Job, the Servant of the Lord, sure hit some “low points” in his ordeal. Severe suffering that (apparently) lasted around a year! But occasionally, this godly man (while living in such agony) spoke some of the greatest words in all the Bible! Sterling faith, he often had!

Such is the case in today’s Lesson.

After another verbal barrage from Bildad (who believed all Job’s children died, were “killed,” because of rebellious sin in their lives) has just landed on Job’s ears! Our innocent sufferer immediately responds: “How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times have ye reproached me: and ye are not ashamed.” Job 19:2-3 (Job directly to Bildad, or to Bildad and Eliphaz and Zophar, all three.)

Let’s allow Job to continue talking. Feel the agony in his words. He believes even God has become an Enemy! “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 (the Lord) 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 (still the Lord) 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. 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 ON ME, HAVE PITY ON ME, O YE MY FRIENDS; for the hand of God hath touched me. WHY DO YE PERSECUTE ME AS GOD?” Job 19:6-22, note his words to his “friends!”

Wow!

He’s struggling!

Pitiful!

Then comes one of those “high points” I earlier mentioned!

From Job, of course. “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.” Job 19:23-27

Clearly, Job’s words now HAVE BEEN PRINTED in a Book, the Book of Books!

And he has seen God!

In his flesh!

And oh yes … HIS REDEEMER LIVES!

See how Job vaults from valleys to mountains?

All Bible characters do, all except our Lord.

All faced seasons of discouragement.

Then heights of ecstasy.

Again, all but Jesus. Isaiah 42:4 declares of Him, of God’s Son: “HE SHALL NOT FAIL … NOR BE DISCOURAGED, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.”

That’s Him!

Never a second’s discouragement.

“Failure” never entered His Mind, not even the possibility!

Hallelujah!

Still, what a great mountain Job climbed in today’s Text! Once again his words: “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.”

Yes, that’s a “high point” all right.

Praise the Lord.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell