JOB 19:25 – For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.”

This nugget is very dark. Dark in the sense the person stating today’s scripture, Job, is in a very dark place.  Let me encourage you to do one thing.  Right now, read all of Job 19. It is only 29 verses. When you are done come back and join me.

Job is hurting, isn’t he?  A person would be hard pressed to even think that Job is a believer!   Notice what he says God is doing to him – tormenting, breaking, put him in the wrong, walled up his way, set darkness on his path, breaks me down, kindled His wrath against me, counts me as His adversary, left him without human companionship, even family, his bones stick to his skin, and my heart faints within me.

Yet, during his hopeless darkness, he sees light.  He doesn’t feel light, but he sees or knows there is light.  And the Light is his Redeemer.

In today’s scripture, Job is doing what a believer can only do – cling to the certainty of God’s Person and character.  Job does not feel God’s joy and love, but he knows both are with him. To be able to cry out of such pain, “For I know that my Redeemer lives” is the height of mature faith during severe trials and suffering.

The lesson from Job is this – never trust feelings, never trust circumstances, and never trust the lies from self and Satan.  We follow Job’s faithful example by trusting what we know of God which never changes.  Yes, we may not know the depths of suffering as Job, but we will be tested by God that will include suffering because suffering is effective. It weans us from the world.  It intensifies our longing for God. It causes us to seek Him more for the only means of real comfort.  But Job isn’t the only example of a believer in deep pain that holds on to the faithfulness of God.  Think on the Apostle Paul’s experience described in the opening chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).

Remember, we don’t travel to heaven on a smoothly paved road.  There are “potholes” of suffering, grief, loss, and sorrows along the way, but no matter the intensity of our circumstances, there is always hope when we don’t feel hope.  Why?  The God who promised us Himself and His care cannot lie.

PRAYER: “Father, help me exercise gutsy faith in You when I feel You are so far away from me.”

QUOTE: “Periods of spiritual darkness, even spiritual depression, are common trials for many believers.”