God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. That's what you just heard in Portuguese from our friend Vinny. What a voice. Vinny brings this podcast and a host of Desiring God books and resources to the people of Brazil. You'll hear more about his work in just a moment.

But first, today's question comes to us from a podcast host by the name of Tony. From me. I've got a question, Pastor John, that's been on my mind and it's something I'm trying to figure out. It's about one of the most remarkable statements in the Bible when it comes to this topic about God's sovereign design and our suffering.

Job 13, 15 is the text I'm thinking about. Job says, "Though he slay me, I will hope in him." Though he slay me, I will hope in him. A remarkable line made famous in more recent times by Shane and Shane in their incredible and powerful song by that title, "Though You Slay Me." Years back, Desiring God partnered with them to record a new edition of the music video that featured a sermon clip of yours, a remix that we published in ABJ 639.

The music video version of that song now has a whopping nine million views on YouTube and counting. That's incredible. Huge response. So here's my question about Job 13, 15. I know you've made passing mentions over the years to this phrase, "Though he slay me," but I see only one explicit mention of the text in your entire ministry corpus from one of your earliest sermons, preached seven and a half years before you even became a pastor, a sermon titled "Your Calamity" in 1973, preached on New Year's Eve 1972 in Greenville, South Carolina.

As we approach another new year and the 50th anniversary of that sermon, I see that you've never mentioned the text again in a sermon, and you've never tweeted the line either, a text that just seems to be primed for short-form context. In mid-November, when your annual Bible reading trek takes you through Job 13, you tweeted a couple other verses from the chapter, like verses 5 and 24, but never Job 13, 15.

The meaning of the text is debated. So where do you land now? Are you certain or uncertain of its meaning? And with such a text that has become synonymous with Desiring God, why the silence? Wow, Tony with a thorough question today. I'm laughing here, Tony, because you know too much.

I can't believe that everything I've ever said is searchable. I'm going to be caught into a thousand contradictions one of these days. Well, see, you're still with us, so now we can present them to you. Yeah, that's right. The first thing to say is that I love the truth, and it is the truth spoken from God's own mouth that God in His absolute ownership and sovereignty over all life appoints the time and the kind of every death of every person on this planet, and this fact of God's right to give and to take life is not a reason to reject Him, but a reason to hope in Him.

I love that truth. Which means that I love the fact that every Christian owned by the Creator, doubly owned by the Redeemer, can say and should say, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him." Yes, we can say that. We should say that. That is the ESV of Job 13.15, virtually the same as the NIV, virtually the same as NASB, King James Version.

If the declaration that God slays, that is, takes the life of His own precious children—and I don't doubt that Job was a precious blood-bought child of God, the blood of Jesus going back over the Old Testament and covering all the saints' sins, as it says in Romans 3.25—I don't doubt that—if that declaration that God takes the life of His people, and while He does it, we ought to keep hoping in Him, trusting in Him, loving Him, treasuring Him, if that declaration seems foreign to us or unbiblical to us or contrary to God's nature, then we have not been paying attention to our Bibles or thinking rightly about what we are reading, including the book of Job.

In the very first chapter of Job, God takes the life, takes the life—if you'd use the word "kills"—all ten of Job's children. Job saw this. Job saw this, and he confessed that fact, tore his clothes, shaved his head, fell on the ground, and said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." That's Job 121, a breathtaking statement of worship. "The Lord has taken my ten children away. Blessed be His name." Sometimes people say, "Yeah, but Job was a bad theologian at that point." No, the inspired writer comments in the next verse that Job did not sin with his lips when he said that, as if he knew what people would think when they read it.

It was true, godly worship. Then in Job 12.10, he said, "In God's hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." God owns all things. He has absolute rights over all living things. He gives, he takes, when and how he decides in his infinite wisdom.

This is part of what it means to be God, the creator and sustainer and governor of all things. Deuteronomy 32.39 says, "See now," this is God talking, "See now that I, even I am He, and there is no God besides me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal.

There is none that can deliver out of my hand." Now, Tony, you know that I wrote a book on Providence recently. 50 pages, 5-0, 50 pages of that book are devoted to this one single biblical reality, section 5, called "Providence over Life and Death." Dozens and dozens of texts say this, like James 4.15, "Don't presume upon tomorrow.

Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live,' and do this or that." If the Lord wills. John Piper will live to the end of this podcast. If the Lord does not will it, then this microphone goes silent and you're going to wonder what happened. Another minute of life, and it's the Lord's will or not.

If he wills, we live. If he doesn't will it, we die. So whether the text of Job 13.15 has become synonymous with desiring God, the reality has, and I am glad because it is true, and it is glorious. I mean, really, whom would you like to be in charge of your martyrdom or your cancer?

Satan? You want Satan to be in charge of your cancer? You want fate to be in charge of your cancer? Meaningless, mindless, purposeless forces of nature? It is a glorious thing that not a single sparrow falls from the sky apart from our Father in heaven, and how much more certainly does he govern the death of his precious children.

Even the hairs of our head are all numbered. "Fear not," Jesus says, "you are of more value than many sparrows." That's Matthew 10, 28 to 31. So it is our joy at desiring God to say, "Though my flesh and my heart may fail, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73.

We love to say, "To live is Christ and to die is gain," Philippians 1. We love to say, "Apart from the body, at home with the Lord," 2 Corinthians 5. We love to say, "The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life, better than being kept alive." So the sentence, "Though he slay me, yet I will trust him," is a beautiful expression of reality and biblical faith.

God does take the life of his people, and they have every reason to keep on hoping in him not in spite of that fact, but because of that fact, that he is the all-wise, all-loving, purposeful God doing nothing from any mistake or any lack of wisdom or any lack of love.

Satan doesn't have the final power over death. Disease doesn't have the final power over death. Natural disasters don't have the final power over death. Life and death are in the hand of God, finally, and he is our Father and our Redeemer. By the blood of his Son, he reached back, covered all of our sins, and by the resurrection of his Son, he has conquered death.

The reason, Tony, that I have not made Job 13.15, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him," the touchstone of my exaltation in this glorious truth of God's sovereignty and our hope is that I knew that if I put too many eggs in that textual basket, someone could come along and make a plausible case that I'm building on sand, because the RSV, for example, translates the verse like this, "Behold, he will slay me, I have no hope," which sounds like the very opposite of other translations, "Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him." The problem is there is a real textual, Hebrew textual problem in this verse.

There are two Hebrew variants pronounced exactly alike, namely lo. One variant has the Lamed Holim aleph and means "no," and the other variant has Lamed Holim vav and means "to him" or "in him." So the readings are "I have hope in him" or "I have no hope," and I have not been able to have certainty in my mind as I've worked and worked over the years on the Hebrew which one the author intended.

If the correct variant is "I have no hope," it doesn't have to mean, I don't think it would mean, "I have no hope beyond grave," because that would contradict Job 19.26, "After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God." Job I do believe was granted insight into eternal life.

All it would mean is, "If God slays me now, my hope for vindication on the earth is over. My hope for restored fortunes is over. It's gone. Life here is over. Not going to have a daughter named Jemima. It's over." And that's true. That would have been true, and it would not have been hopeless.

Just no hope for vindication here and now. Now, conclusion. I think the traditional translation, "Though he slay me, I will hope in him," is the right one. If you put a gun to my head and said, "You got to vote," I'm voting for the traditional translation. I'm glad the ESV translates it that way.

I know - now, I don't just think - but I know that it expresses biblical truth. The traditional translation expresses biblical truth. But I have chosen over the years to defend and exalt in that glorious biblical truth from dozens of other passages where I know the rug won't be pulled out from under my exegetical feet.

Yeah, I had a sense something was up. Thank you, Pastor John, for the clarity on Job 15.13. Well, as you heard at the beginning of this episode, we have a team of friends laboring to bring Desiring God resources to non-English speakers, and that includes Vinny, who serves the people of Brazil.

You heard his voice at the beginning of this episode, but we asked him for an update on his work. Here's what he said. My name is Vinny. I work as an editorial manager at Fiel Ministries in Brazil. We have 104 articles per year. We have 52 short clips, videos, and 52 "Ask Pastor John" dubbed in Portuguese every year.

On top of that, the publishing have been doing Piper's book for a long, long time. I believe we have around 15 to 20 Piper's books. I know many pastors that they're not trying to emulate Piper, but they've been so enriched with Piper's message that when you hear them, you can hear echoes of Piper.

I see that in my preaching sometimes. When we entered the pandemic, and coronavirus and Christ was such a helpful content, many, many people wrote letters when they were losing relatives in the midst of depression, panic, anxiety. And then recently we published Good News of Great Joy, devotionals for Christmas season, and people were rejoicing in that.

We were giving the book for free. You know, Desiring God produces a content that is just timely. You know, how it speaks the perfect timing for coronavirus and Christ, the perfect timing for Good News of Great Joy. I feel that many people kind of had their relationship with God just transformed because of thinking God as our source of our joy.

I want to express my thankfulness for each one of you that has been investing in Desiring God, because as a partner of Desiring God here in Brazil, I see many of the results of that content being produced there and being translated here. And to have those things dubbed to Portuguese, which usually is going to take a lot of effort and a lot of resources, and because of your donation, people in Brazil can savor that in their own local language so they can be equipped to live the Christian life in a way that is both Christ-honoring and biblical.

Amazing testimony. My wife and I were honored to meet and spend time with Vinny and his wife in Brazil in June, and they inspire us in gospel ministry. An amazing couple. I wish you all could meet them personally. If you're listening right now and you've already invested in Desiring God, you are impacting Vinny's life right now by helping to make his gospel labors possible.

All that you just heard is because of you and what you gave in 2022. So thank you. And if you're not yet a partner with us and you want to join in what's happening through Desiring God in the English-speaking world and how that work overflows into Vinny's work to reach the Portuguese-speaking world in Brazil, join us today.

Become a monthly ministry partner. Much of our financial support comes from friends of ours who give on average $30 a month to support all of our work. To set up monthly giving, go to give.desiringgod.org. That's give.desiringgod.org. I'll see you on Wednesday. you you you