Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!

Humanitarian Outreach Ministry

August 29, 2020

JOB 19:25

For I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

1 Peter 1:18-19 1 Peter 1:18-19 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO

REDEEMED is defined as to buy or get something back, pay off a loan, exchange one thing for another or convert into cash.

In Christian theology, redemption is a metaphor for what is achieved through the Atonement; therefore, there is a metaphorical sense in which the death of Jesus pays the price of a ransom, releasing Christians from bondage to sin and death.

Hebrew 9: 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

INTRO: First and foremost, I give honor to God for being here in the land of the living thanking God for another day for this the day that I will rejoice and be glad in it.

For every situation, circumstance, problem, emergency, non-emergency, for every tragedy there is always a rescue effort going on somewhere, well God is always in the rescue business redeeming mankind from a sinful life. From Genesis to Revelation God has been rescuing his people. God is our redeemer who will live forever. God will never die or will be found dead because he is a mighty God (a Spirit) John 4:24, the prince of peace is his son and the Holy Spirit all working together for the salvation of mankind. This morning we will hear testimonials of major Bible characters that will share with us their life experiences during some of the most challenging times of their Live’s.

*Job opens his dialogue with Bildad Job was faced with what seemed like a lifelong dilemma he suffered the lost of his family, possessions, then here comes three friends one on one hand consoled him and on the other hand condemned him. Asking what sin did you commit? Sometimes it does not always take for you to do something wrong for trouble to invade your space.

We see in John 9th vss. 1-3 and as Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth, 2 and his disciples asked him saying, Master who did sin? This man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Trouble is like a bullet it has no name written on it! It will find you at the most inconvenient time in your life. Job begins as Bildad himself had begun in both cases. His last speech had been so offensive that Job did well by asking Bildad “How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?” Bildad had imparted a kind of personal cruelty into his accusations, which Job felt the most so that he is forced to ask, “If indeed I have stumbled, doth not my error remain with myself? I alone suffer for it, and ye do not even sympathize or suffer with me.” Well we can clearly see that his friends were not longsuffering with Job. Not everybody will hang tough with you, when the tough gets going if anything they will cowardly back up and leave you hanging by yourself quite frankly that’s the way it always play out you have to carry your own cross.

His three friends ( Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite) were tearing him (Job) to pieces with their cruel accusations were supposed to be his friends. Bildad's attacked Job in the 18th chapter which was the cruelest of all of them, up until this chapter. Cruel words were spoken by his closest friends It left Job more wounded than if they had thrust a sword through him they added insult to injury.

At the end of the day all Job had been through he says; 25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;

Now we hear from David,

David as most of us know him to be a man after God’s on heart lived through some tough times in and out of battles. 2 Samuel 18:18 2 Samuel 18:18b New King James Version (NKJV)

18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillar for himself, which is in the King’s Valley. For he said, “I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.” He called the pillar after his own name. And to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument. Absalom was killed by two darts in his heart.

2 Samuel 12:7 David was called out by Nathan the prophet and says David you are the man. But through it all David was redeemed by God. David recites,

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Psalm 107:2

In conclusion, when all else fails and things are looking bleak just say, LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO!

Talk about a peanut gallery.

These guys have plenty to say, and Job isn't their biggest fan. He calls them "miserable comforters" (16:3), and he spends almost the whole book arguing with them. So if they're not Job's friends, what are they doing there?

Well, they definitely give us something to think about. All their generalizations about what happens to sinners seem a little too cut and dry. It makes us think, there must be more to it than that…right?

According to Maimonides, a super-scholarly Medieval, guy, each of Job's friends represents a different position on divine providence: "Eliphaz represents the biblical or rabbinic tradition—Job is being punished for his sins; Bildad expresses the view of the Mutazillites—Job is being tested to receive a greater reward; and Zophar presents the view of the Asharites—Job suffers because of God's arbitrary will" (source). Let's take a look.

Eliphaz the Temanite

Eliphaz poses a loaded question to Job: "Who that was innocent ever perished?" (4:7).

At the core of that question is the statement that all humans mess up. None of us are totally innocent. Eliphaz notes that God disciplines even angels. So yeah, humans have no chance of being sinless. (As you can imagine, this is a popular aspect of the book of Job in Christian theology. Check out our section on faith perspectives for more on that.)

With that in mind, Eliphaz interprets Job's musings as whining. When he sees how massive Job's punishment is, he compares that to his handy dandy chart of sin-to-punishment ratios, and concludes that Job must have done something awful (22:4-5).

Here's the thing, though. The same God is both the punisher and the healer in life. That complicates things quite a bit. Eliphaz and Job would agree that God gives and God takes away, but Eliphaz believes that this system corresponds to who does evil and who does good. Job, on the other hand, recognizes that the system is more randomized (and thus more scary, hence 6:20), and this leads him to the idea of making his case to God directly.

Bildad the Shuhite

Bildad feels the same way as Eliphaz, but he has another idea on top of it. What if it was Job's kids or ancestors who had sinned?:

Does God pervert justice?/ Or does the Almighty pervert the right?/ If your children sinned against him,/ he delivered them into the power of their transgression. (8:3-4)

Remember, back in the day you could be punished for what your relatives did. The sins of your children could mess with you, too. That means it would be possible for God to inflict a punishment on Job for something his kids did.

Is Bildad trying to give Job an out? Well, maybe. But he's still pretty harsh. Like Eliphaz, he's putting it on Job to admit fault, suck it up, and start over.

Zophar the Naamathite

Surprise, surprise, Zophar follows the same line as his two friends: God is just, and Job must have done something to offend him. If God's power is absolute, and God's law is that the righteous are rewarded and the wicked are punished, then Job's predicament is his own fault. The end.

Zophar's street cred mostly comes from his gruesome details about how the wicked are, um, hurt by asps: "They will suck the poison of asps; the tongue of a viper will kill them" (20:16). Pure Biblical showmanship at its best—the writer gets a chance to show off his literary bling, and it scares people into believing that the wicked are majorly in for it.