My Redeemer Lives
Job 15-19
1. You Writhe in Pain (chapter 15).
2. God Has Worn Me Out (chapters 16-17).
3. Your Light is Put Out (chapter 18).
4. I Know That My Redeemer Lives (chapter 19).
I want to begin this morning by telling you about Corrie ten Boom. She was born in 1892 in the Netherlands. Her father, Casper, was a jeweler and a watchmaker. Corrie lived with her mother, father, two older sisters, an older brother, and three aunts above her father’s watchmaking shop.
The ten Booms were a Christian family. “Their home was always open. They held Bible studies and prayer meetings in their home. They always welcomed guests. They always contributed to their community.”[1]
All was well in their home in Amsterdam. Corrie had learned the art of watchmaking. She loved the business side of their jewelry store. She loved her church, and the teenage girls that she was mentoring in the faith. All was well until World War II.
In 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands and began to exert their control. Two years after the invasion, “In May 1942, a well-dressed woman came to the Ten Booms’ with a suitcase in hand and told them that she was a Jew, her husband had been arrested several months earlier, her son had gone into hiding and Occupation authorities had recently visited her so she was afraid to go back. She heard that the Ten Booms had previously helped their Jewish neighbors… and [she] asked if they could help her too.”[2] Casper readily agreed that she could stay with them, although the police headquarters was only half a block away.
This woman was the first of many whom the ten Booms would have in their house. It is estimated that the ten Booms helped save the lives of some 800 Jews that they hid in their house. Not all at the same time, but the ten Booms would cycle them through the house and get them to a place of safety, often in the countryside. The ten Booms built a secret hiding place in their house, behind a false wall that could hold 6 people at a time. They installed a buzzer that could be pressed to sound an alarm all throughout their house, to warn the Jews staying with them to get into the room as quickly as possible when the Nazi security sweeps were coming through the neighborhood. This activity was very dangerous for them. For, if they were found out, they would be punished.
After nearly two years of this work, an informant told the Nazis of the work the ten Booms were doing. And on February 28, 1944, the Nazis arrested the entire ten Boom family, some of whom were released. But Corrie, her sister Betsie, and her father were held in prison. Corrie’s father died after nine days in prison at the age of 84.
Corrie and her sister were eventually sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany for women. It was a terrible place. One woman said this about the place: “They didn’t shoot the women. We were to die of misery, hunger and exhaustion… when we arrived at Ravensbrück, it was the worst. The first thing I saw was a cart with all the dead piled on it. Their arms and legs hanging out, and mouths and eyes wide open. They reduced us to nothing. We didn’t even feel like we had the value of cattle. You worked and you died.”[3]
Yes, Corrie and Betsie ten Boom made the best of their situation. They held worship services. They taught from a Bible that was smuggled into the camp. They sacrificed for other prisoners. Many converted to Christ through their witness. About 10 months in that place, on December 16, 1944, Betsie died at the age of 50. Before she died, she told Corrie, “There is no pit so deep that [God] is not deeper still.” Twelve days later, Corrie was released.[4] She was released through an administrative error. She should not have been released. I believe it was God’s sovereign hand that released her. After that, many of the women were gassed to death, and Corrie would have been among them. But she was released to be on the outside, to be an advocate for the Jewish people, and for the hurting and the lowly.
Once on the outside Corrie ten Boom traveled the world telling her story, and writing many books, one of which is “The Hiding Place.” It tells the story of how the ten Boom family hid Jewish people in their house, and how Corrie was captured and spent nearly a year in Ravensbrück. This book has been made into a film, which you can watch for free on YouTube.
Their house, with the hiding place, has been made into a museum, which you can visit, or take a very nicely done virtual tour, and see the actual room where the ten Booms hid the Jewish people. It is called the Ten Boom Museum. It is the very place where the shop was. You can walk through the downstairs and the upstairs and even see the hidden room upstairs. If you can’t make it to the Netherlands, there is a fantastic virtual tour, with a speaker. It is almost like you’re there.
One person wrote this about Corrie’s life: “Corrie ten Boom’s release from Ravensbrück was not just a moment of physical freedom but also the beginning of a mission to heal a broken world. Her ability to find meaning and purpose in her suffering is a powerful example of how faith and forgiveness can transcend even the darkest chapters of history. Her story serves as a timeless reminder of the strength of the human spirit and the power of love to overcome hate.”[5]
I bring up the story of Corrie ten Boom because in recent months, we have been looking at the book of Job, which deals with the issue of suffering and finding meaning in it all. How are we to respond in life “When Trials Come”?
To catch us up to speed with where we are, the book is about a man named Job, who is introduced to us in the very first verse as one who “was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). We are further told of his incredible wealth, measured in livestock in those days. Then we are taken to a scene in heaven where Satan has a discussion with God. And Satan says, “The only reason why Job is righteous is because God has blessed him so much.” God says, “That’s not true.” And God gave permission to Satan to take away his wealth, to kill his children, and to torture him with a painful disease.
When his friends heard about what happened to Job, they came “to show him sympathy and comfort him” (Job 2:11). And beginning with chapter 3, we have a discussion between Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. So far, each of them has spoken once to Job. Eliphaz spoke to Job, and Job responded. Bildad spoke to Job, and Job responded. Zophar spoke to Job, and Job responded. That finished the first round of discussions.
Today, in chapter 15, we begin the second round of discussions. We are going to hear Eliphaz speak and Job’s response. We are going to hear Bildad speak and Job’s response.
My message this morning is entitled, “My Redeemer Lives,” because that was Job’s hope that he had a living redeemer, who would someday redeem his life.
1. You Writhe in Pain (chapter 15).
Eliphaz begins with his usual insult in the first three verses. These are humorous. You ought to embrace the sarcasm.
Job 15:1-3
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,
and fill his belly with the east wind?
Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
or in words with which he can do no good?”
Eliphaz is saying, “You’re just blowing wind. And your belly is filled with wind, too, which goes out the back. So you can think about what that is talking about.”
Then, in verse 4, Eliphaz begins with the crux of his argument, that you are a wicked sinner, who has forsaken the fear of God. That’s why you are writhing in pain (verse 20).
Job 15:4-6
But you are doing away with the fear of God
and hindering meditation before God.
For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
your own lips testify against you.
“Job, you claim to be innocent. You say, ‘I am in the right’ (9:15, 20; 10:15; 13:18), but your circumstances deny that. You are suffering as a result of your sin! It’s as clear as day. We all see it. Is it not clear to you?” Four times Job has said that he is in the right. The most recent time is in 13:18: “Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be in the right.” Job says, “I’m in the right,” and they say, “No, Job, you’re in the wrong.” Job says again, “No, I’m in the right,” and they say again, “No, Job, you’re in the wrong.”
In chapter 15, Elephaz argues that because Job is in such pain, it is a demonstration of God’s judgment on him. Judgment on you only comes because you are a sinner.
Then, in verse 7, Eliphaz begins to rehearse that which is plain and obvious to all (except Job). This is typical of the argument of Eliphaz. During the first round of arguments, Eliphaz said things like, “As I have seen” (4:8) or “As for me” (5:8). He refers to the things that are common to all humanity. He argues the same way here.
Job 15:7-16
“Are you the first man who was born?
Or were you brought forth before the hills?
Have you listened in the council of God?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
older than your father.
Are the comforts of God too small for you,
or the word that deals gently with you?
Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,
that you turn your spirit against God
and bring such words out of your mouth?
What is man, that he can be pure?
Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks injustice like water!”
Everybody ought to see these things. Job wasn’t the first one to be born (verse 7). He shouldn’t rely upon his own wisdom (verse 8). He isn’t superior to his friends in knowledge (verse 9). He should turn to the aged, with whom is wisdom (verse 10). That is, he should turn to his friends who are older than he is.
“Job, you ought to know that nobody can be pure in God’s sight” (verse 14). This was their biggest contention with Job. He claimed to be in the right (9:15, 20; 10:15; 13:18), but nobody can be pure in God’s sight. They are missing what Job is saying a little bit. Job is not claiming that he is perfect and innocent. He is claiming that he is righteous, trusting in the Lord, and that he did not deserve all of this. Nobody stands before God on his own merit, and Job is not saying that he is sinless. He is saying that the devastation he has received is not worthy of the sin that he had.
Again in verse 17, Eliphaz returns to the wisdom that he has seen and heard from everyone.
Job 15:17-20
“I will show you; hear me,
and what I have seen I will declare
(what wise men have told,
without hiding it from their fathers,
to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them).
The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.”
This is how the theology of Eliphaz works. It is the wicked who is in pain. It is the wicked who face the troubles of life. “Job, you are facing the troubles of life, therefore, you must be among the wicked.” You see him develop this in verse 21.
Job 15:21-25
Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
and he is marked for the sword.
He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
distress and anguish terrify him;
they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
Because he has stretched out his hand against God
and defies the Almighty,
That is, the difficulties in your life are because you have defied the Almighty.
Now, we know this to be wrong in Job’s case. We have read chapters 1 and 2 of Job. He was suffering because he was righteous, and God was using Job to prove a point to Satan. And if you think about Corrie ten Boom, you can clearly see that this was the case with her and her family.
They were harboring innocent Jewish people in their home, protecting them from being taken away to slaughter by the evil Nazis. And what did they get? They received immense suffering. They were arrested, taken off to prison, and sent to concentration camps, where they faced starvation, sleeplessness, cold, and humiliation.
Corrie tells the story of when she was questioned by a lieutenant at a hearing. She said that she was questioned for an hour, “using every psychological trick” he could muster up. He thought that the ten Boom family house was a headquarters of illegal activity. But when it became clear that Corrie knew nothing about being any sort of central hub of illegal activities, the lieutenant then said, “Your other activities, Miss ten Boom. What would you like to tell me about them?”[6] She said, “Other activities? Oh, you mean—you want to know about my church for mentally retarded people?” Then, she writes, “I plunged into an eager account of my efforts at preaching to the feeble-minded.” “The lieutenant’s eyebrows rose higher and higher. ‘What a waste of time and energy!’ he exploded at last. ‘If you want converts, surely one normal person is worth all the half-wits in the world!’” Corrie ten Boom then replied, “May I tell you the truth, Lieutenant Rahms?… The truth, Sir,… is that God’s viewpoint is sometimes different from ours—so different that we could not even guess at it unless He had given us a Book that tells us such things.… In the Bible, I learn that God values us not for our strength or our brains, but simply because He has made us. Who knows, in His eyes, a half-wit may be worth more than a watchmaker. Or—a lieutenant.”[7]
This was her testimony. They were simply doing good to society. And now, they were imprisoned as enemies of the state. Job was suffering unjustly, and the ten Booms suffered unjustly. And the authorities couldn’t understand her faith.
At her final hearing before being sent off to the concentration camps, she was mocked by the lieutenant: “How can you believe in God now?… What kind of a God would have let [your father] die here in Scheveningen?” She writes, “The hardest thing for him seemed to be that Christians should suffer.”[8] Like Job’s friends, this lieutenant thought that if you are righteous, everything is going to go well with you, and if you are suffering, there must be something wrong. What kind of God would let you suffer? But Christianity follows a suffering Savior, the one who died upon the cross. And how are we to live any differently? This is the very thing that Eliphaz is dealing with as well. How can a faithful man suffer? Again, verse 25.
Job 15:25-28
Because he has stretched out his hand against God
and defies the Almighty,
running stubbornly against him
with a thickly bossed shield;
because he has covered his face with his fat
and gathered fat upon his waist
and has lived in desolate cities,
in houses that none should inhabit,
which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
“Job, that is why you are suffering! You have been sinful.” Eliphaz continues on with the suffering that he will endure.
Job 15:29-35
he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
nor will his possessions spread over the earth;
he will not depart from darkness;
the flame will dry up his shoots,
and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
for emptiness will be his payment.
It will be paid in full before his time,
and his branch will not be green.
He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
For the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
They conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
and their womb prepares deceit.
Such are the ways of the wicked. Such are the ways of Job. “Job, you must be wicked.”
To this Job responds,
2. God Has Worn Me Out (chapters 16-17).
Again, for this point, I am just echoing what Job is saying (see verse 7). In his suffering, Job does not answer the things Eliphaz brings up. Instead, he goes on a tangent. He says, “God has come against me, and he has worn me out.” Job says as much in verse 7. But before he gets there, there are the usual barbs that are sent.
Job 16:1-3
Then Job answered and said:
“I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
Shall windy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?”
Then he gives some perspective in verses 4 and 5, saying that if the roles were reversed, Job’s comfort would have been better than his friends’.
Job 16:4-5
I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and shake my head at you.
I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
This is, “I could have relieved your pain.” But then Job says, “My pain has not been relieved.”
Job 16:6-9
“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
Surely now God has worn me out;
he has made desolate all my company.
And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.”
He is skinny. He is losing weight because he is sick, because he can’t eat, because he is in such pain. He is just saying, “God is going at me.”
Here it is the second round of dialogue with his friends, and Job is worn out. You have to remember that he is in great pain as he speaks with his friends. And without any real progress being made in the discussion, he feels that God has torn him down in his wrath (verse 9). In verse 10, he speaks of how others have torn him down as well.
Job 16:10-11
Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.
God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
Here is a sick man being slapped around. So maybe the idea is, “Job, wake up! Wake up, Job!” slapping him on the face. With sores on his face, hitting boils would have been extremely painful. Job is just saying, “I have been in your hands, and you guys are wicked. You’re not helping me.”
I can’t help but think of Corrie ten Boom again. Men gaped at her. They struck her on the cheek. She was given up into the hands of the wicked. As a woman, surrounded by male guards in the concentration camp, she faced these very things. To and from the showers S.S. men ran their hands over every prisoner, front, back, and sides.
She faced the weekly humiliation of the medical inspection every Friday. The women were stripped bare, and paraded before the guards and doctors for “inspection.” She wrote, “How there could have been any pleasure in the sight of these stick-thin legs and hunger-gloated stomachs I could not imagine.”[9] But what helped her get through it was the vision of Jesus, stripped of his clothes upon the cross. She told her sister, “Betsie, they took His clothes too.” Betsie gasped and replied, “Oh, Corrie. And I never thanked Him.”[10] Job continues in verse 12 to describe his suffering.
Job 16:12-17
I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
He breaks me with breach upon breach;
he runs upon me like a warrior.
I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have laid my strength in the dust.
My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
In other words, “I’m worn out!” I would imagine that Corrie ten Boom could relate.
- Severe hunger and physical weakness. Food rations at Ravensbrück were meager and deteriorated further during the war. The rations were small. They tried to starve them out. Corrie talked about the women being just thin, thin bones, with bloated stomachs, which are indicative of those dying of starvation.
- Forced labor. Prisoners were compelled to perform physically demanding labor for the German war effort.
- Exhaustion. Hunger, forced labor, inadequate rest, and mistreatment combined to leave prisoners physically depleted.
- Extreme overcrowding. Ravensbrück’s population exploded during the war, reaching more than 50,000 women by January 1945. The barracks became horribly overcrowded.
- Filthy and deteriorating sanitation. The sanitary conditions became increasingly terrible, contributing to the spread of disease. Fleas and lice. Corrie and Betsie lived in barracks infested with parasites.
- Disease. Typhus eventually spread through the overcrowded camp. Disease was a constant threat to already weakened prisoners.
- Cold. The women endured inadequate living conditions and harsh cold, particularly during roll calls and outdoor work.
- Sleep deprivation. Picture twin beds stacked several bunks high, each with three people on them, with wooden slats without a mattress, sleeping on straw.
- Humiliation. The women were stripped and subjected to inspections. Loss of personal dignity. Prisoners were treated as numbers rather than as people. Their clothing, possessions, privacy, and ordinary identity were stripped away.
- Abuse and intimidation by guards. The concentration-camp system subjected prisoners to arbitrary cruelty, beatings, threats, and degrading treatment. Ravensbrück was administered by S.S. personnel and female guards.
- The constant presence of death. Prisoners knew that people around them were dying from starvation, disease, exhaustion, executions, and other forms of mistreatment. More than 20,000–30,000 women ultimately perished in the Ravensbrück camp system.
- Separation from loved ones. Corrie’s father had already died after the family’s arrest, and at Ravensbrück Corrie faced the eventual death of her sister Betsie.
- Watching others suffer and die. One of the psychological burdens of the camp was not merely one’s own suffering but seeing other women become sick, starve, weaken, and die. Grief over Betsie. Betsie died at Ravensbrück in December 1944.
- Loss of freedom. Corrie had gone from living an ordinary life in Haarlem to being imprisoned, numbered, controlled, and unable to determine even the most basic aspects of her daily existence. They used to walk about. Now they were slaves. Now they were captive.
- Uncertainty. She had no idea whether she would survive, whether Betsie would survive, or what would happen to them.
- Spiritual testing. Corrie had to wrestle with what it meant to trust God when virtually everything visible seemed to contradict God’s goodness.
But then, here, beginning in verse 18, we see another sighting of Jesus.
Job 16:18-19
“O earth, cover not my blood,
and let my cry find no resting place.
Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.”
Job has confidence that he has his “witness in heaven” who will “testify” for him. Now, Job doesn’t know at all who this is. Job doesn’t know that he is talking about Jesus. But innately, Job knows that there is one in heaven who will speak up for him and his cause.
In the New Testament, Jesus is called our “mediator.” He’s the one who stands between us and God, and argues our case before the Lord.
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea:
A great High Priest whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
—Charitie Lees Bancroft, 1863
Jesus now prays always for his people. If we believe in Christ, he is praying for us. He is our witness before the Father.
It works like this: In our sin, we know that we are condemned before the Lord. We know that we should be punished for our sins. But for those who believe in Jesus, he steps into the courtroom of God, and stands between us and his Father, and he argues his case: “Yes, this sinner deserves punishment. But remember, I went to the cross and suffered the punishment that he deserved. You already punished him by punishing me. So, you must let him go free!”
This is how it works for every believer in Jesus. For every believer in Jesus, that is our hope. It’s not that we are righteous here. It’s that we believe in God, and he counts it as righteousness to us. To stand before God, we need to be blameless. But we are all sinners and stand no chance of being blameless before him. Except, Jesus took the blame when he died upon the cross. Peter said it this way:
1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.
1 Peter 2:24
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
This is the hope that Job only longed for. He was looking for a witness in heaven to plead his case. Now, I think that Job was looking for a witness in heaven, to speak to the heavenly court, and tell the truth about what happened in chapters 1 and 2, how Job was in the right, and how his suffering wasn’t because he sinned. Surely there was some angelic being around, or some being who heard the conversation between God and Satan, who could say, “This is an innocent man.” Job did not even know all the details about that, but he believes he has some witness in heaven who could say that Job is blameless. That witness, ultimately, is Jesus. Job continues.
Job 16:20-22
My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as a son of man does with his neighbor.
For when a few years have come
I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
Job is worn out and ready to die. We have seen this several times already. We saw it in chapter 3. We saw it at the end of chapter 10. Job is so worn out that he is ready to die. This is the continued theme in chapter 17.
Job 17:1-2
“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.”
Then Job speaks about cruelty that he has experienced at the hands of others, and pronounces his own curse upon his friends.
Job 17:3-5
“Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up security for me?
Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.”
Then Job returns again to how worn out he is.
Job 17:6-10
“He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
My eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like a shadow.
The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
But you, come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.”
Job did not have a good reputation anymore. He did not have a good name. He was a byword, and they spat on his name. And he is challenging them back again: there is no one here who is wise. Then Job expresses his hopelessness.
Job 17:11-16
“My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
They make night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”
It is like he is longing to be in family communion with the grave. That is utter helplessness, because God had worn him out. Job is not responding super well here. He has a little hope that some witness is going to come and proclaim his righteousness, and how unfair God has been.
Job says, "God Has Worn Me Out (chapters 16-17)." And then we come to chapter 18, where Bildad says,
3. Your Light is Put Out (chapter 18).
Before he says that, he must first insult Job.
Job 18:1-4
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
“How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and then we will speak.
Why are we counted as cattle?
Why are we stupid in your sight?
You who tear yourself in your anger,
shall the earth be forsaken for you,
or the rock be removed out of its place?”
“Why are we counted as cattle?” is like saying, “Why are we counted as stupid?” And “shall the earth be forsaken for you?” is like saying, “Are you more important than all the earth?” That is basically what he is saying.
Then Bildad gets to his point. “Your light is put out.” Only, he doesn’t say it exactly that way. He says it like this in verse 5.
Job 18:5
“Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out,
and the flame of his fire does not shine.”
But, like Eliphaz, he asserts the same thing: “Job, you are wicked.” I know this because your light is put out. And “indeed” the light of the wicked is put out. Therefore, you must be wicked. This is the exact same argument that Eliphaz had. Remember, Eliphaz says, “You’re writhing in pain. It’s only the wicked who writhe in pain, so you must be wicked.” Here, Bildad is saying, "The light of the wicked is put out. Your light is put out. Therefore you are among the wicked." It’s the same argument. It's a sort of a karma theology: if you do good, good will come; if you do bad, bad will come. Well, bad has come to you, so you must have done bad. That is the whole contention of the book of Job. Job says, “No, I haven’t done bad. I’m suffering.” And they say, “Yes, you’ve done bad.” They are just going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. That’s the song they are singing.
In the rest of the chapter, Bildad describes how the light of the wicked is put out, and he’s describing Job, and therefore asserting that Job is wicked. Bildad’s argument is as simple as that. "Job, look at what it looks like for the wicked to be put out. It looks exactly like you. I’m describing you. Therefore, you must be wicked.” This section of Job is very straightforward.
Job 18:6-11
The light is dark in his tent,
and his lamp above him is put out.
His strong steps are shortened,
and his own schemes throw him down.
For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he walks on its mesh.
A trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare lays hold of him.
A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him in the path.
Terrors frighten him on every side,
and chase him at his heels.
Now, note here in verse 12 how Job-like this is.
Job 18:12-21
His strength is famished,
and calamity is ready for his stumbling.
It consumes the parts of his skin;
the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
and is brought to the king of terrors.
In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
His roots dry up beneath,
and his branches wither above.
His memory perishes from the earth,
and he has no name in the street.
He is thrust from light into darkness,
and driven out of the world.
He has no posterity or progeny among his people,
and no survivor where he used to live.
They of the west are appalled at his day,
and horror seizes them of the east.
Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
such is the place of him who knows not God.
Does this not describe Job? “His strength is famished.” Absolutely it does! Job is sick and can barely move, with sores all over, skinny, and unable to eat. “It consumes the parts of his skin.” Job had boils on his skin. That is him.
“Job, not only are you wicked, but you don’t know God! You might profess to know God, but you don’t know him.” Bildad is even questioning whether Job 1:1 is true, that he was a righteous man, blameless in all his ways. What sort of counsel is that? It is not hope-giving. In our last chapter this morning, Job will reply, “Oh, but I do know him.”
4. I Know That My Redeemer Lives (chapter 19).
Now, this phrase, "I know that my Redeemer lives," doesn’t come until verse 25. But it comes against the backdrop of Job being crushed. So Job goes back to the theme of chapters 16 and 17, just saying, “I’m worn out. I’ve been crushed.” But he is going to say in verse 25, “But I’ve got a hope: I know that my Redeemer lives.” Then at the end of the chapter, he is going to go back to his wallowing. It is like people who are suffering: there are ups and downs in their lives, sometimes good and sometimes bad. Job is mostly bad here, complaining, but then he says, “Oh, I’ve got hope. I’m hoping in my Redeemer.” Of course, Job begins with his insult.
Job 19:1-3
Then Job answered and said:
“How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
are you not ashamed to wrong me?”
Job then speaks of his own experience.
Job 19:4-6
And even if it be true that I have erred,
my error remains with myself.
If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
and make my disgrace an argument against me,
know then that God has put me in the wrong
and closed his net about me.
This is what Job feels God has done with him. He feels like he is a bird or a fish that has been hunted down. He feels like there is no escape:
Job 19:7-12
Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
I call for help, but there is no justice.
He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness upon my paths.
He has stripped from me my glory
and taken the crown from my head.
He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone,
and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
He has kindled his wrath against me
and counts me as his adversary.
His troops come on together;
they have cast up their siege ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
Job says, “God is against me.” He has taken my glory, my wealth. This is true of Job. He had glory. He was the greatest in the land. Stripped and wiped away. He has taken away my health. God counts me as his enemy. It’s like I’m at war with God, and losing. Then, in verse 13, he speaks about those people around him.
Job 19:13-18
“He has put my brothers far from me,
and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
My relatives have failed me,
my close friends have forgotten me.
The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
My breath is strange to my wife,
and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
Even young children despise me;
when I rise they talk against me.”
Job felt abandoned by all around him. Just listen for the nouns of who he is talking about here: his brothers, his relatives, his close friends, the guests in his house, his maidservants, his wife, even the children. His brothers are like, “Nope, don’t want anything to do with Job.” It might be that their theology was the same as the theology of his friends: “Job is wicked. I don’t even want to come close to the wicked people.” But Job has nothing to offer anymore. He is just a sick man. They let him alone. He had friends here, but it took Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, these rich friends from afar, to come and see him. Even the kids in the street say, “There goes Job.” Things are bad enough that even the children despise him.
Job 19:19
All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I loved have turned against me.
I think he’s talking about his three close friends in front of him, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They have not loved Job. Instead, they have turned against him, calling Job a wicked man! It is as if he says, “You guys abhor me. You are just accusing me of these things which are wrong. You have become miserable comforters. You’re not helpful.” So God has crushed him and abandoned him. All the people in his community have abandoned him. And even his physical illness is difficult. Then, he speaks about his physical illness.
Job 19:20
My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
“I’m barely alive!” Then, he appeals to his friends, verse 21.
Job 19:21-22
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
Why do you, like God, pursue me?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
Job knows that he is being pursued by God. Verse 6, God has closed his net about him. Verse 8, God has walled up his way. Verse 9, God has stripped his glory and his crown. Verse 10, God has broken him down on every side.
Here he says that his friends have done the same. Rather than coming alongside Job in mercy and grace and sympathy, they have pursued him as well. They have condemned him. They have put the blame on Job, calling him to repent! Then Job utters a prayer:
Job 19:23-24
“Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!”
Done. Answered prayer! At least Job has one answered prayer. I don’t know of any place where the book of Job is chiseled in stone, but it might be someplace, an answer to that prayer. Maybe that would be a good Eagle Scout project for somebody, to answer a prayer in the Bible! Then comes the great verse we will dwell upon, verse 25.
Job 19:25
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
This comes from the backdrop of having no hope: “Where then is my hope?” (17:15). But Job stands firm on this one thing: “I know that my Redeemer lives.” Despite God being against him (verses 6-12), despite his friends and relatives being against him (verses 13-19), despite his flesh fading away (verse 20), yet Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” That’s faith. Job never wavered in his faith in this whole book. He is still believing in God. He just believes that God has crushed him, and he doesn’t know why. He doesn’t understand, because he doesn’t know chapters 1 and 2 like we do.
Here is a great application for us all: no matter how dark a road you may travel down, no matter how depressed you may feel, no matter how betrayed you have been, and no matter what sort of trials you face, you can say with Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” If Job could say that, with little if any revelation about Jesus, just knowing that there is some sort of witness in the heavens who can help him and come to his aid, then certainly we can say that, we who have the revelation of the entire New Testament, which speaks of Jesus, the Son of God, who took on flesh and blood, lived a perfect life, and died a sinless death for us, so that we might be redeemed from our sins.
To redeem someone is to “buy them back.” Jesus came to pay the ransom.
Mark 10:45
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Upon the cross, Jesus paid the ransom price that our sins deserved. In this way, he “redeemed us.”
Titus 2:14
[Jesus] gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.
It is only his grace that does that. We have not merited it. We have not earned it. It is God redeeming us. Fundamentally, this is what redemption is. It is the forgiveness of sins.
We have to hear one last story about Corrie ten Boom. She writes about a church service in Munich, Germany, where she had an opportunity to speak.
“It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,’ he said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often [about] the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”[11]
It took a lot of love. Corrie ten Boom knew about the redemption in Christ Jesus. Corrie ten Boom knew and experienced the forgiveness that he offers. And hard as it was, when this man asked for forgiveness, she extended it, and God filled her with his life.
Do you want to forgive those who have wronged you? Pray like Corrie ten Boom did: “I can’t. Jesus, I cannot forgive. Give me your forgiveness.” There is the redemption. Hope of the resurrection:
Job 19:26-27
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
Here he is talking about the resurrection. Last week, we saw some hints of the resurrection. Here is clear resurrection.
Job says, "After my skin has been destroyed, I am going to die. I am going to go to that grave, which I long for. But there is going to be a day when I am resurrected from the dead, and I am going to see Jesus with my eyes." This is the Christian doctrine of the resurrection. Jesus was raised from the dead as the firstfruits, and those who believe in him will be raised from the dead as well. There will be dust in the ground. How he raises us up, I just know God can do that. That is what Job is saying. Trust in the resurrection. There is a resurrection in the Old Testament, and this is what is giving Job hope.
After that, in the last two verses, he is kind of back down in the dumps again.
Job 19:28-29
If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.
Such is the reality of those who suffer. They can go from such heights of anticipating the resurrection to such lows of wallowing again in discouragement. Let us seek to be encouraged by the resurrection!
This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on September 20, 2026 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rockvalleybiblechurch.org.
[1] “Family ten Boom,” Triablogue, August 2019, https://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/08/family-ten-boom.html.
[2] “Corrie ten Boom,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrie_ten_Boom.
[3] “Ravensbrück concentration camp,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravensbrück_concentration_camp.
[4] “Corrie ten Boom,” Wikipedia.
[5] “Corrie ten Boom: A Legacy of Faith and Courage,” dirkdeklein.net, December 28, 2024, https://dirkdeklein.net/2024/12/28/corrie-ten-boom-a-legacy-of-faith-and-courage/.
[6] Corrie ten Boom with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, The Hiding Place (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour Publishing, 1971), 157.
[7] Ibid., 157.
[8] Ibid., 159.
[9] Ibid., 191.
[10] Ibid., 191.
[11] Ibid., 231.