What did Job mean when he said "my redeemer lives" in Job 19:25?

As to Job 19:25, I believe in Job's mind it was a confident trust that God would then deliver him. But I cannot help thinking that, the Spirit of God so ordered it as to imply a brighter and better hope, as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did, in the Lord's hands, beyond the mind of the Jews. You may see by the italics that the passage is very obscure. I find I have translated in German as the Italian Diodati does - And I know my Redeemer lives, and he will stand at the end upon the earth, and if after my skin, this shall be destroyed (Italian, 'consumed'), yet I shall out of (or 'with') my flesh look upon God," etc. The difference is not very material, "worms" and "body" being both in italics. In Hebrew it is simply "they have destroyed." Verse 24 desires that his confidence in God was engraven on a rock, and the result would prove that it was right. The Redeemer is the common word for next of kin, on whom the right of redemption and avenging injuries devolved. God would be his goel (Hebrew). People have thought Job's faith could not have reached this: perhaps not, habitually. But here his soul rises up to God, and he puts life in God in contrast with the present consumption of skin and flesh, and that the power of deliverance (and will) from its perishing condition was there. He lives, he stands up above all that is dust, and while possibly looking to deliverance I doubt not the Spirit looks to a better resurrection.

Imagine that – we have the revelation that the Lord Jesus died for our sins on the cross, and yet doubt after doubt. There were Old Testament saints who could not look at a work of accomplished salvation, who did not know a personal Saviour, and still they had a faith like Job – “I know that my redeemer liveth” (Job 19:25). He did not know that the Lord Jesus was his Redeemer. We may apply this today, but he knew no redeemer in this sense, although he had a faith in God that God would be this Redeemer. How – he did not know. Abraham believed in the resurrection. He had never seen anybody raised from the dead, had not even heard of anybody being raised from the dead. But it says he believed it in Hebrews 11. I mention this just to explain the strength of faith these believers had. Abraham judged that God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead. Judged . And this judgment was the result of an unshakable faith that God would be faithful and not untrue to a believer. That was the same kind of faith that Job had when he said “I know that my redeemer liveth.” But how much more have we who know the Eternal Life, an accomplished salvation and redemption? We know that all our sins are forgiven. We look at Calvary where He who is the eternal life died for us as Man. We know that the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and more than that, He is at the right hand of God in the glory. That is what Paul speaks of when he speaks of Christ, our life, at the right hand of God. That is the riches of the eternal life in our day. It is the revelation of the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus in all its fulness.

With all the admitted difficulty in translating this scripture accurately (see the Revised Version, and the French by J. N. D.), the sense is tolerably plain. Two things have, however, 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 that it was so) that Job only thought of his deliverance from his present condition, his restoration and vindication. But the language as used by the Holy Ghost becomes undoubtedly a prophecy of the coming of Christ (in its general sense), and of the resurrection of His people. The same thing is often seen in the Old Testament Scriptures. Many of the Psalms, for example, were written in connection with David's experiences; but these very experiences became, as wrought by the Holy Ghost, typical of the experiences of our blessed Lord. So, too, with the prophets. Speaking of some near event, their words often contained predictions, unknown to themselves, of larger events in the last days, of which what was passing around them was but a shadow. (Compare 1 Peter 1:10-12.) It is of the first importance to remember this principle in studying the prophetic, and, indeed, many of the historical scriptures.

In the midst of Job's deep depression it is wonderful to hear him speak so positively in these three verses, "I know that my Redeemer lives." Thus his faith is seen to surmount his feelings, which he had allowed to discourage him. Notice, he says "my Redeemer." The Lord would therefore certainly redeem him from all the adversities he was experiencing. How could he then have spoken so critically of the Lord before? But such is the inconsistency of our fleshly nature. Also, "He shall stand at last on the earth." Thus Job becomes a prophet, for this could have been revealed to him only by the Lord Himself. We know it is true because scripture subsequent to Job has revealed it, but it appears that God virtually put these words into Job's lips for his own encouragement. Of course it was true when the Lord Jesus came by way of the virgin Mary, and again it will be true when He returns in glory (Zech.14:4).

But more than this, Job says, "And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God" (v.26). How amazing it is that Job could say this. Only by divine revelation could he know this, 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 (Jn.1:18).

He adds, "Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another" (v.27), that is, it would not be by proxy, but a personal, vital matter. No wonder he is moved to say, "How my heart yearns within me!" This should have been enough to lift him high above the trauma of his bitter experiences, and perhaps for the moment he was lifted up, but his history at this time was very generally a conflict between faith and feelings.

And then, in the midst of all these lamentations, he utters those magnificent words of faith: "I know that my Redeemer liveth." But this was the very God whom he was just now charging with injustice! How good it is to see Job's faith amid all this turmoil, turning to the very One whom he was maligning! Truly these — not his own protestations of innocence — are words worthy of being graven upon the enduring rock. This Redeemer, this Daysman, shall rise for him, though it be in the last days, after his death.

Among the saints of the earlier days, our Job knew Him in this great character of Kinsman or Redeemer. As rescuing him from the power of death, or from captivity to the grave and corruption, Job celebrates Him. It is a scripture well known, and much delighted in by the saints. And well may it be so. All that ushers it forth to our hearing, and all that sustains and accompanies it while we listen to it, give it an uncommon character.

"Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me."

What an apprehension of Christ in both His person and His work is here! It is the faith and hope of our Gospel. Job knew he had a Redeemer, a Redeemer then living, and thereafter to stand upon the earth manifested in flesh, and that this Redeemer would achieve for him a glorious victory over the power of death, and strength of corruption. And all this fine apprehension of Christ is accompanied with the simplest appropriating faith. "Whom I shall see for myself," says Job, "and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." This is the confidence of Paul. This is the liberty that is befitting the full revelation of the grace of God. Paul and Job, in like spirit, knew the glorious redemption, and knew it for themselves. "Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

(5) In the following words commentators have found varying meanings, according to their translation. We may resolve these into two: Does Job say, "In my flesh I shall see God," or "From (away from) my flesh I shall see God?" In other words, does he declare his belief in a spiritual disembodied condition after death, in which he will behold God and get his vindication? Or does he plainly state his conviction of the truth of a literal bodily resurrection? While the New Testament clearly teaches the spiritual consciousness of those who are out of the body — "To depart to be with Christ,which is far better" — yet it ever points forward to the resurrection of the body, in glory and incorruption. The words of David, prophesying the resurrection of our Lord, "Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption," show that the resurrection of the body was foretold before the advent of our Lord upon earth.

Does not Job speak here of beholding the Lord with his own eyes, and does not this necessitate a resurrection? It does not seem that he was looking for the Redeemer to act for him in this present life, but after his death — in a glorified body. Thus, as has been beautifully said, "he plants the flag of victory upon his own grave."

Some deem it strange that throughout the Old Testament we have but three or four scriptures pointing to eternity. The most striking perhaps comes from the lips of stricken Job, whom God was schooling in adversities, for in the middle of his affliction he could cry out "I know that my Redeemer liveth" (Job 19:25). Here then he points to One who lives untouched by the power of death, a living Redeemer, life-giving as we know as well as living.

But why did he desire this? It was because he knew that his Redeemer was the living One, and that as "the Last," He would stand upon the earth. The New Translation renders it thus, as being really a name of God, referring us to Isaiah 48:12. Thus again, and quite clearly, did Job reveal that he knew that death was not the end of everything for man, and that he expected a resurrection which would touch his body. What was not then revealed was that state of incorruption into which resurrection introduces us, for life and incorruptibility came to light by the Gospel, as 2 Timothy 1:10, rightly translated, reads.

Though truth has been progressively revealed, certain great facts of a prophetic sort came to light in very early days. There was, for instance, the prophecy of Enoch, uttered before the flood, though not put on record in Scripture until the last epistle of the New Testament. Without a doubt Job would have known this prediction of Enoch, and it is remarkable that nothing he says here is out of harmony with what is revealed in later ages. When the glorious Christ raises the saints, Job amongst them, he will indeed "see God," and see Him, as he said, "in my flesh," though he did not know he would be raised with a spiritual body like to the resurrection body of our Lord.

But he does not spare remonstrances or rebuke. "Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?" It was distress enough that he was suffering in this way. Were they justified in destroying his confidence in God? The drift of what they were doing was to make him doubt the sincerity of his own faith, which is clearly the devil's work. The Spirit of God never leads to a doubt. "Oh that my words were but written, that they were but inscribed in the book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer lives." Here we come to the very distinct confession of his faith. "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." Beautiful too it was at such a time, in the deepest desolation and distress, where there was not one solitary friend among men, and God Himself was smiting him. How like Christ up to a certain point in his circumstances! How little like Him in the unwavering acknowledgment of God's holiness, as free from hardness as from repining! Still here we have a blessed confession, the more so because of the gloom, pain, and desertion in which it was uttered. "I know … that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

Some will probably have heard that people question, for one reason or another, the meaning of these words, or perhaps affirm that they mean "out of my flesh." But then it ought to be remembered that "out of my flesh" can mean from within it, as you might look out from a window. It does not mean the separate spirit divested of the flesh. We must not confound "out of my flesh" with "without my flesh," which it does not at all necessarily imply. It is the expression of his holding fast what every person, more particularly in the Old Testament, would maintain; that is, the true having to do personally with God, and in Old Testament thought personality meant the person fully, not merely therefore the soul and the spirit separate, but in the body too. So it is with Job; and this is what gives emphasis to his words. He can see the dissolution of his body at hand; he beholds everything crumbling into dust, and his flesh becoming the food of worms; but none the less does he cleave to the confidence that not only shall he see God, but this from out of his flesh. The resurrection therefore is clearly supposed in these words, and all the efforts of men to destroy the force of the passage are utterly vain.