My Redeemer Lives

I recently finished reading the book of Job. Job’s troubles certainly seem overwhelming even as I read about them.  Living through those calamities gave Job reason to cry out to God.  I don’t know what it’s like to lose all your children in a day-can’t even imagine it! I don’t know what it’s like to lose good health.  I don’t know what it’s like to lose most of my possessions either. I’ve known of many who’ve lost homes to floods or fires – devastation that must test one’s faith.  But I do know what it’s like to watch my husband suffer with liver disease and eventually die. I live every day with the disappointment of living out my retirement years alone.  I know what it’s like to lose a brother and my mother to cancer.  We all have some kind of trouble and most likely we’ve cried out with laments similar to Job’s.

Something Job says in chapter 9, verses 33-35 makes me glad that I live on this side of the cross. “If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.”

I don’t know if Job knew about the coming Messiah or not, but he did have confidence that he would eventually see his Redeemer.  Look at his words in Job 19:25-27.

“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!”

I thank God often for His presence with me and for the Great High Priest we have in Jesus. Yes, Job, there is Someone to stand between us and God. There is Someone who took the rod of terror for us! Jesus, our Savior!

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 5:14-16).

We don’t have to suffer through our troubles alone. We have Jesus!  And it’s an extra blessing when we have loving friends beside us.  Thank you, God, for your Son, Jesus and for friends who care.