I Know My Redeemer Lives

Job 19:23-29 

The greatest testimony of immortality in the Old Testament; “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.”  Job 19:25

Refuting the belief of his time that there was no life after death, Job unequivocally affirmed that he would see God after death.  As a non-Israelite without the promises of God, he proclaimed the coming of the Redeemer to earth at the end of the age.

The book of Job is written mostly in poetic form, and some wonder if the book of Job is a parable or allegory. Jesus often told parables with characters and situations assumed not to be literal as a means of illustrative teaching.

Based on the way Job is introduced, Job 1:1-3, and references to Job in the books of Ezekiel 14:14 and James 5:11, there is solid reason to interpret the book as historical.  From personal experience I know the unlikelihood that anyone could create such a story as Job’s for the sake of poetry or instruction alone.

Job rose from despair, from the ashes of extreme loss and suffering to state his resolute faith that in his flesh he would see his redeemer. His remarkable anticipation of Jesus’ coming to earth enabled his faith and perseverance. 

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Job 13:15 

The Hebrew word for redeemer (goel/kinsman) was part of the Mosaic Code. Jesus our Elder Brother and great Kinsman Redeemer recovered our lost estate of paradise through His death of the cross.  (Henry Gariepy, 100 Portraits of Christ.)

Our grief can become a passage to deeper trust and intimate relationship with God as we consider Job’s “sold out to God” faith in the Redeemer that he knew only through suffering.