“Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has struck me.
“Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
“Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
“That with an iron stylus and lead
They were engraved in the rock forever!
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
“Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
Whom I myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My heart faints within me!
“If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’
And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find?’
“Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
So that you may know there is judgment.” ~ Job 19:21-29
Even though Job complained that he needed pity from his friends because “the hand of God had struck him,” he knew his Redeemer lives and that He would take His stand on the earth one day. Job lived centuries before the birth of Jesus, yet he knew that he had a living Redeemer who would be there at the end of time. We have the benefit of history—Jesus lived, died, and was raised again, and He has promised that He will come again and take His followers to the new city and the new earth to live forever.
Lord God, I know my Redeemer lives, that He will come to judge the world, and that He will take all who believe in Him to live with Him forever in the new heaven and the new earth. May I live my life here and now in preparation for that great day of His return. In His name. Amen.
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