User blog:SouthWriter/This is NOT all there is

The Hope of the Resurrection

Job 14:14-15; 19:25-26

As often happens with blogs, days often fly by with no words flying from the keyboard. But because of this oversight, the mechanical "choosing the central verse" in this case is outweighed by two sets of verses in my readings from January 7th and 8th. Job asks a very important question, and then goes on to answer in five chapters later.

The Question: "If a man die, shall he live again?"

He has been tested beyond belief, and he has cursed the day of his birth, but now he comes to a point where he challenges his friends with the most important question of all. In a way, it is the old question "Is this all there is?" Having nothing of the revealed Scripture except perhaps the writings of Shem and the annals of the ancients (Genesis 1--11), Job realizes that the Creator, known to him as El Elyon (God Almighty), works outside of the lives of men. God had "taken" Enoch, and if a person lived a righteous life as that godly man has done, it followed that a life following that on the earth must be there with Him.

In his prayer to God, Job tells Him, "I will wait until my change comes." He was not sure what God had for him in the future, but he was sure that God would be at work when this life on earth was over. He awaited God's final call. He was ready to answer it.

The Answer: I know my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth. And though after my skin on this body is destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.

Indeed, there is more to existence than what we see around us. God has big plans for those he saves, that is for the redeemed! What a blessed hope that is to those who put their faith in the One Who Is -- the Self-existing and Almighty God. We may be in dreadful shape as a result of our sin, or on the receiving end of the sins of others, but we can know that God is in control.

Our kinsman redeemer, like Boaz for Ruth, or like Hosea with Gomer , has indeed "stood upon the earth." And in the end, he will change us all so that the Redeemed can live forever in a new body created for eternity with Jesus Christ who has redeemed us from our sin.