Restores My Soul

Historical Context

Job says this in the middle of his troubles, not after they end. His friends have spent chapters telling him that suffering this bad must mean he did something to deserve it. By chapter nineteen his relatives have left, his servants have left, his wife has turned on him, and he believes God has walked away too. A moment earlier he wishes someone would cut his side of the story into rock, so it would still be standing long after he is gone. Then he names the one hope he has left. He calls him a redeemer. That word named a real job back then. If a man lost his land, ran up debts he could not pay, or was killed, his closest relative was expected to step in. He bought the land back. He paid what was owed. He went to court for a man who could not speak for himself. The whole thing rested on one condition. Somebody had to still be alive who cared enough to do it.

Reflection

The strange part is who that redeemer would have to be. Every human one has already failed Job, so most readers think he means God. Sit with that for a second. Job is asking God to take his side against what God appears to be doing to him. His complaint and his hope point at the same place.

Whether he expected to see it in his lifetime, he never says. What he does is hold two things at once that most of us think we have to pick between. He cannot explain what is happening to him. He also says his redeemer is alive and will stand up for him one day. He says both in the same breath, and lets go of neither.