Job 19:23-27a (NRSV)
Read Job 19:23-27a on biblegateway.com
Verse 23"O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! Verse 24O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! Verse 25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; Verse 26and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, Verse 27whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Devotion
Another senseless tragedy: a bright life extinguished too early. Parents left grieving, strangers asking, why? It happens, sadly, too often, in communities of all sizes and locations. One of those senseless tragedies struck close to home last week. It left a community in shock and a family with a broken heart. Yet in the midst of their deep grief, the family managed to affirm their faith, saying, "God is good. Our family is strong. The resurrection is true. We will make it."
Faced with overwhelming suffering, Job manages to affirm his own faith: “For I know that my Redeemer lives.” Yet I don’t hear Job’s cry as a here-I-stand declaration. I hear it as an I-desperately-need-to-believe-God-is-God call of anguish. In the face of everything he has faced, Job’s heart is breaking. But he has not given up on God.
In times like these, we believe because not believing is worse. Believing gives us hope. It gives us the strength to take the next breath, to face the next day. And we pray that slowly, somehow, God’s mercy will give us what we need to carry on.
Prayer
Great Redeemer, in the face of tragedy, injustice, sorrow and loss, we place our trust, our hope, our very lives in your hands. Do not disappoint us. Amen.