07/31/2020 – Day 068 – Job 19 – 20
Chapter 19 starts with Job accusing God of his plight: “You are not ashamed that you have wronged me” (vs 3) / “Know then that God has wronged me, And has surrounded me with His net”. But take note, Job does not get struck down with a lightning bolt. Right after pleading with his “friends”, he tells them “Why do you persecute me as God does” (vs 22), he turns completely around to the light and comes back with:
“Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were engraved on a rock With an iron pen and lead, forever! (and so it is indeed) For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God.”
Soli Deo Gloria!; my footnote to verse 25, 26 adds: “Job who existed thousands of years before the coming of the Messiah, had faith that God would deliver him from death. Along with Abraham, he rejoiced to see the day of Jesus Christ (see John 8:56; Heb 11: 32-40) Their salvation would come by grace through their faith in the coming Redeemer (see Eph 2: 8-9).”
Amazing in that the Pharisees were the first Jewish sect with a defined belief in the resurrection and life beyond death beyond the shadowy undefined Sheoul. This was not until 150 b.c!
Zophar comes back in Chapter 20 with the old tired argument that for the most part boils down to the view that only wicked men suffer. Funny, if there is not life after death, “life is just a breath” and death is forever. So, what is it all about? It’s a worldview that crumbles under the lightest inspection.