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Surveying the Text: Song of Solomon

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

As we consider the Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, there is much of spiritual value that we can gather from it, even though we might not grasp the overall narrative thread. This intensely emotional and very erotic love poem is very much like the way of a man with a maid—everybody knows what is going on, and nobody quite knows what is going on.

The Text

“There be three things which are too wonderful for me, Yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; The way of a serpent upon a rock; The way of a ship in the midst of the sea; And the way of a man with a maid” (Prov. 30:18–19).

Literary Options

Interpretations of this book are legion, but there are three main options to choose from. The first is to take the book allegorically. This is what the ancient rabbis did, and is part of the reason the book managed to be included in the canon of Scripture—that, and Solomon’s authorship. The rabbis waxed eloquent about Yahweh’s love for Israel, and Christians, not to be outdone, were fully their match on Christ’s love for the Church. But this, obviously, can sometimes get out of hand—consider the rabbi who thought that the Shulamite’s belly, compared to a heap of wheat, represented the Great Sanhedrin. Or the Christian interpreter who thought her two breasts represented the Old and the New Testaments. In 550 A.D., one church council forbade any interpretation that was not allegorical. But sometimes the best hermeneutical move is to put your head between your legs and breathe into a paper bag.

The second option is to interpret the book as a dramatic representation. This option divides into two groups—one which holds it to be a love poem between Solomon and one of his brides, and the other taking it to be a three-way drama—Solomon wooing the Shulamite, with the Shulamite remaining faithful to her shepherd lover back home.

The third option, and the one I commend, is to take it at face value for what it is, a related series of intense erotic poems, which also have typological significance. With typology, it is easier to maintain the straightforward meaning of the type, while understanding the role of the antitype. With allegory, it always tends to go straight to the “real meaning” up in the sky somewhere. But typology takes in a larger meaning, without doing violence to the text. If every marriage represents Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:23-33), then surely this marriage, contained in the pages of Scripture, should represent it as well.

Speaking of Marriage . . .

Some people like to pretend that this is not a married couple, but that is plainly contradicted by the text. He refers to his lover clearly as his bride several times (Song 4:8-12; 5:1). And this is very important, as we shall see later.

The Goodness Of . . .

We don’t want to limit it to just these things, but as we consider the value of the Song of Songs, we learn, or should learn, of the goodness of certain gifts from God.

First, the goodness of marital love. God approves of sex. He invented it. And He did not do so as an afterthought, or postscript, or footnote. The establishment of mankind, male and female, is found at the crown of the creation week, and it is here that the image of God is fully displayed (Gen. 1:27). In our text from Proverbs, we see that no one fully understands the way of a man with a maid, and we also see from Ephesians that the way of a man with a maid is a “great mystery.” But you don’t need to understand all the ramifications to know that it is good. And recall that when the serpent broke into the garden, notice that he did so in order to attack the crown, to steal the crown, to dishonor the crown of all creation. Perhaps, when it comes to our marriages and sexual lives, we ought to be more protective than we are.

Second, we learn the goodness of natural dominion, the goodness of gardens. The Song of Songs is crammed full of pastoral images, and these images are not primarily about natural wilderness(although there is some of that), but rather about nature tamed. The images include fountains, gardens, orchards, vineyards, and so on. The lovers can have a tryst in a forest room (1:16-17), or in lush gardens (6:2-3), or under an apple tree (8:5). In contrast, while urban settings have their grandeur, they are also more threatening or foreboding.

And third, we can see the goodness of poetry and metaphor. This book is filled with imagery—similes and metaphors abound, and the poetic concentration in this book is intense. The Song of Songs is not just about erotic intensity; by example it declares the goodness of poetic intensity. The mundane and pedestrian approach—that which would traffic in such sentiments—is given the back of the hand. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” (Song of Solomon 8:7).

The Ultimate Point

Marriage is not the gospel, just as sermons are not the gospel. But marriage is intended to declare and exhibit the gospel, just as a sermon is supposed to do the same thing. Marriage is not the gospel, but marriage lived out as it ought to be lived out is most certainly a carrier.

The man initiates and the woman responds. The man bows and the woman curtsies. The man loves and the woman respects. The man gives and the woman gives back, thirty, sixty and one hundred fold. The man dies and the woman rises. The man gives and the woman glorifies. And in all this the gospel is enacted and declared. Christ has a bride, and it is through this that we can plainly see the nature of the gospel.

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Surveying the Text: Ecclesiastes

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

Most cheerfulness in the world is superficial and shallow. Much deep thinking is melancholy. This great Hebrew philosopher calls us to joy—but joy which thinks deeply. Our word profound comes from the Latin profundus, which means deep, and so we are invited to profound joy, not joy that skims along the surface of things. He calls us to meditation, but to a meditation which does not despair. Only believers can enjoy the vanity.

The Text

“The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity” (Ecc. 1:1–2).

Solomonic Authorship

The author never calls himself Solomon by name, but rather Qoheleth. This means “gatherer,” “assembler,” or “preacher.” Nevertheless, Qoheleth identifies himself here as a son of David, and as a king in Jerusalem. Without entering into a detailed description of the debate, I can see no good reason not to attribute the book to Solomon. The book certainly fits the pattern of Solomon’s life.

Solomon was given great wisdom by the Lord, but nevertheless fell into great and enormous sins. In his apostasy, he introduced the idolatry of some of his foreign wives into Israel. This book was written in his old age, as a repentant rejection of his previous declension and apostasy.

Unlike the liberal, we should assume a single voice throughout the text. Unlike the pietist, we should reject the temptation to accept the edifying passages and skim over the apparently “difficult” ones. And unlike the heretic, we should reject an elevation of the “difficult” texts at the expense of the pervasive orthodoxy of the book.

Summary of the Text

Ecclesiastes has four basic sections, or divisions. The first division is found in Ecclesiastes 1:2-2:26—Solomon’s experience shows that satisfaction cannot come from anything within man’s grasp or power. The second division is contained in Ecclesiastes 3:1-5:20: God is sovereign over everything; Solomon answers objections to the doctrine, and as you should know, it is a doctrine that engenders objections. Objections grow on this doctrine, like flowers in a meadow in the springtime. The third section is Ecclesiastes 6:1-8:15. Solomon applies his doctrine that the sovereign God alone gives the power to enjoy vanity. Without Him, without this power, the world is nothing but vexation of spirit. And the last division is Ecclesiastes 8:16-12:14. This last section removes various obstacles and discouragements, and addresses numerous practical concerns.

The Two Great Refrains of the Book

Instead of viewing the book as a series of disjointed and sometimes contradictory statements, we must first look for those themes which integrate all the teaching of the entire book. Two great refrains are:

Under the Sun—this phrase occurs numerous times, and is extremely significant. “Under the sun” is the realm where vanity reigns. This is not the vanity of philosophical nihilism, but rather the vanity of endless recurring cycles. Just the way it is.

Consider what occurs “under the sun.” Work has no profit (1:3; 2:11; 2:22); nothing is new (1:9); everything is vain (1:14; 4:7); work is distressing (2:17); labor is hateful because someone else gets the fruit (2:18); a fool might receive the benefit of the work (2:19, 20); church and state are corrupt (3:16); men are oppressed (4:1); the unborn are at an advantage (4:3); popularity is in constant flux (4:15); riches destroy their owners (5:13); the wealthy are unable to enjoy their wealth (6:1); future generations are unknowable (6:12); men rule others and destroy themselves (8:9); work is incomprehensible (8:17) both good and evil men die alike (9:3); our emotions perish with us (9:6); time and chance happen to us all (9:11); ungrateful men despise the benefits of wisdom (9:13); and rulers establish egalitarianism (10:5).

The Great Gift of God—Under the sun, vanity is God’s scepter (5:18; 8:15; 9:9). For those who fear Him, God gives the gift of being able to enjoy the futility. This is the gift of God. Notice how this point is hammered home, again and again.

“Nothing is better . . .” (2:24);
“I know that nothing is better. . .” (3:12-13);
“So I perceived that nothing is better. . .” (3:22);
“Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting. . .” (5:18-19); “So I commended enjoyment . . .” (8:15);
“Go, eat your bread with joy. . .” (9:7-9).

All these things are done by those who fear God under the sun, just as the miserable labor under the sun. But the distinction, as always, is found in the sovereignty and grace of God.

Eat Your Peaches

God frequently gives men many external blessings without giving them the spiritual taste buds to enjoy them. This is a sore affliction from the Lord. We see a man without taste buds who can afford the finest of restaurants. We see an impotent man married to a beautiful woman. Guard your hearts. Don’t envy them. Don’t want to become like them. The people you envy are frequently the most miserable people on the face of the planet. It would have been better for them to have never been born.

The blessings of this life—and there are many of them—are like cans of peaches. To His beloved, God gives them both the can and the can opener. To the others, He gives just the cans. What does it profit a man to have the whole world but with no ability to taste? Who is wealthier? The man with one can of peaches and a can opener, or a man with a thousand cans of peaches and no can opener? Without Christ, the most a rich man can do is lick the label, trying to get some kind of taste from the glue.

We live in the same world of vain repetitions as do the non-believers. Our dishes get dirty again, our lawns need to be mowed again, our lives cycle around as do theirs. The rain falls on our heads too. But their vanity, their shepherding of the wind, becomes—because of unbelief—what we might call philosophical or nihilistic vanity. Our vanity, our experience of the very same things, becomes a wild ride, the best you will ever have. Nothing is better. This understanding of Ecclesiastes is the foundational precondition of all contentment.

So eat your bread, drink wine, and rejoice. Work hard. God has already accepted you. He has already accepted your works, which He has done in the perfect work of Jesus Christ. Believe the gospel as it is preached and declared. This truly is the gift of God.

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Surveying the Text: Proverbs

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

The book of Proverbs contains more teaching about women than any other book of Scripture. The structure of the book means that it is all about women, and many of the individual proverbs which seem unrelated are actually not at all unrelated. Woman is the glory of man, the capstone of man. She is the best. Woman ruined is hell-bait. She is the worst.

The Text

“Wisdom hath builded her house, She hath hewn out her seven pillars: She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; She hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens: She crieth upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: As for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him” (Prov. 9:1–4).

“A foolish woman is clamorous: She is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, On a seat in the high places of the city, To call passengers Who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: And as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Prov. 9:13–17).

Summary of the Text

In the book of proverbs, two different kinds of women are giving invitations to come and taste, come and eat. One is Lady Wisdom, a noble lady presiding over a great table in a great banqueting hall. The other is Dame Folly, blouse unbuttoned, enticing the simpletons. The drastic difference in the nature of these invitations sets up the conflict that is pervasive throughout the entire book of Proverbs—the conflict between wisdom and folly as they relate to every imaginable detail of life. These two women are everywhere.

This is why another theme of Proverbs is the theme of contrasting paths or ways—two paths with radically different destinations. The terms of value or praise in Proverbs are frequently related to jewelry, garlands, crowns, silver and gold, the woman’s touch. Men are commended in their industry—and sluggards condemned for their slack hand— because men were called to bring home the old covenant equivalent of the bacon. All the vocational activity and industry in Proverbs, far from being a snapshot of a “man’s world,” is activity designed to bring raw material home to the woman so that she might glorify it.

The book of Proverbs is a collection of various books of proverbs. The form of the book as we have it breaks out into the following sections. First is a set of didactic poems (Prov. 1:1-9:18). The second section is a collection of the proverbs of Solomon (Prov. 10:1-22:16). This section contains almost 400 proverbs. The third section is “words of the wise” (Prov. 22:17-24:22). The fourth is a very brief collection of more words from the wise, almost a postscript (Prov. 24:23-34). The fifth section is another small book by Solomon, a collection preserved by Hezekiah’s men (Prov. 25:1-29:27). The sixth comes from an unknown man named Agur (Prov. 30-:1-33), followed by another short section by an unknown King Lemuel (Prov. 31:1-9). It is possible that both Agur and Lemuel were of Massa—the word for “oracle” might actually be a proper name—meaning they were descended from Ishmael. The last section of Proverbs is a poem of praise for a very particular woman (Prov. 31-10-31). Although not named, her aspect is very concrete, as distinct from the metaphorical Lady Wisdom at the beginning of the book.

How Proverbs Work

Now proverbs are aphorisms, general truths. They are not axioms in geometry. All triangles have three sides, and you will never find a triangle that doesn’t have them. But a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and sometimes your blinkered uncle dies and leaves you with 3 million dollars. Proverbs are true, but they are not tautological truths. They are truths for living in a rough and tumble world, where there is a constant need for adjustments, interpretations, generalizations, and troubleshooting as you go. So a lazy bum sometimes does have that stupid uncle—but don’t bet on it.
This is why proverbs will often lean against each other. Deal with it, and grow in wisdom. “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” (Proverbs 26:4– 5). If you pay back a fool in his coin, you have stepped in to help support his little economy. But if you don’t pay back a fool that way, then he won’t get paid what he deserves—which would be bad. Sometimes wisdom does one thing and sometimes wisdom does the opposite.

Reality Requires Navigation

Proverbs have all the concrete particularity of legalistic rules, but none of the rigidity. They have all the flexibility of license, but with none of the stupidity and sin. If you take the book of Proverbs as a guidebook for practical Christianity, the way it was given, you will have wisdom that can deal withobvious problems without resorting to a clunky rule. For example, take your entertainment standards. Leonard Ravenhill once said that entertainment is the devil’s substitute for joy. Deal with what you watch with the eye of proverbial wisdom, and not the wall of rigid restrictions.

Christ As Our Wisdom

In the eighth chapter of Proverbs, Wisdom is described in terms that go well beyond the attributes of a creature. “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was . . .” (Prov. 8:22–23). For various reasons, it seems wise to see this as a glorious metaphor—albeit a feminine one—for the Son of God. And how does this wisdom speak?

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, And the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8:13).

“But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: All they that hate me love death” (Prov. 8:36).

Christ is expressly identified as the wisdom of God.

“But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24).

And this is our savior, Jesus of Nazareth, crucified, buried and risen. And this is why, taking it all together, we see that it is either Christ or death, Christ or nothing, Christ or evil, Christ or chaos.

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Surveying the Text: Psalms

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Introduction

It would be difficult to overstate the impact and influence of the Book of Psalms on the history of Israel, and on the subsequent history of the Christian church. As Luther once said, the Psalms are a “Bible in miniature,” and the way the Psalms are given to us, they are asconstructive as they are retrospective. But more on that shortly.

The Text

“Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee With the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Ps. 45:6–7).

Summary of the Text

Psalm 45 is a triumphal wedding day psalm, celebrating the marriage of the king. The author of Hebrews picks up on a phrase from the psalm, telling us that it represents God speaking to His Son, the Messiah. “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom” (Heb. 1:8). Note that the Son is the bridegroom in the psalm, and that God the Father addresses Him as God. We will come back to the importance of this kind of thing shortly.

The Structure of the Book

The Book of Psalms is actually a collection of five psalters, each one ending with a doxology. Some of the psalms in the collection are ancient, going back to the time of Moses (Ps. 90), for example, but the majority are from the time of David and shortly after. The principal poet and musician represented is David (73 psalms are attributed to him), while other composers include Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, Ethan, and Heman.

The five books are set up as follows: Book One (Ps. 1-41), Book Two (Ps. 42-72), Book Three (Ps. 73-89), Book Four (Ps. 90-106), and Book Five (Ps. 107-150). The doxologies that conclude each book are: Ps. 41:13, 72:18-19, 89:52, 106:48, 150:6. The first book is overwhelmingly from David. The second contains psalms from three sources—David, sons of Korah, and Asaph. The third is largely from Asaph and the sons of Korah. It is good to remember that the last book contains a section known as the Psalms of Ascent (120-134). Because of the murky history of how these books were assembled, we are not really in a position to use these divisions practically, although it is good to know that they are there.

A Translating Faith

A commonplace notion is that poetry cannot be translated. If a great poet wrote in a language not your own, then you are simply out of luck. Now certain things cannot be brought across with the same effect—that is true enough. We commonly signal the presence of poetry in hymns by means of rhyme, which the Hebrews didn’t do at all. We use meter, and other languages don’t. We use meter differently than do other languages that use meter, although Hebrew poetry didn’t at all, and so on.

Nevertheless…

Some aspects of Hebrew poetry can be transferred across the language barrier. One of the use of thought rhymes in the common use of parallelism. In English, this technique is used in the blues, but rarely elsewhere. The parallelism can have variations— synonymous, contrasting, constructive, and so on.

Another technique that carries across, and is actually common to all high poetic expression, is the use of metaphorical imagery. Some of this imagery is quite striking and indelicate. Consider the psalm where God is compared to a warrior who is awakened while sleeping off a drinking binge (Ps. 78:65-66). Now was that quite necessary? Three very common images for God in the psalms would be God as king, God as warrior, and God as fortress.

God is a king on a throne (Ps. 93:2), and He rules over much territory (Ps. 47:6-7). He is a maker of laws (Ps. 93:5), and one who makes covenants with conquered peoples (Ps. 25). And we clearly see the kingship of God in the psalm of our text. At the end of the day, all Christians are necessarily monarchists. Jesus is Lord, Jesus is King. God is a great warrior. His artillery is fearsome (Ps. 18:12, 14). He parts the heavens and comes down to fight (Ps. 18:9). He trains us how to fight (Ps. 144:1). We do not worship a pacifist God. God is a fortress, a shield, a great protection. He defends His people from harm (Ps. 18:1-2). This also is a military image, albeit a defensive one.

But we find more than just images of God. Here are some images for the wicked, those against whom we must stand. They are snakes (Ps. 58:4), bulls (Ps. 22:12), bees (Ps. 118:12), dogs (Ps. 22:16), and those are just a few of the images. What is being done in the use of imagery and metaphor? You are learning more about what you do not know from what you do know. This means carries over.

What It Means to Sing Psalms

One of the most obvious things about the psalms is how they were born in acutely personal circumstances. Their origin is individual. David wrote Ps. 52 in response to Doeg the Edomite. But when God used His servants to place these psalms in the corporate worship of Israel (and afterwards the Church), the result necessarily was two- fold: one was identification with the plight of the original author—he is our father, and we are with him. The second was application of these words to our own circumstances. Who is your Doeg? The meaning of the psalms, the import of the psalms, was therefore meant to expand. This hymnbook was intended to grow in meaning. What David used to refer to battles a thousand years before Christ (Ps. 68) was rightly appropriated by French Huguenots who made it into their battle hymn. “God shall arise and by His might, put all His enemies to flight.”

Another way of saying this is that the Psalter is alive. It is living and active. Take care not to fall into a destructive liberal/conservative dichotomy. The liberals love living documents—that’s how they kill them. Too often conservatives love preserving dead documents–Scripture is not under glass in a museum behind the velvet rope, with a brass plaque saying it is “alive.” Now we are not denying inerrancy here—that is the baseline minimum—but we are saying something much, much more than that. The Word of God is seed. What does that image mean?

The apostle Paul tells us that Christian churches are called to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). Some Christians overstate the case when they say we may sing nothing but psalms, but that is not our most widespread error. The most widespread error is that of singing songs of our own invention, without reference to God’s model for hymnody. Singing should be one of our central vocations as disciples.

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Surveying the Text: Job

Joe Harby on

Introduction

This book is widely regarded as a masterpiece of human literature, even by non-believers, and yet this high regard is not always accompanied by a high level of understanding. This is a very great book, and like many great things, our natural tendency is to get it down to a more understandable level, where we can piously misunderstand it. But one of the reasons this book shines so brightly is that there is no varnish on it. Job was an important figure. Consider Noah, Daniel and Job—two of the greatest men of righteousness in the Old Testament were not Jews (Ez. 14:14, 20).

The Text

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, Yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, And mine eyes shall behold, and not another; Though my reins be consumed within me” (Job 19:25–27).

Summary of the Text

We do not know who wrote this book, and some scholars have taken our lack of information as a generous invitation to wild speculation. That said, my own view is that the beginnings of this book are found in distant antiquity, and that it took its place in the Wisdom literature around the time of Solomon—with the possibility that Solomon was the author. I believe the events that are the kernel of the poem were historical. Job is not an Israelite, but rather an Edomite, as will be discussed later. No explicit reference to the history of Israel is found in the book.

The book of Job is filled with unanswered questions, and things that human beings simply cannot know. But Job knows at least one thing, and it is stated here in our text—in the midst of his suffering, and in the midst of his wrongful complaint against God, we have this remarkable testimony of faith. This shining testimony sits in the midst of his complaints the same way the godly Job himself sat on the ash heap. Job knows that His redeemer lives, and that his redeemer is going to stand upon the earth at the latter day. Job also affirms his belief in the resurrection of the dead—after his body is destroyed by worms, Job affirms that in his body he is going to see God. Where did that come from?

The Structure of the Book

The first part of the book is the prologue in Heaven, where Satan challenges God with regard to Job’s motives. The result of this is a series of calamities that befall Job. The center of the book is made up of a series of debates that Job has with his three friends, cycling through three times. Then Elihu, a comparatively young man, enters the debate with his rebuke. After this God speaks to Job from the whirlwind, Job repents before God, and his prosperity is restored.

The Actual Situation

The land of Uz is likely part of Edom (Lam. 4:21), to the east of Israel. Eliphaz was a Temanite, and Teman was one of the great chieftains of Edom (Gen. 36:15). Bildad is a descendant of Abraham through Keturah (Gen. 25:2), and they all settled to the east, where Edom was. Zophar lived in the same general area as the other two. Elihu is identified as a Buzite, and Buz was the nephew of Uz.

We know from Scripture that Job was an enormously important man, the greatest of the men of the east (Job 1:3). For all intents and purposes, he was the king (Job 19:9). The Septuagint contains an additional paragraph at the end of the book that identifies Job with Jobab (Gen. 36:33-35), the second king of Edom. This means that the well-being of that society was dependent on Job prospering, since he was the head. So picture Job as the leader of that society, now come to disaster, and his three friends as cabinet members, trying to talk him into taking one for the team. This is not an example of three friends as private busybodies. This is politics. The future wellbeing of their whole society was at stake, and Job refuses to admit fault. He refuses to be the scapegoat.

Prosperity Theology

The problem with Job’s counselors is not that they were wrong, but rather that they were rightwoodenly. The Bible does teach that God is not mocked—there is a correlation between what a man sows and what he reaps (Gal. 6:7). That correlation is real, and this is why the wisdom of Proverbs teaches us to look for such correlations. Do you see a lazy man? Look for poverty (Prov. 24:33-343). Do you see a drunkard? Look for hallucinations (Prov. 23:31-35). Do you see a skirt-chaser? Look for death (Prov. 7:27). But don’t look for these things within thirty minutes (Ps. 37:35), and don’t affirm the consequent (John 9:3). Just because it is a fact that sin leads to hard consequences, it does not follow that hard consequences mean that there had to have been sin.

We do live in a world where there is moral cause and effect, but we are cautioned by this book (as by little else) not to be too tidy about it. At the same time, how does the book end? Job has all his prosperity restored.

My Redeemer Lives

This passage is a great creedal statement. Job knows that it is going to be momentous, and wants what he is about to say to be graven on a rock with a pen of iron. This is important, what he is about to say. And given what he was saying earlier in the chapter, it appears to come from the wild blue random.

The word rendered redeemer here is the word for kinsman. Because Job has a kinsman- redeemer who will stand in the latter day upon the earth, Job is confident that he also is going to stand upon the earth. He is going to do so in his body after his body has been destroyed. Although Job is restored in this life by the end of the book, he has no expectation of that here. He is looking forward to something else, something outside, something beyond. This is the hope of the resurrection—and our great Justification has led the way.

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