I Know My Redeemer Lives....

Every time I read through the book of Job, I'm always amazed. This man loses his livestock, all his sons and daughters, and is struck with a disease, and yet he manages to say, "I came naked from my mother's womb, and I will be stripped of everything when I die. The Lord gave me everything I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!" (1:21) He realizes his utter dependence on God, as evidenced by those words. It also goes on to say, "In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God." (v.22)  I wonder how many people blame God today for their problems, their tragedies, their hurts, their sorrows. I wonder how many realize that God can heal. He's the answer to their problems, not the cause.

Even Job's wife tells him, "Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die." But Job replied, "You talk like a godless woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?" So in all this, Job said nothing wrong. (22:9-10) I can only imagine how that must have hurt Job to hear his wife talk. However, now that I think about it, she must have been hurting too, losing all her children and livestock, and having a sick husband to tend to. However, she didn't have her husbands faith.

What amazes me the most are his friends, who are textbook examples of what not to say to a hurting friend. They tell him that he must have sinned to have brought this on himself. They say that his children must have sinned to have that happen. The fact is that bad things happen to good and bad alike. Bad things happen to people who don't deserve it, and good things happen to people who don't deserve it. At one point though, Job says, "But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!" (19:25-27)

I hope to have that kind of faith when I go through tough times. After all, Job lived several hundred years before Christ. To make that kind of statement shows that he realized who God was and he knew God. And though his spirit was broken, he trusted God to see him through.