The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:20-27 (day seven)

I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. vs 20b

I was “today” years old when I realized this idiom was from Job. As with other popular lines found in the Bible, this phrase has become a part of our cultural vernacular. In Job’s instance, he might have literally escaped by the skin of his teeth (his gums were likely the only part of his body that escaped affliction), but when we use this phrase today, we are referring to barely managing to do something. “He passed his exam by the skin of his teeth.”

For how many of us is this more than vernacular? We find ourselves moving so fast from one project to the next that we do barely enough get by. When this rhythm becomes the norm, it begins to bleed into our spiritual walk. We do barely enough to check our boxes and move on to the next thing. God promises so much more to us when we put in the intentional effort to abide with Him. Don’t just try to get through it by the skin of your teeth, dwell in and with Him, and watch what He does when you put in the work to abide. John 15:1-11

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:20-27 (six)

Pastor Scott is absolutely right! Undergirding Job’s proclamation is a worldview; a set of convictions that help him make sense of God and the world around him. Part of Job’s story is that experience of indiscriminate suffering threw some of what he had previously believed about God out the door, but other things remained.

One of the things that remained in Job’s worldview, we see echoed loudly here too, and that is-God cares. Job is convinced that God has NOT abandoned him, nor is he distant and aloof, unaware and unconcerned about his suffering and his words (Job 19:23).

In Job’s mind, God is more than knowledgeable about situation, he cares about him, his well being, and about justice; so much so, he can leave everything in God’s hands, and not take matters into his own.

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:20-27 (day five) 

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.” (emphasis mine)

At some point, enough counsel will have been imparted and enough differing opinions and perspectives will have been shared. Then, it will be up to each one of us to determine and declare what we believe, who we believe. The conclusions of our experiences, knowledge, and feelings will result in personal convictions and confession- some sort of worldview. At the end of the day, the deepest question that should be answered is not, “Do I believe in God?”, but rather “Do I believe God?” Do I believe: What he says about Himself, What He says about humans, What He says about salvation, sin, suffering, love, and grace.  The Spirit and scriptures clearly communicate God’s character and promises.

Notice the individual question. Do I.

What is your conclusion?  What is my conclusion?  What is our confession? For each of us, it will matter for eternity.

“For I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” 2 Timothy‬ ‭1:12

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:20-27 (day four)

What a man of faith!  Even while Job laments his suffering, he says unashamedly, “my redeemer lives.”  Job, in faith, says ‘in the end, God will still stand.’  Job recognizes and knows that God will be there no matter what.  Whether all of his possessions are gone, all of his family and friends are gone, or all of his flesh is gone, God will still care for him.

Paul wrote similar words many years later.  Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  We have the promise from God of His constant, never-ending love and care for us that can never be taken from us.  Satan would have us believe that God will fail us, but Job understood this to be a lie.  Nothing can separate us from God!

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:20-27 (day three)

“Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?”

The old joke, “If you can’t be an example…be a warning,” becomes poignantly real here, and it’s not in the least funny. Job’s life had invited people to aspire to all that is honorable, lovely, and noble. Now, his life invited people to castigate him as one who had it coming all along. No wonder Job dives headlong into a burst of defiant longing: “I know that my Redeemer lives.” If he were to discover otherwise, it would mean that no one is listening, and in the end, no one cares. Such a fate would destroy him. Therefore, he holds fast to the declaration that it cannot – must not – be. One might say his hope is wishful thinking. The Bible says otherwise: “My hope comes from the Lord.”

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:20-27 (day two) 

“Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
²⁷ Whom I myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My heart faints within me!

This is a statement of absolute confidence without any petition on his own behalf. The duality of these words are incredible; he is sure of two things: his body will be wrecked and destroyed, and he will see God. Where does this faith come from? Remember Job is a man from the East. He is not living in a strong faith community, and he is most likely not of the nation of Israel. Yet he has discerned the incredible reality of a living God whose ways were great and indisputable. How does that inform your faith journey? We have the Word, we have the example of Jesus, and the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our journey. Even with those evidences and assurances we sometimes struggle to bear up under the burden of circumstance. May we gain a measure of strength from the example of Job today. May we say with the same confidence that surely our redeemer lives, and we will see him face to face.

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:20-27 (day one)

Join us as Senior Pastor Chris Johnson, Associate Pastor Aaron Hufty, and Associate Pastor Bryan Richardson walk us through Job 19:20-27 in our Spring Re:Verse Series: “JOB – Through the Storm.”

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:13-19 (day seven)

All my associates abhor me,
And those I love have turned against me. vs 19

Can you remember the first time you were ever rejected or your first breakup? Maybe you never had to experience relationship heartbreak, but I am sure you had a friend who abandoned you, or a job you were fired from, or an application that was turned away. Rejection is inevitable.

No matter how long ago any of those events were for you, the pain of the moment stays with you. “Studies show that the same areas of the brain become activated when we experience rejection as when we experience physical pain” (Psychology Today). Rejection hurts. This pain of rejection escalates our loneliness. Not only was Job alone, but he had been despised and rejected by all his friends and family. Sound like someone else you know?

He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Isaiah 53:3a (ESV)

Jesus knows your pain. He wants to comfort you even when you feel like the world has turned against you. You are not alone!

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:13-19 (day six)

I’m with Brian, there is a profoundness to Job’s soul-crushing loneliness. We quickly and easily see similarities to Jesus in the last hours of his life when he was totally abandoned. Perhaps loneliness is the full result of humanity’s brokenness, ultimately completed in death (could you be any more alone than in death?). When sin takes its full course it crumbles and destroys all relationships, leaving us totally alone.

Now interestingly enough, neither Job (a particular sin; he was still sinful) nor Jesus committed sin that led to their loneliness, but the sin of others. I think that similarity between Job and Jesus is on purpose. I think God the Holy Spirit wants to draw our attention from Job to Jesus.

What if another way to think about Jesus taking on the sin of the world is Jesus taking on crushing loneliness? What if the only way we could not be alone, is for Jesus to go through the full extent of our brokenness in his loneliness?

What if he became alone, so you never had to be alone?

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:13-19 (day five) “He has removed my brothers far from me, And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed, And my intimate friends have forgotten me.”

Part of the suffering that Job experiences is the absence of human relationships and fellowship.  The pain and torment of this facet of Job’s trials are quite real and profound.

“Job’s burning concern for God does not make him insensitive to human relationships. On the contrary, the two are inseparable in the life of any person who attains wholeness as a human being.”- Francis Anderson

Hopefully you have heard or will soon hear the words “Better Together” around FBCSA. We believe that human relationships and fellowship are part of God’s design for believers to grow and mature in their faith. And beginning in June, we will call our church to consider this important facet of personal faith and church-life (what it means to be Better Together). How might we be used to minister to those around us even now (inside and outside the church) who are suffering in the same kinds of ways as Job describes?  “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,”