Dear Readers and Listeners, Friends in Jesus Christ,
Our watchword for today is taken from the Book of Job, Chapter 19 verse 25, “I know that my Redeemer lives,” (NRSVB). Job listened to his three friends rebukes, their questioning and their relentless examining of his life, trying to find a reason for his dismal situation by pin-pointing his wrong doing. Job is completely down-casted and pained to think that his dearest friends do not have compassion on him in his pitiful estate. They even want to find ways of pronouncing him guilty of his own situation. He warns his friends that their words are persecuting him with their claim that he is the root cause of his afflictions. Job cannot find grounds of truth in his friends counsel, nor their relentless probing of his works and actions of the past. He finds no consolation in their words, nor does he find any wisdom in their utterances that points him to a loving God, the Giver and Taker of Life. Despite this situation, Job declares to his friends that he knows that God is his Redeemer and that He lives. God will come and vindicate him and plead his case, proving his guiltless state to his friends.
Whenever something goes wrong there will always be a whole team of investigators to find the culprits and try to bring them to book. People consider that there must be someone who has done something wrong in order for a certain situation to occur. They feel validated when they can show their evidence of fault and punish someone, even if the someone becomes a scapegoat, and the evidence is contrived. History has shown various fallacies of people’s investigations and their false proofs of wrong-doings. Were not people condemned and cancelled in the world of the Middle Ages, when they proposed that the earth was not the centre of the universe, but that it actually orbited the sun? When Jesus Christ, the Son of God stated that he was the One, the promised Messiah, coming from the Father, he was condemned on the account of blasphemy, and given the verdict of guilty. He was crucified. On the Cross he was affirmed by his Father, as his Son, when the earth shook and darkness fell upon it. The verdicts of people are not ultimate truth claims, only God knows the perfect truth. One day it would be revealed that the suffering of people were not caused by their own doing, but by a multitude of different circumstances, quite out of human ability to influence.
When Jesus was asked whose sin caused the man’s blindness, Jesus said neither his, nor his parents, as we read in the Gospel of John, Chapter 9 verse 2, “He was born blind that the workings of God should be manifested, displayed and illustrated in him,” (Amplified Bible). Jesus healed this man, and God’s miracle workings were manifested in him, however, it was still disbelieved by the religious leaders, notwithstanding the fact that they witnessed the miracle. Job’s friends were exasperated with him because he did not reveal to them the inner secret of his life, the wrong he committed, to suffer what he suffered. Such was their understanding and their form of counselling, it caused Job more harm than good, but God did deliver him and showed his cause as righteous before his friends. In this world, people who are suffering disease, heart-aches, pain and calamity, are also put on trial and under investigation to find what they have done to cause their pain. This heartless probing causes more damage and hurt to the all-ready pained person. God’s counsel came out of the whirlwind. God commended Job for believing, holding unto his faith that God would come and deliver him, pronouncing him justified.
Through the love and work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, our works and words, the past, has been forgiven and blotted out. God affirms us as justified through his Son and reveals that our suffering on earth has not been punishment, nor the results of our wrongs. God suffers deeply with those who suffer and he sets the record right and removes the blame and scorn that they suffer on earth, through the wrongful pronouncements of the world. Jesus prayed to his Father, as we read in John 12 verse 28, “Father, glorify your Name,” (NRSVB). Jesus was filled with sorrow and he prayed to his Father as he prepared to go to Jerusalem and the Cross. God’s voice was heard from Heaven, “I have already glorified by Name and I will glorify it again!” God affirmed Christ throughout his life, in his death and in his resurrection. God affirmed Job through his suffering, and his steadfast belief that God would come and redeem him, thus through Job, God’s name was glorified. Through the obedience of Christ and his work on the Cross for us, God Name was glorified and is still glorified. Our faith in God, to come to our aid, amidst of suffering, glorifies God’s Name. We do not understand our suffering, nor can we carry it alone. Christ stands with us and carries our load and affirms to us, that through our faithfulness, we glorify God’s Name.
Father, we do not understand the ways that we have to traverse in this world, nor do we understand suffering. However, we know that it has infinite meaning and purpose and you will make it clear and redeem us, in your perfect time. Help us to endure and keep our eyes set on you, for we know that our Redeemer lives and we will live with Him, Amen.