Bible Pathways 6/19/2001
June 19
Read Job 17 -- 20
God leads us to see, through Job, that we have no excuse for complaining about our suffering, material loss, or being misunderstood. Job assumed all hope of recovery was gone when he said: My days are extinct (life is almost gone); the grave is ready for me . . . all my body is (wasted away) like a shadow (of my former self). . . . My days are passing, my purposes (plans) are broken off (Job 17:1,7,11).
Bildad interrupted this suffering saint with words that were even more cruel and critical than his first speech. He assumed that Job's sufferings exposed him as a sinful hypocrite who was hopelessly condemned: He is cast into a net by his own feet. . . . He shall be driven . . . into darkness, and chased out of the world (18:8,18). Bildad went on to say: Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him who knows not God (18:21). This staggering accusation from Job's "friend" must have been a bitter blow; not only was Job facing death, but to die misunderstood as a hypocrite must have seemed unbearable.
Our hearts are deeply stirred with compassion as this pitiful, lonely man looked beyond his suffering. And, receiving still greater spiritual insight concerning our Savior, Job said: I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God . . . and my eyes shall behold, and not another (as a stranger) (19:25-27). Friends had rejected him, but Job was confident that he would soon see his Living Redeemer.
According to the Law, a redeemer was the next of kin who was responsible for redeeming (buying back) an enslaved relative or the relative's lost inheritance (Leviticus 25:25). The kinsman-redeemer foreshadowed the coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior-Redeemer. The continuous harassment that Job suffered only drove him closer to the Lord. This revelation of life after death is one of the greatest in the Old Testament and has blessed millions of suffering people through the ages. Job uttered this magnificent revelation when everyone who spoke to him believed he was a hypocrite. Still worse, by all outward observation, it would appear that even God did not care.
In contrast to Job are those today with a negative outlook who, when things go wrong, think that nothing good ever happens to them and continue to focus on themselves and their "bad luck."
Even as God delivered Job from the bondage of misery at just the right time, Christ redeems all believers from the bondage of sin if they repent of their sins and receive Him as Savior and Lord of their lives (Romans 3:24; Galatians 3:13; 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:7). With the Apostle Paul, we also can say: Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).
Christ Revealed: As the Redeemer (Job 19:25). Christ, our Redeemer, has redeemed (bought) us with His own blood on the cross (Rev. 5:9).
Word Studies: 17:1 breath means spirit; 17:6 a tabret means an object of contempt, ridicule; 17:14 corruption means decay; 17:16 rest means burial; 18:9 gin means trap; 18:20 day means fate; 19:3 strange means alien; 19:14 familiar means close; 19:17 strange means repulsive; 19:19 inward means dearest, intimate; 19:27 reins means heart.
Government Official: Rep. James Walsh (NY) · BPM Staff: George Kopchak · Pray for Youth With A Mission and North American Director Peter Iliyn · Pray for the Bible Pathway International Radio broadcast in honor of Letha Hash's brother, Henry Rogers · Country: Mauritania (3 million) in western Africa · Major language: Hasaniya Arabic · Islamic state with no mission work allowed · 99+% Muslim; .5% Roman Catholic · Prayer Suggestion: Trust in the Lord and wait upon Him in your prayers, for He will hear you (Micah 7:7).
Optional Reading: Ephesians 2
Memory Verse for the Week: Hebrews 9:24
