Ah, would that these words of mine were written down,
inscribed on some monument
with iron chisel and engraving tool,
cut into the rock forever.
This I know: that my Avenger lives,
and he, the Last, will take his stand on earth.
After my awaking, he will set me close to him,
and from my flesh I shall look on God.
He whom I shall see will take my part:
these eyes will gaze on him and find him not aloof.
My heart within me sinks…
You, then, that mutter, “How shall we track him down,
what pretext shall we find against him?”
may well fear the sword on your own account.
There is an anger stirred to flame by evil deeds;
you will learn that there is indeed a judgment.
– Job 19:23-29
We look at this passage and see Jesus in “I know my Avenger (more commonly translated Redeemer) lives and will take his stand on the earth”. And I think we should… but I don’t think Job did. He couldn’t have. Not exactly.
So what did Job have in mind? What might he have been thinking about here? I don’t pretend I can know all the nuances, but what if, instead of starting with Jesus and looking back, we start at the beginning and look forward?
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…. God saw all that he had made, and indeed it was very good.”
God put his first man and woman in a delightful garden, with one tree they were not to eat from. And yet, “The serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that Yahweh God had made. It asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?'” Of course this was lying nonsense; God provided many trees of food. And the lies got worse. When the woman replied, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, ‘You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death,'” the serpent said, “No! You will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.”
So the woman eats, and her husband eats, and they do begin to know good and evil, but instead of being a good thing, this leads to them hiding from God, the source of all the good around them.
“Then Yahweh God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,
Be accursed beyond all cattle,
all wild beasts.
You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust
every day of your life.
I will make you enemies of each other:
you and the woman,
your offspring and her offspring.
It will crush your head
and you will strike its heel.'”
I recently learned that the word seraphim literally means “fiery snakes”. Which, first of all,
But I think connecting that to the serpent in the account of mankind’s fall makes so many things make sense. In Isaiah, we see seraphim above God’s throne, crying out,
“Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth.
His glory fills the whole earth.”
They’re proclaiming God’s holiness, how he is set apart from everything else, and how he is so glorious it fills up his whole creation. But here in Genesis is, perhaps, a seraphim lying to that creation about that God, harming the very good creation of that very glorious God, actions completely opposed to everything that God is.
What are humans to do in the face of this evil?
Wait.
God promises the serpent he will give the woman offspring who will crush the serpent. These humans aren’t going to do it, but one is coming who will.
He also promises the humans they will have pain while they wait, in childbearing and working for food, but at first it probably doesn’t sound like it will be a long wait. When Eve has a son, she says, “I have acquired a man with the help of Yahweh.” God helped her through that pain in childbearing and gave her a son, and I imagine Adam and Eve fully expected Cain to be the offspring who would crush the serpent, avenging the wrong the serpent did them and the pain he caused.
But no. Cain kills his younger brother, turning out to be evil just like the serpent, and leaves to live elsewhere.
So Adam and Eve have another child, Seth. “‘God has granted me other offspring,’ she said, ‘in place of Abel, since Cain has killed him.'” Maybe this one?
Not this one. Children keep coming, and we get a whole list of Adam’s descendants. I think in Noah’s birth we see the hope that’s still around that maybe this child will be the one; Noah’s father says, “Here is one who will give us, in the midst of our toil and the laboring of our hands, a consolation derived from the ground that Yahweh cursed.” But of course, in Noah’s life the whole world floods and Noah’s obedience to God saves only himself and his family.
I wonder who first had a child and didn’t immediately ask themselves if this child would be their savior.
Come Job’s time, Job is described as “a sound and honest man who feared God and shunned evil.” But one day when God’s angels come to attend on him, Satan accuses God of sheltering Job and Job of only honoring God because he’s protected from harm. So God grants Satan permission to harm Job.
Job’s possessions are destroyed. His children die. After another conversation between Satan and God, Job’s health is wrecked.
His friends show up and accuse him of sin, because surely only evil people would suffer this much. But Job knows he has done nothing deserving of this, and insists on it. If only he could speak in God’s court to defend himself, God would have to acknowledge his righteousness.
If only his words were engraved in rock to last forever so when his Avenger comes to earth, Job’s defense would still exist when his Avenger takes Job’s part in God’s judgment. After all, God promised, and one is coming to crush the serpent, but apparently it might be a long wait.
Good news, Job: God preserved your words. The Avenger came and crushed the serpent’s head. He is both a woman’s offspring and God himself. He knows your defense, your righteousness, he will take your part in God’s final judgment on evil deeds. You can rest in this.
So can we.
This I know: that my Avenger lives. These eyes will gaze on him and find him not aloof.
(Excerpts from Genesis 1-5; Isaiah 6:3; Job 1:1)
tuesdaynews 