I have a previous post about the wisdom of Job’s time and even though they predate the Bible being recorded, they knew spiritual truths conveyed to us through the Bible. But these verses by Job convey that he understood resurrection, and that Christ would stand upon the earth at the end time when he comes to judge the world.
Job 19:23–27
[23] “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! [24] Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! [25] For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. [26] And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, [27] whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (ESV)
And Job got his wish, as generations have read his words. And his redeemer visited and restored his fortunes after being tested by Satan.
Consequently, this life is a test of all human beings to recognize God exists and that we are estranged from him because of sin, violators of His ordained laws. God’s standard is perfection, and justice means the guilty have to be judged, leaving us all to die, even the sentence of the second death for all eternity. So evil in this world is crucial and like a lamp illuminating God, that we need to depend on God, and that we must be reconciled to God before our death. If there wasn’t evil and suffering contrasting that God is good, perfect and just; how many more would die under sin and suffer the second death. So God allows evil in the world because it brings us to Him, and we can be reconciled and adopted as children of God to spend eternity with Him. Otherwise in our comfortable lives we would never seek Him out and accept His gift of Grace and Salvation, which He paid Himself on the cross in taking our sentence, declaring us righteous and good, being acceptable to enter heaven and join Him for eternity.
Job 19
Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives
[1] Then Job answered and said:
[2] “How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
[3] These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
are you not ashamed to wrong me?
[4] And even if it be true that I have erred,
my error remains with myself.
[5] If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
and make my disgrace an argument against me,
[6] know then that God has put me in the wrong
and closed his net about me.
[7] Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
I call for help, but there is no justice.
[8] He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness upon my paths.
[9] He has stripped from me my glory
and taken the crown from my head.
[10] He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone,
and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
[11] He has kindled his wrath against me
and counts me as his adversary.
[12] His troops come on together;
they have cast up their siege ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
[13] “He has put my brothers far from me,
and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
[14] My relatives have failed me,
my close friends have forgotten me.
[15] The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
[16] I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
[17] My breath is strange to my wife,
and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
[18] Even young children despise me;
when I rise they talk against me.
[19] All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I loved have turned against me.
[20] My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
[21] Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
[22] Why do you, like God, pursue me?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
[23] “Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
[24] Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
[25] For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
[26] And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
[27] whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
[28] If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
[29] be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.” (ESV)