IF I DIE, DOES MY REDEEMER LIVE?

THE LIVING REDEEMER

"I know that my Redeemer liveth."—Job 19:25

"He ever liveth to make intercession."—Hebrews 7:25

            These words of Job are found in the second cycle of his controversy with his friends, and are contained in his answer to Bildad. Bildad, under varying figures of speech, had described the sufferings of Job, and by describing them had added to them. He had declared that such sufferings were only found in the dwellings of wickedness, the implicate being that wicked­ness, somewhere in the life of Job, was the reason of his sufferings. That was the persistent argument of his friends. Job, angry and scornful, replied, declaring that he knew his afflictions were from God, and saying that these men had no right to add to them. His reply as a whole was a definite denial of the charge thus implicitly made against him. In the midst of that reply, and out of the deep darkness in which Job found himself, there suddenly broke this great cry, this affirma­tion shining as a gleam of light. It was only transient. The next sentences show that he sank back at once into the gloom. But for the moment this remarkable gleam shone forth.

He had declared previously that his Witness was in heaven and his Recorder on high; but in this he went still further, and gave his Witness the name of Redeemer.

The beauty of these words is self-evident. It is impossible for us to read them without being conscious of the final interpretation of them in Christ. Let us however, for the moment, remember that the profoundest values of them Job could not have realized. These values were only brought into clear light by the Incarnation. Nevertheless the cry came out of his essential spirit life. Suddenly amid the darkness, and overwhelmed by the sorrows of the hour, Job seems to have caught the music of eternal things, as it swept across the strings which seemed to be broken by suffering. It is as though the personality of Job was like an ancient Greek harp across which the wind sweeps, making music. If he had, and could have, no complete sense of the historic fulfillment of the thing he said, nevertheless the great under­lying eternal truth was recognized; and of it Job had, momentarily at least, a con­sciousness as he broke out into these wonderful words :

"I know that my Redeemer liveth,

And that He shall stand up at the last upon the earth;

And after my skin hath been thus destroyed,

Yet from my flesh shall I see God;

Whom I shall see for myself,

And mine eyes shall behold, and not another."

Then the light faded immediately, and the next sentence ran:

"My reins are consumed within me."

Let us then consider the affirmation of Job, attempting to understand it, as to what it meant to him; and then turn to find the full interpretation and realization in Jesus.

The words, "My Redeemer" have a fullness of meaning to us which can only be interpreted in the incarnate Son of God. It is important that we should understand what the word meant as Job uttered it. The Hebrew word is the word "Goel," which is found scattered across the pages of the Old Testament Literature. To these people the "Goel" was the nearest and next of kin, whose duty it was to under­take the cause of another in case of need. We find most about the "Goel" in the Book of Ruth, where we have an illustration of the activity of such a one. We may summarize by saying that the "Goel" stood for another to defend his cause, to avenge wrongs done to him, and so to acquit him of all charges laid against him. In that sense Job said, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." The statement did not merely mean that his Redeemer existed. It is as though Job had said, 'Even though I die, He lives.' His declaration proved that in the midst of his agony for a moment at least, he was convinced that while there was no one to stand for him in life, all his friends having misunderstood him, all his acquaintances having left him, he yet had

a Kinsman Who was his Advocate, his Avenger, the One through Whom he would be acquitted.

In interpretation he ran on, affirming that this Redeemer would yet stand upon the earth, that is, upon the dust. The figure is entirely Eastern, and affirmed his conviction that some­where in the future, if not at the moment; his "Goel" would stand as a Witness to his integrity.

All this is emphasized, as continuing, he said :

"Yet from my flesh shall I see God; Whom I shall see for myself,

And mine eyes shall behold, and not another."

This was a consciousness, not merely of the fact of the existence of the Vindicator, but a conviction that he himself would see Him. At this point a question arises, which has caused some difficulty. What was the real meaning of that word "from," in the phrase, "from my flesh"? There are those who hold that it means away from the flesh; whereas there are those who understand it to mean, being still present in the flesh. The language of Rosalind in Shakespeare, "I thought it well to write from my home," certainly meant that she was away from home; but it may be equally true when writing a letter to say you write from your home and mean that you are at home when you are writing. Whether Job was then thinking of his existence as a spirit beyond the death of his body; or whether he was affirming a belief in resurrection, cannot be dogmatically decided. The one certain thing, however, is that he was conscious of the continuity of his personality beyond what we call death. There we have reached the revelation of the greatness of his assertion. Suddenly, for a passing moment, there came to this stricken man the widest outlook, in­cluding all the truth concerning God and him­self: the fact of the inter-relationship of the present with the future.

Continuing, he declared on the basis of that conviction that his Vindicator, his "Goel," would not only stand for him, but that he would see God. The very dark gloom in which Job was then living, and which seems to have settled back upon him immediately afterwards, serves to make the more re­markable this declaration that he found in God, One committed to him as a Redeemer. In a previous article we heard him ask the question, "If a man die, shall he live?" Here for a moment he had passed beyond the question, and was affirming that beyond death he himself would live; and moreover, would see God, and see Him as his Redeemer.

The question which arises is as to whether Job was right in that moment of illumination. Were the things that he saw true? I am not asking were they to become true in the future. Were they then true? The answer is of course found in the Incarnation. The Incarnation originated nothing other than complete revela­tion. When God became flesh in Jesus He did not come nearer to human nature than He had ever been; but He came into visibility. By that coming there was revealed the fact that what Job had said was literally true. Here we find the value of the words of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, "He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God through Him, for He ever liveth to make intercession for us." He is the "Goel," pleading our cause, and undertaking for us in every way.

It is an arresting fact that this statement in the letter to the Hebrews is found in close connection, and indeed is the culminating statement of the writer's references to Mel­chizedek. This Melchizedek is only referred to twice in Old Testament Literature: once in the history of Abraham, and once in a great Hebrew song. The writer of this letter to the Hebrews now takes hold of that Person, and declares that Jesus is a Priest of that order; and ultimately affirms that He "ever liveth to make intercession."

In Him therefore we find the complete fulfillment of what dawned upon Job in the midst of the darkness, as the shining of a light of hope and confidence. The One Who ever lives came into our earthly life, stood upon the dust for us, and argued our case on the earth level. By that unveiling we are brought to an understanding of how He forever repre­sents us, and argues our case in the high courts of heaven.

To return to our question: Was Job right?

Or was the thing that he saw a mirage of the desert, having no substance and no value? The answer to the question is given, as we have said, in Jesus. When Job, amid the desolation, declared that he had a "Goel" living and active, he was uttering a profound truth, the truth that in God, man has his Redeemer in all the fullest senses of that great word. It was a spiritual apprehension of an abiding fact, which fact came into clear shining when God was manifest in flesh. Jean Ingelow had a glimpse into the heart of the truth when she sang:

"And didst Thou love the race that loved not Thee?

And didst Thou take to heaven a human brow?

Dost plead with man's voice by the marvelous sea?

Art Thou his Kinsman now?

O God, 0 Kinsman loved, but not enough,

O Man with eyes majestic after death,

Whose feet have toiled along our pathways rough,

Whose lips drawn human breath."

He ever liveth, our "Goel," our Kinsman Redeemer, vindicating us, in spite of our sin, by His redeeming work, filling to the full all the suggestiveness of the word that Job employed; and indeed, more than filling it. Job throughout was arguing that he was not suffering for his sin, and he was right in so doing; but there are those who are suffering directly on account of their sin. To them also the great word applies in the Divine purpose and accomplishment; for as a Kinsman He takes their sin and so deals with it that they may be justified. This One "ever liveth to make intercession for us."