, worketh by love, and maintaineth good works. (John Natt, B. D.)
Realising the second advent
The hardest, severest, last lesson which man has to learn upon the earth, is submission to the will of God. All that saintly experience ever had to teach resolves itself into this, the lesson how to say, affectionately, Not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Slowly and stubbornly our hearts acquiesce in that. The earliest record that we have of this struggle in the human bosom is found in this Book of Job. In the rough rude ages when Job lived, when men did not dwell on their feelings as in later centuries, the heart-work of religion was manifestly the same earnest passionate thing that it is now. What is the Book of Job but the record of an earliest souls perplexities? The double difficulty of life solved there, the existence of moral evil--the question whether suffering is a mark of wrath or not. Job appealed from the tribunal of mans opinion to a tribunal where sincerity shall be cleared and vindicated. He appealed from the dark dealings of a God whose way it is to hide Himself, to a God who shall stand upon this earth in the clear radiance of a love on which suspicion itself cannot rest a doubt. It was faith straining through the mist, and discerning the firm land that is beyond.
I. The certainty of Gods interference in the affairs of this world.
1. A present superintendence. The first truth contained in that is Gods personal existence. It is not chance, nor fate, which sits at the wheel of this worlds revolutions. It is a living God. To be religious is to feel that God is the ever-near. Faith is that strange faculty by which man feels the presence of the invisible. We must not throw into these words of Job a meaning which Job had not, Job was an Arabian Emir, not a Christian. All that Job meant was, that he knew he had a Vindicator in God above. At last God Himself would interfere to prove his innocence. God has given us, for our faith to rest on, something more distinct and tangible than He gave to Job.
2. The second truth implied in the personal existence of a Redeemer is sympathy. It was the keenest part of Jobs trial that no heart beat pulse to pulse with his. In the midst of this it seems to have risen upon his heart with a strange power, to soothe, that he was not alone. Note the little word of appropriation, My Redeemer. Power is shown by Gods condescension to the vast; sympathy by His condescension to the small.
3. The third thing implied in the present superintendence is Gods vindication of wrongs. The word translated here, Redeemer, is one of peculiar signification. Job was professing his conviction that there was a champion or an avenger, who would one day do battle for his wrongs.
4. There is a future redress of human wrongs, which will be made manifest to sight. There will be a visible, personal interference. If we use his words, we must apply them in a higher sense. The second Advent of Christ is supposed by some to mean an appearance of Jesus in the flesh to reign and triumph visibly. But every signal manifestation of the right and vindication of the truth in judgment, is called in Scripture a coming of the Son of Man. The visual perception of His form would be a small blessing; the highest and truest presence is always spiritual, and realised by the spirit.
II. The means of realising this interference. There is a difference between knowing a thing and realising it. Job knew that God was the vindicator of wrongs. It was true, but to Job it was strange, and shadowy, and unfamiliar. Two ways are suggested for realising these things. One is meditation. No man forgets what the mind has dwelt long on. You can scarcely read over Jobs words without fancying them the syllables of a man who was thinking aloud. The other is this--God ensures that His children shall realise all these things by affliction. If ever a man is sincere, it is when he is in pain. There are many things which nothing but sorrow can teach us. Sorrow is the realiser. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
A spiritual deliverance
In these remarkable words Job was not anticipating a mere temporal deliverance from his afflictions, but expressing his confidence in a higher deliverance, connected with another state of being, and involving his immortal happiness.
I. The glorious character he contemplates. A Redeemer. The word is used of the Blood Avenger (Goel) of ancient times. The title of Redeemer is used by the prophets as an appellation of Jehovah, and with peculiar adaptation it is appropriated to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom, it is stated, we have redemption. With propriety and force the Mediator between God and man is invested with the name of our Redeemer. The Mediator was unquestionably the revealed and acknowledged object of faith and hope in patriarchal ages. The future Messiah was the being now contemplated by Job when he spoke of a Redeemer.
II. The important truths he states. The first refers to the actual state of the Redeemer,--He liveth, or is now living. To His being, no commencement, however remote, can be assigned. We conceive that the patriarch was now rendering a specific ascription to Him, as essentially the living One, and was acknowledging Him in that attribute of absolute eternity which furnishes so immovable a basis for the confidence and joy of the saints throughout every period of the world. The second of these truths refers to the future manifestation of the Redeemer. He shall stand (arise) at the latter day upon (over) the earth. We consider this a prediction of the last day. The clause means, He shall arise in triumph over the ruins of mortality. From the certainty of that event, Divine truth derives the appropriateness and the efficacy of its appeals. In what manner, and with what feelings, do you look towards the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ?
III. The personal hope Job indulges. These remarkable words are strong affirmations of a personal interest in the grace and redemption of Him who at the latter day is to appear in His glory as the Judge; and are an anticipation of eternal happiness then to be awarded and enjoyed. The expressions furnish several remarks.
1. Death must be uniformly suffered before the happiness of true believers can be completed.
2. On the arrival of the latter day, the bodies of believers will be raised in a state refined and glorified.
3. Believers, in their state of restoration, will enjoy the presence and friendship of God forever.
IV. The absolute confidence Job asserts. I know. These expressions of certainty by the patriarch arose from no equivocal impulse. We who are now numbered among the heirs of promise, tell to the world that we have the same confidence too. We know in whom we have believed. (J. Parsons.)
The faith and expectation of the Patriarch Job
1. The glorious character ascribed to Jesus Christ. Redeemer. Goel. Christ became our Blood-relation, our kinsman after the flesh, and as such the right of redemption devolved upon Him. This right He exercises.
1. By redeeming our forfeited inheritance of eternal life.
2. By redeeming us from the slavery of sin.
3. He avenges the blood of His people on their murderer Satan.
II. Christ is the Living One, possessing life in Himself, and being the source of life to those whom He came to redeem. As God, this is a title peculiarly appropriate to Him, for He possesses independent and eternal life. His existence as our Redeemer is from everlasting to everlasting.
III. This living Redeemer would at some future period make His appearance on the earth. The resurrection of the dead is an event reserved for the second appearance of our Redeemer at the last day. Notice the assured confidence with which the patriarch interests himself in this living Redeemer, who was to stand at the latter day upon the earth. He uses the language of appropriation, My Redeemer. He infers the completion of his own redemption by Christ raising him from the dead, and permitting him to enjoy the beatific vision of God. These sublime truths are peculiarly fitted to comfort the children of God amid all the sufferings, anxieties, and sorrows of life and death. (Peter Grant.)
The believers confidence in the dominion of Christ after death
I. The subjection of the body to the dominion of death. Man is composed of body and soul. Die we must.
II. The subjection of death to the dominion of Christ. Jesus came to destroy death; He will come to complete His work. The resurrection of the dead will be universal.
III. The character in which Christ will assert His dominion. Redeemer.
1. There was infinite love in the price of redemption.
2. There is omnipotent power in the application of this work.
3. There will be immutable fidelity in the completion of this work. What a source of consolation in all the changes, troubles, and bereavements of the world.
IV. The final triumph of Christ over death will constitute the final happiness of all the redeemed. The text admits of two senses.
1. I shall see God my Redeemer in this my body.
2. I shall see God in my flesh, i.e. in that flesh which He assumed to become my Redeemer. (Edward Parsons.)
The staying power of certitudes
Jobs triumphant assertion of his confidence in God is deservedly ranked as the most important passage in all his discourses. The flukes of his anchor have taken bold of the immovable Rock of Ages; and the rage of the tempest, and the dashing waves and the heaving sea, cannot tear his vessel from its moorings. Held by the strong grasp of the invisible, he can defy all that is visible, and on the surface; and Satans most furious assaults have no power to dislodge him, or unsettle his well-grounded persuasion. My Redeemer shall arise last. Job and his friends had been contending first. My Redeemer shall arise last; and He shall enter latest on the scene. And He shall settle the matter unresisted, in His own way. And this shall be the final settlement of this muchdisputed case. And none shall come after Him to change what He has done. Abraham saw Christs day; and Job rejoiced to see Christs day; and he was glad. It was the seed of Abraham to whom the Father of the faithful looked forward. It was his Divine Redeemer that gladdened the believing soul of the man of Uz. (William H. Green, D. D.)
Certitude
The sceptic beholds his misgivings multiply and his doubts thicken. The believer as a rule sees them all vanish. Schiller, the great German thinker, goes to his study, sits down as usual to his desk, writes with that masterly ability which distinguished him, begins a new sentence, writes the word But--and then dies. The great advocates of Scepticism always die with a doubt, expire with a But. The Christian, however, grows in faith as he approaches death. I know that--in my flesh, etc. Christ mine:--Dean Stanley tells us that Dr. Arnold used to make his boys say, Christ died for me, instead of the more general phrase, Christ died for us. He appeared to me, says one whose intercourse with him never extended beyond these lessons, to be remarkable for his habit of realising everything that we are told in Scripture. (Life of Dr. Arnold.)
Natural tendencies to dissolution
There is in every living organism a law of death. We are wont to imagine that Nature is full of life. In reality it is full of death. One cannot say it is natural for a plant to live. Examine its nature fully, and you have to admit that its natural tendency is to die. It is kept from dying by a mere temporary endowment, which gives it an ephemeral dominion over the elements--gives it power to utilise for a brief span the rain, the sunshine, and the air. Withdraw this temporary endowment for a moment and its true nature is revealed. Instead of overcoming Nature it is overcome. The very things which appeared to minister to its growth and beauty, now turn against it and make it decay and die. The sun which warmed it withers it; the air and rain which nourished it rot it. It is the very forces which we associate with life which, when their true nature appears, are discovered to be really the ministers of death. (H. Drummond.)
The law of justice universal and unfailing
Whence came our sense of justice? We can only say from Him who made us. He gave us such a nature as cannot be satisfied nor find rest till an ideal of justice, that is of acted truth, is framed in our human life, and everything possible done to realise it. Upon this acted truth all depends, and till it is reached we are in suspense . . . Justice there is in every matter. The truthfulness of nature at every point in the physical range is a truthfulness of the over-nature to the mind of man, a correlation established between physical and spiritual existence. Wherever order and care are brought into view there is an exaltation of the human reason, which perceives and relates. Is it of importance that each of the gases shall have laws of diffusion and combination, shall act according to those laws, unvaryingly affecting vegetable and animal life? Unless those laws wrought in constancy or equity at every moment, all would be confusion. Is it of importance that the bird, using its wings adapted for flight, shall find an atmosphere in which their exercise produces movement? Here again is an equity which enters into the very constitution of the cosmos, which must be a form of the one supreme law of the cosmos. Once more, is it of importance that the thinker should find sequences and relations, when once established, a sound basis for prediction and discovery, that he shall be able to trust himself on lines of research, and feel certain that, at every point, for the instrument of inquiry there is answering verity? Without this correspondence man would have real place in evolution, he would flutter an aimless unrelated sensitiveness through a storm of physical incidents. Advance to the most important facts of mind, the moral ideas which enter into every department of thought. Does the fidelity already traced now cease? Is man at this point beyond the law of faithfulness? This life may terminate before the full revelation of sight is made; it may leave the good in darkness and the evil flaunting in pride; the believer may go down to shame, and the Atheist have the last word. Therefore a future life with judgment in full must vindicate our Creator. No one who lives to any purpose or thinks with any sincerity can miss in the course of his life one hour at least in which he shares the tragical contest, and adds the cry of his own soul to that of Job, his own hope to that of ages that are gone, straining to the Goel who under, takes for every servant of God, I know that my Redeemer liveth, etc. (R. A. Watson, D. D.)
In my flesh shall I see God.--
The general resurrection
Now, this clause of our text has been understood by the Church of Christ throughout all ages, as expressing Jobs assurance of the general resurrection of the body at the last day, and such appears to be the plain, straightforward meaning of the passage. Others, however, seem to think that Job, in these words, refers only to a metaphorical resurrection, that is, a restoration to his former happiness and prosperity. But if he expected such a resurrection, then his constantly longing for the approach of death, as his only hope of relief, seems totally inexplicable. It was under these circumstances of accumulated affliction that Job uttered the words of the text. How strong is faith--how rich the consolations of religion--how powerful that Divine influence which raised the spirit of the patriarch superior to the ills of her earthly tabernacle, and while, in near vision, contemplating the approach of the last enemy, illumined and quickened by the Sun of Righteousness, to record her feelings, and embody her prospects. I know that my Redeemer liveth. The true state of the case is here--Job looks toward the period when he should become a tenant of the house appointed for all living, as the due of his sorrows; and his grief was that he should sink into the grave in the estimation of his fellows as one punished by God for his hypocrisy; but his joy was that there would be a general resurrection of the body, which would be followed by a general judgment, when the shades should be removed from his character--and that character presented in its own unblemished rectitude. We say, then, that in the text, Job directs our attention to the general resurrection. In my flesh shall I see God. Now, unless Jobs body were remoulded, the statement in the text could not be realised. Man was at first created with body and soul, and he will live so throughout all eternity. The fact itself is certain; but how it shall be brought about we do not know. Our bodies will then undergo some change. Our bodies now are adapted to an earthly state; but the resurrection body will be adapted to the heavenly state. These bodies will undergo many general changes; this corruptible will put on incorruption; this mortal will put on immortality; this dishonour will put on glory; this weakness will put on power, and so forth. These bodies will undergo many particular changes; all blemishes, all deformities, will be done away; all varieties, arising from climate, from employment, from disease, and so on, will doubtless be done away. Now, doubtless, this will be met by a corresponding change in the conformation of our bodies. Our bodies will then be made of imperishable materials. But, amid all these changes, our bodies will be essentially the same; fashioned after the glorious body of our ascended Lord and Master. Yes, when the archangels trump shall sound, in the plenitude of omnipotence, these bodies which have long reposed in the noiseless chambers of the grave, will rise, from their dusty beds, superior to disease and death. Run in the same mould as that of Jesus Christ--they will be adorned with living splendour--splendour and honour surpassing the brightness of the noonday sun, and shall continue co-existent with the ages of eternity. At this glorious period our bodies will be exempt from those diseases which now desolate our world. We say, such a remoulding of the fabric which sin has dissolved and destroyed, Job anticipated in the words of the text; but he looked forward to another event, namely, the general judgment. And though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. The meaning of these words, Whom I shall see for myself, is, I shall stand before His throne; I shall plead my own cause; I shall be able to tell my own tale, and shall receive from His hands a righteous reward. Now I am misrepresented by my friends; now I am misconceived by my relatives; now I am treated as a hypocrite by those of my own household. But a period is coming when I shall stand before the bar of the Omniscient, when these clouds shall be dissipated by the brightness of His appearance, and I shall appear before an assembled world--before angels, and before the spirits of just men made perfect, as the sincere and devoted servant of the Most High. This, doubtless, had been a source of much consolation and comfort to the patriarch, and would doubtless throw a kind of calm over his troubled bosom when he thought of the day of restitution that was coming. That day when he should see God on his side, not estranged, but as his friend. This is often a source of much joy to Christians in general. It not unfrequently happens that clouds of calumny overhang their character; often are their actions and motives misconceived by their own Christian friends; often are they misrepresented by the wicked and ungodly; but it should be a source of joy to them that their record is on high--their testimony is with God; they should not indulge a principle of revenge, but live like men having in prospect the period of accounts, when all men shall receive according to the deeds done in the body. (S. Hulme.)
Job and the resurrection of the body
That God refrained from uttering to the ancient world the promise of the resurrection is easily understood. Many other important truths, cardinal truths, accepted by the modern world and necessary to its life and movement, were withheld, and for the same reason. The average human mind, even among His chosen people, was too simple, feeble, and benighted to appreciate thoughts so transcendent and refined. But this reason did not apply to a mind and soul like those of Job. The mountain tops catch the glory of the coming sunlight long before it strikes the levels below. We know that God did reveal it to Moses when, in the solitude and silence of the wilderness, He spoke from the burning bush. Why should He not reveal it to Job, His servant, His worshipper, His faithful friend, who was fighting his forlorn battle with the foes, as it were, of his own household, with the torment of his body and the anguish of his soul? (D. H. Bolles.)
Vision of God
There is a sense in which reason and the Bible assure us God cannot be seen. He is the Unapproachable, the Invisible. There is a solemn sense in which He can be seen, and in which He must be seen sooner or later. We make three remarks concerning this soul vision--
I. It implies the highest capability of a moral creature. The power to see the sublime forms of the material universe, is a high endowment. The power to see truth and to look into the reason of things, is a higher endowment far; but the power to see God, is the grandest of all faculties. To see Him who is the cause of all phenomena, the life of all lives, the force of all forces, the spirit and beauty of all forms,--this faculty the human soul has. Depravity, alas! has so closed it generally that there are none in their unregenerate state who see God. Jacob said, God is in this place and I knew it not.
II. It involves the sublimest privilege of a moral creature. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. In Thy presence is fulness of joy.
III. It includes the inevitable destiny of a moral creature. All souls must be brought into conscious contact with Him, sooner or later we must all appear before His judgment seat. Every soul must open its eye and so fasten it upon Him that He will appear everything to it, and all things else but shadows. The period of atheism, religious indifferentism, ends with our mortal life. (Homilist.)
The sight of God incarnate
The happiness of heaven is the seeing God; and because our Lord and Saviour is God incarnate, God the Son made man, by taking to Himself a soul and body such as ours, therefore to see Christ was, to faithful men, a kind of heaven upon earth, and losing sight of Him, as they did at His Passion, was like being banished from heaven. Of course, then, His coming in their sight again was the greatest happiness they could have. I do not say that St. John, St. Mary Magdalene, and the rest, were all of them at the time fully aware that He whom they had seen die, and whom they now saw rise again, was the very and eternal God. They probably came by slow degrees, some at one time, some at another, to the full knowledge of that astonishing truth. But thus much they knew for certain, that they could not be happy without seeing Him. The sight of God was the very blessing which Adam forfeited in Paradise, and which poor fallen human nature, so far as it was not utterly corrupt, has ever been feeling after and longing for. The holy men before the time of our Lords first coming in the flesh, looked on, by faith, to the happiness of seeing God. But the apostles, and those who were about Him when He came, actually had that happiness. They enjoyed in their life time that privilege which Job had to wait for till he came to the other world. In their flesh they saw God. Some of them even touched God, and handled Him with their hands. When they knew He was risen, it was their life and joy, the light of their eyes, and their souls delight, their comfort, their hope, and their all, come back again after seeming to be lost. This is why Easter was so bright a day to them. After forty days, He promised to send His Holy Spirit, which should make Him really, though invisibly, nearer to them than He had been as yet. Upon the faith of this promise we and all Christians even now live, and if we have not forfeited our baptismal blessings, are happy. But our happiness is so far dim and imperfect, in that we do not as yet see Christ. The apostles saw Christ, but were not yet members of His body; we are members of His body, but do not yet see Him. These two things, which are now separated, are to be united in the other world; and, being united, they will make us happy forever. Behold, He has mixed up the account of His resurrection, so awful to sinners, with the most affecting tokens of His mercy. From the moment of His rising to the hour of His ascension, He is never weary of giving them signs, by which they might know Him, however glorified, to be the same mild and merciful Jesus, the same Son of Man, whom they had known so well on earth. Think not that our Masters condescending grace in all these things was confined to those disciples only. Surely it reaches to us, and to as many as believe on Him through the apostles word. Though He be at the right hand of God, His human body and soul are there with Him, and all His brotherly pity for the lost children of men, and tender fellow feeling towards those who stand afar off and smite upon their breast. All these blessings of our Lords presence are sealed and made sure to us with the promise of the Holy Ghost, which makes us members of Him, in His baptism first, and afterwards in the holy communion. (Sermons by Contributors to Tracts for the Times.)
Jobs idea of resurrection
The question asked concerning this passage is, does it refer to the Messiah, and to the resurrection of the dead; or to an expectation which Job had, that God would come forth as his vindicator in some such way as He is declared afterwards to have done?
1. Arguments which would be adduced to show that the passage refers to the Messiah, and to the resurrection from the dead.
(1) The language which is used is such as would appropriately describe such events. This is undoubted, though more so in our translation than in the original.
(2) The impression which it would make on the mass of readers, and particularly those of plain, sober sense, who had no theory to defend.
(3) The probability that some knowledge of the Messiah would prevail in Arabia in the time of Job. This must be admitted, though it cannot be certainly demonstrated (Num_24:17).
(4) The probability that there would be found in this book some allusion to the Redeemer--the great hope of the ancient saints, and the burden of the Old Testament.
(5) The pertinency of such a view to the ease, and its adaptedness to give to Job the kind of consolation which he needed.
(6) The importance which Job himself attached to his declaration, and the solemnity of the manner in which he introduced it. This is perhaps the strongest argument.
2. The weighty arguments showing that the passage does not refer to the Messiah and the resurrection.
(1) The language, fairly interpreted, does not necessarily imply this.
(2) It is inconsistent with the argument, and the whole scope and connection of the book. The Book of Job is strictly an argument--a train of clear, consecutive reasoning. It discusses a great inquiry about the doctrine of Divine Providence, and the Divine dealings with men. Had they possessed the knowledge of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, it would have ended the whole debate. It would not only have met all the difficulties of Job, but we should have found him perpetually recurring to it--placing it in every variety of form,--appealing to it as relieving his embarrassments, and as demanding an answer from his friends.
(3) The interpretation which refers this to the resurrection of the dead is inconsistent with the numerous passages in which Job expresses a contrary belief.
(4) This matter is not referred to as a topic of consolation by either of the friends of Job, by Elihu, or by God Himself.
(5) On the supposition that it refers to the resurrection, it would be inconsistent with the views which prevailed in the age when Job is supposed to have lived. It is wholly in advance of that age.
(6) All which the words and phrases fairly convey, and all which the argument demands, is fully met by the supposition that it refers to some such event as is recorded in the close of the book. God appeared in a manner corresponding to the meaning of the words, here upon the earth. He came as the Vindicator, the Redeemer, the Goel of Job. He vindicated his cause, rebuked his friends, expressed His approbation of the sentiments of Job, and blessed him again with returning prosperity and plenty. The disease of the patriarch may have advanced, as he supposed it would. His flesh may have wasted away, but his confidence in God was not misplaced, and He came forth as his vindicator and friend. It was a noble expression of faith on the part of Job; it showed that he had confidence in God, and that in the midst of his trials he truly relied on Him; and it was a sentiment worthy to be engraved on the eternal rock, and to be transmitted to future times. It was an invaluable lesson to sufferers, showing them that confidence could and should be placed in God in the severest trials. (Albert Barnes.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Heb. "goel," Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield "Isa 59:20").
redeemer
Heb. "goel," Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield "Isa 59:20").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Job continues to speak to his three friends.
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my Redeemer
"My Defender." Here "Redeemer" refers to a person who will rescue Job by proving Job's innocence, restoring his honor, and giving him justice.
at last he will stand on the earth
This refers to standing to speak in court. Possible meanings are 1) the Redeemer will be the last one to speak in the court. AT: "he will judge whether or not I am guilty" or 2) the Redeemer will stand in this final court to defend Job. AT: "at last he will defend me in court" (See: Metonymy)
after my skin ... is destroyed
Possible meanings are that this refers to 1) his body being destroyed by disease or 2) his body decaying after he has died.
in my flesh I will see God
His flesh represents his body, and "in my flesh" represents being alive. AT: "while I live in my body, I will see God" (See: Metonymy)
my own eyes—I, and not someone else
The synecdoche "my own eyes" represents Job. The phrases "my eyes" and "and not someone else" emphasize that Job himself will actually see God. It is not that someone else will see God and tell Job about him. (See: Synecdoche)
My heart fails within me
People thought of the heart as being where the emotions are. So the heart failing represents him having very many emotions. AT: "I am very emotional about it" or "My emotions overwhelm me as I think about that" (See: Metaphor)
My heart fails within me
Possible meanings are that 1) Job feels very hopeful, thankful, and happy or 2) Job feels exhausted waiting to see his Redeemer. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
know
redeem
life
flesh
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 19:25 Job’s faith in a Redeemer could find fulfillment…
19:25 Job’s faith in a Redeemer could find fulfillment only in Christ; the same was true of his request for an advocate (9:33) and a witness in heaven (16:19). The term “Redeemer” (Hebrew go’el) comes from both criminal and civil law. An individual could redeem or avenge wrongful bloodshed (Num 35:12-18) or redeem lost property, perhaps by buying back a slave or marrying the heir’s widow (Lev 25:25, 47-49; 27:11-13; Ruth 3:13). The Old Testament knew the Lord as redeemer (Exod 6:6; Pss 19:14; 103:4; Prov 23:10-11; Isa 43:1 [“ransomed”]; Isa 54:5); New Testament believers know the Redeemer as the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 1:7, 14; Heb 9:12; 1 Pet 1:18). Job wanted his Redeemer to declare his innocence (see Job 1:1 and corresponding study note).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.