I know my Redeemer liveth

It is very common for us to quote what someone has said. The problem arises if we are questioned on the validity. It is common also for us to recite someone’s claims of what he will do. We back out under cross-examination concerning our conviction that the person will perform it actually. In the Bible, God’s Word, the position of Job is different. He told us not what he heard from people or read from any books, but what he knew. “I know my Redeemer liveth,” Job 19:25.
It is possible to confuse someone on what he had heard or read from books or convince him that he is wrong, but not on what he knows for it is inside him. He can die, still standing on what he knows. Some retired military officers were threatened, during the military regime, that they would be reduced in rank if they continued to fight for democracy. One of them, a Real Admiral, said something very impressive, that Real Admiral was inside him, based on his military experience and the trainings he received, which cannot be reduced by demotion in rank. “I know my Redeemer lives,” said Uncle Job and there is nothing anybody can do about it.
When we know something, we do not open any file to be checking whether we are right or wrong on it. It applies only to what we know, and we know that we know it. We do not consult anybody also for its confirmation. I am a man and I know it, I have never consulted anybody for its confirmation and I will never do that. It is the same thing with my name. I know that my name is Osondu. I do not need to ask anybody for the confirmation, even in my dream. That was why Uncle Job spoke with certainty that he knew that his Redeemer lives. He knew that truly. All the children of God know this truth also, that their Redeemer is living.
The time someone tells us something is important. Many people are fond of telling beautiful things about God or about themselves, when the going is good with them, but their story changes when they are passing through excruciating situations. Job’s position is different once again. He is telling us something good about God, even at a time some people might be asking him, “Where is your God”, for him to be passing through such experiences. Imagine a very rich man, the richest in the community, becoming very poor overnight! Imagine a man with many children, losing all of them the same day, while the children of unbelievers were alive! How could such a man minister to unbelievers and still tell them that he has a good God? In that poor situation, Uncle Job was bold to declare, “I know my Redeemer liveth”. Ndewo!
Imagine a man who was enjoying good health and a strange sickness now attacks him, such that some parents might warn their children never to enter his compound. Not bothering, you could be hearing from a distance his songs of praise. His songs were in appreciation of the faithfulness and goodness of God! When his wife could no longer tolerate that ‘stupidity’, she told him to turn his back to God, Who had left him in that miserable condition, and curse Him. Instead of agreeing with her, since her words made much sense to his predicament, but not to Uncle Job, he rebuked her and stood on his conviction, “I know my Redeemer liveth”.
Uncle meant his word and added, “Though He slays me, yet will I serve Him,” Job 13:15. That was a great pain to Satan, for someone he thought he had dehumanized through suffering and pain, to still have that confidence in God. This is a great challenge to us, believers. Some believers are very strong in the doctrines of their Church or Ministry. A little pain may cause them to abandon the doctrine mid-stream. For Uncle Job, he was consistent, in pleasure or pain, confessing what was inside him and nothing could change it.
It is important for us to reflect why he called God, ‘My Redeemer’. He is truly. As the Redeemer, it means that in spite of what Job was passing through, he had the conviction that God would redeem him from his predicament. The secret of his success was that he made up his mind not to listen to the evil sermons of Satan, but to be listening rather to God and His Word. The Lord Jesus rebuked Satan and commanded him to get behind Him. He succumbed to that.
Not only did Job know that God is the Redeemer, he personified Him, by calling Him ‘My Redeemer’. That means, that come rain, or sunshine, he was okay, assured that God, his God, would meet him at his point of need. And He did! In the primary school, we were taught to recite, ‘Our Father, Who art in Heaven…’ When I was born-again, our Church leaders were not comfortable, when I started praying, ‘My Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name…’ From the day someone is born-again, God became personal to him. He must live, not to please people really, but God.
With our Lord Jesus as our Lord and Personal Saviour, we are more privileged than Uncle Job. It is important then for us to be sure that we have a personal relationship with Him. It was this knowledge, that the Lord Jesus lived in them, that made ten of the disciples of Jesus to have been murdered in cold blood, like their Master, and they remained still faithful to Him to the end. Mary Magdalene went to the grave of the Lord Jesus to anoint his dead body very early in the morning. She did not mind if soldiers on guard, would arrest and kill her! It was a great manifestation of one’s love for God. The Lord Jesus cherished that love revealed Himself to her. He ordained her an Evangelist and sent to inform Peter and John of His resurrection.
The woman with the issue of blood acted it. Uncle Jairus had booked an appointment with the Lord Jesus for the healing of her sick daughter. A certain woman, who was suffering from the issue of blood, and who had spent fortunes on it, without being healed, heard that Jesus was passing that way. After hearing that the Lord Jesus was restoring health to the sick, she believed that if she touched Him, she would be healed and she did. She was healed. There was nothing anybody could speak against divine healing and she would accept it. She would not have been healed if all she did was to try whether the Lord would heal her. She was sure and she even told it to herself what would happen if she touched Him. Many people were touching Him when they were passing, though they might be sick, but nothing happened to them, because, unlike Aunty’s touch, they had no expectations.
It is incumbent for us, not only to know, but to declare it boldly that we know that the Lord Jesus, our Redeemer, lives.
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0909 041 9057; [email protected]