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Words IV - My Redeemer Lives ...

Thursday, June 30, 2016. Thinking about words, I ran into the biblical discussion which Job had with his friends, when he was suffering and they were discussing the cause of his problems. The friends were searching sin in his life. Job insisted that he was innocent. We hear about this in detail in the book of Job.

God's hand On Me …

The story of Job is one of the most moving stories in the Old Testament. The story about someone who wants to follow God with all his heart - and yet runs into deep trouble, looses a good part of his family and is suffering from illness and shame. And on top of all of this, his friends blame him for all the trouble.

The book is also an example of the use of words - good and bad. We see a bad example in the way the friends of Job use words. They use it to blame, but they do not provide further insight. They do not know, yet cause further trouble. They do not have words of comfort, but empty words. On the other hand, the whole book is highly instructive and provides deep insight into suffering and the struggle with understanding.

After a lot of frustration, Job finds a path to mercy and faith. In all his trouble, he turns to God, the source and salvation. The book is a fantastic example of faith, including the alienation which can appear even when you are walking in faith, and the reconciliation driven by the mercy of the almighty God. Let us read in Job 19:

For I know that …

21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! 22 Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? 23 “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! 24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! 25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.2 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 19, 21ff)

I know that my redeemer lives! What is the highest thing you can ever achieve in life? It is this certainty, this trust, this doubtlessness. My redeemer lives. Deep in my soul, deep in my mind, deep in my emotions I know that God is an eternal father who saves and loves and holds. And by his mercy, God reaches me, my life, my heart, my future. I know …!

I know that my redeemer lives! I know that I need redemption. I know that it is not my power, my strength, my justice, my achievement. It is him, his mercy. He is the creator, I am created. All I have is grace, is given, is mercy from the very beginning. All life not lived in mercy and by mercy is illusion. But my redeemer lives! What a joy. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts