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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Job 16:18-21, 19:23-27
Hebrews 9:14-16
- St. Luke 8:40-55
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ (Rom 1)
Who speaks to you, as we continue in His Book of Job heard,
saying:
“My
intercessor is my friend… on behalf of a man he
pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.” (16:20-21)
Tonight, we come to the point in Job’s story that turns us
towards the Gospel. Not that we haven’t been finding the Gospel in Job’s book
so far, but that now for Job, we hear him build a case for his Intercessor.
This we hear directly from Job in our readings tonight, most notably from
chapter 19, where our hymn “I know that my Redeemer lives”, comes from.
In the search for this Intercessor, Job really has wanted to
represent himself in front of God. We heard him speak like that last week from
chapter 23:3-4. Job does not end up finding that Complaint Department nor does
he find a decent intercessor. Those would-be intercessors, his 3 friends, are
miserable intercessors and do not help.
In tonight’s turn toward the Gospel, I’d like to focus on
Job’s 4th friend, Elihu. Chapter 31 ends with “the words of Job are ended” and
from those words through chapter 37 Elihu holds forth with no rebuttal or
chastisement from Job or God, in the end. This is interesting and makes one
wonder, how did Elihu speak better than the first three friends and was he a
representative of that Intercessor-to-come?
The name “Elihu” means God is YHWH, which may seem redundant
to us, but we use the same sentence when talking about Jesus when we say Jesus
is God. Mayhap a strange coinkidink. Elihu also brings up Law and Gospel, as we
did when speaking of the mistakes of Job’s other friends. He says in chapter
33:14, “For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive
it.” One way is the Law, and “two” is the Gospel which we don’t perceive,
because it has to be revealed to us.
He goes on in that same chapter to reveal God’s intention in
allowing suffering in our lives, which we already talked about, saying, “Behold,
God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man, to bring back his
soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life” (v.29-30).
That is, suffering prevents greater sin, shame, and vice from overtaking us, be
that evil works or good works.
“He is wooing you from the jaws of distress”, he
declares in chapter 36:16, “to a spacious place free from restriction, to
the comfort of your table laden with choice food.”
You see, Job is stuck. He knows his Redeemer lives, but he
does not see the point of his suffering in this way. Job believes with all his
heart that God will vindicate him, but continues to ask “What profit have I
and what do I gain by not sinning?” (35:3). Meaning, if all this was going
to happen to Job while he was God’s Golden Boy, then why shouldn’t he have just
sinned?
Job’s Redeemer lives, yet it is not a positive thought. It
is a bloody, Easter hope in the middle of a Good Friday life. Job 19 is the cry
of a man who’s heavenly resume has been burned up and who probably doesn’t even
own the dust and ashes he wails in. In Job’s cry for a redeemer, he is not
begging for better days ahead, he is hoping for a Resurrected Savior.
Indeed, the only reason Job knows his redeemer lives, is
because Job is dead. Job is dead to prevent suffering and tribulation. Job is
dead to redeem himself from the pit. Job is dead to anything good from God,
even His courtroom. Meaning, he finds no power within himself to accomplish or
put in motion any redemption from anything.
This is another part of why Elihu’s entrance is perfectly
timed. After Job reaches the end of his rope, Elihu brings himself face to face
with Job, in his suffering, to begin to point him in the right direction. Elihu
is that face that hears Job’s complaint and declares that Job is dead in his
sin, unable to choose a redeemer, much less state his case in front of
God.
Job is dead. Jesus is not. Jesus did die, but He now lives
and reigns to all eternity. Job does not, not if he wants to keep his sin or
his own righteousness. For Jesus, the point is not to stop sinning, its to
create a heart that never sins. For Jesus, the point is not to give up on
righteousness in the face of God’s seemingly random punishments, but to obtain
God’s own righteousness.
That heart and that Righteousness cannot have competition,
in any form. In fact, Holy Scripture plainly saith that in order to receive
said heart, the one you have must come out (Ez 36:26). Holy Scripture also
plainly states that in order to receive God’s righteousness, your righteousness
must be purged to the very last dregs. No leaven can be left. Jesus alone must
be all in all.
We even sing, “unite my thankful heart to Thee and reign
without a rival there” (LSB 683)
This is the Way. The only Way. The Way of the cross of
Christ is the way to 100% redemption. For this heart surgery, this
righteousness surgery, this Spirit surgery to take place, a man must be dead.
He must be dead in his sins. This must be a confession, because to us it looks
like we are living and so we call God crazy.
We find out we are not living, when we see Jesus rise again
from the dead. Then Job’s words are realized. His Redeemer lives, but he does
not, in his sin. And when Jesus rises again, we are also faced with the
ultimate epiphany: He is God.
Job then echoes Psalm 55:12-14, “For it is not an enemy
who taunts me — then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals
insolently with me — then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my
equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel
together; within God's house we walked in the throng.”
And Eliu says you got it right, Job. You called on God’s
court and He has brought it to you. Now here is your defendant, not you, but
this Holy One of Israel Who looks as if He were slain. Will you now condemn the
righteous One in light of your complaint?
If God would have stayed God, in spirit, in the cloud, Job
would have continued his case. Since God has chosen to be made man, equal to
Job in every way except sin, Job is no longer certain his case holds water. God
displays how Job’s Redeemer is going to see him face to face, on the cross, and
Job finally pleads guilty and begs for mercy.
Looking on the face of the Crucified, no suffering can equal
His. Looking on the face of the Crucified Jesus, no complaints are worth
voicing. Not that His suffering was so great, but that the revelation is so
huge and mind-blowing, that God loves so much and so deeply, that Job has no
words except, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.”
And in the death of Job’s sin, Job is raised to new life in
Christ. Yes, I know that my Redeemer lives because I’m dead, and now I am alive
in Him, through Baptism. Job is first crushed with the Law and Elihu confirms
it. Yes, your first friends were right, Job, your righteousness is as filthy
rags and you have no standing in front of God.
But in Christ, in your Redeemer, Job, you will be cleared of
all charges by God Himself. And “those who suffer He delivers in their
suffering; He speaks to them in their affliction” (Job 36:15). In Jesus,
God has come down into the suffering of His creation. Jesus was delivered in
His suffering and had God’s Word even in His crucifixion.
The Lord comes into His kingdom through suffering and Job
gets to prophesy that suffering. As we sing in Advent, “God the Father was His
source, back to God He ran His course. Into hell His road went down, back then
to His throne and crown” (LSB 332).
Job meets his Redeemer exactly where he prophesied He would
be: when Job felt there was nothing left to redeem. Job wasn’t in need of
better days, but a Resurrected Savior. And when Job finally falls silent, there
he faces Jesus, whose raw-imprinted palms reach out and beckon Job from his
doubt (LSB 472).
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