Once prosperous from every consideration, then destitute of this world's goods and even of his health, yet Job maintained the hope of a heavenly hereafter that sufficiently overshadowed every present distress. Job demonstrated confidence in the Lord to whom he gladly trusted his eternity. Job earnestly desired that the consolation with which he was comforted based on this hope would be realized by many others as well.
Job's hope and confidence was three-fold: (1) Job was confident that the Redeemer lives; (2) he also fully expected that the Messiah would someday appear to rescue his and other souls; and, (3) Job was hopeful and confident regarding the general resurrection in which he would participate.
These reflections encouraged Job in the face of his severe adversity and served as the basis of his hope. Likewise, contemporary children of God who find themselves greatly afflicted or facing death can appropriate to themselves consolations through the same hope. Certainly, for the rest of us who are relatively free from great trials, we can also through this hope known to Job find sufficient strength to satisfactorily cope with daily affairs.
The Redeemer of whom Job spoke is the Christ (i.e., Savior, Messiah) whose function and certain ministry on earth was first intimated in Genesis 3:15. That our Redeemer lives is the foundation of all our hope; if our God were dead as some declare, we could have no hope. Job had sure hope based on the resurrection long before the earthly walk of Christ, His crucifixion and triumphant resurrection; we see so much more clearly than Job and yet he harbored great hope--the same hope.
Unlike idolaters whose worship pertains to dead gods fashioned from stone, wood, metal and the imaginations of men, Christians have a living Savior. Our Great Prophet is alive ever more, whereas Moslems revere a dead (buried) prophet. Jews reject the Christ and have no Savior (Redeemer). Only Christians have a living Savior--who resides in heaven at the right hand of God (Acts 1:9-10; 7:55-56).
Jesus our Messiah is coming back to rescue the righteous. In Job's day, the first advent of our Lord was still future, to which he referred (19:25). However, when Jesus returns, He will not stand on the earth (Zechariah 6:12-13; Hebrews 8:4).
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is the hope of both Old and New Testament children of God; our eternity depends on it. While necessarily the "first" coming preceded the future "second" coming, were Jesus not to come again, the "first" coming would be meaningless. The Second Coming of the Lord is the cardinal hope of Christians (1 Corinthians 15; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) and the dreadful fear of the ungodly (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
The general resurrection is pending (John 5:28-29). Job believed in a bodily resurrection (19:26), which is also a principle of Gospel truth (1 Corinthians 15:49-54; Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:2-3). Our hope for eternity rests on our resurrection from the grave; we know we shall be resurrected because the resurrection of Christ guarantees our resurrection. Without our resurrection all would be hopeless (1 Corinthians 15:19).
We have a common hope with Job and God's people of all dispensations: (1) our Redeemer lives; (2) our Redeemer is coming for us; and (3) our Redeemer will resurrect us.
Job desired that his hopes might be recorded in a book or engraved in stone so that others might develop the same kind of hope and become beneficiaries of the same consolations. His words, though, are immortalized in the eternal volume, the Bible, for all of every time to see.
Modern man has often derived comfort from Job's words as he sings them: "I know that my Redeemer lives." May our Redeemer live in each of us as we always abide in the Gospel.
