Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read Exodus 2, Job 19, and Hebrews 8 today. This devotional is about Job 19. Then Job answered, How long will you torment me and crush me with your words? Ten times now you have reproached me, you shamelessly mistreat me. Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone. If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me, and use my disgrace against me, then understand that it is God who has wronged me, and drawn his net around me. Though I cry out, Violence! I get no response. Though I call for help, there is no justice. He has blocked my way so I cannot pass. He has veiled my paths with darkness. He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. He tears me down on every side until I am gone. He uproots my hope like a tree. His anger burns against me and he counts me among his enemies. His troops advance together. They construct a ramp against me, and encamp around my tent. He has removed my brothers from me. My acquaintances have abandoned me. My kinsmen have failed me. My friends have forgotten me. My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight. I call for my servant, but he does not answer, Though I implore him with my own mouth. My breath is repulsive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own family. Even little boys scorn me, when I appear, They deride me. All my best friends despise me, And those I love have turned against me. My skin and flesh cling to my bones. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh? I wish that my words were recorded and inscribed in a book, by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever. But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I will see Him for myself, my eyes will behold Him, and not a stranger. How my heart yearns within me! If you say, Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him, then you should fear the sword yourselves, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment. This is God's word. Today we read one of the most powerful statements in the book of Job, here in Job 19 verses 25 through 27. Let me read it again, this time from the NIV. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see Him with my own eyes, I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! These short poetic stanzas refer to two core doctrines of our faith. First, they foreshadow the incarnation of Christ. In verse 25, when Job said, in the end, he will stand on the earth. Second, they affirm the resurrection of the dead. Because Job said, after my skin has been destroyed, in other words, after I'm dead, yet in my flesh, I will see God. Note that Job says he will see God in my flesh, not in my spirit. Thus he affirmed the bodily resurrection of the dead. Though these truths did not remove Job's suffering or his questions, they do offer great encouragement if we consider them. no matter how difficult your suffering, how senseless and unfair it all seems in this life, or how you meet the end of your life, God is waiting there on the other side of eternity for you, if your faith is in Him. And God's plan is not just for you to know Him spiritually, but to include you in His earthly kingdom in eternity through the resurrection of the dead. I hope you find these words encouraging, no matter what you're facing today. Maybe it would be a good idea to memorize this passage and remind yourself of it when you need encouragement. If you found this devotional helpful, please go to my website, dailypbj.com slash subscribe, enter your email address there, and every day for free, you will receive an email from me containing a transcript of these devotionals, a link to each daily reading, and also a link to the audio and video of these devotionals. And I've designed this to help you keep going and be in God's Word every day. If you would consider becoming part of my financial support network, that would mean so much to me and would help me so much to keep going with making online content like this, go to dailypbj.com support. if you would consider supporting me on a monthly basis. Please share this with someone who might need the encouragement today, and I'll see you next time. May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.
