Redeemer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTGABqAE-7k   

This is an old song but it was going round in my head as I was thinking about the word Redeemer.

Redeemer - one who buys back, pays for, makes an exchange. ( In the Bible most often used with reference to buying people back from slavery)

 (Job 19:25) For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

Job is quite a guy.  He suffers the torment of losing absolutely everything and yet can still say these words.  My Redeemer.  Job has lost his wife, his children, his home, his business and his health.  He knows God is allowing this systematic destruction of his life but he doesnt really know why.  And yet he can still call this God  MY REDEEMER.   Amazing.   I think it can be easy to read the end of Jobs story and think ' oh well, he got it all back again and then some so it was all worth it in the end.' .  But to read it like that is to misunderstand the nature of grief.  If your children have died, having more children doesnt in any way ' compensate' for the loss.  If your house has burned down, buying another house will not replace all the things you lost in the fire or heal the trauma of the experience or give you back the memories that house held.  Job suffered a LOT.  And I dont think that suffering was lessened in any way by the blessings he received at the end of his life.  If I were Job I'd find it exceedingly hard to see God as anything other than harsh and cruel.  Im pretty sure I would not be able to call him MY REDEEMER.   Especially given that Job was living centuries before Jesus.

Somehow, in the middle of his suffering, Job was given a deep understanding of the bigger picture.  He saw with the eyes of faith that at the end of everything God was going to pay for it all, ransom us out of hell,  buy us back from sin, redeem us.  

I know a couple of people who have suffered greatly in this life.  People of immense and deep faith who can somehow look above their impossible circumstances and physical pain and persecution by others.  These are people who have allowed suffering to forge and temper them but not control or destroy them.  They have been given gifts of faith to persevere, and to believe that God is with them in the suffering and will redeem it all in the end.  It is incredibly humbling to know these people.  And challenging.   How many of us moan and whinge about the minor inconveniences of life and automatically assume that any trials or testing come from the enemy?    

I want to say more about what Jesus was doing on the cross as He died to redeem all the sin and pain and suffering and turn it into glory and joy and freedom.  But I have neither the words or the understanding.  There's a vague sense that I know the truth of this but cant communicate it in any helpful way.  So I just trust and hope that as you chew on the concept of Jesus My Redeemer you can find a deeper appreciation for all that means this Christmas.



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