SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Our story begins with a very old man, a man who had spent his years blazing his own trail through life.
SPEAKER_01: He accomplished it quite successfully.
SPEAKER_01: So successfully that he'd become quite wealthy.
SPEAKER_01: But along the way, he angered people.
SPEAKER_01: He burned every bridge that was possible to be burned.
SPEAKER_01: He lived as a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_01: We could probably accurately call him a trickster or maybe even a master manipulator.
SPEAKER_01: Late in life, filled with grief and loss, death by starvation seemed possible and near.
SPEAKER_01: As we hear the story of this man's life, we are left to wonder how this particular life could ever turn out for good.
SPEAKER_01: It would make perfect sense if this man was left alone, all alone, to die alone because of the way he had treated people throughout his life.
SPEAKER_01: It would be a tragedy, but it would be a tragedy brought on by his own decisions.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not at all the way this story ends.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: This man was once named Jacob, but that's no longer his name.
SPEAKER_01: He is Abraham's grandson, Isaac's son, whom God met one night by a stream of water.
SPEAKER_01: And near that stream of water, God and Jacob wrestled during the night.
SPEAKER_01: That was ironic.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jacob had spent his life wrestling, wrestling with people, figuratively, wrestling with life itself in order to manipulate everything to his own benefit.
SPEAKER_01: He even tried to do that with the angel of God that dark night.
SPEAKER_01: But that night, God claimed ownership of that scoundrel of a man.
SPEAKER_01: He changed his name.
SPEAKER_01: Changing someone's name was a sign of authority or ownership over a person.
SPEAKER_01: And before that night of wrestling with God ended, Jacob demanded a blessing from the angel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the blessing he received was a name change.
SPEAKER_01: No longer would this scoundrel be named Jacob, but he would be called Israel.
SPEAKER_01: No longer would he connive his way through life, but he would belong to God.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we are embarking on a four-week path of seeing through the scriptures how God unveiled his Redeemer, his promised Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And our primary text for this morning is Genesis chapter 48.
SPEAKER_01: There, Israel, Abraham's grandson, is an old man.
SPEAKER_01: He's on his deathbed, giving his final blessing to his children.
SPEAKER_01: And as part of the blessing, he has formally adopted two of his grandchildren, the sons of Joseph, his son, who would take their place alongside Jacob's biological children.
SPEAKER_01: And in his blessing of these two grandsons turned sons, Jacob invoked the help of God.
SPEAKER_01: He said in chapter 48 of Genesis and verse 15, the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil blessed the boys, and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: There's much to Israel's statement there.
SPEAKER_01: There's a wealth of detail about his faith, about his trust in God, but we're going to have to be satisfied this morning with just a simple summary.
SPEAKER_01: This is very near the end of his life.
SPEAKER_01: So at the end of 147 years of life, this conniving scoundrel of a man has finally humbly recognized the hand of God in his life, submitting to him as his shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: The same God who called Abraham to leave his family and to go out to an unknown land, all in faith, the same God who passed on those promises given to Abraham to his son Isaac is the same God whom Israel knows has been his shepherd all the days of his life.
SPEAKER_01: Even when he didn't think or know that he was there, he believes that he was.
SPEAKER_01: Then he humbly asks that the same blessing that's been passed on from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob would now be passed on to Joseph's sons, adopted as his own.
SPEAKER_01: But before that, really kind of couched in the middle of this is this intriguing statement the angel who has redeemed me from all evil.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this angel?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we have some hints throughout the later chapters of Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: For example, back in chapter 31, Jacob had a dream.
SPEAKER_01: And he related that dream to his wives.
SPEAKER_01: And he said in Genesis 31, verse 11, the angel of God said to me in the dream, and a little bit later he says in verse 13, here I am.
SPEAKER_01: I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me.
SPEAKER_01: Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.
SPEAKER_01: Very similar to the command given to Abraham many, many years earlier.
SPEAKER_01: But what's interesting here is in this dream there's this angel of God that speaks to him.
SPEAKER_01: And then he immediately identifies himself.
SPEAKER_01: I am the God of Bethel.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that God could appear as an angel?
SPEAKER_01: It says it very clearly right there that in this dream, the angel is the God of Bethel.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that parallels what we see here in chapter 48.
SPEAKER_01: This is the God before whom his fathers walked, the God who has been his shepherd, this is the angel who has redeemed him.
SPEAKER_01: They are all couched together.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, after that dream in chapter 31, where the God of Bethel speaks to him as an angel, Jacob finds himself wrestling with a man in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_01: A man who identifies himself as God.
SPEAKER_01: As God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And whom Jacob even identifies as God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he called the place Peniel, the face of God.
SPEAKER_01: I have seen the face of God and survived.
SPEAKER_01: And now in chapter 48, Jacob praises that angel.
SPEAKER_01: This angel is God himself who took on a form of an angel and took on the form of a human being at different points in Jacob's life.
SPEAKER_01: And it is that angel who is clearly identified as God himself, whom Israel now worships on his deathbed.
SPEAKER_01: This is the one, Jacob said, who has redeemed him from all evil.
SPEAKER_01: Redemption is a hard word to describe in our times.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard, I think, because we don't use that term in everyday language.
SPEAKER_01: Probably the most common way we use it is redeeming a coupon, right?
SPEAKER_01: Or redeeming a gift certificate or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: But we need to be able to think clearly about redemption as we watch God unveiling his redeemer through the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Redeemer and redemption is a very common biblical theme, and in fact, it's foundational to our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 7, speaking of Jesus, he said, In him we have redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And that redemption comes through the shedding of his blood that provides the forgiveness of our sins.
SPEAKER_01: There's a concept here of exchange.
SPEAKER_01: Exchanging one thing for another.
SPEAKER_01: So Christ gave his blood, he gave his life so that we might be redeemed, we might be rescued.
SPEAKER_01: The same truth occurs in Scripture in other ways, non-spiritual ways.
SPEAKER_01: For example, in the book of Ruth, Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi, and her husband, left the land of Israel to find food in another country because there was a famine.
SPEAKER_01: In doing that, they had to sell off their land.
SPEAKER_01: They sell off their inherited land.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't belong to them anymore.
SPEAKER_01: So when Naomi and Ruth went back, they didn't have a place to go to.
SPEAKER_01: What does Boaz do?
SPEAKER_01: Boaz comes along as a relative redeemer and says, I'm going to buy that property back for the family.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to exchange money in return for the property.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to redeem it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, though, the idea of exchange is absent.
SPEAKER_01: And in its place, we simply have this image of power or of strength of a person reaching out to rescue someone.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God is meaning in Exodus chapter 6, verse 6, when he's speaking to the whole nation of Israel that had been in slavery in Egypt for 400 years.
SPEAKER_01: He says to them, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: There's no exchange there.
SPEAKER_01: God's just saying to Israel, I'm going to do it.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody else better watch out.
SPEAKER_01: It's my strong hand, it's my greatness that will do this.
SPEAKER_01: But regardless of what the details are in redemption, there is one constant in the biblical theme of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: There's one thing that is the same all the way through every page of scripture when you see redemption.
SPEAKER_01: There is always a person redeeming.
SPEAKER_01: There is always someone initiating or carrying out the redeeming act.
SPEAKER_01: There is a person involved.
SPEAKER_01: And that's going to be our focus throughout this holiday season: to move toward a clearer biblical understanding of God's promised redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: The first step is to work towards a fuller grasp of this angel, this redeeming angel.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't have time, unfortunately, this morning to work through a detailed theology of redemption or theology of the angel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, I want to point out three specific elements of the theme of redemption and see how they tie into this statement that Israel made.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the very first element of redemption that I think we need to notice that Israel makes very clear in this statement is that God himself is the ultimate redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he starts his statement three times.
SPEAKER_01: The God before whom my fathers walked, the God who's been my shepherd, the angel who has redeemed, this is the God who's done it.
SPEAKER_01: But to illustrate this, I'd like you to turn with me to Isaiah 44.
SPEAKER_01: It's a longer passage, so it's harder to put on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: So if you if you want to follow along, you can just look at Isaiah 44.
SPEAKER_01: Beginning in verse 6, the speaker identifies himself.
SPEAKER_01: Thus says Yahweh, the king of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So God is speaking.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking through the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: And as we go on from verse 6 all the way to the end of the chapter, God is telling his people about himself.
SPEAKER_01: Telling his people, this is who I am.
SPEAKER_01: Reminding his people, you need to understand who your God is.
SPEAKER_01: So how does he describe himself?
SPEAKER_01: Well, in verse 6, he shows us that he is the commander of all hosts.
SPEAKER_01: He is Yahweh of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter where the army comes from, it doesn't matter who composes the army.
SPEAKER_01: God is Lord, He is God of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: He commands every single host there is.
SPEAKER_01: Then he says, I am the first and I am the last.
SPEAKER_01: Besides me, there is no God.
SPEAKER_01: Unequivocally, he says, There is no one like me.
SPEAKER_01: Any other so-called God cannot and does not compare.
SPEAKER_01: He is unparalleled in his uniqueness.
SPEAKER_01: Being the first and the last means he has no beginning and no end.
SPEAKER_01: He is eternal.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, who is like me?
SPEAKER_01: Let him proclaim it.
SPEAKER_01: Let him declare and set it up before me.
SPEAKER_01: Let them declare what is to come and what will happen, because God knows it.
SPEAKER_01: He is omniscient, he knows all things.
SPEAKER_01: In case there was any confusion in verse 8, he says, listen, is there a God besides me?
SPEAKER_01: There is no rock.
SPEAKER_01: I know not any.
SPEAKER_01: Then he goes on in verse 9 through verse 20 of Isaiah 44 to talk about idolatry, about the things that ancient peoples would craft out of wood or of stone or of precious metals, perceiving some sort of deity in their work.
SPEAKER_01: And they would begin to worship that.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, listen, they're just there's worth they're worthless.
SPEAKER_01: No man-made object can compare with this Yahweh of hosts, who is the king of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Even more, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who forms people.
SPEAKER_01: He forms people.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22, he forgives sin.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24, he's the creator.
SPEAKER_01: I formed you from the womb.
SPEAKER_01: I am the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.
SPEAKER_01: You get that emphasis?
SPEAKER_01: Alone, by myself.
SPEAKER_01: There was no one around when God stretched out the heavens and created all that is.
SPEAKER_01: There's no one who compares with him.
SPEAKER_01: And he is so great and so awesome that he can do all of these things.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25, he's present in the affairs of human beings.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27, he controls creation.
SPEAKER_01: He dries up rivers.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28, he speaks of King Cyrus, telling us that God himself directs international affairs and international individuals to accomplish his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: This is a God who is sovereign over all things.
SPEAKER_01: He is in sovereign control and has ultimate authority.
SPEAKER_01: But go back to verse 6 and look again at who this God is.
SPEAKER_01: This is Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And his Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: Remember these things, O Jacob and O Israel, for you are my servant.
SPEAKER_01: I formed you.
SPEAKER_01: I have redeemed you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 23, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob and will be glorified in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24, thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: These statements about the greatness of God are surrounded by statements of God's redemption.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: In the context of ultimate authority and sovereign power as the creator, God says, I am ultimate, I am sovereign, I am powerful, but I am your redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: I am your redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine needing a deliverer of desperately requiring rescue.
SPEAKER_01: You have no way to help yourself, and you need someone to step in and act on your behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Who else would you want as your redeemer?
SPEAKER_01: Who else, other than the one who is in ultimate control and exercises ultimate power?
SPEAKER_01: Who else would you want?
SPEAKER_01: This is what God wanted Israel to know during the time of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: They needed to remember that God Himself was their ultimate Redeemer because this is during a time period of relative peace and prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens during peace and prosperity?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we get comfortable, right?
SPEAKER_01: We get comfortable and pretty soon we're thinking about how good we have it and what we've been able to accomplish and what we've been able to do in life.
SPEAKER_01: And pretty soon we're trusting in our things and we're trusting in who we are instead of trusting in the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what Israel was doing.
SPEAKER_01: Their hearts were not looking to their Redeemer, they were looking away.
SPEAKER_01: So God spoke these things to Isaiah during that time, when a time where people needed to remember that redemption was from God and from no one else.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he said a little bit earlier in chapter 43, verse 11, I, I am Yahweh, and besides me there is no Savior.
SPEAKER_01: None.
SPEAKER_01: Now you might find yourself in a similar situation this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Your life may be mostly peaceful and prosperous, but you're not loving Christ with all of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you are reluctant to take up your cross and follow Jesus because of what it might cost you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, take this reminder to heart.
SPEAKER_01: Peacefulness can be lost.
SPEAKER_01: In a moment, prosperity can be snatched away.
SPEAKER_01: Where will you be then if this God is not your redeemer?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've made no secret of your lack of belief in God.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you've failed to honor Him and worship Him as He demands.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe even what Isaiah says in chapter 43, verse 24, it describes you.
SPEAKER_01: God says to his people, you have burdened me with your sins and you have wearied me with your iniquities.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine God saying that about you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's you.
SPEAKER_01: If that is you, then take the message of chapter 43, verse 25, to heart.
SPEAKER_01: Where God says, I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_01: I will not remember your sins.
SPEAKER_01: Take this message to heart and trust in him as the ultimate redeemer of your sins.
SPEAKER_01: Jacob, Israel, clearly trusted in God as the ultimate redeemer of his sins.
SPEAKER_01: And if God can redeem that scoundrel, then he's got you too.
SPEAKER_01: He's got you too.
SPEAKER_01: Second element of redemption that we need to note is highlighted in the Psalms, in Psalm 130.
SPEAKER_01: God is not stingy with his redemption.
SPEAKER_01: During this season, we are often reminded of Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Seuss's character, the Grinch, right?
SPEAKER_01: The Grinch who stole Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: I had to play that character in grade school.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why they chose me, but the ultimate redeemer is not stingy.
SPEAKER_01: He does not arbitrarily hold back his good and gracious gifts.
SPEAKER_01: No, what does the psalmist say?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Oh Israel, hope in Yahweh, for with Yahweh there is steadfast love, and with him is plenteous or plentiful redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Not just a little, not just enough.
SPEAKER_01: Not enough for some, but lacking for others.
SPEAKER_01: God's redemption doesn't just scratch the surface, it's abundant, it's overflowing.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Israel meant when on his deathbed he praised God with the words, He has redeemed me from all evil.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, if you read the life of Jacob, there's a lot of evil.
SPEAKER_01: He wanted his people to know, God has redeemed me from all of it.
SPEAKER_01: Not just a little bit, but all of it.
SPEAKER_01: In his commentary on the book of Psalms, John Calvin wrote this.
SPEAKER_01: He describes this redemption as plenteous, so that the faithful, even when reduced to their very last extremity, may sustain themselves, may encourage themselves from the consideration that there are in the hand of God many and incredible means by which to save them.
SPEAKER_01: If I can be so bold as to rephrase John Calvin, God's got you.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter how lost you are, it doesn't matter how mired in your sin you are, God's redemption is plentiful.
SPEAKER_01: And he has ways to rescue and redeem.
SPEAKER_01: The command to hope in him makes sense now, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It makes sense why Israel would trust in God as his redeemer on his deathbed.
SPEAKER_01: Why would we not hope in the one who is abundant in his redeeming work and is gracious and merciful to pour out that redemption?
SPEAKER_01: If you are resisting, believing in him and hoping in him, it's because of your own pride and your own arrogance and resistance, not in his strength or his ability to redeem you.
SPEAKER_01: You remember Job, right?
SPEAKER_01: In the throne room of heaven, Satan and his minions asked God to let them at Job.
SPEAKER_01: See, they saw Job as being protected by the sovereign hand of God, and they said, Take away that protection, God, and Job will curse you.
SPEAKER_01: He'll turn his back on you and walk away.
SPEAKER_01: So let us add him.
SPEAKER_01: And it seems as though they were right at times.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Job's own words in Job 16, beginning in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Surely now God has worn me out.
SPEAKER_01: He has made desolate all my company.
SPEAKER_01: God has shriveled me up.
SPEAKER_01: It's a witness against me.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9, He has torn me in His wrath.
SPEAKER_01: He has hated me.
SPEAKER_01: God has gnashed His teeth at me.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, God gives me up to the ungodly.
SPEAKER_01: God casts me into the hands of the wicked.
SPEAKER_01: I was at ease, but God broke me apart.
SPEAKER_01: God seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces.
SPEAKER_01: He has set me up as his target.
SPEAKER_01: His archers surround me.
SPEAKER_01: He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare.
SPEAKER_01: He pours out all my gall on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: He breaks breaks me with a breach upon breach.
SPEAKER_01: He runs upon me like a warrior.
SPEAKER_01: That's Job.
SPEAKER_01: From his perspective, it seems, that God was not one who was full of plentiful redemption, but a God who crushes.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we would say in chapter 17, verse 1, My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the graveyard is ready for me.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: He says later in chapter 17, verse 15, where then is my hope?
SPEAKER_01: Who will see my hope?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 19 shows Job's frustration.
SPEAKER_01: For all he knows, God has turned against him.
SPEAKER_01: His family has abandoned him, his closest friends abhor him.
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, Job doesn't know anything about what happened in the throne room of heaven at the beginning of the book.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't know that Satan has asked permission to crush him, and God has said, yes, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: All he knows is he didn't do anything to deserve this.
SPEAKER_01: So he's crying out to God, saying, God, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_01: From what we see to this point, Job might laugh at God's redemption being plentiful.
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't know anything about Job, you need to know this about him.
SPEAKER_01: There is far more to him than it appears on the surface.
SPEAKER_01: When everything in his life screams the opposite, he says in chapter 19, verse 25, for I know that my Redeemer lives.
SPEAKER_01: I know that my Redeemer lives.
SPEAKER_01: And at last he will stand upon the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Here Job teaches us much about redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we can state it like this: God is the personal redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: He is the personal redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that in a couple of ways.
SPEAKER_01: First, God is the personal redeemer in his redeeming activity.
SPEAKER_01: In his redeeming activity.
SPEAKER_01: When God moves to bless out of his abundant redemption, it is personal.
SPEAKER_01: Now sometimes it's greater in scope than that.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes he pours out his redemption on the whole nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But he's not limited to that.
SPEAKER_01: He's not just limited in a way that it's overarching and it's general.
SPEAKER_01: No, he can be very specific and give his redemption specifically.
SPEAKER_01: His redeeming activity can be focused and personal.
SPEAKER_01: Israel on his deathbed would say it like this: He has redeemed me.
SPEAKER_01: Me.
SPEAKER_01: Job says, I know that my redeemer lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's personal.
SPEAKER_01: He points to a relationship that exists by which God acts on Job's behalf.
SPEAKER_01: God is his redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Job knows and trusts that God is interested in him as an individual.
SPEAKER_01: How amazing is that?
SPEAKER_01: Really, how amazing is that?
SPEAKER_01: Job is able to view God's redemption in light of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: For all Job knew he was going to die.
SPEAKER_01: All of his suffering was leading right to death's doorway.
SPEAKER_01: But somehow, in some way, he knew that God would redeem him.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, suffering, suffering can drive us away from God if our focus is on ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: But suffering with our eyes on God will enable us to see that He cares for us in a personal way.
SPEAKER_01: Job had enough trust and eternal sight to know that God was his redeemer, even though he goes on to say, My skin is being destroyed, my flesh is rotting away, but I know that I shall see my God.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, notice that God is a personal redeemer through his redeeming presence.
SPEAKER_01: His redeeming presence.
SPEAKER_01: Job expresses hope here in a living redeemer who will live even when Job dies.
SPEAKER_01: Job expects to die.
SPEAKER_01: He knows he's going to die.
SPEAKER_01: But he knows that even when his skin has been destroyed, I shall see God.
SPEAKER_01: God will still be living, he will still be there.
SPEAKER_01: Death does not impact this God.
SPEAKER_01: Neither suffering nor death can separate the true believer from the redeeming presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Never forget that, child of God.
SPEAKER_01: Neither suffering nor death can separate the true believer from the redeeming presence of God, and Job knows it.
SPEAKER_01: Deep down inside, he knows it.
SPEAKER_01: And that's implied when Israel on his deathbed praised God as the redeemer who was his shepherd all of his long life.
SPEAKER_01: Through all the ups and downs.
SPEAKER_01: Job knew, and Job trusted, that God was present in his suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And God would be present after his death.
SPEAKER_01: Do not doubt this truth.
SPEAKER_01: The one who trusts in the redeeming God will see him personally.
SPEAKER_01: After my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't read the book of Job, at the end of the book, God steps in and intervenes.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks to Job in chapter 42, verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: We have an interesting statement here.
SPEAKER_01: After God had spoken these words to Job, God said to Eliphaz the Temenite, this is a quote, God is speaking.
SPEAKER_01: So God has challenged Job in his understanding of who God is, but he's taken a step further in criticizing the friends.
SPEAKER_01: What I want you to note here is that we see in this statement the personal connection between Job and his God.
SPEAKER_01: You have not spoken what is right as my servant Job has.
SPEAKER_01: It's there that we see this personal connection.
SPEAKER_01: God is Job's redeemer, and Job is the servant of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's very interesting to me because of what David wrote in Psalm 34, 22.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord redeems the life of his servants.
SPEAKER_01: None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
SPEAKER_01: Here is Job taking refuge in his God as his servant.
SPEAKER_01: And God steps in.
SPEAKER_01: Job entrusted himself to a redeemer he could not see in the midst of his suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And that redeemer would not allow his servant to be condemned.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to go back again and look at Job 19 another time, verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see a hint of resurrection theology there?
SPEAKER_01: How else could dead decayed eyes see?
SPEAKER_01: No matter what happened to Job, he trusted that he would lay eyes on his Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Even if his skin rotted away and his eyes decayed, he said, I'm going to see, these eyes are going to see God.
SPEAKER_01: How can that happen?
SPEAKER_01: How is that possible?
SPEAKER_01: How is that faith, that belief possible?
SPEAKER_01: It's only possible if the Redeemer lives forever.
SPEAKER_01: It's only possible if the Redeemer is strong enough to redeem.
SPEAKER_01: And it's only possible if that strong Redeemer actually intervenes in the life of his people.
SPEAKER_01: We begin with God as the ultimate Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: A Redeemer who is not at all stingy with his redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And in Job, we see that that abundant redemption is found in a personal Redeemer who cares about individuals.
SPEAKER_01: And that redeeming God is absolutely worthy of our trust because while he may be veiled from our eyes in these days of faith, he is there, he is present, and Job knew it.
SPEAKER_01: Now tell me, do you not see all of that in the one declaration from the lips of aged Israel?
SPEAKER_01: Look at it again.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 48.
SPEAKER_01: The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked.
SPEAKER_01: Here is God, the ultimate, eternal Redeemer who goes on and on, who always lives, no matter what generation is living at the time.
SPEAKER_01: He is God.
SPEAKER_01: He is there.
SPEAKER_01: The God who has been my shepherd all of my life to this day.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the personal redeemer acting on the benefit of this one-time scoundrel.
SPEAKER_01: The angel who has redeemed me from all evil.
SPEAKER_01: There is the Redeemer who's not stingy.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, there was a lot to forgive in that man.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't have done it.
SPEAKER_01: But abundant redemption.
SPEAKER_01: The time of Israel's death is far, far away from us in time.
SPEAKER_01: But it's brought very near to us when we begin to realize that Israel's angel, Israel's angel who redeemed him, is the God who took on flesh to wrestle with him.
SPEAKER_01: Helping us, preparing us to know that when the eternal word of God took on flesh and dwelt among us, we could believe it.
SPEAKER_01: We could trust it.
SPEAKER_01: He'd done it before in a different way.
SPEAKER_01: Changing his name and saying, I'm purchasing you for my own.
SPEAKER_01: But the eternal God took on flesh to dwell among us to purchase our redemption.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not so far away, is it?
SPEAKER_01: Could you pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we come to you and we lift up our hearts to you.
SPEAKER_01: Thanking you and praising you that you've been working this out for ages and ages.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a surprise to you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that we can trust in your power and your power to save and your power to redeem.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that we can trust in your act actions to actually do that.
SPEAKER_01: You came.
SPEAKER_01: You came to take on flesh so that you might die.
SPEAKER_01: You might shed blood, your body might be broken, so that you might taste death and crush it and rise again to give us hope of resurrection life.
SPEAKER_01: That is true redemption.
SPEAKER_01: We give you thanks for that, and we want to praise you and remember that as clearly as we can through what you've given us to do and to be together.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' name.