Job Responds to Bildad
Job 19
Job 19
He Responds to His Critics (19:1-6)
CHAPTER 19
1 And Job answered and said, 2 How long will ye vex my soul, and crush me with words? 3 These ten times have ye reproached me; ye are not ashamed to stupefy me. 4 And be it that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. 5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and prove against me my reproach, 6 Know now that +God hath overthrown me, and hath surrounded me with his net.
Job Again Directs His Complaint to God (19:7-12)
7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, and I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. 8 He hath hedged up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. 9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. 10 He breaketh me down on every side, and I am gone; and my hope hath he torn up as a tree. 11 And he hath kindled his anger against me, and hath counted me unto him as one of his enemies. 12 His troops have come together and cast up their way against me, and have encamped round about my tent.
He Bewails His Loneliness (19:13-22)
13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are quite estranged from me. 14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my known friends have forgotten me. 15 The sojourners in my house and my maids count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. 16 I called my servant, and he answered not; I entreated him with my mouth. 17 My breath is strange to my wife, and my entreaties to the children of my mother’s womb. 18 Even young children despise me; I rise up, and they speak against me. 19 All my intimate friends abhor me, and they whom I loved are turned against me. 20 My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. 21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, ye my friends; for the hand of +God hath touched me. 22 Why do ye persecute me as GOD, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
He Affirms His Faith (19:23-29)
23 Oh would that my words were written! oh that they were inscribed in a book! 24 That with an iron style and lead they were graven in the rock for ever! 25 And as for me, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and the Last, he shall stand upon the earth; 26 And if after my skin this shall be destroyed, yet from out of my flesh shall I see +God; 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another: — my reins are consumed within me. 28 If ye say, How shall we persecute him? when the root of the matter is found in me, 29 Be ye yourselves afraid of the sword! for the sword is fury against misdeeds, that ye may know there is a judgment.
Does Job 19:25-27 support the Resurrection of Old Testament saints at the Appearing of Christ? We understand from Hebrews 11:40 and 1 Corinthians 15:23 that the Old Testament saints will be raised at the Lord’s coming for His saints; i.e. the rapture, not the appearing of Christ. Read more… But does Job’s stated hope of seeing the Lord on the earth indicate that saints like him will actually be raised at the appearing? No.
The resurrection of Old Testament saints at the rapture does not conflict with their having an earthly hope, compared to the Church’s heavenly hope. The hopes of the Old Testament saints were delayed, so that we (New Testament saints) could received better hopes, and that together, we could be “made perfect”, or raised together in the glorified state (Heb. 11:39-40). The Old Testament saints, though they join the heavenly company and so inherit some of what pertains to the heavenly saints, such as reigning with Christ (Rev. 20:4), still have a somewhat different portion than the New Testament saints.
It is helpful to see that Job was looking for an earthly vindication. In his wonderful declaration, he speaks of his own resurrection (in my flesh), and his kinsman-redeemer one day standing on the earth, to vindicate him after all he had suffered and been accused of. This is consistent with other Old Testament saints who had an earthly hope. For example Enoch prophesied that the Lord was coming with 10,000s of His saints… where? to the earth. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were promised an earthly inheritance and an earthly seed. This does not stop Paul from later counting Christians who believe in Jesus as the children of Abraham in Galatians 3. I do not have any difficulty reconciling the earthly hope that Job had of an earthly vindication with the truth that was later revealed through the Apostle Paul, that the Saints are raised and caught up. But they will again come with Christ when he returns to the earth. I believe that is when Job’s hopes will be realized. He will see his Redeemer stand on the earth when He comes at the appearing. However, I’m sure Job will have a much greater focus at that time than his own vindication!