Job 19:25

I know that my Redeemer lives!

Now, if we're being honest with ourselves, who woke up this morning ready to make a proclamation like Job's? Don't we more often think, I sure hope my redeemer lives. We envy the people who have this kind of faith. But us? We're a little more wobbly. We're freshly recovering from a fight with our friend or our spouse. We're trying to forget about the situation at work that might end up getting us fired. We can't stop thinking about the trouble that our children have gotten themselves into. We consider the people in our lives, wondering what they would think of us if they knew what was really going on. We hope that our Redeemer lives. We know for sure that we need redeeming, otherwise we wouldn't have read a devotion like this. But we're not 100 percent sure that redemption is available for us. We hope it is, Job, though, seems pretty confident.

But this is Job! Job, the one guy who doesn't seem to have any reason to be confident. Job is the guy who was minding his own business, living a good life, when he became the subject of a bet between God and Satan. Job, whose wife deserts him and whose children all die, whose cattle are killed and who is covered, head to foot, with sores. And yet, in his suffering - through his suffering - Job is aware that he has a Redeemer.

When Jesus hung on the cross, His cry was not for a redeemer. When He was abandoned by those who loved Him, when He was assaulted, beaten, scorned, mocked, tortured, and killed, He didn't say, "I know that My Redeemer lives." He said, "It is finished." He might as well have said, "You cry out for a redeemer. I am the redeemer, and I have done My work."

Jesus' "it is finished" - His life, death, and resurrection - is our assurance. We have a Redeemer, and He lives.

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