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his servant hidden in Sheol and restore him to live.” He ponders God setting a time, or a mark,
that would remind God of Job in Sheol 14:13).

In perhaps the greatest expression of his faith, Job insists with earnestness that he does have a
mediator. He calls this mediator “Redeemer (19:25).” The Hebrew word is distinctive. In other
contexts, it refers to a near relative “to do the part of a kinsman and thus to redeem his kin from
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difficulty and death.” The “kinsman-redeemer” has responsibility to pay the debts of a relative.
(Even if coming later in God’s revelation, see the story of Ruth, especially the description in 4:1-
12.) A kinsman-redeemer might also avenge the death of a relative whether accidental or
premeditated. (See the legislation on cities of refuge in Numbers 35). Such a person in his
culture was the best mediator available, so Job transferred the concept to God. Somehow God
would be his kinsman redeemer with God.

In his struggle to understand, Job expresses faith in just such a Redeemer for himself. Some
English translations do not capitalize “redeemer,” yet, as we have seen, Job understands the
helplessness of a human before God. His Redeemer must be on God’s level. “After my skin has
been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and
not another (19:26-27a).” The intensity of his spiritual struggle is overwhelming. “How my heart
yearns within me (19:27b)!”

Job’s faith also includes total confidence in the
wisdom of God. In an extended metaphor, he
compares the search for wisdom to man’s search for
gold and copper and other precious metals. He
describes mining efforts, including taking light into
the darkness, cutting shafts into the earth, and
assaulting the rocks as they search for treasures.
They are successful (28:1-11).

Figure 15: Argo gold mine In contrast, all the effort of humans cannot find
wisdom. Wisdom is not on the land or in the sea. It
cannot be bought with all of that gold mined at such expense of human effort. In fact, gold and
coral and jasper and rubies and topaz are not as valuable as wisdom. Wisdom is hidden,
unreachable by Death and Destruction (28:20-22).

God alone is the source of wisdom. He used wisdom to create the world and to keep it running
(28:25), “He made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm (28:26).” The only way a
person can know and make use of wisdom is to fear God. No amount of searching, no amount of
worshiping other gods, no amount of observing the way the world works can ever discover one
bit of wisdom. Fearing God and shunning evil is the beginning (28:28). It is apparent that Job has

36 John E. Hartley, The Book of Job (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 236.
37 R. Laird Harris, ed. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testaments (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute,
1980), s. v. “lag“ by R. Laird Harris.
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