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House Divided Chapter Seven The Resurrection of the Dead Amillennialist Rober B. Strimple Vs. Full Preterist David A. Green Part 12 Job 19:25-27

House Divided

Bridging the Gap in Reformed Eschatology A Preterist Response to

When Shall These Things Be?

Chapter Seven

The Resurrection of the Dead

 

Part 12 Job 19:25-27

 

David A. Green

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Strimple Argument #12: Job 19:25-27 says that Job himself, with

his own “eyes” and in his own “skin,” would “see God.” This is an allusion

to a physical resurrection of the dead. Job 14:13-17 confirms this

interpretation. In that passage it says that if Job’s vindication were to

come after his death, God would hide him in the grave until the time set

for Job’s “renewal,” and that God would then “long for the creature [His]

hands have made” (294-295).

 

Answer:

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at

the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms

destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Whom I shall

see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another;

though my reins be consumed within me. (Job 19:25-27)

 

As Strimple admits, the phrase “from my flesh,” or “in my flesh,” in

Job 19:26 can be translated “without my flesh” (i.e., outside of my flesh).

Job could have been saying that he expected to be vindicated at a nonfleshly

resurrection (“without my flesh”) on the Last Day. Some preterists

take this interpretation.

 

But even if we translate the phrase to read, “from my flesh” (i.e.,

from the vantage point of my flesh), this could be taken to mean that Job

expected to see God within his own lifetime, while still in his flesh. And,

as a matter of fact, that is exactly what happened.

 

After Job’s time of tribulation and anguish, his Redeemer at last

arose on the dust and answered Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1).

After God’s “archers”/“troops” (i.e., Job’s accusers) surrounded and “devoured”

Job, and after Job was filled up with the afflictions of his flesh,

he was redeemed from his sufferings. He was vindicated as “a perfect

and upright man” and his enemies were judged (cf. Job 19:29 and 42:7-

9). Thus Job, with his own eyes, and from his flesh, saw God:

 

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye

has seen You. (Job 42:5)

 

Regarding Job 14:13-17:

 

O that You would hide me in Sheol, that You would keep me secret,

until Your wrath be past, that You would appoint me a set

time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All

the days of my appointed time [literally, “warfare”] will I wait,

till my change come [or, “until my exchanging or replacement

come”]. You shall call, and I will answer You. You will have a

desire to the work of Your hands. (Job 14:13-15)

 

If Job was prophesying concerning the resurrection of the dead in

this passage, then we must say that Job was triumphing in the idea that

his wretched and miserable condition (his “warfare”) would continue

for hundreds or even thousands of additional years while in Sheol (Job

14:14), and that only at the end of human history would God’s “wrath

(Job 14:13) against him pass, and that, only then, would Job be relieved

from his warfare as a battle-wearied soldier is replaced by another

(“changed”) (cf. Job 10:17; 14:14-15).

 

According to the logical implications of Strimple’s interpretation of

the above scripture, Job remains hidden in Sheol to this very day and

God remains angry with him to this very day. At the same time, according

to the anti-premillennial Strimple, New Testament saints who have

died are in the face-to-face presence of Christ Himself and are reigning

with Him today. Yet Strimple tells us that we cannot establish a contrast

between the afterlife of Old Testament saints, such as Job, and that of

New Testament saints (293).

 

Either God remained/remains angry with Job for hundreds or thousands

of years after Job’s death, or Job was not speaking of a vindication

at the resurrection of the dead. As the context leads us to believe, what

Job desired was vindication instead of death. Instead of resigning himself

to dying, stricken of God, Job yearned by faith for vindication and

redemption in his own lifetime. He hoped that God would not crush

him as an enemy, but would instead relent and restore him to Himself

(Job 14:14b, 15). As we know, Job’s hope was not deferred, as per futurism

(Prov. 13:12). Instead, it was fulfilled and Job was delivered and

vindicated in his own lifetime. “So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job

more than his beginning” (Job 42:12).