My Redeemer Lives

Job 19:25-27

"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, My heart faints within me."

Job's faith in God is sustained through loss magnified. Even with his so-called friends constantly accusing him, he knows, he is assured that God, his Redeemer, lives. What magnificent verses to come out of such despair! Job has faith in God's saving ability, His continual purposes, and His eternal plan.  He knows that he will see God one day. What Job values is the eternal over the temporal. What is illness and loss in the light of an eternity in the presence of God? His response reminds me of II Cor. 4:16, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

It is one thing to know all this in theory, but it is another to go through it in practice. Job's heart must have breaking with the pain of it all, yet he knew his only hope was in his Redeemer. This hope was what was his life-line, his portion, and his refuge. Without hope in Jesus Christ, life is defeating, but with hope in Jesus Christ, life transcends the transient.

Father,

Keep my eyes fixed on You through the times of difficulty. Help me grow in Your grace as I endure by fixing my eyes on the eternal not on the transcient.

In Jesus name,

Amen