A Living Redeemer

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. (Job 19:25-27 ESV). This is one of the great words of faith in the Old Testament, one of the earliest references of the resurrection of the body found in the Scripture. Slowly, through the anguish and gloom of this man's heart, born out of the passion and the pathos that he feels, comes the dawning realization that God is working out a great and mighty purpose, and that one of these days God Himself shall be visibly present before people. God will come Himself and vindicate all that He does. This is a marvelous glance ahead by faith to the incarnation of the Lord. Job calls him my Redeemer and my Vindicator, the one who will defend me and vindicate all that has happened to me. I think there is nothing that the study of this book of Job does for us more than to understand that life is basically a mystery. We are surrounded by mystery. We cannot comprehend it all; it is painted on too large a canvas. It is too great and involved for us to grasp it all. The ways of God are beyond us many times, and yet Job is gradually learning in the midst of his pain to trust the God who is there, to trust that He will come up with answers and that He is working out a purpose in line with His love. That is what life gradually teaches us. Elisabeth Elliot described briefly her first widowhood. Her husband was slain along with four companions in the jungles of Ecuador by members of the Auca tribe. She spent thirteen years as a widow, and then she married a gracious and wonderful man with whom she was very happy for just a few more years. Then he died, taken by cancer. She said, I have spent six-sevenths of my life single, though I have been married twice. I did not choose the gift of widowhood, but I accepted it as the sphere in which I am to live to the glory of God. This is what Job is gradually learning. God is working out a purpose. So often we tend to believe that life’s experiences are random. There are those that delight us and those that bring us to our knees in despair. How tragic we cannot see that even in the worst of storms Jesus sets the example of calm. We will get to the other side safely. Count on the Master of all Creation to bring you through! One night while conducting an evangelistic meeting in the Salvation Army Citadel in Chicago, Booth Tucker preached on the sympathy of Jesus. After his message a man approached him and said, “If your wife had just died, like mine has, and your babies were crying for their mother, who would never come back, you wouldn’t be saying what you’re saying.” Tragically, a few days later, Tucker’s wife was killed in a train wreck. Her body was brought to Chicago and carried to the same Citadel for the funeral. After the service the bereaved preacher looked down into the silent face of his wife and then turned to those attending. “The other day a man told me I wouldn’t speak of the sympathy of Jesus if my wife had just died. If that man is here, I want to tell him that Christ is sufficient. My heart is broken, but it has a song put there by Jesus. I want that man to know that Jesus Christ speaks comfort to me today.”