When Nobody Understands

I know that my Redeemer lives.   Job 19:25

Job looked to three friends—Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad—for support. You have to give them credit for being there, but these friends were quite certain that all suffering is a punishment for sin and that Job must have had some skeleton in his closet. Job told them he wasn’t hiding anything, but they didn’t believe him.

For all their sincerity, Job’s friends were of no help to him whatsoever. Eventually Job said, “How long will you torture me? How long will you try to crush me with your words? You have already insulted me ten times. You should be ashamed of treating me so badly. Even if I have sinned, that is my concern, not yours” (Job 19:2-4). That’s a nice way of saying, “Why don’t you go away and mind your own business?”

Job’s wife was ready to throw in the towel—on her faith and apparently on Job, too, for Job said, “My breath is repulsive to my wife” (Job 19:17). Sounds like she didn’t want him anywhere near her, and the same was true for the other members of Job’s extended family (see 19:13). Job’s wife came back at the end of the story, and so did his relatives, but in the middle of his suffering, he was utterly alone.

It is difficult to imagine a more desperate situation. This man lost everything. His friends were no help to him, his wife didn’t want to know him, and his health was deteriorating (“I have been reduced to skin and bones”—Job 19:20).

When there are a thousand things you don’t know, affirm what you do know. Never doubt in the darkness what God has taught you in the light. In the darkness of your suffering, hold on to what you know is true.

Everything around Job was collapsing, and the only way to avoid being sucked down was to grab hold of something solid. That’s what Job did when he confessed the fundamental conviction on which he would stake his life. This was Job’s secret to survival: he knew there was a living Redeemer, ready and able to deliver him.

For further reading, see Job 19