while today

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will rise up over the dust of this world.

 “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall behold God,

“Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27 LSB)

These are the words of Job.  They are words of hope from a man who was at the lowest point of his life.  He had “hit rock bottom” in a way that few mortals will ever experience.  He had lost all his possessions, his children, and his health.  Even his friends and his own wife had turned against him and brought him no comfort.  Job was left completely rocked and bewildered by all of this.  In his anguish, he said some things he should not have said (see God’s response to him in 38:1 and 40:1-2), but we see in these words the hope to which he held.

Job knew that His redeemer (or vindicator) lived.  He knew that one day God would stand over the dust of this earth and make things right.  Job knew that one day, even though his body would be destroyed, he would see God in his flesh and with his own eyes.

You and I can hold to the same hope, and since we live on this side of the cross of Jesus, we can hold this hope with even more clarity and certainty.  No matter how bad things get in this world, no matter the struggles we go through in this life, God is going to set everything right one day.  And though our flesh will fail us, and our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, we will see God in our (new and glorious) body.  Our eyes will behold our Lord Jesus.  We will be like Him.  We will be with Him for all eternity in our heavenly home.

Praise God for the gift of His Son, who has given us this sure and steadfast hope. 

—Scott Colvin