Preaching Series on Job

[This is Week 3 of a 6-week preaching series on Job.]

Psalm 23
"Psalm 23," John August Swanson. Used by permission from the artist. Image © by John August Swanson.  Artwork held in the Luther Seminary Fine Arts Collection, St. Paul, Minn.

July 17, 2016

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Commentary on Job 14:7-15; 19:23-27



[This is Week 3 of a 6-week preaching series on Job.]

Week 3

Job 14:7-15; 19:23-27

In the depths of despair, Job experiences moments of inexplicable hope, or moments at least of hopeful longing. God will hear him. God will answer. Such longing is based on Job’s faith and his experience of God’s care in the past (Job 10:9-12). His most fundamental hope is this: that he will see God (Job 19:26-27). That hope will be fulfilled at the end of the book (Job 42:5).

It is the witness of Job and the psalmists (see Ps. 22)–indeed, of the whole Bible–that God hears, God sees, and God will answer. Even in the depths of despair, Jesus knew (and we can know) that God is our God (“My God, my God…”). Because God is in relationship with us, we can speak to God, trusting that God hears us. Such faith leads to the capacity for hope, even when our outward circumstances may remain unchanged. “I know that my Redeemer lives,” cries Job in his suffering. Knowing this Redeemer in Christ, we have all the more reason to hope.

Suggested hymn: “I Know that my Redeemer Lives.”