WORD STUDY – MY REDEEMER LIVES
Job 12:3: “But I have understanding as well as you, I am not inferior than you; yea who knoweth not such things as these?”
Job 19:25: “For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:”
“Wise men don’t need advice, fools will not take it.” Benjamin Franklin
Reading this verse would suggest that Job is really getting annoyed with his friends. It appears he is saying to them: “Tell me something I don’t already know.” I have no doubt that is what Job is saying, but I think he is saying much more than this.
What I find interesting is the word used for understanding which is lev in Hebrew which means heart. This could read: “I have a heart just like yours.” If he is referring to his heart rather than understanding, then I would translate this whole verse a little differently.
The word that is used for inferior in the Hebrew is naphal. In its Semitic root it means to fall, but it usage carries the idea of falling in surrender, or just giving up. A literal translation would be “My heart is not surrendering because of you.”
Up to this point I would render this verse as: “I have a heart just like yours but it is not surrendering because of what you are saying to me.”
“Who knoweth not such things as these” could also read another way. The word for these is alah which, with just the pure consonants, would have a wide variety of usages. It could be these, it could also mean to worship and adore. It could also mean to swear or curse as in to curse one’s soul. Another usage is to be fat and stout. So the question is asked? Which one do we use? The answer, of course, depends upon the context. Therein lies the problem. The context is also very fluid. One translator’s bias is another translator’s opinion.
To fit the context of my translation so far, I would have to use the words curse one‘s soul for alah. Hence I would render this passage as: “I have a heart just like yours, but it is not surrendering because of what you are saying to me. My heart is not cursing my soul like you.”
I like this rendering because it is more consist with the type of man I am finding Job to be. When his wife told him to Curse God and die, what she was saying in the Hebrew was: “Look at you, you’ve lost everything and now you are dying, why are you not cursing God?” Job rebuked her by saying: “Should we only accept good things from God and not the bad?” Job consistently rose above his sufferings better than others. His friends followed the same reasoning as his wife: “Job, just give it up, you’ve sinned, admit it and repent, maybe then God will restore you.” Job took this line of thinking to be nothing less than to curse God. He knew his suffering was not the result of sin and to suggest that this was punishment from God for a sin was to undermine His Redemption.
Job was being accused of being a sinner. His friends tried to make him understand his suffering was because of his sin and he had to admit he was a sinner. But Job would not do that, he knew he was righteous before God. How dare Job say he was sinless? The same way we do. It is not that we are sinless, but that our sins are forgiven, we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, so if we suffer like Job it is not because of our sin, that was nailed to the cross 2,000 years ago. In Job’s came He knew would be nailed to the cross 2,000 years in the future. Well, he didn’t know it would be a cross but you get the point. He made a very profound statement in Chapter 19 verse 24: “For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:”
Who is this redeemer? It is the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But this was 2,000 years before Jesus came to earth. This was before Moses led the children out of Egypt, before God gave His Torah to His people. How could Job know about Him? The Jews knew about a Messiah since the time of Abraham. Noah knew about a Messiah when God sent the rainbow (Look up my study on the rainbow). Cain and Abel knew about a Messiah as did Adam and Eve. I am not sure my dispensational friends will agree with me on this, but I was taught at Moody Bible Institute, a school that teaches dispensationalism, that people were saved in the Old Testament just like they are saved today, by trusting in the Messiah to cleanse their sin. Since the time of Adam there has only been one way of Salvation through the shed blood of the Messiah, His death and His resurrection.
We think in terms of time which is the past, present and future. God does not live in time. I know we cannot wrap our brains around it, but God lives in the past, present and future simultaneously. Just as we look back to a past event for our salvation, the people in the Old Testament looked to a future event for their salvation. Job was a born again believer and Spirit filled (I got that Spirit filled idea from the Talmud, you need to see my study on that one). He knew His sins were forgiven by a Messiah who was yet to come. I know in his realm the Messiah had not yet come, but in God’s realm the Messiah had already fulfilled the need for a redeemer.
That is why Job says that rather strange line, “I know my Redeemer lives.” Then he says: “And that He will achoron.” Achoron is a very strange form of the Hebrew root word achar. No translator would dare translate it literally because it doesn’t make sense. It means behind and last. But for the Redeemer it makes perfect sense. God’s redemption existed before and to the end.
This Christmas we are not just celebrating an event that took place 2,000 years ago. That was not the beginning of our Redemption with the birth of Jesus, we are celebrating the existence of redemption from the beginning of time to the end of time and the Son of God who brought us that redemption.
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