Explore the Bible: Redemption Found

• The Explore the Bible lesson for June 20 focuses on Job 19:19-29.

I’m sure many who read our text this week immediately hear the words from Part 3 of Handel’s Messiah, “I know that my redeemer liveth, and he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” While many of us enjoy this timeless piece of music, scholars are quick to assert Job is not wishing for a Messiah in the same way that Jesus of Nazareth was sent as the Messiah.

When I was taking Old Testament in college, my professor started most of our writing assignments reminding us that we were not to write about Jesus. He would say: “If you write about Jesus, you will fail this assignment. We will rejoice together around the throne and I am thankful for our shared salvation, but you are not to write about Jesus.” It was only on the last assignment of the semester that we could put on our “Jesus-glasses” and share Christologically where we feel Jesus is fulfilling Old Testament prophecy and writing.

Even Christ’s disciples did not realize who he really was and the full extent of his life-changing, history-altering mission until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Therefore, we can say with certainty, Job is not talking about Jesus in our text. However, as people of the resurrection, we are very much inclined and not wrong to see our Old Testament as fulfilled in Christ. As we approach the text, we must see both what it would have meant to the original hearers and what the Holy Spirit would say to us today.

Role of a redeemer

In the Old Testament, the idea of a redeemer is one that belongs to your family and possess more power and resources to help a situation; therefore, they are obligated to help you. John Goldingay writes in Job For Everyone, “Thus Boaz is Ruth’s redeemer, and God is Israel’s redeemer, as God treats Israel as members of His family to whom He has family obligations.”  Redemption was a major need as far as land was concerned. For Israel, the Promised Land is their gift from God, their inheritance as his people. The land must be passed down from one generation to another.

What if one lost their land due to debt or could not properly maintain or keep the land safe? In Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary, Izak Cornelius writes, “In the ancient Israelite law the ‘redeemer’ (goel in Hebrew) was someone who protected the interest of his kin by buying property or paying debt and ensuring that the name of a deceased person lived on.”  According to Leviticus 25:25, “If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold.” With regards to Job 19:25, Cornelius continues, “There are two interpretations: 1) that the Hebrew goel refers to a vindicator or deliverer of Job’s action against God, who is his adversary, or 2) that God is his Redeemer.” He concludes the former is probably more accurate of how Job is describing his need for a redeemer as Job is struggling that “…the hand of God has struck me.” (v. 21)

Escaped ‘by the skin of my teeth’

To understand the current situation in which Job finds himself—a life in total shambles, his closest friends (literally in v.19, “the people of my council”) against him, death welcomed as a relief from this horrible state—we must set aside our Christological understanding of this verse and embrace the context of Job where he truly lies in agony before a God who he must feel has completely turned against him.

Job feels he has escaped the wrath of God “by the skin of my teeth” (Literally “only by my gums”). We all recognize this expression, knowing full well that teeth have no skin. Job uses this phrase as paradox showing that he has escaped with absolutely nothing at all (Carol A. Newsom, The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. III, p. 144).

Job is now at rock bottom. But Job is not without hope. Because of who Job believes God to be, Job knows that there is the possibility that someone will take up his case, someone will remember his story. Even if it is after his death, Job’s understanding of goel means his story will be told—he will be vindicated. Like the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet in Bethany prior to his crucifixion, Job too will be remembered for his faithfulness.

God will have the last word

No one would have imagined this scene as we first started to read Job 1. Newsom notes this simple story of Job’s true piety has now taken an unanticipated turn. Here we find Job not only suffering, but feeling unjustly accused. According to Newsom, Job faces a fundamental decision: give in to the overwhelming pressures and sink into passivity or find the will to fight. She concludes noting that Job cannot stand on his own. Job knows this as he looks for the redeemer that will stand in solidarity with him (something the “people of his council” will not do) and publicly defend his innocence.

Job trusts in God’s sovereignty, whether it be another person or God himself, and God’s order, whether it while he is alive to see it or after Job has passed. Job knows that ultimately God will have the last word. We can find immeasurable peace in God’s presence, knowing even if we truly are left with nothing just like Job, that we are never left alone. God’s promises right true and our true Redeemer will again “…stand on the earth.” (v. 25)

Davey Gibson is associate pastor of education and discipleship at Sugar Land Baptist Church in Sugar Land, Texas.