Job 19:26

He suffered the most terrible stripping a man ever had. All his wealth and family were swept away in a series of lightning blows. Then came the mocking and tormenting of his self-righteous friends, while he sat among the broken pieces of pottery with every nerve of his body quivering in agony. The worms might consume his flesh. He had no materialistic doubts about the power of God to raise him, and that his eyes would really behold his Redeemer. I don't think we, New Testament believers, can surpass Job's statement in its quiet assurance and magnificent faith.

Some will probably have heard that people question the meaning of these words, or claim they mean "out of my flesh." But we should remember that "out of my flesh" can mean from within it, as you might look out from a window. It does not mean the spirit separated from the flesh. We must not confuse "out of my flesh" with "without my flesh," which it does not necessarily imply. He is holding fast to what everyone, and especially anyone in the Old Testament, would hold: that a person really has to do with God. And in Old Testament thought a person meant the whole person — not the soul and spirit on their own, but the body too. He can see his body breaking up before him. He sees everything crumbling into dust, and his flesh becoming food for worms. Yet he still holds the confidence that he will not only see God, but see Him from out of his flesh. So the resurrection is clearly assumed in these words, and all the efforts of men to destroy the force of the passage fail.

The body is destroyed — not merely the skin, but everything belonging to man in his natural state. But what then? "Yet in my flesh I shall see God." Job was to be raised and live again, and to live in a glorious way, in power and incorruption. "Whom I shall see for myself." He was not in the least afraid of the Lord. He loved to think of Him, and looked for His intervention with certainty.

Many have again misunderstood these words and used them to deny the resurrection of the flesh. Yet Job expressed his confident expectation of resurrection in these terms: "in my flesh I shall see God." The Psalmist too, speaking prophetically of One greater, says that His flesh would rest in hope. And when the One he spoke of rose from the dead, He said that He still had flesh and bones: "A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

As to Job 19:25, I believe that in Job's mind it was a confident trust that God would deliver him then. But I cannot help thinking that the Spirit of God arranged it so as to imply a brighter and better hope... People have thought Job's faith could not have reached this — perhaps not as a habit. But here his soul rises up to God, and he sets life in God against the present wasting of skin and flesh... He lives, He stands up above all that is dust; and while Job was possibly looking for deliverance, I have no doubt the Spirit looks to a better resurrection.

Two things have to be remembered — the meaning Job attached to his words, and the mind of the Spirit in them. It is quite possible (we do not say it was so) that Job only thought of deliverance from his present condition, his restoration and vindication. But the language as used by the Holy Spirit becomes undoubtedly a prophecy of the coming of Christ and of the resurrection of His people. The same thing is often seen in the Old Testament Scriptures.

How amazing that Job could say this. Only by divine revelation could he know it, for he recognised that though he was destroyed by death, yet in his flesh he would see God. This certainly means resurrection. Also, the only way he — or anyone — will see God is in the person of the Lord Jesus.