Daily Bread

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Date: Jun. 6, 2023

Passage

Job 19:1-29

Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives

19:1 Then Job answered and said:

2   “How long will you torment me
    and break me in pieces with words?
3   These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
    are you not ashamed to wrong me?
4   And even if it be true that I have erred,
    my error remains with myself.
5   If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
    and make my disgrace an argument against me,
6   know then that God has put me in the wrong
    and closed his net about me.
7   Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
    I call for help, but there is no justice.
8   He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
    and he has set darkness upon my paths.
9   He has stripped from me my glory
    and taken the crown from my head.
10   He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone,
    and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
11   He has kindled his wrath against me
    and counts me as his adversary.
12   His troops come on together;
    they have cast up their siege ramp against me
    and encamp around my tent.
13   “He has put my brothers far from me,
    and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
14   My relatives have failed me,
    my close friends have forgotten me.
15   The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
    I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
16   I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
    I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
17   My breath is strange to my wife,
    and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
18   Even young children despise me;
    when I rise they talk against me.
19   All my intimate friends abhor me,
    and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20   My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
    and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21   Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
    for the hand of God has touched me!
22   Why do you, like God, pursue me?
    Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23   “Oh that my words were written!
    Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24   Oh that with an iron pen and lead
    they were engraved in the rock forever!
25   For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26   And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I shall see God,
27   whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
    My heart faints within me!
28   If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’
    and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
29   be afraid of the sword,
    for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
    that you may know there is a judgment.”

Key Verse: Job 19:25

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

Job calls out Bildad for his shameless attacks, pointing out that Bildad is not trying to help Job, but rather to exalt himself (5). Job wants his friends to see how “God has wronged” Job by not responding to his cry for justice. It seems that God is personally angry with him as an enemy (11). As a result, all of Job’s family and friends have abandoned him. He only escaped his own death by the skin of his teeth!

Job appeals again to his friends: “Have pity on me!” (21), but they continue to act as enemies, pursuing him. Job longs that his story be written down, both on a scroll to be shared and inscribed on rock, so generations of the public could read it. Stories are powerful. We do well to take time to listen to each other’s stories, rather than give simple answers to the suffering of our friends.

But Job had another reason to have his story written: he had faith that there is one who will indeed advocate for him: “my redeemer lives” Job states. Who is this redeemer? The Hebrew word refers to a kinsman-redeemer, like Boaz who took in Ruth (Ruth 4:1-6). But Job had already stated that all his family rejected him (13-19). Job has faith in God in spite of his impending death. Job’s heart yearns to see God, even though God treats him as an enemy! Why? The redeemer who will intercede.

Prayer: Prayer: Father, thank you for redeeming us through your Son Jesus. Help me put my faith in him today.

One Word: One Word: I know that my Redeemer lives

God Stills the Conflict

Psalm 76:1-12

Key Verse: 76:6

At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both rider and horse lay stunned.

Today's Question

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