I Know That My Redeemer Lives!

• Read Job 19 as a family

There is such hope and despair in this chapter. Job’s plea to his friends is that they might lay down their swords against him and simply have mercy. He is estranged to his wife (v.17), his remaining relatives have failed him (v.14), his intimate friends abhor him (v.19), young children despise him (v.18), his servants refuse to answer him (v.16), and he is a stench to his own siblings (v.17). His cry to his friends in verse 21-22 is:

Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

The number one thing that our suffering friend needs from us is our mercy. They don’t need our mis-applied theology, our attempt at finding causes, or even our rejection. They need us to show mercy to them and point backwards to our Redeemer who hung upon a tree and now lives to intercede for the suffering and trusting servant. They need to trust upon the truth that at last they shall see God.