Hanging on to Truth…Hanging on to Hope

Job19:25-27a "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." ESV

 

Talk about hanging on to truth. That is what Job did. It is all he had. His friends, siblings, servants, wife, young children all rejected him. He was "stripped from his glory" v9. Any respect that he had was gone. Not only was he physically spent, but he was emotionally and socially wasted as well. Everything that he ever had that he could look at that was good in his life was eliminated. What did he have left?

 

"For I know that my Redeemer lives and when it is all said and done, after my body has been destroyed, I will, in my body, see God." This is the promise of the resurrection. This is the hope of the coming life. Why? Because of His Redeemer. Because there was One who was going to buy him and in this purchase would give him life because that One was and is alive.

 

The thing is, this life thing that Job was talking about was not just an ethereal thing. It wasn't just a spiritual thing…it was a real thing. It was a tangible thing. It was a physical thing. After his body was destroyed that same body would come back and with his own eyes he would see God. This was the truth that Job knew. He could not see it. He was not experiencing it yet, but he knew that this was his sure future…and he hung on to it.

 

I am a member of a church of close to 300 people. It is a size where you see and hear about things going on in people's lives. It is big and small enough to hear and care and pray. What have we been praying for latterly? People with cancer. I have just counted five people who, in the last two months have had to deal with this disease. What do they hang on to? What is their hope? "I know that my Redeemer lives and …in my flesh I will see God." What hope, what truth do we all have to hang on to no matter what hits us in our lives here? "I know that my Redeemer lives and…in my flesh I will see God." This is it. This is the ultimate. This is our foundation. Our Redeemer Jesus lives and because He lives we will live forever too.

 

Frankly, this is what a lost, dying, sin sick, politically wrecked, bankrupt, morally empty world needs. It is their only hope. It is my only hope.