Preview of Job #1

By Oscar M. Baker

Over in Job 16:21, Job gives his heart's desire for a savior or a mediator. And so he says these words, "O that one (someone) might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor! or for a friend, if you want to get the Hebrew on that)." Now he's wanting somebody, as a lawyer, an advocate, a mediator to plead his case with God. Isn't that anticipating the great work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Oh how Job must have been looking down through the ages, and seeing what was necessary. And later on he sees even what is coming.

Then going on into chapter 19 we find Job again speaking, and he says something there that I think is very sublime. In 19:23 he says, "O that my words were now written!" (Now remember that Job existed way back before the time of Moses. And it is quite likely that Moses got a hold of this story when he was in the land of Midian, and that Moses wrote the prologue and the epilogue to it. Job is possibly the oldest writing that we have - that's existing in the world today.) So here are some words that sound right up to date when he says, "O that my words were now written!" Oh yes, the critics say that men didn't write in that time - that that was before men learned to write. Well, we have learned better than that now, too. The critics have been confounded. And Job knows about books because he says, "oh that they were printed in a book!" And then he goes on further to state, "That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!" In other words, he's wishing that he might take these words and engrave them in a great cliff in a rock - dig holes in the rock and then fill them with lead that they might stand forever. And here is his testimony (v. 25), "FOR I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH, AND THAT HE SHALL STAND AT THE LATTER DAY UPON THE EARTH." What a great revelation!

So here it is, back in the oldest book that we have today, that Job is giving this testimony, and he would like to have it written in a book - he would like to have it written in the rocks. SOME RICH THINGS IN THIS BOOK OF JOB!

---"Gems from Job" to be continued.
[Excerpts taken from Truth For Today tape, "Preview of Job". This tape was recorded in the sixties, as were a number of other Bible study tapes, including radio tapes. It wasn't until the mid-seventies that Mr. Baker started to record each Tuesday night Bible class.]