My Redeemer Lives
BY ROGER KOK
Job 19:25-27
For I know that my redeemer liveth, 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.
These glorious words come from the lips of a person who is deep in the extremity of his desperation. Throughout this book, we have heard Job's cries of despair and utterances of helplessness and hopelessness that was brought about by the extreme suffering that God laid upon himfirst the loss of his animals and servants, his children and his house, and then of his own health. He is now covered with painful sores from head to toe.Yes, Job speaks these words at a time when he is so frustrated that he even despises his life. He says, for example, "My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul" (10:1). And he asks God, "Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! I should have been as
though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave" (vv. 18,19).Depressed by the horrible ordeal he finds himself in, Job curses the day of his birth and wishes that he had never been born.
Accusing friends. Job's friends are of no help. Thinking that Job is being punished by God, they accuse him of unfounded self-righteousness. Zophar says to him, for instance, "For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes. But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee; And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth" (11:4-6). In other words, for all your sins God could have punished you even more.
His friends also tell him that he overrates his importance in the whole world before God and man and that he is not the only one who has come under the hand of God and suffered. Eliphaz asks, "Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills? Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself" (15:7,8)? And speaking of God's sovereignty, he asks further, "He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place" (18:4)?
Job nevertheless has an awareness of the awesome power of the God that he's dealing with. He says, "Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me. Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again" (10:8,9)? He also declares, "With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding" (12:13).
Job understands the power and wisdom of God in His dealing with His creation in His world. And in the midst of utter despair, a time when it seems that God and men have all forsaken him, Job declares, "I know that my redeemer liveth."
True confession. I know that my redeemer liveth. We sing these words gloriously, we rejoice in them, we use them sometimes in funeral services. But to see where they lie, to understand that they come out of the cry of a man who seems to have no hope is amazing.
And yetas I think anew as a pastor and a Christian, and as I have seen the way God has dealt with people in my family, in my church, and in the congregations of the Lord Jesus Christ everywhereisn't this often the very time in which the glorious testimony of God's grace and God's comfort and God's holiness is spoken?
Over the years, I have met many, many devout Christians who have undergone some awful suffering. They have cried out, "Why are You doing this to me, Lord, I don't understand it? Why are You dealing with me in such a way?" And yet, somehow the Spirit of God has enabled them to say, "We know that our God lives, that He is in control of the situation, that He is merciful and gracious, and that His love is
surrounding us."Indeed, I would submit that frequently it is when we are in the throes of the most difficult circumstances, trials that we could never even have imagined would ever come upon us, that this kind of affirmations are drawn from us by the Spirit of God. And like Job, we say once again, "I struggle with You, Lord, I despair with what's happening, I don't understand Your way and Your will, and the pain is so terribly great, and yet I will confess before Your face and before men that I know that my Redeemer lives."
A prophecy. Why is Job talking about a Redeemer? And what is there to redeem? First of all, according to Webster, to redeem is to rescue or to deliver from. You have heard of people being kidnapped or taken hostage, and the captors would demand a ransom of some kind for their release. So when Job talks about his Redeemer living, he is alluding to the One who will rescue him from the difficulty of his sin and his struggles as he stands before God.
Peter speaks of this Redeemer in his first letter: "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1:18,19).
So, when Job says, "I know that my redeemer liveth," he is speaking prophetically, foretelling the great work that God will eventually do in the person of His Son. He is saying, in other words, that even though I am in the midst of my pain and hopelessness I understand that God is gracious and that He deals with His people with mercy; He is going to redeem me from my sin problem. Therefore, I know that my Redeemer lives.
That beautiful remark, people of God, should really be the daily confession of all of us. Someone once said to me, "You know, it's so easy to be thankful when everything is going well, but it's hard when things are falling apart." Sometimes, I'm afraid, we even forget to thank God when things are going smoothly. We just let it go well; we just dance through life. But relatively speaking, it certainly is easier to give thanks and to profess faith in times of prosperity. Hence, when one praises God in the midst of pain and struggle, then we know it is a heartfelt confession of faith and gratitude.
Job knows that his Redeemer lives. And if He lives, Job continues, then "he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." In that remarkable statement, Job is prophesying that God would do something that sets the Christian religion apart from every other religionthat is, that He would send His only begotten Son from heaven to stand upon this earth, to be in the midst of His people.
Yes, the Word became flesh. He walked on this earth along with us. And because He was tempted and tried in every way just as we are when He was on earth, He knows what it is to be hungry, thirsty and tired, to be alienated from friends and compatriots, and to be persecuted by the world. He can sympathize with our weaknesses.
Resurrected body. Job continues, "Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." (Editor's note: The Hebrew
word for flesh can also be translated "body".) Where does he get that Spirit of God?! Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my "flesh"not only in my spirit and soul, but also in my bodyI will come face to face with God.What a miraculous confession of faith, and that in the midst of all this morass of difficulties and despair! What a marvelous hope for the child of God! We read newspapers and watch the news on TV and we see how overwhelming the sin of man is. Yet in the midst of that, the Christian can say with confidence that all this will pass and someday I will be in heaven with a brand new, resurrected body.
To Job, especially important is that he himself will see God with his own eyes. He says, "I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. I, myself, will see Him." He's not saying that others won't see God. But he is certain that seeing God face to face will be a reality for himself. I now stand on earth in the presence of God, but I shall eventually stand in heaven before the face of God.
Let's not remove ourselves from this world. Let's not think that our life here in this world is unimportant. We've been placed on this earth for a reason and we live each day under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are prophets, priests and kings in this world in the name, and on behalf, of our Lord. But sometimes we are overwhelmed by the immorality, the darkness, the forces of evil that surround us. What we need to remember is that our eternal home is in heaven.
Our understanding of heaven is slim and frail and fragmented. We pick up from Scripture what we can and sometimes we even unwisely listen to the voice of man telling us what it's going to be and what it's going to be like. We don't understand. We don't comprehend fully. But we can say with Job, "I will see Him." And that ought to be enough. That's a glorious hope, a great promise, and something that will be marvelously experienced by all those who belong to the living Lord.
Come, Lord Jesus. Now, the conclusion of this passage: "though my reins be consumed within me" or, as the New International Version puts it, "How my heart yearns within me."
Significantly, the Bible concludes in Revelation 22 with Christ promising, "Surely I come quickly," and with the Apostle John responding, "Amen. Even so, Come, Lord Jesus." That was the cry of the suffering people in the early Christian church, to whom John
wrote. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.And here Job cries out, "How my heart yearns within me." I can't wait until I shall personally see God. That day is going to be so grand and marvelous and majestic and holy that my heart yearns for it, it longs for it, it cries out for the living God.
Does your heart yearn within you to see God? If we don't yearn for the Lord to come quickly, I'm afraid, something of the yearning to stand in His presence each day is missing too. Those two go hand in hand. If I truly yearn to see God, then I yearn also each day to live righteously before His faceto be His ambassador in this world until I see Him face to face.
The sufferings of this life are not to be compared with the glories that await us in the next. I think Job knew that. And oh, how he suffered and despaired. But he said there's something splendid that awaits him.
I don't know how fully Job comprehended all that he said here. But guided by the Holy Spirit, that's what he says. And that's what we can confidently put our hope in, especially since we have the added advantage of having the whole written word of God.
Some of us are today carrying great burdens. But the confession of Job is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is our Redeemer and He is alive. May we live in the midst of our suffering, as well as in our joy, knowing that the Lord Jesus has redeemed us with His precious blood and yearning, along with Job, to see Him face to face soon. o
Rev. Roger Kok is pastor of the Shawnee Park Christian Reformed Church, 2255 Tecumseh Drive, S.E., Grand Rapids, MI
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