For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 19:1-22

1 Then Job replied:

2 ‘How long will you torment me
    and crush me with words?
3 Ten times now you have reproached me;
    shamelessly you attack me.
4 If it is true that I have gone astray,
    my error remains my concern alone.
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
    and use my humiliation against me,
6 then know that God has wronged me
    and drawn his net around me.

7 ‘Though I cry, “Violence!” I get no response;
    though I call for help, there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass;
    he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honour
    and removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side till I am gone;
    he uproots my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me;
    he counts me among his enemies.
12 His troops advance in force;
    they build a siege ramp against me
    and encamp around my tent.

13 ‘He has alienated my family from me;
    my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14 My relatives have gone away;
    my closest friends have forgotten me.
15 My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;
    they look upon me as a stranger.
16 I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
    though I beg him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife;
    I am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even the little boys scorn me;
    when I appear, they ridicule me.
19 All my intimate friends detest me;
    those I love have turned against me.
20 I am nothing but skin and bones;
    I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

21 ‘Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
    for the hand of God has struck me.
22 Why do you pursue me as God does?
    Will you never get enough of my flesh?

A. Find Out

1. How does Job view what his ‘friends’ have said so far? v.2,3
2. What two possibilities does he cover in his challenge to them? v.4-6
3. What does he feel he has been denied? v.7
4. List the things he says God has done. v.8-13
5. How has that last thing worked with different people? v.14-19
6. What does he say he is, what he asks and what he questions? v.20-22

B. Think:

1. What does Job feel about the way his friends have treated him?
2. What do his comments about God indicate about his awareness?
3. How has all this impacted his social life?

C. Comment:

Twice in these verses Job speaks directly to his ‘friends’. First he speaks of them tormenting, crushing, (v.2) reproaching, and attacking (v.3) him. If he is in the wrong, that’s for him to deal with (v.4). If they want to look down on him (v.5), they should at least acknowledge the truth that God has done all that has happened to him (v.6). He asks them to pity him (v.21) and not keep on at him (v.22).

His primary assertion is still that he has done nothing wrong (v.7a) but God won’t answer when he cries to Him (v.7b). God has held him at a distance (v.8), taken away his reputation (v.9), taken away all his security and left him with no hope (v.10), made him an enemy (v.11) and fought against him continually (v.12).

What made it even worse was that everyone who knew him have been separated from him (v.13): his friends and family have left him (v.14), those in his home think him a stranger (v.15,16), and even his wife and brothers (those closest to him) consider him revolting (v.17). Even children make fun of him (v.18) while those closest to him detest him (v.19). In all these descriptions Job shows us that he has become very aware of the outworkings of all of his misfortunes. This is not just physical or even spiritual anguish. This has meant that he has become a social outcast – and that is hard!

D. Application:

1. How easy it is to separate people off in our thinking.
2. How much we need one another!

Passage:  Job 19:23-29

23 ‘Oh, that my words were recorded,
    that they were written on a scroll,
24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
    or engraved in rock for ever!
25 I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God;
27 I myself will see him
    with my own eyes – I, and not another.
    How my heart yearns within me!

28 ‘If you say, “How we will hound him,
    since the root of the trouble lies in him,”
29 you should fear the sword yourselves;    for wrath will bring punishment by the sword,
    and then you will know that there is judgment

A. Find Out

1. What does Job wish would happen? v.23,24
2. What did he know? v.25
3. What further did he know? v.26,27
4. What might they say? v.28 (NB. See alternative note in your Bible)
5. What does he warn? v.29

B. Think:

1. Why do you think Job wished his words could be recorded?
2. What is amazing about his statement in v.25,26?

C. Comment:

We have commented before that it is sometimes when we are at our lowest that the Lord gives us the greatest revelation. Job has just been pouring out the effects of what has happened to him and clearly feels very low, but it is at this point that he makes a most amazing faith declaration.

But first he desires to be able to have his words written down for posterity (v.23,24) so that others can think through these same things presumably. For now, he has come to a clarification of faith. Back in his previous speech in 16:19-21, he spoke of an advocate or friend in heaven pleading on his behalf. Now he arrives at a further certainty: this advocate is more than just that; he is a redeemer (v.25a), he is one who will restore him and bring him back into a good place with God.

But there is more, for this redeemer will come and, depending on the version of the alternatives your note at the bottom of the page gives you accept, he will either stand on the earth, this figure from heaven, or he will come down on Job’s grave to raise him up (v.25b). Here he is confident that death is not the end but that after death (v.26a), he will yet see him and that with a body (v.26b) and of this he is certain in his heart (v.27). He anticipates his friends querying this for, they will say, how can this be when our problems stem from ourselves (see alt. note v.28) but, he says, see judgment on the earth (v.29) as a means of drawing you to God through this one in heaven, there for us.

D. Application:

1. Jesus, our redeemer in heaven, is utterly for us.
2. We will yet see him face to face in heaven in eternity. Hallelujah!