To Know & See Him

I Know That My Redeemer Lives For Me

3.31.24 [Job 19:23-27] River of Life (The Festival of the Resurrection)

Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. The truth about Job and his life was exactly that. Job was a man of greatness, great means and great character. He was fabulously wealthy and yet still wonderfully humble and faithful. He was blessed with a big family—seven sons and three daughters—and tremendous prosperity. He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, a thousand oxen, and five hundred donkeys. But none of that success went to his head. Job, despite being (Job 1:3) the greatest man among all the people of the East, was still (Job 1:1) blameless and upright.

When Job's kids would celebrate together, Job would offer a burnt offering on each of their behalf, thinking: (Job 1:5) Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. The only thing Job loved more than his family was his God. Even when it got tough.

In a single day, all the greatness that his friends and neighbors could see disappeared. The Sabeans stole his oxen and donkeys. His sheep and shepherds were destroyed by a lightning-sparked wildfire. The Chaldeans carried off his camels. And worst of all, a windstorm destroyed the house of Job’s oldest son and killed all his children. In the blink of an eye, everything Job worked for and nearly everyone Job loved was gone. He was ruined. But Job didn’t see it that way.

He processed this news—any single piece of which might break a man—and he grieved and fell to the ground in worship. The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised. If Job’s life were a movie, you’d scoff at that reaction. No one would do that! But sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

I’d love to tell you that Job’s next days were better than that terrible day. But insult was added to injury. Job got sick. He had painful sores that broke out from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

Job’s wife had seen and gone through enough. She told her husband to curse God and die. But Job refused. (Job. 2:10) Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? he asked. It was a shocking retort. How could he maintain his integrity after all this pain and suffering? But sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction.

Before long, word got out about Job’s troubles. Friends came from a distance to be with Job. They came to comfort him, initially. But before long, it felt like they were just rubbing salt in his wounds.

They looked at Job and just could not shake the idea that he had done something wrong to warrant all this pain and grief. Like med students who just can’t find the vein, they poked and prodded through Job’s life insisting that he must have sinned in some secret way.

Can you imagine? Wasn’t what Job was enduring bad enough? How could friends treat him like this? Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction.

But there he was. In a couple of weeks, Job had gone through bankruptcy and unthinkable bereavement. His body had broken open with infections, his marriage was falling apart at the seams, and his friends were laying all the blame at his feet. Job, this once great man, this pillar in his community, this shining example of doing things the right way was now poor, sad, sick, despised, and considered a cautionary tale. Can you imagine?

It’s hard to, isn’t it? But you can relate on a smaller scale, can’t you?

Because you’ve seen stories like Job’s. You’ve seen truth that’s sadder than fiction. You’ve seen buddy diagnosed with a terminal disease weeks after his retirement. It’s the woman whose husband up and leaves her for a twenty-something after thirty years of marriage. It’s that great young couple that wants nothing more than to start a family but instead endures a series of devastating miscarriages. It’s the small business owner whose being sucked dry by employee negligence, customer theft, & inflation. It’s grown children trying to help their father see he’s dealing with Alzheimer’s. It’s the stay-at-home mom whose husband was killed in a car accident. It’s the child with incurable brain cancer. It’s the widow whose kids never visit but can’t afford to move out of the only place she's ever called home. It’s the young person who is looking for love—committed, faithful, God-pleasing marriage love—and cannot find it anywhere. It’s situations like these and a thousand more. Sometimes the truth is sadder than fiction.

When our lives look this way, we wonder: Is God for us or against us? When our situation feels like it’s circling the drain and there’s nothing we can do about it, we wonder: Is God for me and or against me? That’s the deep question Job wrestled with.

His friends told him that God was against him because Job had sinned in some terrible way. Job was certain that was not true. So certain that he wished his life’s story was passed down to future generations. You can feel his fervor when he says Oh that my words were recorded, written on a scroll, chiseled out and filled with lead, engraved in rock forever.

But Job did not merely think history would vindicate him. Job believed God would. As he looked his life, his true story that was stranger and sadder than fiction, he suspected he was about to die. Yet, Job was certain that after he succumbed to his illness he would see God with his own eyes. And he was looking forward to it! Why?

Because Job knew that he had a living Redeemer, someone who would stand up for him when he could not stand up for himself. This truth was stronger than his afflictions, stronger than the fiction his friends offered. Job knew he had a living Redeemer, someone who knew him personally, saw his life and all his struggles, and would stand up and serve as his Divine Defender.

Do you know the Redeemer that Job was anticipating? Do you see him as Job longed to? This isn’t the only time the Old Testament speaks of him. In Psalm 19, we are told this Redeemer hears our thoughts and words. In Isaiah 43, we are told this Redeemer created us, formed us, and even calls us by name. Jeremiah tells us our Redeemer is strong. Almighty. He vigorously defends our case. Gives us rest. Micah says the Redeemer rescues us from our enemies.

There is only One who has stood upon this earth who meets all these qualifications. Jesus of Nazareth. He is living proof God is for us.

Jesus’ life was even stranger than Job’s. Jesus was even more upright and blameless than Job. He was even more humble and faithful, too. Job’s friends suspected that he was guilty of some secret sin. Jesus’ enemies couldn’t find him guilty of a single sin. Job went from being fabulously wealthy to impoverished in a single day. Jesus left the fabulous glory of heaven and never sniffed anything that could be confused with royalty until he was standing in the palace of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate about to die.

Yet, even as he died, he did not lash out at his enemies. He prayed for their forgiveness. As he suffered and died he remained blameless. The Roman centurion charged with executing him remarked: (Lk. 23:47) Surely this was a righteous man. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Yet this true story, the life of Jesus, did not end there.

Three days later, he stood upon the earth. Physically. In the flesh.

He was not some figment of the imagination of his followers. They did not fabricate some story about him continuing on after his death. They believed that was the end. But, like Job’s friends, they were wrong. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. In this case, the truth, Jesus, is stronger than the forces of sin, death, and the devil.

Do you see him? Do you see the One who triumphed over death? Do you see the One who kept all of his promises? Do you see Him who holds the keys of death in his nail-marked hands? Do you see Him who is alive forever and ever? Do you see him who calls you by name, who vigorously defends your case, who has rescued you from the power of sin, death, and the devil? Do you see him?

You might be inclined to say, no. But the truth is stranger than fiction.

I’m sure your heart yearns within you to see him with your own eyes. Face to face, as Mary Magdalene did. I’m sure there is a part of you that gets why she held on to Jesus and didn't want to let go. But you do see him, as Job did. You know him who lives. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia! That truth is stronger than fiction.

In the days after Jesus’ resurrection, his enemies concocted a story about how his disciples overwhelmed trained Roman soldiers and stole their Teacher’s body just to tell people that he was alive. That is fiction. The truth is stranger and stronger than that. Christ is Risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia! You can see him in his Redemptive work.

You see his Redemptive power in the change he worked in his followers after he was raised to life. A woman like Mary Magdalene who was certain that his enemies had stolen his body, heard her Redeemer call her name and was filled with joy. Disciples that were once too scared to even stand at the foot of his cross, or give him a proper burial, preach boldly and confidently and refused to be intimidated by those who crucified their Lord and Savior. Paul, a man who once persecuted those who proclaimed that Jesus rose from the dead, testifies to his dying day that Christ had indeed been raised from the dead. We see him in the lives of those he loved. And loves this very day. God is for the afflicted today as he was for Job.

We see the God who is for us at work today, too. Redeeming people whose lives have been sadder than fiction and filled with afflictions. Our Redeemer lives to silence all our fears. Our Redeemer lives to calm our troubled hearts. Jesus is there with the terminally ill, the abandoned, the grieving, the wiped out, the struggling, and the lonely. Danger, disease, and even death have no real power over any of those he calls by name. God is for us. And with us. Our heavenly inheritance cannot be stolen and swiped. He will be with us always to the very end of the age. On that day, we will see that God is for us more clearly than ever. Our Redeemer will wipe away every last tear. And then, we will see him as clear as day, with our own eyes. We will see in the flesh that Christ is risen and victorious indeed. Alleluia!