| The Berean Expositor
Volume 19 - Page 21 of 154 Index | Zoom | |
received their Messiah and His prior presentation or not. Let the scoffers say what they
will.
"Behold, the Lord CAME" (Jude 14), and
"He that SHALL COME will come, and will not tarry" (Heb. 10: 37).
#2.
The patience of Job.
pp. 69 - 72
"Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! That they
were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!" (Job 19: 23, 24).
What was it that was of such consequence that Job wished a permanent record of it to
be kept, comparable to a granite monument with its leaded letters? A Cenotaph, indeed,
for the meaning of the word Cenotaph is "An empty tomb", and that is what came before
the eye of Job in his distress. He said that He was a stranger to his wife and children, his
friends abhorred him, and they whom he had loved turned from him. His bones clave to
his skin, and he had escaped by the skin of his teeth. As we read this chapter we get
some sense of Job's utter extremity, and then it is that he utters the words that he wished
could be graven in the rock for ever. What were they?
"For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand in the latter day upon
the earth: and (following the margin) after I shall awake, though this body be destroyed,
yet out of my flesh shall I see God, Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold, and not another. My reins within me are consumed with earnest desire (for that
day)" (Job 19: 25-27).
The marginal reading treats the word or, "my skin", as part of the verb ur; "to
awake", both of these words are expressed by the same letters in the Hebrew, namely,
ayin, vav, and resh. It is difficult for unaided reasoning to come to a conclusion here, and
we therefore felt is was an opportunity for the Word to prove itself. Consequently we
collected all the occurrences in Job of the verb ur, to awake, and noted what happened
when we added Job 19: 26 to the list. The moment we did so we saw the shaping
together of the living Word, and this was confirmed by a most strange rendering.
When comparing the first and the last occurrences together, at first sight there did not
appear any connection, and we have made it a rule in seeking the structure of Scripture to
avoid the invention of headings lest we lead ourselves astray. Then suddenly these two
passages took their place; the correspondence can be seen by consulting the margin of
Job 3: 8, for there we find the word "leviathan". Into the meaning of the expression "to
raise up leviathan" we will not enter, as it has served its purpose by fixing the structure
and the inclusion of Job 19: 25-27 seems necessary to avoid breaking that which
appears to be an inspired design.