Suffering Job: Redemption

Job 19:25 "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth."

A redeemer is one who buys back; One who at great cost to himself buys back a field that once belonged to his family for instance, or buys a person out of slavery. To redeem, in a sense, is to pay the appointed price to liberate and restore proper ownership.

Job, having lost everything in this life, even his health and his peace, his hideous body covered in painful boils, has only one possession remaining: his hope in God. "In hope against hope he believed" (Romans 4:18). Job wonders in despair why "the hand of God has struck me" (Job 19:21), yet he clings to the hope that God is still his God, and that his God will redeem him. But what does Job need to be redeemed from?

First, the curse of creation. "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now." (Romans 8:20-22)

Job looks to be set free from a world corrupted by sin, where death and pain roam free, looking for someone to devour. As a child of God, Job senses in his heart that his world is not operating in its natural state, and that he belongs in another world, one where death does not reign with terror. Job's cry echoes Romans 8:23 "we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." Job looks to the Lord to redeem his body from suffering and decay.

Lastly, Job looks to the Lord to redeem from the curse of disobeying God's law. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us - for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Galatians 3:13) Job is a righteous man in God's sight, yet he knows: "How can a man be in the right before God?" (Job 9:1) So Job looks to the Lord to redeem him from the curse of sin.

I also know that my redeemer lives today; He did stand on the earth, He did hang on a tree, and He will stand on the earth at last! Jesus Christ purchased me with His own blood from slavery to sin. With a costly price He transferred ownership of my soul from darkness to light. He redeemed me from the curse of the law and He will redeem my body someday from the curse of corrupted creation. Praise God!

What does this mean for me today to have an Almighty Redeemer who lives? Hope. Hope in God, rejoice in the Lord always, don't hope in your circumstances, your emotions, your friends and family. None of these can redeem, only Christ. Don't look to your own righteousness either, for no one can redeem themselves, only Christ.

(6/16/2011)

Suffering Job: Not all is Lost

Job 17:11 "My days are past, my plans are torn apart, even the wishes of my heart."

Job did not anticipate the destruction of his property, the death of his family, the removal of his health. Job had different plans for his life that did not involve the sudden demise of his children. It seems as though the scroll of Job's life had been torn to pieces, yet the scroll of our life which God has written is surely never torn apart.

Do you have plans for your life or wishes in your heart that are so dear to you that you would be destroyed by their undoing? Let there be only one ultimate desire in your heart: to be united with Jesus Christ at last. Then you will say with sincerity, "Father, Your will be done".

Everything in this life can be taken from me. My job, my family, my home, my ministry, my health, yet one thing will always remain: the love of God in Christ Jesus. He promises, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:18) "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you" (John 14:27) and "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom 8:35)

Therefore be bold with joy and risk all for the kingdom's sake, because whatever you lose for Christ will be gain and you cannot lose Christ.

(6/15/2011)

Suffering Job: The Righteous are Slain

Job 13:15 "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him."

Job is in such grief and pain that he laments the day he was born, yet he will not give up his hope in God. It is as if the hope of the Lord is permanently etched into his heart, so firmly established that it would be easier to carve his heart out of his chest than to remove his hope in God. Here righteousness is displayed as an untarnished, brilliant bronze breastplate, though its inhabitant may appear frail with decay and wounded to the point of death.

(6/12/2011)