I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth.  Job 19:25

This confession is famous, but its circumstances are not usually mentioned. It is valuable to look at the setting.

Read Job 19:21-24
“Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me. Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
“Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!”

• What is Job’s situation? How does he feel about the people around him right now?
• What could motivate Job to make this impassioned testimony? Why does he shout out such words in the place where he is suffering?

Read Job 19:26-27
“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! “

• What new observation does Job add to his confession? Is he speaking as the victor in a battle? If not, how can he possibly feel this way?

Read Job 19:28-29
“If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,’ you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment.”

Then read Job 42:7-8
After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.

• What does God say that vindicates Job’s comments and observations?
• Now, read the verse and ask yourself, “In Job’s circumstances, would this be my testimony?”
• Pastor Saeed Abedini, who is now in the second year of his imprisonment for his faith, wrote to his family about his experience in prison. Despite cruel beatings by the guards and deliberate injustice in the courts, Pastor Saeed wrote that his greatest desire was to be the “aroma of Christ” in that dark prison. How does this testimony compare with Job’s statement?