My Redeemer Lives:

INTRO: Earlier this month one of our hand towel bars just decided to let go from the wall. It left two holes in the wall where the drywall anchors had been.

It no longer held up it’s end of the bargain. It just let go.

There is no

JOB is a convicting book to read. So many questions come to mind when you see a man lose everything is what seems like a Huge Cosmic Bet. Oh, but it is much more than that.

He loses everything in a day. All his possessions, all his livestock, all of his children and only his wife left from his family, he loses almost all his servants and is overcome with grief. THEN, in a second wave, his health leaves him suddenly and his body is wracked with puss oozing BOILS...

He’s broken! Sitting in little to no clothing so it doesn’t irritate his sores, using a broken pot to scrape the worst of them and relieve the painful pressure.

Left to grieve with no answers. He sits in ashes and just mourns.

Out of the grief - Job asks In the midst of fractured friendship: My Redeemer Lives

In the midst of pitiful possessions: My Redeemer Lives

In the midst of tremendous grief of pain and loss of life: My Redeemer Lives

Redeem: To save (someone) from sin, error, or evil. To gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment.

Redeemer: Someone who redeems. Christ, the Redeemer is who we look forward to. God the Redeeming God is who Job was looking for.

Job makes this statement in the midst of tremendous grief and loss. His friends aren’t helpful, his wife is heaping on, and all he has left to cling to God’s faithfulness.

One day, there won’t be any more of this.

One day Jesus will stand on the new earth and those who know Christ will stand with Him, overshadowed by His glory, but with eternal perspective because we have been redeemed.

No more selfishness and grief because we have been redeemed,

no more tears and sadness because Jesus bought those slavers tears and sinful pain,

no more consequences of sin and other’s sins because Jesus bought us and took us from all that consequence.

One day it will all make sense - until then - I, like Job, know that My Redeemer Lives and at the last He will stand on the earth.

BONUS LESSONS FROM JOB:

Wealth and possessions are often likened to righteousness.

Likewise, loss and poor circumstances are likened to sin and guilt before God.

People have a perspective that is only part of the whole - however, perception is often reality for many - and out of a uninformed reality, they can say and do some awful things in the name of friendship or righteousness.

Two examples:

Funerals - people talk out of tension, and to ease the tension people say dumb things.

Loss - often equated with punishment.