Job’s Longing by Charles R. Swindoll

Job 19:1–29
19 Then Job answered and said,
2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
4 And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.
18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

Job longed for his words of woe to be etched into granite so that people through time could enter into all the things he was enduring. He thought his words would be forgotten. He had no idea that his words would survive him. Yet, think of it, God chose to include them in His eternal Word! Along with Scriptures like Genesis 1, Psalm 23, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 13, and Revelation 22, we call to mind Job 19:25–27 to this day!
As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25–27)

Thanks to Handel’s Magnum Opus, every Christmas season we hear that message over and over again. Little did Job realize in his dreadful anguish that his Lord would honor his name by preserving his words for all the world to hear and sing!

I need to pause right here and speak to you whose God is distant and silent. And, perhaps (like Job), your friends have begun to turn against you. There is a future that is brighter than your wildest dreams! As Job will one day experience, justice will win out, God will replace evil, and right will eclipse wrong. In the end, God wins. And so will we. Job will be vindicated and remembered and respected. And all the Zophars, Bildads, and Eliphazes will be judged, silenced, and forgotten. “Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is judgment” (Job 19:29).

In all his misery, Job had not lost sight of who was right and who was wrong. He reminded all three men that “judgment and punishment are not coming my way; they’re coming yours.”
Focus on the future!