Bible Passage: Job 19:23-27
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: Easter Worship March 31, 2024

Bulletin Easter 2024

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of Jesus, our living Redeemer,

Have you ever thought about what you want inscribed on your headstone some day?  It’s not a thought we likely relish.  No one really likes thinking about such a thing.  If you’ve ever walked through a graveyard and looked at some of the inscriptions on headstones it’s clear many people have given it a lot of thought.  Here are some of the more clever inscriptions I have heard about.  One man had this inscribed on his stone:  “I knew this would happen.”  One woman has “I told you I was sick.”  Merv Griffin, the famous TV producer and talk show host, has this on his stone:  “I will not be right back after this message.”  And Mel Blanc, the man who did the voices for Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, has this:  “That’s all, folks!”

There is a man in our text today who is thinking about his death.  As he does, he says, Oh how I wish that my words were written down.  Oh how I wish that they were inscribed in bronze, that they would be engraved in rock forever with an iron tool and letters filled with lead. (v. 23-24)  In Job’s mind, he has come up with something really good, something worth preserving, whether that be by writing them in ink on a scroll, or inscribing them into bronze, or chiseling them into stone.  What is so important that Job wants it preserved forever?  Here are the Words Worth Chiseling into Stone:  “My Redeemer Lives!”

Why is Job thinking about his death?  Because he’s dying.  He is very sick when he speaks the words of our text.  We don’t know exactly what he has, but it sounds horrible.  From the description of Job we have, we know he was feverish.  Job describes fitful sleep and nightmares.  His skin was cracked and had open sores.  These sores would scab over and break open.  He was in a lot of pain.  Job thought he was dying, and quite frankly, wanted to!

Job had some friends who came to visit and cheer him up.  Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu.  The only problem was they were not much comfort to poor Job.  They sat by their suffering friend and harassed him.  They kept insisting that he must have done something wrong, he must be hiding some secret life, because God was punishing him with sickness.  They were horrible friends with horrible theology!  So much for friends.  Job felt alone.  He speaks about it in the verses just before our text.   He [God] has alienated my family from me;  my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.  My relatives have gone away; my closest friends have forgotten me.  My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner; they look on me as on a stranger.  I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth.  My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family.  Even the little boys scorn me;  when I appear, they ridicule me.  All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me. (Job 19:13-19)

But it’s at this point Job remembers something!  He remembers something so important it is worth chiseling into stone so that people can read it forever.  He DOES have somebody!  He speaks of a “Redeemer.”  That’s a very heavily-weighted term in the Old Testament.  The Hebrew word Job uses is “go-el.”  “Goel” is sometimes translated as “kinsman-redeemer.”  A “kinsman-redeemer” was the person who was there for you when no one else was.  As the name implies, this person was a relative of some sort.  They were “kin.” This person did many things, but the matter of “redeemer” comes into play as this is the person who would buy back your property if you lost it due to bankruptcy and foreclosure.  More significantly, this is the person who would buy YOU out of slavery if you ever became a slave.  In short, a “redeemer” was there to save and rescue you when there was no one else to do it!

Here is what Job saw with the eyes of faith.  He saw his own death.  He saw his own grave.  He saw the decay of his body.  But he saw a day when his living Kinsman-Redeemer would stand on his grave.  And Job saw his own resurrection!  Job saw the day when he would see his Redeemer with his own resurrected eyeballs looking out from his own resurrected body!  The whole thing is too much for Job.  He confesses at the end of our text, My emotions are in turmoil within me. (v. 27)  His stomach was in knots and filled with butterflies just thinking about it!

Whether Job knew it or not, Easter is what got him through!  Oh, Job didn’t see Easter with the clarity we do.  He couldn’t read Mark 16:1-8 like we just did.  But he saw it nonetheless!  He saw and trusted in a living Redeemer who would bring him out of his grave one day.  That, my friends, is Easter hope!  That is our hope!  On Good Friday, Jesus became our Redeemer.  He gave his life to set us free from sin, death, and the grave.  On Easter, Jesus became our living Redeemer!  Our Kinsman, our Brother, rose from the dead, and now we will, too!  On the day Job sees his Redeemer with his own eyeballs, you will too, because you will both be looking at Jesus!

What comfort fits every sorrow?  What can you think about when you are suffering like Job?  What will give you comfort as you sit in a chair with a chemotherapy IV in your arm?  What will give you peace as you age and your body begins to wear out?  What will your heart cling to when you feel alone and you feel like you don’t have a soul in the world who is on your side?  What thought will anchor you when the doctor says it is time for hospice care?  What will you want your loved ones to remember about you when they gather without you “to make arrangements”?  Friends, at those times there is one confession, one truth that is worthy to be chiseled in stone!  “I know that my Redeemer lives!”

Amen.