#DailyDevotion When Your Only Hope Is The Resurrection
February 24th
Read Job 19:1–12, 21–27
Job 19:5-10 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me, (6) know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me. (7) Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice. (8) He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths. (9) He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head. (10) He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree…25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. (26) And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, (27) whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Job’s friends are no friends at all, at least as far as Job is concerned. It is enough that God has allowed and brought all this misery upon Job. Job has been crying out for justice but no one answers. He believes the Lord has hemmed him in on every side so he cannot escape. One thing goes wrong after another and there is no relief in sight. Everywhere Job looks it appears and is darkness. He is stripped down to nothing. He is like a fruit tree that looks like it has been pruned too far and there is not a chance it could ever come back.
Perhaps you have been there or are there now. There just doesn’t seem to be any point in living. What use are you to others. You hear others talking about when they think you cannot hear and they are talking about your death and how a dog wouldn’t be treated this way. You might even agree. You wonder why your Lord would allow you to suffer this way or at for so long. What is the point? Everywhere you look, it just appears as darkness.
In the midst of this think Job has a ray of light, a smidgen of hope that helps him prevail. “I know that my Redeemer lives…after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God…my eyes shall behold and not another.” Job believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father has permitted Job this vision of salvation. Job’s Redeemer, the one who pays the debt, who rescues from death and destruction is risen from the dead and will one day stand on the earth for all to see. His Redeemer, Jesus Christ shall raise Job from the dead and give Job everlasting life. It will be Job’s body and not another’s. There is no such thing as reincarnation. That is Hindu hell and is a lie. You die once and then there is the judgment. All flesh shall rise from the dead by the power of Jesus Christ, the first-fruits of the resurrection. Those that trusted in him will rise to everlasting life. Those who did not trust him will rise to everlasting perdition, the lake of fire, eternal punishment. It is the Christian’s hope, like Job’s, to rise bodily to live in a new heavens and a new earth and our eyes shall see God and we shall be like Jesus.
Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of trials, tribulations and troubles even to the point of death, help us always to trust in your promise of eternal life that we may be strengthened in the day as we look forward to the redemption of our bodies. Amen.