“Yet I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end, He will stand on earth.” Job 19:25, TLV
My Redeemer Lives! Guess who makes this profound declaration? Job. The man who lost his children and had every disease in the book? Whose friends told him he must have offended GOD—I mean, really offended GOD—that He would rain down such sorrow and tribulation? Or whose wife said that he should just give up and die?
Yep. That guy.
Did 2022 have us feeling a bit like Job? Did friends rally around us or question us? Maybe even both, like Job’s buddies.
It is one thing to struggle with questioning GOD privately or taking inventory of past sins that could cause such trials. But it is a whole other discouragement when our good friends assume we must have done something to deserve whatever trial or tribulation. Especially if the hardship continues after much prayer for an extended period of time.
Taking our cue from Job
Would I have the boldness and unwavering faith after days or years of questioning from my friends?
“Have pity on me my friends, have pity,
for the hand of God has struck me.
Why do you pursue me—like God?
Are you not satisfied with my flesh?
Oh that my words were written,
that they were recorded in a scroll
that with an iron pen and lead,
they were engraved in stone forever! (vss. 21-24, TLV)
Job wishes that his words were written with an iron pen and lead or engraved in stone forever. Ironically, they were. His story is not only canonized as part of the Bible, but this verse was a prophecy that will one day be fulfilled. Yeshua, our Messiah and Savior will return! His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
After saying all this—while [the disciples] were watching—[Yeshua] was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. While they were staring into heaven as He went up, suddenly two men stood with them in white clothing. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you keep standing here staring into heaven? This Yeshua, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.” Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives (which is near Jerusalem, a Shabbat day’s journey*). (Acts 1:9-12, TLV)
By the way, Jesus will return “in the same way” to Israel—to the Mount of Olives. Not New York, or Rome, or Hong Kong, or Berlin, or Moscow. The Mount of Olives that overlooks Jerusalem, about a half mile from the city.
Thousands of years later, in 1741, Job’s beautiful words inspired George Frideric Handel to write his beautiful oratorio, the Messiah. It is these words of hope I leave you as a reminder that even in our most dire of circumstances and friends have left or questioned us, we can declare, “Yet! I know . . .”
*A Shabbat/Sabbath day’s journey would only be about a half mile according to tradition.
