My Redeemer Lives

My Redeemer Lives

Job says these words at his lowest point — after losing his children, his health, and his wealth, and after enduring the unhelpful counsel of his friends. He has just described his isolation and God's apparent hostility. And then he pivots to one of the most powerful confessions of hope in the entire Old Testament: 'I know that my redeemer lives.' Not 'I hope' or 'I believe.' I know. Handel set this passage to music in Messiah and it became one of the most performed pieces in classical music history. But its original context is what makes it extraordinary: spoken from ash heaps, from the mouth of the most afflicted man in the Bible, the confession of living redemption.

The word 'Redeemer' (go'el) in Hebrew refers to the kinsman-redeemer — a family member obligated to rescue a relative in distress, to buy back what was lost, to vindicate the wronged. Job claims this kind of advocate, and he places him in the most ultimate context: 'in the end he will stand on the earth.' Job doesn't know when or how; he knows Who. This knowledge sustains him through the worst possible circumstances. Christian readers have always seen in Job's go'el the figure of Jesus — the ultimate kinsman who became flesh to redeem what was lost, who stands at the end as the vindicator of all who trust Him. Whatever your affliction today, Job's knowledge is available to you: My Redeemer lives. And He will have the last word.