John Walton opens Lecture 15 on Job by noting Job 19:25 is one of the most familiar verses in the book of Job. The NIV (the ESV is similar) says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” This verse has inspired musicians from Handel to Nicole C. Mullen. It has been traditionally understood by Christians including Clement of Rome, Origen and Augustine to refer to the resurrection and Christ. In “Impatient Job,” James Zink observed that most commentators see in Job 19:25-27, “the height of trust in the justice of God and a great new insight into his redemptive nature.” And yet Walton provocatively asked, “So, how should we interpret this verse?”
Walton said we should remember that Hebrew doesn’t have capital letters, meaning that the capitalizing “Redeemer” in the NIV, ESV and other translations for Job 19:25 is interpretation. He goes on to say it needs to be understood in relationship to the Job’s many previous references to an advocate related to his legal case. “He’s looking for someone to represent him before God; someone who will take his case,” who will advocate for him. There are a number of words used by Job to refer to this position, but they all focus on the same kind of role as someone who will be his advocate before God. “Now we have to ask the question, ‘What sort of advocate does Job seek and who does he expect to fill that role?’”
The word translated as redeemer here in Job 19:25 is goʾel. Job desires an advocate or mediator to come to his aid. He wants a goʾel (redeemer) to demonstrate that he is innocent. He is convinced he has not done anything that deserves the treatment he has received. “He’s not looking for someone to save him from offenses;” that’s not what a goʾel does. “He wants it on record, that he did nothing to deserve his suffering.”
Walton observed this was not the redeemer role of Jesus. He added that no New Testament writer drew an association between Jesus and Job 19. In the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, R. Laird Harris said goʾel more accurately referred to the work of God “who as a friend and kinsman through faith will ultimately redeem Job from the dust of death.” If the author of Job intended to refer to the coming of Christ in his work of atonement, “This would be expressed more characteristically by the Hebrew word pādâ,” instead of goʾel in 19:25. Walton said of Job:
He feels like a wrong has been done to him. A goʾel does not work on behalf to right a wrong the person has committed. That’s what Jesus did, but that’s really not the role we find of a goʾel here. Job wants an advocate here, a goʾel and redeemer, who will demonstrate that he is innocent. He’s not looking for someone to save him from the offense he’s committed. He’s persuaded he has not committed anything that deserves the treatment he has gotten. He’s not looking for someone to save him from offenses.
Walton thought Job expects his goʾel to arrive and testify at his grave, in other words, after his death (19:26). He said there are three major theories for understanding when the goʾel will appear in relation to his death. The one traditionally seen in church history by Clement, Origen, Jerome and Luther was that God will raise him up from the grave. But this contradicts Job’s earlier affirmations of the permanency of the grave (See Job 14). Furthermore, according to Walton, resurrection was not part of Israelite doctrine throughout most of the Old Testament.
Others think Job expects a “posthumous vindication.” After he’s gone, somehow Job will be vindicated. But Walton tends to think Job believes there will be a last-minute reprieve. God will intervene and vindicate him before he dies. Where Job said: “after my skin has been destroyed” in verse 19:26, he was referring to scraping off his skin (Job 2:8), as he scraped himself with a potsherd. “Yet in my flesh I shall see God.”
Walton said this means Job believed he would be restored to God’s favor. Even if he scraped away all his skin (a hyperbole), “He will see God’s restoration in the flesh” before he dies. “Job has no hope of heaven. Seeing God refers to being restored to favor, and that he’ll no longer be a stranger, an outsider, out of favor.” He than gave this expanded paraphrase of Job 19:25-26:
I firmly believe that there is someone (perhaps from the divine council), somewhere, who will come and testify on my behalf right here on my dung heap at the end of all this. Despite my peeling skin, I expect to have enough left to come before God in my own flesh. I will be restored to his favor and no longer be treated as a stranger. This is my deepest desire!” (prosperity has nothing to do with it).
Walton said this was a significant affirmation on Job’s part. And you miss it entirely when you try to make Jesus the redeemer. “Jesus is our Redeemer, but he’s not the kind of redeemer Job is looking for here.” He wasn’t looking for someone who would take the punishment for his offenses and justify him. He was looking for vindication, not justification—which was not something Jesus provided. “Job is expecting someone to play a role that is the polar opposite of that which is played by Jesus.”
Viewing Jesus as the goʾel in Job is a distorting factor in the interpretation of the book and runs against the grain of Job’s hope and desire. Jesus is not the answer to the problems posed in the book of Job; though he is the answer to the larger problem of sin and the brokenness of the world. The death and resurrection of Jesus mediate for our sin, but do not provide the answer for why there is suffering in the world or how we should think about God when life goes wrong. That’s what the book of Job does.