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)