When Naomi returned from the land of Moab, Elimelech, her husband, was dead, and the inheritance greatly involved in debt. According to the law of the tribes, the nearest kinsman of the deceased debtor was obliged to marry the widow, and redeem the inheritance, so as to retain it in the same tribe. The purchaser was sought in the land of Bethlehem. One was found, sufficiently rich, but unwilling. He preferred to take off his own shoes, before the elders, at the gate of the city, rather than stand in the shoes of his deceased brother. It was done, however, by another, of the name of Boaz. But who will stand in the place of sinners, who have forfeited all claim to the heavenly inheritance, and deserve eternal damnation? Let heaven and earth meet in council, and see who is able and willing to “redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him.” Earth replies—“There is no such person here.” All the angels around the throne answer—“There is none in the celestial city.” Search the streets of Jerusalem; go to the garden of Gethsemane; inquire on the hill of Calvary. Who is willing to die for sinners to-day? There is the tree. There is the executioner, with hammer and nails. Who will offer himself a sacrifice there, for the redemption of man? None but Jesus. None but Jesus was able; none but Jesus was willing. “Here am I,” said he; “if ye seek me, let these go their way.” And without the gates of Jerusalem, he honored the law, spoiled principalities, and redeemed his people. He suffered the curse in the sinner’s stead, and swallowed up all its plagues in himself. As your representative, he endured all the agony and ignominy you justly deserved. [132] And when you by faith lay hold of his atonement, you shall be made the righteousness of God in him—shall be dealt with, not according to your deserts, but according to his merit and his mercy. He was humbled that you might be exalted, impoverished that you might be enriched, bound that you might be released, punished that you might be spared, condemned that you might be acquitted, wounded that you might be healed, cursed that you might be blessed, and slain that you might live for ever.
III. Job’s faith anticipated a Living Redeemer. “I know that my Redeemer liveth”—is the Living One—he that has life, underived and independent, in himself—the agent and source of all life in the universe, who will at last quicken the dead.
The first woman was called Eve—that is, Life—because she was the mother of all living—the mother of him who is the life of the world. This was fulfilled four thousand years afterward in one of her daughters, a virgin, who brought forth a son, whose name is Jesus, Emmanuel, the Living God, the true God, and eternal Life. He is the Lord of life, and the life of all that believe. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” With the flame of one candle you may light many others, and the light of all is the same. Christ is the source whence all his people derive their light, the great central luminary of his church. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
When the prophet stood in the valley of dry bones and prophesied, there was a wonderful agitation, and the bones came together, and formed themselves into skeletons, and sinews and flesh covered them, and each form was enclosed with a skin; but they were still dead, and it was not till the breath of God blew upon them, and kindled the flame of life within them, that they “stood up an exceeding great army.” So Christ is the resurrection and life alike of the soul and of the body. “He that believeth on him, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” He is the bread and the water of life. “He that cometh unto him, shall never hunger; and he that believeth on him, shall never thirst.” “He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son, hath not life.” “We are dead; and our life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.”
IV. The Living Redeemer of Job was to appear in this world. “He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”
A woman who is travelling, and has no money to bear her expenses, obtains credit on her husband’s account, who afterward passes that way, and discharges the obligation. So ancient saints went home to glory on credit: and in the fulness of time, Christ came and paid their debt; not by installments, but all at once; and the virtue of his own offering went up to the gate of Eden, and down to the end of the world. As on both sides of the altar of burnt-offering, were pipes, conveying the blood into the basins, till they were full; so the great altar on Calvary communicates with past generations, and generations yet to come; and the saving merit of the one sacrifice runs back to Abel and to Adam, and forward to the last believer.
Whom do I see in the garden yonder, in such agony of soul, prostrate in prayer, and sweating great drops of blood? Job’s Living Redeemer. Why is his heart thus wrung with anguish? Is there a dark register of sins in his conscience, like the fiery handwriting of God upon the wall? No, he has not a single crime to confess. He has done no iniquity, neither is guile found in his mouth. Why then does he suffer? He is bearing our griefs, carrying our sorrows, and receiving the chastisement of our peace. Behold him on the mountain, “wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.” “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” “Who shall declare his generation?” Who shall give us his pedigree, his history, his character? Will none of the angels of heaven make the air of Calvary ring with the sufferer’s name? Behold! the darkened sun and quaking earth proclaim him God! Hark! he speaks—“I am the true God, and eternal life. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning of the Creator’s way, or ever the earth was. When there was no depths, nor fountains of water; before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he set a compass upon the deep; when he established the clouds above; when he strengthened the foundations of the deep; when he gave the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment; when he established the foundations of the earth; then I was by him, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men; and therefore I am here, hanging on the cross to-day!”
V. Job’s Living Redeemer was to deliver him from the power of death.
Job anticipated the coming of “the last enemy,” who should give his flesh to be food for worms. The Sabeans had taken away the oxen and the asses, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword. The fire had fallen from heaven, and burnt up the sheep and the shepherds. The Chaldeans had robbed him of his camels, and murdered his domestics. The whirlwind had killed his sons and his daughters in the house of their feasting. His body was covered with putrid ulcers, from head to foot. His best friends turned against him, and even his wife tempted him to “curse God and die.” But amid all his calamities, he saw another enemy, ready to assail his body, and drag it away to the tomb, and reduce it to dust and ashes. At the same time, his faith beheld the Messiah swallowing up death in victory. He saw the Son of Mary in the house of Jairus, where the lion had just slain his victim; and on the street of Nain, where he was taking the prey to his den; and at the grave in Bethany, where he was banqueting with worms in the joy of victory. Death could not stand before the Prince of Life. The spoiler yielded up his spoil. Christ sailed on the open channel like a man of war, delivering the hapless captives of the great pirate Death, to the astonishment and joy of the people, from Samaria to the borders of Tyre and Sidon. But on a certain day, ever to be remembered, as he drew near the ramparts of Sinai, all its batteries were opened upon him. He stood in the fire all night, and fought till he sweat great drops of blood. He threw himself between his friends and the fort, and sustained the shock of its heaviest artillery, which played upon him without intermission, especially the old cannon of Eden—“Dying thou shalt die”—until three o’clock in the afternoon of the next day, when he received a shot in the heart, and, crying, “It is finished!” gave up the ghost. The whole creation trembled when he fell, and was swallowed up in the horrible abyss. But on the morning of the third day, the earth was seized with new spasms, and he that was dead came forth to be the life of his people; and the cable of faith, the anchor of hope, and the sails of love, ascended with him from the deep, never to go down again. He is alive for evermore, and has the keys of hell and of death.
VI. Job speaks of the period of Messiah’s advent, under the term of “the latter day.” This may refer, either to the end of the Jewish dispensation, or to the end of the world.