I know that my redeemer lives,
Job 19:25-27 NIV
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
Job can be a challenging book to read. The bulk of the book is a series of dialogs between Job and his three ‘friends’. Job proclaims his innocence, saying that God is punishing him unjustly. Job’s friends respond that Job must have done something to deserve his suffering. Round and round the argument goes.
Then, in the midst of Job’s complaint, is this affirmation of his faith in God and his confidence that, even after his death, he will live again. And it is all the more striking because seldom in the Old Testament is there any hope for anything after death, except for Sheol, the shadowy place of the dead.
Resurrection
Job was looking ahead to the time of the end. A time when God would return to stand on the earth. Even though Job’s body will have rotted away, he would be reclothed with flesh and would see God with his own eyes. And, in the midst of all of his suffering, Job held on to this hope and looked forward to it with yearning.
And that is the same hope that we can have. Regardless of what happens to us now, we can have assurance that it is not the end. That, in the end, we will be reclothed with imperishable bodies. And will be with our Lord forever (1 Cor. 15:35-58).
