The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 315

might beoome m&11.'B Advooate againBt himaelf (God}; the fifth, ihe preaent pueage, !leems to gather a.11 the preceding up into one triumphant shout of faith in a. living, perBOnal, divinely human Golil, or Redeemer, who should appear in the end of time to vindicate and save Job, and,all who, like him, should h~ve died in the faith, by a bodily resuffl!CtiOll from the grave. Analyr.ed, Job's proposed in10ription should oontain a declaration of the following sublime truths. 1. The •iBtenCB of a peraonal B«J.ee,,,a-. The goiil, in the Mosaic code, was the next of kin, whoae duty it was to redeem a captive or enslaved relative (Gen. xiv. U--16}; to buy back hia sold or otherwise alienated inheritance (Lev. xxv. 26, 26}; to avenge the death of a murdered kinsman (Numb. xxxv. 12); to marry his childleas widow (Deut. xxv. 6). Obviouely, the office of the goel, or vindicator, existed in pre-Mosaic times, and was doubtlese derived from primeval tradition. It was in accordance with the natural instinots of humanity, and was probably sanctioned by God, both at the first and under the Mosaic institutions, to strengthen the ties of natural affection among mankind, and also, perhaps chiefly, to suggest the hope and foreshadow the advent of the already promised Kinsman Avenger (Gen. iii. 15). Hence Jehovah, the Deliverer of Israel from Egyptian bondage, wu styled their Goel (Ps. :tlx. 14; lu:viii. 35; Isa. xii 14; xliii. 14). ·Hence the heavenly Witness, to whom Job looked for deliverance from his troubles, vindica- tion of his aspersed character, emancipation from the power of the grave, and protection against his unseen adversary, whether God or Satan, was styled by him his Goel. And so is Christ the believer's Goel, who redeems him from guilt and condemnation (Rom. iiL 24; Ga.I. iii. 13; iv. 6; Eph. i. 7 ; Titus ii. U), delivers him from the fear of death (Heh. ii. 14, 15; Rom. viii. 23), and shields him from the wrath to come (1 Thess. i. 10). Nay, of Christ, Job's Redeemer was a type in respect of being (1) a living Redeemer, i.e. a Redeemer who did not require to come into existence, but even then was, and would continue to be, even though Job himself should disappear amid the shadows of the tomb; (2) a Divine Redeemer, being called here expressly" God" (ver. 26), as indeed Job's language throughout, in the above-cited passages, assumes; and (3) a human Redeemer, since he was not only to be a Daysman (ob. ix. 33), but to appear or stand upon the earth (ver. 25), and be visible to the eye of flesh ;-,.all of which characteristics belong by pr-minenoe to him who, while t<b.e Son of man (John i. 61; Heh. ii 14), was yet" the true God and the Eternal Life" (1 John v ..20), "in whom was Life" (John i. 3), and who still claims to be "the First and the Last and the Living One," who" was dead," but is now" alive again for evermore" (Rev. i. 18). 2. Th£ advent of this heavenly Redeemer to the earth. (1) Job's language points unmistakably to a visible manifestation of this Divine-human Goel: "He shall stand," or "rise up," i.e. to vindicate the cause of his people, the verb being that usually employed to designate the standing forth of a witness (Deut. xix. 15 ; Ps. xxvii. 12), or the rising up of a helper ar deliverer (Ps. xii. 6; xciv. 16; Isa. xxxiii. 10). (2) '£he 11eene of this interposition is said to be "on the earth;" literally, "upon the dust," meaning either of the ground or of the grave. As we cannot think Job believed him- self to be the only individul\l in whose behalf the conquering Goel would arise, it is DOt to be supposed that he expected the apparition would take place exactly over hie own particular tomb. Hence it is immaterial whether we supply "grave" or "ground." The phra.se seems to point to a terrestrial appearance. (3) 'l'he time of this epiphany is declared to be "in the latter days," The word means "the last one;" and the sense of the clause is that "he," the Goel, " shall ariBe upon the earth as the last one," w; the great Survivor who stands forth when the human family baa run its course, and pronounces the finally decisive word upon all time's controversies, Or, the w_ord ~e.y be taken adverbially, as signifying "at last," at length, at some future date (m which Bense some propose to read the clause, " upon the dust," i.e. over my dUBt, when I am dead,, and as intimating Job's faith that in the last age (of. the New Testament phrases, "the ends-0f the world" (1 Cor. L 11), "the last time" (1 John ii. 18), for the whole period of the gospel dispensation) this Goel, or Kinsman Redeemer, should appear for the salvation of his people. Job's la.oguage will thus include a reference to both the first and second advents of Christ, which, rightly viewed, are not disconnected events, but rather two related acts or scenes, the first and the laat, in 0120 great mani- festation or epiphany of God's eternal Soo for the redemption of a lost world. 3. Tl.e IIMII, return to lffl ombotli«i tZi,tfflce on the wrth bui<u hit Bedeomer, The OH, XIX. 1-29.] THE BOOK OF JOB.