Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.
Oh Friends, it’s supposed to be several degrees above freezing, with much rain, this winter Sunday in January. Now I’m not complaining, (smile) cause I’ll take rain over snow any day, just noting the recent change in weather patterns. Three decades ago that rarely happened, but it does now with regularity. I guess there’s some truth in the cliché that the only sure thing in this world is change. It’s like the lady, Etta Farrow, reputedly said about her face: ‘Those wrinkles are the maps of my life…They’re battle scars.’ And indeed they are, cause time and life readily etch all those monuments of pain and joy in our faces. But please remember Friends that the skin is only the outer covering, a protective layer for our most important part, our soul. Neither should we allow aging or wrinkled skin to affect, reduce or diminish our enjoyment of and for life. Granted, that as we increase in age, we won’t be able to do certain physical activities, but the soul is never too old to enjoy a life that’s abundantly filled with God’s gifts and blessings. Job even takes it all a step further when he says: ‘And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.’ My people, that’s a definitive statement of Job’s faith. In the previous verse he solemnly declares: ‘For I know that my Redeemer (Kinsman) liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.’ (Job 19:25) According to the scholars, God has humiliated Job, while his friends and relatives have abandoned him. (Job 19:21-22) He’s been reduced to begging for pity from them, but he’s still sure of his basic righteousness and confidently proclaims: ‘Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!’ (Job 19:23-24) He’s sure that if his case could be preserved for posterity, coming generations would give him a more favourable judgement than his current associates. And he’s also sure that he has a Redeemer, a Being, a Kinsman, who will stand up strong on his behalf, vigorously fight his cause and eventually provide his vindication. ‘Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another…’ Per the scholars, Job sees God Himself as the Redeemer, not His Son Jesus, as we do. However, according to them, the Hebrew word for Redeemer is often used to refer to God, so Job wasn’t wrong in his thinking. Please note Job’s contention, that after the worms destroy his body, ‘yet in my flesh shall I see God.’ He’s obviously talking about a resurrected fleshly body. The scholars claim that it can also be translated as ‘apart from my flesh,’ meaning a spiritual being, but the emphasis of the original Hebrew statement was ‘from the standpoint of my flesh’ in my resurrected body. And they use this as convincing evidence of the Old Testament belief in the resurrection of the human body. And there’s something to be said for that conclusion if one takes Bruh David’s closing remarks of Psalm 17, A prayer for protection against oppressors, into consideration. ‘As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.’ (Ps.17:15) Isaiah also contributes to that idea with these words. ‘Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.’ (Isa.26:19) Friends, Jesus uttered the official word on that in the Beatitudes. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.’ (Mat.5:8) Meanwhile, here’s Bruh Paul’s take on the subject in his reasoning on the way of LOVE. ‘For now we see through a glass (mirror) darkly (dimly); but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known.’ (1 Cor.13:12) We’ll leave the last word though with John. ‘Beloved, now are we the sons (children) of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ (1 John 3:2) Oh Friends, it doesn’t matter whether our form is flesh and blood, or spirit, or both, the important thing is that there will be a resurrection, and at the triumphal coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we believers will be like Him and be able to see Him and then dwell with Him till eternity. Jesus promised that, and He is ever faithful who promised. So Friends, let’s get our act together, put our houses in order NOW, and try to help others do the same, so that when that great day comes no one will be left in eternal darkness with Beelzebub. That’s Jesus’ greatest desire, and our job to help Him accomplish it. Much LOVE!…it matters not…in what form I live with Christ…just that I live with Him…till eternity…
Oh Friends, it’s supposed to be several degrees above freezing, with much rain, this winter Sunday in January. Now I’m not complaining, (smile) cause I’ll take rain over snow any day, just noting the recent change in weather patterns. Three decades ago that rarely happened, but it does now with regularity. I guess there’s some truth in the cliché that the only sure thing in this world is change. It’s like the lady, Etta Farrow, reputedly said about her face: ‘Those wrinkles are the maps of my life…They’re battle scars.’ And indeed they are, cause time and life readily etch all those monuments of pain and joy in our faces. But please remember Friends that the skin is only the outer covering, a protective layer for our most important part, our soul. Neither should we allow aging or wrinkled skin to affect, reduce or diminish our enjoyment of and for life. Granted, that as we increase in age, we won’t be able to do certain physical activities, but the soul is never too old to enjoy a life that’s abundantly filled with God’s gifts and blessings. Job even takes it all a step further when he says: ‘And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.’ My people, that’s a definitive statement of Job’s faith. In the previous verse he solemnly declares: ‘For I know that my Redeemer (Kinsman) liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.’ (Job 19:25) According to the scholars, God has humiliated Job, while his friends and relatives have abandoned him. (Job 19:21-22) He’s been reduced to begging for pity from them, but he’s still sure of his basic righteousness and confidently proclaims: ‘Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!’ (Job 19:23-24) He’s sure that if his case could be preserved for posterity, coming generations would give him a more favourable judgement than his current associates. And he’s also sure that he has a Redeemer, a Being, a Kinsman, who will stand up strong on his behalf, vigorously fight his cause and eventually provide his vindication. ‘Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another…’ Per the scholars, Job sees God Himself as the Redeemer, not His Son Jesus, as we do. However, according to them, the Hebrew word for Redeemer is often used to refer to God, so Job wasn’t wrong in his thinking. Please note Job’s contention, that after the worms destroy his body, ‘yet in my flesh shall I see God.’ He’s obviously talking about a resurrected fleshly body. The scholars claim that it can also be translated as ‘apart from my flesh,’ meaning a spiritual being, but the emphasis of the original Hebrew statement was ‘from the standpoint of my flesh’ in my resurrected body. And they use this as convincing evidence of the Old Testament belief in the resurrection of the human body. And there’s something to be said for that conclusion if one takes Bruh David’s closing remarks of Psalm 17, A prayer for protection against oppressors, into consideration. ‘As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.’ (Ps.17:15) Isaiah also contributes to that idea with these words. ‘Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.’ (Isa.26:19) Friends, Jesus uttered the official word on that in the Beatitudes. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.’ (Mat.5:8) Meanwhile, here’s Bruh Paul’s take on the subject in his reasoning on the way of LOVE. ‘For now we see through a glass (mirror) darkly (dimly); but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known.’ (1 Cor.13:12) We’ll leave the last word though with John. ‘Beloved, now are we the sons (children) of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ (1 John 3:2) Oh Friends, it doesn’t matter whether our form is flesh and blood, or spirit, or both, the important thing is that there will be a resurrection, and at the triumphal coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we believers will be like Him and be able to see Him and then dwell with Him till eternity. Jesus promised that, and He is ever faithful who promised. So Friends, let’s get our act together, put our houses in order NOW, and try to help others do the same, so that when that great day comes no one will be left in eternal darkness with Beelzebub. That’s Jesus’ greatest desire, and our job to help Him accomplish it. Much LOVE!…it matters not…in what form I live with Christ…just that I live with Him…till eternity…
SCRIP-BITS 