Year 1, Week 2, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Job 17-20.

Today’s reading concludes Job’s words (Job 17), which he began in chapter 16, then documents the second round of speeches from Bildad (Job 18) and Zophar (Job 20), and in between those two speeches, another round of Job’s remarks are logged. Job is spent: “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me. Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.” (Job 17:1). His friends are feeling more like enemies (frenemies?). Bildad claims he knows why Job feels spent: “Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine…Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, such is the place of him who knows not God.” (Job 18:5,21). It is Job who is the enemy, in the eyes of Bildad, the enemy of God, that is. It seems that the interchange between Job and his friends has greatly deteriorated. The exchange is not helping Job: “How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?” (Job 19:2)

What I was struck by in today’s reading is what it reveals about God’s provision of hope, which He instills in His people. Job is spent, but he is not without hope: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27). Job has hope! Job has stated that the graveyard is ready for him; and yet, he declares that the graveyard is not his final destination. Job has the hope that death will not cut him off from seeing God; but will, in fact, provide the circumstances in which he will appear before God. This hope is a precious provision from God.

When the Scriptures speak of hope, it does not mean hope in the way the term is often used today. We commonly speak of hope as a future possibility, but not an absolute certainty. But that is not the way that the Bible describes hope. Biblically, hope is something regarding the future that is certain even though it has not come to fruition at present. The grounds for such certainty concerning the future is rooted in something that has already occurred: the resurrection of Christ: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1). Christ Himself is our hope. The reality of Christ’s resurrection is the surety of our confidence concerning the future.

The means that God provides to instill and strengthen the experience of hope is His Word: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). We do not grow in hope by merely looking around at what we see at present. We grow in hope—God strengthens us with hope—as we grow in our grasp of Jesus: “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:24-25). The Scriptures show us Christ, not with our physical eyes, but spiritual ones: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9).

Hope is a provision from God that can be experienced in spite of present circumstances. Hope does not necessarily change the affliction that we face at the present, but it is able to change the way that we think and feel about present afflictions, and therefore adjusts the way that we respond to our afflictions. Hope does not mute the acute torment of present troubles, but it does give our soul the resources to endure and even honor the Lord in the midst of them: “You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.” (Psalm 71:20).

So, hope—our sure confidence of the future—sustains us in the present, for the One who is our Hope is the One who is our Redeemer: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). Only Christ sustains a fainting heart. Job is faint-hearted, but confident in his Living Redeemer.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe

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Journey through the Scriptures