I Know the My Redeemer Lives
Job 19:23-27
April 9, 2023 anno Domini
I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. Thus sayeth Job. We don’t know when Job lived. We don’t know where Job lived, but we’ve all lived with Job, and we can all learn Easter from Job.
Job suffered. In one day his seven sons and three daughters were killed in a storm. On that same day everything else he possessed was taken from him. Fire from God destroyed 7000 sheep. A bunch of Babylonians camel-jacked his 3000 camels and some Sabeans stole his 500 pair of Oxen. The only thing Job didn’t lose was his health, but I doubt he would have been comforted if you would have said, “Well, if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.”
On that day – the first day of his suffering, Job confessed his faith with words we continue to use at funerals. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”” (1:21)
The second day we are told about in Job’s life is when he lost his health. His whole body was afflicted with sores. He sat in ashes and scraped away the puss of his wounds with a piece of broken pottery. Job’s wife urged him to “Curse God and die!” Job would not have it and disciplined his wife with these words, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (2:11)
The story of Job was not put in the Bible to comfort you with the message, “Well, at least I’m not Job” because you are Job. You have suffered. Some of you have suffered like Job, evil has come upon you. You’ve lost a child, been diagnosed with cancer, suffered an accident, lost your wealth. The good gifts of God have been snatched from you with no rhyme or reason. Others of you have suffered because of your sins. You’ve destroyed your marriage by your lust or coveting. You’ve angered your parents or children by selfishness. You’ve murdered co-workers and relatives by your gossip and slander. And that leaves you very near to Job, because the big question in Job, that he and his friends spend 35 chapters trying to answer is “Why?” Why has this evil visited me? Or if you have brought on your own suffering, “Why did I do that? Why am I like this?”
I think you should read the book of Job, but I’m going to give you a spoiler alert. There is no answer in the book of Job. Job and his three friends speculate for 35 chapters on every possible reason for his suffering and they are all wrong. In the end God shows up and He doesn’t give Job an answer either, except to say, “I am God. You are not. Get over yourself and trust me.”
Around the middle of the book, in the midst of his suffering and trying to figure out “why,” Job makes his great confession, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.”
At Redeemer, we hear the word Redeemer often, but what does it mean? An Old Testament Redeemer was a relative, someone related to you by blood. A Redeemer was a male relative because females were the ones who needed redeeming. If you were a woman in the Old Testament and your husband died and you didn’t have a son, you had no future. You would have to beg. You would die alone. But if your husband had a brother or an uncle, that male relative was required to marry you, and provide you with children, hopefully a son, so that your land and property could stay in the family and you would have your daily bread – all you needed for this body and life.
Now in our woke world that sounds totally offensive. How dare you talk about women in that condescending way? But to Old Testament women like Ruth, a living Redeemer was the best news she could ever hear. If she had a living Redeemer, she had life – she could be a wife again, and a mother, she could receive love from her husband and give him honor and respect, and nurture children as God had uniquely created her to do. I know, the world would wash my mouth out with soap for speaking such foolishness.
But as Christians we should be glad when the world is offended and rejoice, because God says His wisdom is foolishness to the world.
In the midst of his suffering, Job knew this and believed this – He had a living Redeemer. He believed that he was related to God by blood, that God had created him. Not only that but he believed God lived and that God Himself was obligated to save him from His suffering because that’s what redeemers do.
You know more than Job and you have more than Job. Job never saw God in the flesh of Jesus. Job never heard the eyewitness accounts of the women who went to the tomb. He didn’t here them carefully recount the words of the angel, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here.”
Your Redeemer lives. The Son of God chose to be your relative. He chose to take on flesh and blood and become a man. He chose to become closer to you than any human you know because Jesus also chose to take upon Himself your sins and pay your debt. You might think Job’s suffering could not be rivaled, but you are wrong. Jesus suffered more because He suffered hell. God never left Job, but on the cross, God the Father abandoned God the Son. That’s the suffering you deserve. That’s the suffering for sin – hell, abandoned by God. That’s what Jesus did to answer your suffering, to give you hope, about your certain future with God. You are forgiven all your sins. You are living forever. Your body will be raised imperishable on the last day.
No one has ever been closer to you than Jesus. He is your brother according to the flesh. He is your Redeemer according to the cross. And He is your living and heavenly bridegroom according to the Resurrection.
When we meet Job in the resurrection he still won’t know why he suffered, but he will confess that his suffering was good. He will confess that his suffering was nothing compared to the glory revealed to him when Christ raised him from the dead. And you will confess the same thing. With your own eyes, in your risen flesh, you will see that your Redeemer lives. You will behold Jesus standing on earth and you will stand with Him. Your suffering is answered and ended in your living Redeemer. In the name of Jesus. Amen.