Job and the Hope of Easter

In the week before Easter, I’m reading the Book of Job. Plodding through the verbose ponderings of his “friends” as they opine and try to make sense of Job’s suffering and misery.

Job is not impressed.

“You are all miserable comforters. Is there no end to your empty words? …How long will you torment me and crush me with words?” (Job 16:1-2; 19:2).

Hope uprooted

He proceeds to speak with clarity the grief and devastation he has experienced. It’s a lonely place. Painful. Nothing makes sense. He cries out but there are no answers.

“He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass through;

He has veiled my paths with darkness.

He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined.

He uproots my hope like a tree.” (Job 19:8-10)

And there’s more. Abandoned. Forgotten. Even bad breath that’s offensive to his wife. (The wife who advised him to curse God and die.)

Permanent record

He wants his experiences permanently recorded.

“I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead!” (Job 19:23-24)

Job had no idea. Millenia after he penned those words, I am reading them in print on paper. The Bible I hold is one of the billions printed across the world in multiple languages. And now that number increases exponentially as the Word is accessed digitally on all types of screens.

Job’s anguished cries have been read and heard from cathedral pulpits and outdoor chapels, in dark corners of prison cells and at hospital bedsides, in world-class cities and remote villages, by people from every stratum of society. He has verbalized the heart cries of multitudes through the ages.

Living Hope

And his next words never fail to astound me.

Job in the throes of suffering utters the Hope of the ages. One of the earliest recorded books of the Bible proclaiming the One who was to come.

“But I know that my Redeemer lives

And at the end, He will stand on the dust.

Even after my skin has been destroyed,

Yet I will see God in my flesh.

I will see Him myself;

My eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger.

My heart longs within me.” (Job 19:25-27)

Job didn’t know that his Redeemer would suffer and die. That His bruised and pierced body would be placed in a tomb.

Stripped of honor. Uprooted.

Then on the third day, resurrection from the dead! Victory over sin and death. Standing on the dust of the earth.  And ascending into heaven.

Yes, our Redeemer lives!

Worshiping with hope

This Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I’ll be thinking about Job.

Someday we and Job will be standing together before the Throne. Worshiping with a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language. The redeemed clothed in new bodies, with new skin. Face to face with our Redeemer.

Our hearts long within us.

Alleluia!

What about you?

How are you celebrating Easter this year? How do you focus on our Redeemer during this season? What is your go-to Scripture verse for sharing the living hope that is within you?