Job 18-19 "Smitten by God but my Redeemer Lives"

Job’s Comforting Prayer and the Setting for Job 18–19

We thank you for all that you have done. Right now, you are the successor to children who thank you for the gift of God. Those of you who have called and those of you who have been blessed with the gift, call us out as our gift to you has brought us to a marvelous life, and you have given us the gift of adoption, where we are no longer saints, that we're not your enemies, that we're not your friends, but you look at us as if you are your son.

We thank you for this gift. We love you. We know you. Give us grace. Amen.

It is in the Old Testament. It's that long that we might have even forgotten where the location of it is in our Bibles, it seems like. It's been a blessing to go through the different topical messages that we've had here in the last several weeks, looking at how Jesus is God in flesh, looking at communion, looking at baptism as the last three sermons, the last three Sundays, the last three Lord's Days went.

Today, we are going to be in Job chapter 18 all the way to chapter 19 as we take these large bites of the book of Job to help us see the overarching message that is taking place here in Job, a man who is blameless, upright, fearing Yahweh and standing before God blameless in these things, and how these men have now come, surrounded him, these supposed friends, and they're continually tormenting him as they put forth false accusations before Job.

Bildad’s Harsh Accusations Against Job

So let's go ahead and pray over this text before we read it and consider it. And let's just be reminded of the grace of God. Let's go ahead and pray. Lord God, we ask that today as our eyes glance at the words here before us, Lord, that we would be encouraged and reminded that this is your inspired word, Lord, of a real actual event that took place several years ago.

That I would ask that we would correctly apply these things to our own lives today, that we would correctly understand what is taking place here, Lord. God, that you would even help myself proclaim these things in the truthful manner that is God glorifying to yourself.

God, as we've already stated, the snow that is outside, Lord, may we be reminded of the land that covers us. And Lord, that today's sermon, today's message, today's singing, today's fellowship, today's prayers would be like when we go outside and we feel the wind, the breeze, the cold air that is from the snow around us, Lord, that we would be reminded of the grace that is found in you.

God, we ask this as we approach your throne of grace and humility and reverence.

Lord, may you be glorified today.

And I ask this in Jesus Christ, the one who died for us, his name. Amen. Job 18 -19. It's important for us as we approach any text every time to remind ourselves of some of the context of what's going on, but especially since we haven't been in this text now for several weeks.

Job is in the midst of a single conversation right here. After Job has received all these trials and persecutions of him losing his entire family, save it be his wife, he's lost his servants, he's lost his possessions, all this great turmoil and chaos has come forward in his life.

He's been stricken with boils and affliction. And now after seven days of in the state of mourning and severe distress, his friends now have gone about with persecuting him even more. His friends have stopped with trying to bring him out of this pit of darkness, but rather it seems that they are trying to hurl him further down in despair.

His friends have turned against him is what we have seen and what we are going to continue to see even in this text. The last friend that we saw spoke from prior chapters was Elias. And Job has continually been trying to prove his innocence before his friends who are adamant, that are adamant that, Job, the reason that you have this happen to you, the reason that you are in the situation that you're in right now, though I do not know what it was, though I have no evidence of it, you are a sinner, you've sown wickedness and therefore you are reaping it is what the accusation of the friends are, over and over and over again.

And so now in chapter 18 we are going to see this friend that has already spoken once in prior texts, Bildad, he now speaks again to his supposed friend, Job. Again, we think about those seven days that went by and we think Bildad, these other two friends, they're doing good things in those seven days it appears, but then it seems that all those seven days were actually not there for good reasons as they opened their mouths and actually tried to seemingly encourage Job.

So let's hear these words of Bildad as he talks here. Let's go verses 1 -4 to begin with. Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, How long until you put an end to your words? Show understanding and then we can talk.

Why are we as regarded as beasts, as dents in your eyes? O you who tear yourself in your anger, for your sake is the earth to be forsaken or the rocks to be moved from its place. And I want to remind us when we read these texts, especially here in the following verses, we ought not to look at this and say this is good advice for any of us to offer to any of our friends that might be suffering and it's not good advice for us to be told.

This is bad advice that Bildad is offering to the friend here. This is a historical recorded account of Bildad that is speaking to Job here for us. And we see at the end of the book, Bildad and the other friends and even Job himself are rebuked over the ways that they have erred in giving this advice.

Rebuked by God himself.

Rumors, Slander, and the Danger of False Accusation

Now, when we approach this text, verses 5 -21, what we're going to see here, and what we're going to especially see even how Job responds, I was reminded of this as earlier here, the ending of December, I was at the fire department working and I was in a fire apparatus.

I was in an aid car is what we call it, but a fire apparatus nonetheless. And a gentleman rear-ended me while I was driving this aid car,.

This fire apparatus.

And I thought, oh great, I get on the radio and I tell dispatch, hey, we need PD. I need my battalion chief out here, so on and so forth.

Get out of the vehicle and go.

There's no damage, no damage whatsoever. It was super slow speed. If it had happened in my personal car, we would have left.

It would have been good to go.

However, since it was a fire apparatus, I was like,.

That's probably not going to pan out great for me if I go back to the station and tell the people I got rear-ended.

But he just went, we're good.

That's going to be bad for me. So we start this conversation and this gentleman, this elderly gentleman, sarcastically looks at it and he says, I don't know why you backed up into me. I thought to myself, what?

I kind of laughed a little bit because it seemed like

I didn't laugh. It wasn't a funny situation, but I was like, sure.

That seemed like a sarcastic comment. But then he goes on to say, get the F out of my way so I can leave with a hint of sarcasm. Okay, that's a weird thing to be saying in this situation. He then gets back into his pickup, backs up, and begins to pull off.

And I'm, sir, no, no, you can't leave. We have PD coming.

I have my battalion chief coming.

You hit us.

We need to talk about this.

And he says, no, you backed up into me. Out of pure frustration, I almost threw down with an 80-year-old, but I restrained. And my partner, thank goodness, helped jump in the middle of that conversation, and I walked away very upset because this gentleman was very adamant that I backed up into him.

And as cops get there and the sheriff's department gets there and my battalion chief gets there and we start talking about this, his story doesn't change. He backed up into me. I remember looking at my friend Bo, my partner that I was with, and I was like, I didn't back up into him, did I?

What I guess I'm trying to say is a lie told enough times convinces those that are quick to judge. A lie told enough times begins to break away at the armor. It starts to chink away at the chains that are there.

Sure enough, the gentleman, there was no damage.

We were good to go.

The sheriff was like, why didn't you even call me out here? And I was like, dude, it's a fire apparatus. Come on. I would have been in so much trouble if I hadn't called you out here. But they go and they check the camera, and guess what?

Sure enough happened. The gentleman rear-ended me. But there was a moment there that I was like, I don't think I heard the beeping that was happening when you put the vehicle into reverse. I don't think so anyway.

Nonetheless, though, you can see the damage that can be done when somebody starts to spread rumors and someone is very adamant that there was a wrongdoing when it didn't actually take place, how it can start to seem like that is the truth.

Brothers and sisters, each one of us, whenever we hear anything in life, especially when it comes to accusations, especially when there's true, tangible damage that can be done, we must examine and not be quick to judge.

We must actually look at the case. We must look at the video evidence and say, sure enough, he rear-ended you. You didn't back up into him. So remember this when we look here at verses 5 -21, and remember this is all happening in the same conversation with Job who's hearing continually,.

Job, you're a sinner.

Job, you've done something wrong. God has brought death to your doorstep because you deserved it.

Job's saying, no, I'm not.

I'm not deserving of this. But God who is sovereign is the one who has brought it forth. Blessed be his name. Let's look here, verse 5 and on. Indeed, the light of the wicked goes out, and the flame of his fire gives no light.

The light in his tent is darkened, and his lamp goes out above all. His vigorous stride is shortened, and his own counsel brings him down. For he is thrown into the net by his own feet, and he steps on the netting, and a snare seizes him by the heel, and a device snaps shut on him.

A rope for him is hidden in the ground, and a trap for him on the path. All around, terror frightens him and harasses him at every step. His vigor is famished, and disaster is ready to add his side. The firstborn of death eats parts of his skin, which is remarkable.

Again, this is a man that has got boils right there. This is totally a dagger in the back of Job, as his friends say. It eats part of him. He is torn from the security of his tent, and they march him in step before the king of terrors.

There dwells in his tent nothing of his brimstone. It is scattered on his robe. His roots are dry below, and his branch is cut off above. Brothers and sisters, think about this for a moment. What has already taken place to Job from this friend, he's reminding him of the death that has happened in the family.

And if that wasn't enough, here are some of these striking words that come from Bildad to this supposed friend. Speaking of Job, memory of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name abroad. He is driven from light into darkness, and chased from the inhabited world.

He has neither offspring, nor posterity among his people, nor any survivor where he sojourned. Those who are in the west are appalled at his fate, and those in the east are seized with honor. Surely are the dwellings of the unjust, and this is the place of him who does not know God.

Bildad has amplified again the severity and pain that Job is going through in such a way by saying, Job, the whole community, everybody that knows you, your good reputation has actually now turned into not people mourning for you, not people praying for you, not people that are concerned with the situation you're in, but they're all knowing that you are a sinner.

They're all knowing that you are of no reputation. You are of no honor. The name of Job has been soiled beyond all belief. The west, the east, they all know about you, Job. He's reminded them of the death of his family, the loss of his possessions, the taking of his servants in this chapter, and now Job is being notified that there's rumors that are taking place in his country.

Think about that here in Hagerman, in a small community where rumors are ran around rampant. Can rumors drive a man insane?

Yeah, are rumors true always?

Absolutely not. I guarantee you if we looked around this room and we asked, have we ever been a part of a rumor that has caused my family and myself damage, everyone in this room would raise their hand and say it was terrible, it was lies.

I wish people actually examined the truth. I wish people weren't quick to judge.

Every one of us would admit that,.

And that is what Job is suffering right here. I think even inside of our church and even examples recently that have taken place, brothers and sisters, we cannot be quick to judge. We must listen to the truth.

Let wisdom be vindicated by her deeds. Let time show what the truth of the matter is. Has Job done anything wrong? Again, what does the beginning of the book tell us about the character of Job? Something that no one else has knowledge about, we have knowledge about when it comes to the life of Job.

Job is a blameless man, upright, fears Yahweh. When we look at this and we see everyone from the East to the West that knows Job now thinks of him in such a way,.

Are they all wrong?

They are all wrong.

Brothers and sisters, remember that even in a small town like Hagerman. When accusations come your way, when rumors begin, when the gossip and the slander is cutting away at your very flesh, remember there is one who knows the truth.

And wisdom will be vindicated by her deeds. It's a difficult situation that you might be in today if that is taking place in your life. But be faithful to God. And I think what we will see here is actually an answer to how we should approach this stuff.

Job’s Protest and the Sovereignty of God

Look here at chapter 19. Now this is Job's response. Then Job answered and said, How long will you torment my soul? Does Job see the words of Bildad as a man that is trying to comfort him or a man that is trying to persecute him?

You're tormenting me. And crush me with words. These ten times you have dishonored me. You are not ashamed that you wronged me. Job is saying, if anybody is in the wrong here, Bildad, it's the way you are behaving.

There's a way that you're bringing accusations against me. You are in the wrong right here, Bildad. And then pause here and think, everybody from the east to the west, who would look at that situation and who would they side with?

Bildad, where should we side with? Again, we have hindsight 20 -20. Job is in the right here. This is wrong. This is not how you comfort somebody that's lost their family. Listen to this. Even if I truly erred, my error lodges with me.

Job is saying, so what, Bildad? Even if I did sin, whatever sin that might be, think about it for a moment. What sin would be such a way? Yes, in the eternal eyes of God, our sin is deserving of eternal punishment, and it is a cosmic-scale issue when we sin against God.

This is true. But to you and I, has there ever been a sin that has been committed amongst us that would warrant us to go to the man's house who just lost seven sons and three daughters and go on and berate him over and over and over?

Is there any sin in our lives that we could think of that would cause us to want to do such? Job is saying, even if I did sin, Bildad and these other two friends, you made it to a cosmic scale, which is not true.

Whatever sin that could be, is it deserving of what you're doing, Bildad? No. It's not. If truly you magnify yourself against me and argue my disgrace to me, know then that God has wronged me and has closed His net around me.

Brothers and sisters, listen. Job, again, is confident that the situation, even in his mourning, even in the terribleness that is, boils in the loss of his family. Job is very confident that this situation is because it is according to the will of God.

Even in the arguments that Bildad is making against him, it is according to the will of God. This is God's sovereignty according to Job here that we're going to see here in 7 -13. Let's read it. Behold, I cry violence, but I get no answer.

I shout for help, but there is no justice. He was walled up my ways so that I cannot pass. Notice the pronouns and notice how in each one of our translations it capitalizes those pronouns. Guess who this is talking about?

God.

He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass. He has put darkness on my path. He has stripped me from honor and removed the clown from my head. He breaks me down on every side and I am gone. And he has uprooted my hope like a tree.

He has also kindled his anger against me.

And counted me as his adversary.

His troops come together and build up their way against me and camp around my tent. He has removed my brothers far from me and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. Job is reporting to Bildad that the situation he is in is according to the hand of a sovereign God.

God has blocked me in. He has hidden my path. He has removed my honor. He has stripped my crown. He has broken me down. He has uprooted me. He has shown anger to me. He has built adversaries up against me is what Job proclaims.

In these things, does Job attribute blame to God in any way? No, he's saying that it's not God's fault but it is according to God's will. What Bildad, you're saying is wrong. You're the one that's to be held accountable for it.

But even in these things, it is according to God's will. And immediately, most of Christianity would object and say it cannot be that atrocities, evil, and vile are according to God's will. It cannot be.

And to each one of us, we must answer in such a way.

As saying, oh yes it is.

Look here with me at Luke 22, verse 42, and consider that. It cannot be that atrocities, evil, and vile are according to the will of God.

Oh yes, it is.

This is Jesus on the night that He is betrayed. This is Jesus on the night that He is to be pronounced,.

To be crucified.

He says here in verse 42 of Luke 22, saying, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done. Did not the will of the Father that crushed the innocent bring vile to Christ?

It poured out the bitter wrath upon He who was deserving. Man is responsible for their actions, yes. Did the people choose to crucify the Lord of life? Absolutely they did. But you also must believe the words of Christ.

It was according to the Father's will. And what did Christ desire there in the garden that day? The Father's will to be done. Isaiah 53, verse 10,. But Yahweh was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.

If you would place His soul as a guilt offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand. Brothers and sisters, it's easy to stop again in a moment of distress and despair and think that there is nothing good that is working inside this situation.

But brothers and sisters, because it is according to the Father's will, we can look at every situation that we are in and say it is good. It's bringing about something. I don't know what it is. I don't know what the end of it will be.

But God is the one that has determined it according to His will to take place. Let's look here at verses 14 -22. My relatives have failed, and my family friends have forgotten me. And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

My relatives have failed,.

And my familiar friends have forgotten me. Those who sojourn in my house and my maidservants count me a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight. I call to my servant, but he does not answer. I've implored him with my mouth.

My breath is offensive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my very own brothers. Even young children reject me. I rise up, and they speak against me. All the men of my council abhor me, and those I love have turned against me.

My bone clings to my skin and my flesh. I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. Pity me, pity me, oh you my friends, for the hand of God has smitten me. Why do you persecute me as God does and are not satisfied with my flesh?

According to the previous comments of Job, it is God's will that has brought him here, and now we've just read how God's will is working around the life of Job. I do think it's remarkable, I would make mention of, that the skin of my teeth saying, that comes from the Bible, that comes from this text right here.

Lick your teeth right now. How much skin do you feel right there? It's saying it's very close. It's very, very close that Job has escaped these things. It's just one of those remarkable sayings that we find in life every day,.

Even in the secular world,.

And it comes about from this text here. Let's look here at verse 23 -29. This, again, I think the answer to how we are to live our lives in the midst of rumors, gossip, and slander, persecution, trial, and hardship that comes about.

How do we live our life? How does the life of Job find an end in mourning? Where does the mourning end for Job? Let's read this and think through this. Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!

That with an iron stylus and lead, they were engraved in the rock forever. What is the comment here that Job is trying to get at with verse 23 and 24? Job is saying everybody from the east to the west opposes me.

Everybody supposedly hates me. Everybody supposedly is saying that I am a sinner and that this is a karma type of situation that my family died because of something I sowed in the ground many, many years ago.

Job is saying, man, I wish there was a record. I wish that I could write these things down so in the future coming years as you continue to dirty my name, you can find it upon a rock that I'm actually innocent.

And what's remarkable about this is brothers and sisters, we're reading from the Word of God that records this life of Job. This request of Job was actually made true and it's a testament every time we read this text.

We can look at the life of Job and we can say, Job, yeah, you were an innocent, blameless, Yahweh-fearing man. The desire of Job and the truth to be exposed, has it been such?

Yeah.

In this day when Job is talking, has truth been exposed for everyone?

No. No.

But as years go on, even in this life of Job, even in the day of Job, and we consider this, as days and years come upon him, we see the life of Job restored. We see the things being exposed. I would ask again, if you are being slandered, if you are going through hardship,.

Brothers, be faithful.

Be faithful. Desire for the truth to come out. We as God's people do not work in shadows. We do not work in hidden places. We desire for the truth to be exposed. We desire for all darkness to come to light.

It's remarkable that even in the reading of this, it just reminds us that God possesses history's only pen. And that is why we're reading about the life of Job right here. There is a constant danger here in verse 25.

There's a constant danger that we have in both over-spiritualizing any text of the Bible and only reading the Bible as a historical book. There's this tension here whenever we approach any text of the Bible.

I want to read here verse 25, and we consider this constant tension. As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. And at the last, He will rise up over the dust of this world.

This is...

My Redeemer Lives and the Hope of Vindication

Brothers and sisters, if we only read this as a historical thing, we might just look at this and say, ah, Job was just saying something that he had no clue about. When we look at this text, we must see this as a prophetic utterance.

Job is one of the oldest stories that we have in the Bible. It could be looked at and said that Job, the only revelation of the future seed that would come for Job is from Genesis 3. And that's really the only stories that Job has heard, is that God told Adam and Eve in the garden that He would crush the head of the serpent, that the seed would come and crush.

But what does Job profess here?

Again, prophetic. My Redeemer lives. He doesn't know the story of Jonah. He doesn't know these stories that profess and pronounce the resurrection. He doesn't know those things. Job, remarkably, prophetically, in the midst of suffering, in the midst of mourning, he says, My Redeemer lives.

It almost is like that Job's final breath of his ongoing anguish and his argument with his friends about how he is innocent is resting upon the reality that he believes that his Redeemer lives. Brothers and sisters, do not we have that same hope that Job has here in this text?

My Redeemer lives. He was not abandoned to Hades. He did not decay in the grave. But He is living at the right hand of the Father, interceding for you and I today. That is the great hope that all of us should have.

When we are persecuted, when people come to our doorstep and say, You are a vile, wicked man, we can say, Yes, I am, but My Redeemer lives.

Truth will be exposed.

My Redeemer lives. I don't need you and your testimony of me to go before God for me because I have the One who lived for me, who stands before God, there telling God that I am righteous in His blood.

Do we need anyone else and their approval in life? It's easy for us to say that. It's another thing for us to actually live it. When the pride of man is struck down and the honor and the supposed reputation of a man is struck by this evil and wicked world, it can make a man crumble.

Because we put a lot of weight when we build our lives upon it. More than what we ever expected that we would. It's only when it's taken away and it's stripped away from us that we must fall upon the fact that Jesus lives.

That is our only hope. This is again prophetic utterance here from Job. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall behold God. Build on, you persecute me, but I'll go to God who will vindicate me, whom I shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another.

If you say, how shall we persecute him, and the root of the matter is found in him, then be afraid of the sword for yourself, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is judgment.

Job is saying, if I die, I will be with God. This last week I've been studying in the book of Hebrews tremendously at what Christ did for us when He died for us. It says that He is the One that went beyond the veil for us.

He is the One that sprinkled the holies of holies for us. We have Christ who is our High Priest. Job has Christ as his High Priest interceding for him, going to the place where Job cannot go. Going to the place where you and I cannot go.

Dying for us, being buried, and then eventually rising again, defeating death, so that we can approach the throne of grace in confidence. My Redeemer lives. What is the answer to all mourning? What is the answer to persecution?

What is the answer to slander? How do we live our lives? Knowing my Redeemer lives. Say whatever you want about me. Falsely accuse me. Correctly accuse me.

Christ lives. So be it.

Closing Prayer, Communion, and Final Instructions

Let us pray. Lord God, we thank You so much for this text here in Job 18 -19, Lord. A remarkable thing for Job to admit to these friends as he continually argues with them about his righteousness, his blamelessness to the other people, Lord.

God, may we too today be confident just as Job is confident here.

Lord, You live.

Lord, I can pray to You. Lord, I can worship You. Lord, I can approach You because You live. God, when the enemy attacks us, Lord, may we put that armor upon us. May we remember that we are built upon Your foundation.

And know when we feel weak and feeble in our knees, Lord, may we stand firm upon Your foundation, Lord. Thank You, God, for what You have done.

In the work of Jesus Christ.

And we ask these things in Your name. Jesus, the one that we stand upon. Amen. Brothers and sisters, I would ask you to stand now. We're going to go ahead and do communion.

I'll invite Brother Rick up here.

Again, we are transitioning to using wine. So we have both grape juice and wine today. Wine is the one that has more, and it also has a stick in the center of it. It might fall down, but if you need to ask, feel free to ask Rick.

But I invite you to please come, gather both elements, and let us go back to our seats after gathering both elements. Let us pray over these things, and we'll take this together as a church. If you need assistance today with getting communion, please just look at us, and we'll bring you back those elements.

But yes, please come and partake of the table.

If you are believers in Jesus Christ.

All right, let's take a moment and just pray with our families here today.