‘I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES’
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 5, 2021 under 2021 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; December 5, 2021 from Job 19:23-27
Theme: We can experience joyful hope in the deepest trial if we will remember that our Redeemer lives.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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This morning is the first Sunday of our Christmas holiday season. And to prepare our hearts for the celebration of the birth of Jesus—and also to prepare our hearts to remember His supper this morning—I ask that you turn to Job 19.
The Book of Job may seem like a strange place to turn to on a morning like this. After all, it’s a book that’s primarily about suffering. And yet, right in the middle of this book on suffering is a message of joyful hope that has its focus on our Savior.
In Job 19:23-27, the suffering man Job makes this amazing declaration:
“Oh, that my words were written!
Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
That they were engraved on a rock
With an iron pen and lead, forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:23-27).
Because of who it was that spoke these words—and because of the situation that he was in when he spoke them—and because of the One in whom he placed his hope—this becomes a very good passage for us to consider on a morning such as this.
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Now; the Book of Job is a very remarkable book of the Bible. In fact, it is one of the most remarkable of all books ever written.
It’s a very old book. Some Bible scholars believe that it’s one of the oldest books in the Bible to have been written—if not the oldest. It tells the story of a man named Job—a very righteous and reverent man who God loved. He stood out as the most righteous man of his time. And he was a man blessed by God with great wealth and prosperity. If ever there was someone who you’d think should not suffer, it would be him. But he was also a man who had—quite suddenly—experienced a horrible reversal. The devil had been given permission by God to lay a series of attacks upon Job; and as a result, he literally lost everything he had. He lost his great wealth. He lost all his children. And in a final and vicious blow, the devil even attacked his body and his health—so much so that Job lay at the very doorstep of death.
The Book of Job reads almost like the script of a play. Three of his friends come to comfort him; but in a three-fold cycle of dialogues, they all end up getting into a terrible debate with him—and he with them. His friends were arguing that, because he was suffering, he must be guilty of sin. He was arguing back that, because he had done no wrong, God must be treating him unjustly. And yet, in reality, they all had a wrong perspective of things. None of them knew what we know because of what we read at the beginning of the book—that God was allowing Satan to attack Job in order to prove God’s own integrity and faithfulness … and also Job’s own godly character.
In the end, when the terrible time of testing was over, God blessed Job and restored his life and wealth and family to him—giving him twice as much as he had before. But many of the things that we read Job and his three friends saying along the way need to be interpreted very cautiously and carefully. Sometimes, what they say sounds true and right. But they are things that were spoken from completely mistaken perspectives that God Himself—in the end—had to correct.
But what Job says in our passage this morning—in almost the very middle of this remarkable book—truly stands out. It was as if—in the midst of all the confusion and frustration and sorrow and suffering and mess—God gave him a message of glorious hope to declare for the benefit of the whole world. Job was enabled to look past his suffering and sorrow, gaze off into the distant future, and see God’s promise of hope that came from a Redeemer.
Where would Job get such an idea that there was a Redeemer yet to come? Perhaps he got it from someone else who had suffered greatly. Perhaps he looked back to the story of our first parents—Adam and Eve. They too had lived in a world that was richly blessed of God. But they listened to the temptation of the devil—who came to them in the form of a serpent—and sinned against God by eating of the forbidden fruit. As a result, they brought the curse of suffering upon themselves and upon all of the offspring that would be born from them. But even when God issued that terrible curse upon them, He gave them the promise that a Redeemer would someday come as the hope of all of fallen humanity. God told the serpent;
“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:14-15).
That promised ‘Seed’ of the woman—He who would one day administer the fatal blow the serpent—is none other than our Lord Jesus. After the long centuries had rolled by—at just the right time in history—Jesus, the Son of God, took full human nature to himself and was born of the virgin Mary. He was the promised Redeemer—God in human flesh. Not long after He was born, while still just a tiny infant, He was pointed out in the temple “to all those who looked for Redemption in Jerusalem” (Acts 2:38). It was to Him that Job had cast a forward gaze and said, “I know that my Redeemer lives”.
Now; we have a great advantage over Job. He looked ahead to a Redeemer who he knew lived and was going to come sometime in the future. We look back in time to our Redeemer who we know has already come. But what a lesson Job’s words are to you and me in our own times of suffering.
It may not be that we will suffer as much as this remarkable man named Job suffered. It’s hard to imagine that any one of us could ever suffer like Job did. But for that very reason, his words should serve as a great guide to us in our own times of suffering. In the midst of his uniquely great trial—with the limited amount of knowledge that he had—he looked to the Redeemer and gained hope. He had a solid anchor for his soul in the midst of the storm he was going through. He was assured that God had not completely abandoned him, and that God’s mercy toward him would still prevail.
And his experience teaches us that we too can experience joyful hope in the deepest trial if we will deliberately remember that our Redeemer lives.
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So then; let’s look together at Job’s words of hope. First, we see that in verse 23, he said, “Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!” And the interesting thing is, by the way, that they were! Aren’t we reading his words from that book right now?
But why would he say that? Why would he want his words written down? It would be because of the hard and cruel things that were being said by his friends to him—and because of the way that he was defending himself in spite of them. They were accusing him of suffering because he had sinned; and he was defending his honor against their accusations. And what’s more, he was feeling as if he had to defend himself against God; who he felt was punishing him unjustly. In verses 21-22, he said;
“Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has struck me!
Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?” (vv. 21-22).
Those were pretty harsh words. But poor Job felt desperate. His friends were attacking him mercilessly; and he felt that the hand of God was against him unjustly. He felt pretty sure that he was about to die and go to the dust. And he longed that his living testimony of integrity could be written down on parchment—kept upon a scroll—for a fair examination in the courts of heaven at a future date.
In fact, he longed for more than that. A scroll—a piece of parchment written upon with ink—could only endure on earth for just so long. He had a far further view of hope than even that. He wanted his words to be made permanent—etched in stone forever—kept on a monument for the far distant future. He wished, in verse 24,
That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever!” (v 24).
He wanted this because he was sure that there would be a day of true reckoning to come. And he hoped that somehow—in that future time—his words of defense would be preserved, and his integrity vindicated, and he himself treated justly with true mercy and compassion.
And if we read between the lines, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this teaches you and me that …
1. WE CAN EXPERIENCE HOPE IN DEEPEST TRIAL.
Our trials are only for a time. They don’t last forever. But the basis of our hope is eternal—and we can look toward eternal purposes in our trials. The apostle Paul once put it this way:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
Dear old Job, in the midst of his suffering, taught us an important lesson. He looked to eternity—and fully expected a fair and just hearing. Let’s make sure that we keep our focus on the eternal as well. As we do, we can experience hope in even the deepest trial.
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Now; Job’s hope for eternity was not just a matter of positive thinking. It had a basis in something eternal—and in Someone better than himself. He wanted the words of his defense to be written down; because, as he put it this way in verse 25,
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth … (v. 24).
Job had hope in his trial. And so can we; knowing that …
2. THAT HOPE IS OURS BECAUSE OUR REDEEMER LIVES.
What a great title that is for Jesus. He is our Redeemer.
The word itself in the Hebrew language is go`el. In the Old Testament, a go`el was the specialized name of a near family member—a kinsman—who was qualified to buy their relative out of debt or out of slavery. They were qualified to purchase back their land for them if they had to sell it. They were even qualified to be their avenger. By saying this, Job was recognizing that—even in the midst of his suffering—even in the midst of the unjust and merciless things that were being said against him—his Redeemer lives. And one day, that Redeemer—that go`el —would come to his defense, and rescue him, and vindicate him.
Isn’t the way that Job puts this interesting? He declared that he knew that his Redeemer lived. But he seemed to speak as if this Redeemer wasn’t present yet. He said that he knew that this Redeemer—literally, “coming after”—would one day stand upon the earth. He would come into this world to help him.
Many Hebrew scholars have translated that word “earth” to be “dust”; and they would understand this to be speaking of the condition of our frailty as fallen sons and daughters of our father Adam. Adam—who was made of dust—had sinned; and God told him that, because of his sin, it would be to ‘dust’ that he would return. But Jesus, our Redeemer, was born into the human family at just the right time in history; and He ‘stood’, as it were, in our situation. He stood upon the ‘dust’ to which we were condemned. He partook of the death that was our just sentence from God because of sin, and paid the death penalty on our behalf. As it says in Hebrews 2:14-18;
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted (Hebrews 2:14-18).
What a Redeemer it is that has been born into the world for us! Every sinner like us who trusts in Him has hope! Job had a distant, ‘Old Testament’ kind of hope in Him. He was sure of it. Do you have your hope in Him too? Are you sure of it?
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Because of Job’s certainty of hope in this Redeemer, he knew that—in spite of the dreadful trial he was undergoing—in spite of the way he was laying at death’s very doorstep and was about to return to dust—in spite of the fact that his friends were accusing him and were showing him no mercy—he would nevertheless live.
In verses 26-27, Job said;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another (vv. 26-27a).
In the original language, Job spoke in very vivid terms. In verse 26, He spoke of a time when his skin—the very hide that was wrapped around his bones—would be ‘struck off’. This may have been a literal way of describing how he would die and his body would undergo decay. Or it may have been a figurative way of describing how the accusations of his friends were striking blows upon him that were tearing him apart. Perhaps both senses of things were involved; because both things were clearly pressing in on him. But then he said something that expressed his hope in a powerful way. He said, “And after my skin is destroyed, … this!” He declared what he knew with absolute certainty: “that in my flesh”—that is, in bodily form—“I shall see God.”
Some versions of the Bible have translated Job’s words in verse 26 in different ways. Some translators have chosen to render it, “without my flesh I shall see God”. That is a possible way to translate Job’s words; and some translations of the Bible have even included that possibility in a footnote. If that were the case, then Job would be saying that—no matter what may happen; even if his body is destroyed—his spirit would still be in God’s presence. But if we read on to verse 27, we find that he speaks of God, “whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” Job doesn’t speak of simply seeing God in only a spiritual, disembodied kind of way. Only a body has eyes that can enable someone to see something for themselves. So; Job is affirming something truly glorious. He is assured that—because of his Redeemer—he will see God in a resurrected and glorified body. It won’t be someone else that does the seeing for him. It will be Job himself. Even though he was struggling with God in the present, Job knew that he would one day behold God in glory—with glorified eyes and in a glorified body—in the future.
And this teaches us yet another thing that we should remember about our Redeemer during our own times of trial and suffering; that …
3. BECAUSE HE LIVES, WE ARE DESTINED TO LIVE TOO.
How much of this Job could have understood in his time is hard to say. But we can understand much more of it than he could, because we have a much clear promise in the New Testament about it. The apostle John wrote;
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).
The apostle Paul explained that—by faith, through a work of the Holy Spirit—we have been bound together forever to our Redeemer. His death was for us. And His resurrection was also for us. His death was physical, and His resurrection was also physical. And so Paul wrote;
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5).
Perhaps you know that, when George Frideric Handel composed The Messiah, he included this declaration from Job, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” But did you know that he also included with it this declaration from the apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 15?
But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20).
Our Redeemer is ‘the first fruits from the dead’—the first and best of the resurrection harvest that held the promise of more resurrections to come. Let’s remember that fact in our times of trial. Our Redeemer lives. And after our skin is destroyed, we will yet see God—with these eyes of ours in resurrected glory—and will behold Him ourselves, and not another.
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And look at how Job ends these words. When he considers all this, he declares—at the end of verse 27—“How my heart yearns within me!” What joyful longing it brought to his soul!
Here, then, is a final lesson we learn from Job. When we keep an eternal perspective in our times of trial; and we remember that our Redeemer lives; and when we know that, because He lives, we are destined to live too; then …
4. THAT DESTINY MAKES OUR HEARTS YEARN NOW.
We can have a sense of hope in our trials; and our hearts can long for that hope to be fully realized in full experience. And because of Jesus, it will be!
In our times of suffering, let’s remember what it says at the end of Isaiah 40;
Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel:
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
And my just claim is passed over by my God”?
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might
He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:27-31).
That kind of hope in the midst of trials can be ours if we will—like Job—say from the heart, “I know that my Redeemer lives!”
