ヨブ記19:1-29  Job 19:1-29,

This February I would like to preach you about a man called Job in the Old Testament book of Job. Job was a very fine and serious man who believed in God and helped people in need. He had seven sons and three daughters and had a great many livestock as his property. However, Satan suggested that God put him to the test. He said that if he took away Job’s children and property and made him sick, he would surely curse God. Then, to our surprise, God allowed Satan to test Job. Job’s children died, his property was taken by his enemies and his body became sick. Nevertheless, Job never cursed God, replying, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Three friends came to him. At first, the three friends came to visit Job to comfort him. However, as they listened to Job’s words of laments, they began to think that he was wrong. Job was in so much pain that he was lamenting, saying that he would have preferred to die in his mother’s womb before he was born, or else he would have preferred to die as soon as he was born. Job was in so much pain that he honestly confessed his suffering before God. However, his three friends said, “You have sinned in some way, which is why you are suffering like this. So repent and become a man to obey to God’s will.” It must have been very hard for Job to hear that. Is it right to say to someone who is suffering, “You are suffering because you have sinned”? Is that what true friends would say?

Job could not keep silent to such friends. In verse 2 and 3 of the passage we read today, Job said to his three friends, “How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?” And Job thought that God had become his enemy and was attacking him. So in verse 11, Job said, “He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary.” There is nothing more painful than God becoming an enemy, and in verses 21 and 22, Job said to his three friends, “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?” He wanted his three friends to understand his suffering as fellow human beings. He did not want them to corner him by saying things like, “You are suffering because you have sinned.” When we think about our own suffering, we understand Job’s feelings.

So, was Job in despair because he thought that God was his enemy and would not save him? Not so, for in verse 25 Job says, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” Who is Redeemer? God! What does it mean that “He will stand upon the earth”? When we die, our bodies return to the dust of the earth. So ‘“He will stand upon the earth” means that even if my body dies and returns to dust, God will stand upon it and save me. Job believed that God would save him even if he died. He believed that even those who had died would be given eternal life and resurrected. Even in the midst of suffering, he had the hope of resurrection.