EBible Fellowship Sunday Bible Study – 03-Feb-2008

JOB 19 

by Guy Berry

www.ebiblefellowship.com

I was struggling last night with a couple of different things.  I was trying to put together a message but I had a couple of problems here and there.  There were things that I did not understand.  So I am just going to speak about Job 19.  I have given this study before but it has been over a year or two.  I hope that we can praise the Lord. 

Please turn to Job 19.  I will read the whole chapter.  Job 19:1-29 says: 

Then Job answered and said, How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body. Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

The story of Job is a parable.  As a parable, we should see the suffering of Christ during the atonement throughout the book of Job. 

In the beginning of the book of Job, we read that Job was a perfect man.  However, as a human being, Job was a sinner. 

Where it says in Job 1:1:

…and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

This means that Job was a saved man and, therefore, perfect before God in Christ. 

We then read that Satan challenged God to afflict Job to see if he would remain faithful.  Job was a very rich man but God took away all his possessions and killed his sons and his daughters.  Yet still, we read in Job 1:22: 

In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. 

In Job 2, Satan again challenged God by saying, “Touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.”  So God did this.  He afflicted Job physically.  Yet still, as he is talking to his wife, we read in Job 2:10 where he says:

…What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. 

He still remained faithful to God. 

Then we read of his three friends who came to visit him to comfort him in all of his affliction.  We see that right from the beginning, they never do comfort him.  Instead, they accuse him and find fault with him and tell him that God is bringing all of this tribulation upon him because of something that he had done; but Job maintains his innocence.  They become offended.  Then this exchange between these three men and Job goes on for many chapters. 

I would like to just look at chapter 19 at this time.  It reads kind of like Psalm 22, which is, obviously, a Messianic Psalm where we are to see the suffering of the Lord Jesus. 

I am not sure as to what we are to see in these three men.  If you examine their names, they could have possibly been Edomites, though one of them might have been a descendant of Abraham through Keturah and not through Sarah.  These men probably are not in the blessed line. 

So I am not sure what we are to see and, again, they do not quite understand what is happening with Job.  They do not understand that God is making him a figure of Christ and the suffering that Christ endured when He was under the wrath of God. 

We also read in the beginning of the book in Job 1:1:

There was a man in the land of Uz…

Uz is actually the land of Edom. 

If you turn to Lamentations 4:21, it tells us this.  Lamentations is right after Jeremiah.  In Lamentations 4:21, we read:

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

Uz is the land of Edom, and God uses the land of Edom, Esau’s land, as a picture of hell. 

If you turn to Isaiah 63, this is speaking of Christ coming from the atonement, coming from being under the suffering of the wrath of God for all His people, and it goes right into anticipating the final judgment.  Isaiah 63:1-4 says:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 

So God is telling us here that Job is in the land of Edom.  Spiritually in all these things that we read about Job, he is very obviously a picture of Christ suffering the wrath of God. 

But now in Job 19, Job is speaking to these three men who came to comfort him.  He says in Job 19:1-2:

Then Job answered and said, How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 

This phrase “break me in pieces” is actually translated “bruise(d)” in Isaiah 53, which we know is speaking of Christ and how He suffered the wrath of God.  Isaiah 53:5 says:

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

And in Isaiah 53:10, it is the same word:

Yet it pleased JEHOVAH to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of JEHOVAH shall prosper in his hand.

So Job is saying to his friends in Job 19:2-3:

How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?  These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

These men are supposed to be his friends but they have become strange to Job, and we will see this again as we read on.  These men are somehow a picture of the church and they have become strange to Christ in the atonement.  He went to the cross all alone, because we read that they all forsook Him and fled. 

I cannot speak about verse 4 because I am not sure what it is saying; but He says in Job 19:4: 

And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. 

These men are finding fault with Job, and so he says to them: 

And be it indeed [if] I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. 

If I were to speculate, I would say that this has something to do with how He has the sins of all God’s elect on Him at this time; but I had better not go any further with this.  I just do not understand what this verse is saying. 

Then in Job 19:5-6, we read: 

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

It was “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” that Christ went to the cross.  We read this in Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:23.  Acts 2:22-23 says:

Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

It was wicked men that crucified and killed the Lord Jesus, and yet it was all “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.”  It was all part of God’s plan. 

This is what Job is saying here in Job 19:6:

Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

Then he says in Job 19:7: 

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

The Lord Jesus came bringing the Gospel.  He did cry out of the wrong that the Israelites were doing.  We read this also in Habakkuk.  All of these prophets are pictures of Christ as they brought the Word of God mainly to the Israelites; however, the Bible is God’s message to the whole world.  In Habakkuk 1:2-3, we read:

O JEHOVAH, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. 

When the Lord speaks of violence, as Habakkuk here is speaking of violence, this violence is actually the violence that the Israelites have done unto the Word of God. 

Turn to Zephaniah (the next book after Habakkuk). God is speaking about the Israelites here, how they turned to idols, how they perverted the Word of God.  They are worshipping Baal and they are leading the Israelites astray.  Zephaniah 3:3-4 says:

Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. 

This is the violence that Habakkuk is crying out to the Israelites about. 

Again, we read back in Job 19:7:

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. 

This cry might also be speaking of His cry to God, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” because He was sinless and that cry was for us.  That cry was to teach us what was happening in the atonement, that God in the form of the Lord Jesus had been forsaken by God the Father.  This is something that we cannot comprehend, but yet the Bible tells us this and so we must try to understand this. 

He goes on to say in Job 19:8-9:

He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

Certainly this is what happened to the Lord Jesus when He came to this earth as “he humbled himself” to come and dwell among men and “to be sin for us.” 

Just as Job was rich, Christ is spoken of as being rich in 2 Corinthians 8.  We read in 2 Corinthians 8:9:

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 

This is what we are reading about here in Job 19:9:

He hath stripped me of my glory…

The Lord Jesus was stripped of His glory, He became the suffering servant, and He is the King whose crown was taken from His head. 

We go on in Job 19:10 to read:

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. 

We cannot fully understand whatever happened to Christ in that atonement but it perfectly satisfied the wrath of God.  It perfectly paid the sin debt of all those who would be saved. 

This word “destroyed” here in verse 10 is also translated, “break down” or “cast down.”  We will look at one place where this is used. 

Turn to Psalm 52.  In Psalm 52, it is actually speaking about the judgment that will be brought on the wicked.  This is speaking of the wicked and we read in Psalm 52:4-5: 

Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy thee…

This is that same word.

God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.

This is what happened to Christ in the atonement. 

Again, Job 19:10 says: 

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

Then we read in Job 19:11: 

He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

The word “Job” is a different Hebrew word than what we find in this verse, but it actually means “hated” or as “an enemy.” 

Turn to Job 13. We will see a different Hebrew word than what we see in Job 19:11, but the principle is that in the atonement, it is as if Christ was the enemy of God.  Job 13:23-24 says: 

How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?

This is the word that the word “Job” comes from. 

We see this same principle here in Job 19:11, but it is simply a different Hebrew word. 

…he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

Then Job 19:12 says:

His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

You will read of this principle in some of the Messianic Psalms. 

Look at Psalm 22.  This is one of the most obvious Messianic Psalms in the Bible.  We are to see Christ on the cross all through this, although God inspired David to write this Psalm.  In Psalm 22:11-12, we read: 

Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 

Bashan was one of the countries around Israel that was an enemy of Israel. 

Then we read in Psalm 22:13-16:

They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs… 

Dog were unclean animals and the Bible never says anything good about a dog.

For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. 

This is very obviously speaking of Christ on the cross. 

Then Job 19:12-13 says:

His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. 

Speaking of brethren and what this word should mean, let us look at Matthew 23.  In Matthew 23:8, Christ says: 

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

The children of God all have one Father and we should all be brethren. 

If you go to Matthew 26:56, it says:

But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets…

This is when Christ was going to the cross. 

But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

As Job 19:13-14 says:

He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

Then Job 19:15 says:

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

Speaking of those that dwell in God’s house, in Psalm 23 we read, “I will dwell in the house of JEHOVAH for ever.”  This is speaking of His house, His people, His church. 

In Hebrews 3:3-6, this is speaking of Christ.

For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

The body of believers are spoken of as God’s house. 

Again, we read in Job 19:15:

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

Christ was forsaken of God.  He went to the cross all alone. 

Then in Job 19:16, we read:

I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

We read in many places in the Bible about the words of God, the words that come out of the mouth of God, and that certainly is referring to the Bible. 

If you turn to Proverbs 2, we will see how God entreats all of us, which is by the words of His mouth, the Gospel.  In Proverbs 2:3-6, it says:

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of JEHOVAH, and find the knowledge of God. For JEHOVAH giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

And in Job 19:16-17, we read:

I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.

This word “breath” there is very often translated “spirit.”  But now at this time, his spirit is strange; it is a strange thing to his wife.  This is speaking of the corporate church or those in wickedness who wanted Christ dead. 

In Jeremiah 3, God speaks of being married to Israel.  Jeremiah 3:14 says:

Turn, O backsliding children, saith JEHOVAH; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

Here in Job 19:17, it says:

My breath [spirit] is strange to my wife…

Back in the beginning of Job after he had lost everything, Job’s wife actually told him, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.” 

Let us go on here in Job 19:18-19; we read:

Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

In Job 19:19 where it says, “inward friends,” that is actually, literally translated, “men of my secret” or “men of my counsel.” 

Turn to Psalm 25:14; it says:

The secret of JEHOVAH is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

The secret” or the mystery of the Gospel is salvation and He shows this secret to His people. 

Again, Job 19:19:

All my inward friends…

Or the “men of my secret”:

…abhorred me…

Again, everyone has turned against Him in the atonement.

…and they whom I loved are turned against me.

Then in Job 19:20-21, we read:

My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

We read in John 13 that God speaks of His people as “his friends.”  The Hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” is a very Biblical Hymn; it is very faithful to the Word of God. 

Then in Job 19:22-23, we read:

Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

He is actually speaking of the Word here, the Word of God: “they were printed in a book!

Then Job 19:24 says:

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

Whenever you read about iron or lead in the Bible, it is always speaking of judgment. 

Who is “the rock”?  It is Christ.  Again, let me read Job 19:23-24:

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

Job 19:25 is a beautiful verse that should be familiar to anyone who has been in the Word for a while.  He says there:

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 

As for when the book of Job was written, it is the oldest book in the Bible.  This is probably before the Israelites were in Egypt or maybe during the time that they were in Egypt, way back then.  Even then Job knew that he had a Redeemer, that he was “bought with a price,” as it were.  He knew even at that point that his “Redeemer liveth.” 

Then he begins to talk about judgment, the last day, “that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth,” and then he begins to speak of the resurrection and he says in Job 19:26-27: 

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh…

I believe that this literally means, “out of my flesh”: 

…shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another…

Or, “not a stranger”: 

though my reins be consumed within me.

He is speaking of his fleshly body.  The “reins” I think were literally the kidneys, but it is speaking of his body, “though my reins be consumed within me,” that He is also under the wrath of God. 

But then he says to them in Job 19:28:

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? 

This is Christ speaking.  The whole Bible speaks of a “matter,” and it is the word “word.” It is Strong’s #H1697.  Job here is speaking of Christ.  “The root” of that whole Word, that whole Word of God, is Christ, and the whole Bible focuses on the atonement.  He is telling his friends, “You should be asking yourselves, ‘Why are we persecuting Him, seeing that the root of the matter is found in Job?’” 

Turn to Ecclesiastes 12.  We will look at this word “matter.”  It is the matter, the issue, the subject, the Word, that the Bible is concerned about.  It is God’s message to mankind.  Ecclesiastes 12:13, as well as most of the book of Ecclesiastes, examines the vain pursuits of man in this life.  It just constantly and repeatedly concludes that it is all vanity.  Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 says:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter

This is the same word that is found in Job 19:28.  It is the issue, the subject, what the Word of God is all about.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

So Job is telling his three friends, “You should be asking yourselves, ‘Why are we persecuting Him?’  He is the root of the whole matter, the whole Word of God.” 

Then He goes on in Job 19:29 to say:

Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

Whenever we have a Bible study, whenever we speak about the Word of God, we should never omit judgment.  It is a critical part of the Bible, of the Word of God.  We have to understand what we are saved from.  We have to understand that there will be a judgment, and most of us here are convicted that we are within a few years of Judgment Day. 

But here in Job 19, we are to see the suffering of Christ on the cross, the root of the whole matter, the focus of the whole Bible, that the Son of God came and dwelt among men and became a curse for His people.  He suffered and He was forsaken of God. 

We cannot begin to comprehend this.  We can only read it and try to understand what the Bible tells us about this, that He suffered in our place.  This is something that is completely incomprehensible, and He is the root of the whole matter, the whole Word. 

Could it be that each one under the hearing of this message could be saying in their heart,
“Thanks be to God for this unspeakable gift that He has provided for His people through the suffering of Christ.”