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On Job 19:


This is one of my favourite chapters of the Bible. I confess, I never expected to resonate so much with it.
Job expresses in this chapter much hurt: a) towards his friends and b) towards God.

a) Of his friends, Job says, "How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?"
He asks them "...are you not ashamed to wrong me?"
We need to remember that Job had real enemies. Enemies that destroyed him. The Sabeans took his oxen and donkeys, and killed his servants. The Chaldeans raided and took his camels and killed his servants. He was left with nothing.
But in Job's lament, he's crying out against his FRIENDS. They were supposed to comfort him...but at his rock bottom, they tormented him.

b) But Job has even deeper issues with God. he says that "God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me." Job claims that God did not help him when he cried out, and God did not grant Job any justice. Job goes on to say that God set darkness on his paths, stripped him from his glory, breaks him down on every side, kindled his wrath against him, counts him as an enemy, and has taken away all of his dearest community (friends, wife, family). 

Job is in agony, and cannot fathom why he is experiencing all of this suffering.
And yet, even in Job's utter and bleak dismay, he says the most remarkable thing in verse 25:
"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God..."

Somehow, in the deepest of despair, Job is also able to have HOPE. He accuses God of many things, but this does not lead him to turn his back on God. He HOPES in God. Even though Job blames God for all that he has profoundly suffered, he looks forward to SEEING GOD.

On a personal note:
This is a powerful chapter…and I feel a little undone as I read it. These kinds of laments are strong…and they do express how I feel sometimes. I’m thankful I’m not feeling this as much lately…but even just the memory of these kinds of lived-in moments are intensely haunting. I’ve experienced moments where I feel like God is against me. I have experienced moments when people have sought to undo me, when I’m already at rock bottom. Oh God, please help me to cling to the hope that MY REDEEMER LIVES and I WILL BEHOLD YOU.

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