There were many things that Job did not know. Sud denly stripped of all his possessions and crushed by sor row and disease, he did not know the reason for all his anguish. He could not read the meaning of his tears. But, blessed be God, he could appropriate the grace of God for his specific need, and thus face the future un afraid. Have we this joy of personal assurance? Separating ourselves from the multitude that is about us, the multi tude that knows not Christ, can each of us say: ‘“I know that my Redeemer liveth”? Or, realizing that countless myriads are trusting the Saviour, can we look up into His face and confess: “Thou art my Redeemer”? Unless this matter is intensely personal, and we can say with Job, “I know,” the present Easter season will mean nothing more to us than a spring holiday. If the Christ of Easter is not our personal Saviour, He can become so only by the exercise of a personal faith. Christ died for the sins of all men, and rose from the dead for the justification of all people; but that gen eral truth must be made personal. With the hand of faith upon the dear head of the Lamb of God, each soul must be able to confess: “This is my Redeemer.” A Certain Appearing By faith, Job was enabled to see far into the future, to behold not only the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth, but also His second return in glory. It is as though two great mountain peaks loomed before Job, the one obscured by the other, so that he was un aware of the valley that lay between. Job spoke of One who “shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." The picture suggests authority. Isaiah described this coming One as “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” The day is coming when Christ shall take His rightful place, and this sin-scarred, blood-drenched earth shall respond to the holy commands of the King. Earn estly we pray: Come, blessed Lord, bid every shore And answering island sing Thoughts of the Redeemer were, to Job, a constantly purifying hope; and this experience is shared by every true child of God. One’s reactions to the smallest trivial ities of everyday life are influenced by this realization: At any moment, I may be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, “whom I shall see for myself.” What holy joy this fact Imparts! I know a home where there was great excitement. Such a house-cleaning as that place was given! Such buying of supplies for the kitchen and for the wardrobe! Such radiant joy on all faces! What was the reason for all this? A soldier-son was coming home on furlough. Heaven’s dearest Son is coming back to earth, not just on furlough, but to reign forever. Thoughts of His nearness should purify and gladden every moment of our lives. Perhaps, even before we shall have opportu nity to sing together once more that glorious Easter hymn, Up from the grave He arose, With a mighty triumph o’er His foes, His victory shall be complete, and He Himself shall ap pear. In heart and life, are we readying ourselves to welcome our triumphant, glorious Redeemer? T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S The praises of Thy royal name, And own Thee as their King. Jesus—the whole creation groans: The air, the earth, the sea, In unison with all our hearts, And calls aloud for Thee. A Confident Aspiration
From another angle, we were slaves of Satan and Justly doomed to eternal woe, having no kinsman to vin dicate our cause and interpose for us by power or price. We were sold under sin. Easter, however, reminds us of Christ our Redeemer, who, veiling His deity in human flesh that He might sympathize, suffer, and save, paid a terrible price in order to redeem His enemies from the curse. He “gave himself a ransom for all.” By His own blood, He re deemed us from sin and the grave, and by His power He conquered our murderer. Hallelujah, what a Saviour! The story is told of a Russian officer whose accounts could not be made to balance and who feared that the merciless despotism of the empire would allow no room for leniency in dealing with him. While hopelessly por ing over his balance sheet, and in despair of ever mak ing up his deficiency, he wrote half inadvertently on the page before him, "Who can make good this deficit?” Then he fell asleep at his table. The Czar, passing by, saw Ine sleeping officer, glanced curiously at the pages, and, taking up the pen, wrote underneath the question these words: "I, even I, Alex ander.” Who is there who is really able to pay the sinner’s debt to a broken law? There is One who died and rose again, and from the cross of Calvary, from the tomb in the garden, from the throne in Heaven, He an swers, “I am he.” A Continual Advocacy One of the most amazing aspects of Job’s Easter evangel is that he knew that his Redeemer was alive. He declared: “I know that my redeemer liveth.” This present-tense word liveth, implies a continual existence. As the Eternal One, the Redeemer must have been alive in, as well as before, Job’s day; He is “alive for ever more.” Job used the term liveth, as applied to the Re deemer, in opposition to his own condition. Man dies; his Ooel lives! Because of the ravages of a skin disease, Job antici pated the utter destruction of his bodily frame, but he affirmed that his Redeemer was deathless. Having been made by the living God, Job needed a living Redeemer, one who would be able to undertake for him when he slipped away into the shadows of the tomb. Like Job, we, too, face separation and the grave. Un less we are among the number who are “caught up to gether . . . in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” at His return for His own (1 Thess. 4:17), we must each pass through the experience of death. When we come to the end of life, we shall need the Divine One to hold our “right hand, saying . ... Fear not; I will help thee” —He who has gone, that way before, and has come through, living and triumphant! Bless God, there is no trusting child of His who ap proaches "the valley of the shadow" alone. “I am he that liveth,” cries our victorious Lord, and, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." The advocacy of Christ has to do not only with the possibly distant prospect of our dying, but also with the present fact of our living. He “ever liveth to make in tercession” for us. There, at the right hand of God, He pleads our cause; He prays for us. Sometimes we hear Christian people complaining about a lack of sympathy among believers, and perhaps one will say: “I have just nobody to pray for me!” If you are a child of God, Jesus Christ prays for you. Day and night, He intercedes for you. A Conditional Appropriation In Job’s majestic utterance, note the personal element: / -. . . my. Phrases like I know, my Redeemer, I shall see for myself, and many others, speak of Job’s per sonal faith. t i j e Eight
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