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Review and Intro
There are two concepts in Job that are critical for understanding the true dilemma and message of the story. The Retribution Principle and the concept of advocacy.
The Retribution Principle is the belief that good people will be rewarded and bad people will be punished, each in proportion to their actions.
In ancient Israelite thinking, this principle was tightly connected to their understanding of God’s justice. They believed that because God was perfectly just, he had to ensure that the Retribution Principle was always upheld.
As a result, they assumed that if someone was prospering, it was proof that they were righteous and favored by God, and if someone was suffering, it must mean they were wicked and under God’s judgment.
Because the story of Job is essentially a thought experiment for the Israelites to gain understanding about how God governs the world, the characters in the story adopt the Israelite view of God’s justice.
As we continue to see in the speeches, especially in this one from Bildad, the Retribution Principle is foundational and unquestioned. Only the wicked suffer the way Job is suffering, therefore Job must be wicked.
The second concept we need to understand is related to advocacy. There is a difference between how we view Jesus the Messiah as our advocate compared to how Job is speaking about an advocate.
One famous verse from Job is 19:25 in which Job says “I know that my redeemer lives,” has often been understood by Christians as a reference to Jesus and the hope of resurrection.
However, in its original context, Job’s “redeemer” likely referred to a legal defender or advocate, not the Messiah. Job appears to be asking for such a figure to defend him against God’s perceived injustice.
With that bit of background, let’s dig into today’s passage. We will first take a brief look at Bildad’s speech and how his dogma shapes his thinking about Job’s situation. Then, in Job’s speech, we will see the source of his shame and his hope for a redeemer.
Bildad’s Dogma
Job 18:1–6 “Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: “When will you end these speeches? Be sensible, and then we can talk. Why are we regarded as cattle and considered stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, is the earth to be abandoned for your sake? Or must the rocks be moved from their place? “The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out; the flame of his fire stops burning. The light in his tent becomes dark; the lamp beside him goes out.”
He continues for the rest of his speech to describe in great detail the fate of the wicked.
Bildad is being very dogmatic in his speech. Dogma formalizes belief as unquestionable truth backed by authority. It suppresses critical thinking, dialogue, and the possibility of error.
In this speech, he communicates his rigid view of divine retribution, which is the belief that the righteous are blessed and the life of the wicked will always end in destruction.
He is obviously speaking not from experience but from his dogmatic ideological view based on how he understands the world to be ordered.
Surely, Bildad has seen many wicked people go through life with little or no consequence.
But, he is sticking to a black-and-white morality because this order of things is fundamental for his own assurance.
He can only see in Job, a man afflicted by doubt and fighting a battle between dogma and experience, someone “tearing himself to pieces.”1
The question is, do the wicked always end up in destruction? Is the retribution principle always true?
Our experience would say no. Many corrupt people live with wealth and prosperity their entire lives.
Luke 16:19–3
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
When reality and dogma collide, what do we do? You might be thinking, well I don’t know, I don’t have any dogmas. But we all do. We all have a set of assumptions about what is true and good.
Sometimes we build these dogmas upon proverbial statements, or principles, just as in the case with Bildad and the retribution principle. But principles and proverbs are generalities, not certainties.
One example is Proverbs 22:6 “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
Many of us have believed this to be true to the point of assuming that if our children or the children of others go astray, parenting is to blame.
Yet, there are countless parents who have done a miserable job of raising their children and yet they turn out pretty good. And vice versa. And then there are dogmas related to what exactly constitutes turning away from the way the children were taught to go.
I know some parents that believe their children have abandoned their faith because they decided to read a different Bible version, attend a different church denomination, get piercings or tattoos, or participate in social activities that would have been considered rebellious back in the day.
Yet, these things do not necessarily make a person lose their faith nor is it an indication that they have abandoned their faith.
The dogma is broken when the evidence shows that the children are still faithful to Christ and are living godly lives. But someone who holds firm to their dogma is unable to adjust their view.
The lesson from Bildad is that when we encounter a situation that breaks our assumptions about what is good and true, to not immediately dismiss it, but be curious about it.
Perhaps we have missed something. Ask yourself, do you really know God and how he works as well as you think you do? Have you studied the Scriptures well enough to discern whether or not you have gone wrong in your assumptions?
It is true there are absolutes in the world that need to govern our experiences rather than the other way around, but not everything is absolute. We need not be dogmatic about everything.
As is the case with Job and his friends, holding firm to a dogma when experience is telling you something different creates bitterness, confusion, and anger.
Job’s Shame
Job’s view of his situation is that he is completely alone. He expresses this isolation in Job 19:13–20
“He has alienated my family from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have gone away; my closest friends have forgotten me. My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner; they look on me as on a stranger. I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family. Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me. All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me. I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.”
As we will see shortly, this abandonment is a big deal not only because Job is alone, but because his isolation is shameful. He has no one on his side, which is a sign that he has done something terrible.
People who are viewed as truly innocent by others will have companions to advocate for them. They will be surrounded by witnesses to testify about their innocence.
This is not the case with Job. Because everyone has abandoned him, it makes him look even more guilty. No one wants to take his side.
And what is their evidence for his guilt? It is only the fact that he was punished so severely. Probably the worst anyone has ever seen.
So, people mock him, ridicule him, and treat him as a foreigner. He was once praised and celebrated for his prosperity and righteousness. But now he is looked down upon.
His shame is hard for us to imagine, but perhaps some of us can relate. We have hidden sin that we are convinced would bring us shame if it was revealed.
We hide what might be perceived as wickedness out of fear of being abandoned. And for good reason. People can be cruel.
We all want to appear better than we are, so we often criticize the failures of others as though we would never think of doing such a thing.
Yet, we as a church are called not to condemn, but to restore and be agents of reconciliation. Our role is not to point out the sinners among us, but to walk alongside each other as we journey the difficult way of Jesus.
The truth is, we all would be ashamed if everything we did in secret was brought into the light. So, none of us have the right to do to others what Job’s family and friends did to him.
Instead, we can point forward to the source of our salvation, our redeemer and advocate. This is Job’s greatest longing.
Imagine if just one of his friends would have come alongside him and said, “Job, you have an advocate. I’ll stand with you.” But, Job had no one. Which leads him to this statement in 19:25.
Job’s Redeemer
Job 19:23–29 “Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,’ you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment.”
Verse 25 is probably the most well-known verse in Job. If you’ve ever sang a song with the words “my redeemer lives” it is based on this verse. There is no other verse in the Bible that uses this phrase.
The two questions I want to focus on are, who is Job’s redeemer, and is it okay for us to connect Jesus to this verse, as so many have in the past?
My goal is for us to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to desire a redeemer and how Jesus fulfills that desire.
The role of a redeemer would have been understood as a next of kin with well defined responsibilities.
It would have been someone on the relative’s behalf who was expected to buy back property sold in desperation, or someone who avenges a robbery or murder. Or it could be someone who buys someone back from slavery.
In light of Job’s previous statements about all of his relatives abandoning him, it is clear that he is not referring to a human redeemer.
He has no hope of a relative coming to his rescue. And that is not really what he has in mind. He has not sold himself into slavery.
Perhaps he could use a redeemer to avenge him for the animals that were stolen, but he never once makes mention of that. He hasn’t sold property that we know of, so he doesn’t need that sort of redeemer.
It is more likely referring to Job’s earlier request for a heavenly witness who will testify on his behalf to God (Job 16:19 “Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.”).
He wants this to happen while he is still alive and if his case against God is won, then he will be vindicated and anyone who has said that his suffering was deserved will be punished.
With that background information, is it possible that Job was longing for the Messiah as we know him? Could he have been prophesying Jesus Christ as his Redeemer?
My short answer is, probably not. The main issue preventing me from believing this is speaking of the Messiah is that Jesus is a redeemer in a different way than what Job was asking for.
Job wants someone to bear witness to his innocence. He wants vindication and right judgment.
He believes he has been accused wrongly and wants someone to represent him before God so that God will reverse his judgment.
Jesus, on the other hand, is a redeemer in the sense that he pays the price to free us from the devastating effects of our sin rather than advocating for our freedom on the basis of our innocence.
One commentary summarizes Job’s plea in this way:
“I firmly believe that there is someone, somewhere, who will come and testify on my behalf right here on my dung heap at the end of all this. Despite my peeling skin, I expect to have enough left to come before God in my own flesh. I will be restored to his favor and no longer be treated as a stranger. This is my deepest desire!”2
With this said, we are free to claim this verse in reference to Jesus because we have the benefit of hindsight.
Jesus does testify on our behalf. He does make a way for full restoration. He redeems us from a guilty verdict. He is a redeemer in all these ways and more.
1 John 2:1–2 “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
He is the complete redeemer who fulfills everything we need in order to live without shame, without fear, and without oppression.
We have a hope far greater than Job’s hope. We have reason for confidence with far more certainty than Job.
The question is, are you, along with Job, able to see the desperation of your situation? Are you willing to cry out to God for a redeemer?
Only then will you be given one.
- David J. A. Clines, Job 1–20, vol. 17, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1989), 425. ↩︎
- Christopher A. Beetham and Nancy L. Erickson, eds., The NIV Application Commentary on the Bible, One-Volume Edition, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2024), 412. ↩︎