“O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!" (NRSV)
These words, here translated in their original sense, give us Job's conviction that the LORD will in fact vindicate him before it is all over. His flesh may indeed disintegrate from the boils, but God will show up eventually. God will arrive before he is dead and tell these "comforters" around him that in fact Job is not being punished for his sins.
This of course does happen. The lesson, which we have to filter through our added understanding of the afterlife, is that God will vindicate the righteous. He does not always do so in this life, to be sure, but He will do so at the resurrection.
This text, however, is also one of those that was particularly susceptible to a Christian reading that read the words against the context of Christianity. Take the translation of the NKJV:
"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God."
Christians have traditionally heard in these words a reference to Christ as Reedemer, as well as to the resurrection. And it is completely correct.
Our Lord Jesus Christ will descend with the voice of the archangel. We who are alive and remain will not precede, but the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be snatched up to meet him in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.
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