I really love music! I’ve been singing from the time I was a little kid. In fact, I learned that music is a tremendous way to memorize vital facts and information. Remember the cartoon School House Rock where mundane information like defining a conjunction and how to multiply are sung to catchy tunes to help someone like myself during the elementary school days.
Music can also bring to our memory passages of Scripture and biblical truth. Years ago I was invited to a performance of “The Messiah,” an amazing oratorio composed by George Frederic Handel in 1741. The lyrics, compiled by Charles Jennens, are taken almost entirely from the Bible and strongly declare Jesus as Messiah. One of the Bible passages Mr. Jennens chose is from Job––probably one of the oldest books in the Hebrew Canon.
Because Jesus lives, those who have put their lives, their futures, their hopes, and their faith in Him will someday be able to say, even as Job did,
“in my flesh I shall see God… and my eyes shall behold”
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25–27).
Job makes a tremendously powerful statement; one that would seem to be found only in the New Testament. He is affirming his certain belief that he will, with his own eyes, in his own flesh, see his Redeemer. That is quite a statement. He understands that this will happen well after his physical death. Despite this fact he proclaims with great faith that,
“After my skin is destroyed,
this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:26-27).
Job was quite possibly a contemporary of Abraham who also declared his faith in physical resurrection. God commanded him to “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love…and offer him…as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Genesis 22:2). His response was powerful as he told those with him, “Stay here…the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” (Genesis 22:5). The book of Hebrews embellishes this statement: Abraham concluded “that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead”(Hebrews 11:19).
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All of this is only possible because of Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection is God’s seal of approval on His life and ministry while He was here on Earth. Paul the apostle reminds us of the significance of Jesus’ resurrection: “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; and you are still in your sins!” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Because Jesus lives, those who have put their lives, their futures, their hopes, and their faith in Him will someday be able to say, even as Job did, “ in my flesh I shall see God… and my eyes shall behold”(Job 19:26–27). I look forward to that day when I will see Jesus my Redeemer.
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