I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.”
Job 19:25-26 Beloved, the testimony expressed by our spiritual brother Job, lets us know that we can be assured that Jesus, our Redeemer lives. As our dead is led out into the light for the last time we often hear these words: “I know that my Redeemer lives.” Our lives are lived in the sub aeternitatis specie – under the glaze of God. As Job is reflecting over his life, the window narrows.
Through the study of Job’s life, we learn that life is episodic and can leave you wondering if God is in the mix and the twist of your roving journey especially when stuff happens! If we view through a historical lens Job’s biography, we discover a man who was at the top of his game one day and graveling in a life of rubbish the next. After God permitted Satan to vex Job, in less than 24 hours his entire financial portfolio that reflected the rich and the famous was now the busted and disgusted.
What used to be fertile fields are now brown barren fields where he can no longer eke out an existence. Where there was the laughter of his children is now a deafening and dead silence. The support of his friends turned into rebuke and rebuttal. Where there was the bleating of sheep is now a cold silence. And it didn’t stop there. Job’s physical health began to deteriorate to the point that he was only skin and bones. His situation contributed to his poor health that left him anemic, desperately in need of medical attention. He needed a dose of antibiotics to kill the infection of worry and an injection of hope to fuel his faith.
Then, the final blow was when Mrs. Job on her way out the door said to Mr. Job, “love don’t live here anymore.” Beloved, sometimes you don’t have to do anything wrong in this life to suffer. Because there are sinful people and the presence of evil that persists in this world, we will be adversely affected in some way.
Yet the Word of God gives us hope in John 16:31 that, “In this world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” The epithet recorded in Job reveals that if anyone can testify that God can take you from nothing to something…Job can. He is the revelation of a life lived in a redeeming Savior. He is a believing testimony that God can take you from near death and restore your health. God can restore a broken home and make your children act right.
God can replenish your bank account when the balance says Any to read Plenty. God can make your Enemies your Footstool…Only a living Savior can make beauty from ashes! Humans can bear almost anything if we know that God is with us. If God be for us who can be against us. If God be for us our enemies are like dust. If God be for us calamity can only come so close. If God be for us we can run through a troop and leap over mountains. But if God be against us what else is there left?
God wants you to unload your faith, download your burdens and lay them at the feet of Jesus. He wants you to experience the fullness of the life He has in store for you. If you are reading this and you are wondering if we serve a living God, be certain that Jesus Christ is our Living Redeemer because He was once dead but now He is alive forever more.