Job 19 – Hope does not fail

In this chapter, Job made his reply to Bildad the second time. He added nothing new to what he told him the very first time. Reiterating how he felt, Job expressed his present loneliness. He felt so deserted, alienated and hopeless in his situation. Be sure that Job was not alone in this type of experiences. Some of us must have also gone through moments like his. Though surrounded by people, even those we trust and look up to, yet we have never felt more alone. The people we trust just don’t seem to understand and empathize with what is happening to us. Their seeming inability to comprehend what we are going through would leave us feeling frustrated, deserted and all alone.

This, perhaps, was how our Lord Jesus must have felt when he was struggling in prayer alone in Gethsemane. He came to His closest disciples, Peter, James and John, three times and they couldn’t even watch with Him for an hour. When he was hanging between heaven and earth on the cross He even felt that His Father had deserted Him. We all can recall this agonizing question, “Father, why have you forsaken me?”  

Feeling deserted and abandoned was how Job felt at this point. However, he kept his sight on the future, and expressed hope that he would be delivered. He hoped that God would exonerate him sometime in the future. Aware of it or not, in all his loneliness, his confidence in God was hidden latent within him. Hence, he could express so assuredly in verses 25 that “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.” Here, he reached another high point in his courage and faith. Job was truly confident that God would affirm his righteousness.   

One message of Job seems clear here. Men may forsake us, even our family and those closest to us may fail us, God never will.  Worthy of emulation is how Job clung on to his faith in God, whom he was sure has the final authority over life and death. He expressed trust in Him despite what he was going through and the injustices he felt. Like Job, we can be sustained by our hope in Christ, our Redeemer. Our faith must look up to Him, and in Him we can confidently rest.