Horatio Spafford wrote the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul after he lost four children in a shipwreck, echoing the words of Job about God.
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Scripture passage: "Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And 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. How my heart yearns within me!” Job 19:23-27
It is well with my soul
In 1873, Horatio Spafford, a Christian lawyer from Chicago placed his wife and four children on the luxury liner Ville de Havre sailing from New York to France. Spafford expected to join them in about three or four weeks after finishing some business. But except for his wife, he never saw them again. The ship was suddenly struck by another vessel, the Lochern, and sank with the loss of nearly all on board. Mrs. Spafford became unconscious and awoke later to find that she had been rescued by sailors from the Lochern. But her four children were gone.
Spafford left the next day for England to be with his wife. When his ship came to the place where the Ville de Havre was rammed and sunk -- where his four precious children were lost to him in this world -- he leaned upon the rail and thought these words that he later wrote into a hymn:
"When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul."
Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him
Spafford said: "I am glad to be able to trust my lord when it costs me something." In these words of Spafford echoes the words of Job about God even as he sat in his pain on the dung heap – “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.” Job 13:15
The art of printing did not exist in Job’s time, nor for nearly two thousand years after. It was a discovery of the fifteenth century of the Christian era. Job considered the words which he was about to utter as of great and unusually solemn moment, and therefore wishes them to be recorded in every possible way. Job spoke quite literally of how his family and friends had turned against him. In any society nothing hurts more than rejection by one's family and friends, but what could be worse in a patriarchal society than to have children ridicule the patriarch?
He knew he was innocent and sought above all else to be vindicated. His compassionless counselors had reiterated their impersonal theology that declared him guilty. He felt that God was angry with him and had become the enemy who attacked and crushed him. He perceived that he was alone in a cruel and amoral world. There was no one left who understood, no one to plead his cause or bear witness to his innocence.
Deserted by loved ones, Job needed radical friendship, not theological banter. Job's appeal failed. His counselors had deserted him. Believing that he was at the point of death, Job felt he had nothing to lose by speaking out. With no hope left of proving his righteousness, Job looked to the future, leaving his case with posterity.
Slandered by his friends and with death imminent, Job looked to the future where his Defender waited. Job saw himself as a murder victim. He depended on his Redeemer to testify for him but also to set the books straight. God, who had become his enemy, would become his friend.
God, the friend of the innocent
He believed in God's power to raise the dead and had a desire and hope that God would set a time and raise him and then he would see God with his own eyes. Job expected to see God. Job was convinced that even if he died, he would live again to witness his vindication.
As an innocent sufferer, he finally realized that God himself would appear to him, whom he would see with his own eyes; then Job would learn that his God was not alienated or unconcerned but was his friend.
Believing in God’s righteousness
For the sake of righteousness, justice, and truth, and to vindicate the ways of God with man, it was necessary that Job’s innocence should be cleared; that the false judgments of his friends should be corrected; and that, as Job was now reduced to a state of the lowest distress, it was worthy the kindness of God to give him some direct intimation that his sufferings should have a happy termination. The future prosperity of Job points to the future redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ, and the general resurrection of the human race.
Job has lost everything that he has treasured--his family, his farm, his wealth, and his health. He has only one thing left -- his certainty that he is innocent. He has done nothing to deserve this. He has suffered far more than he could ever have deserved. It was not fair. It was not right.
Job was a prosperous man. He had a large and happy family whom he loved. He was also a good man. In fact, in all the earth there was none better. That is why Satan sought permission from God to test Job's faith. Satan not only takes away Job's children and possessions. But when this fails to make Job curse God, he covers Job from head to toe with a loathsome and painful skin disease. Job's condition is so miserable that his wife urges him to curse God and die. But he rebukes her and accepts his condition as coming from God -- whom he refuses to criticize. Job's friends are no more help than his wife. Soon he is left alone. Although Job can see no justice in his present situation, he believes in God's ultimate righteousness.
Our Redeemer does live
Job sees that there is a Redeemer. He sees God's love and justice beyond his present conditions. "And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God."
If Satan was the public prosecutor trying Job's faith, then there must be a public defender to plead Job's case. If God is a holy judge -- far removed from our sinful condition, then there must be a mediator to bridge the chasm between God’s throne and human need. Job knows that his Redeemer lives and that this Redeemer will someday stand upon the earth. Our redeemer does live and he has stood upon the earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Not one of us knows what the future holds. But we do know who holds the future. So we can say, whatever comes, "it is well with my soul because my Redeemer lives."
Selie Visa