We can never move ahead if we concentrate only on where we
are right now. Did you ever think about that? Focusing on what we’re doing in
the moment is certainly necessary, but if we do it too much, we can get stuck. I
was reminded of that recently as I was taking a riding lesson on my horse. I
was practicing a very basic movement, but one that I couldn’t seem to master. The
harder I tried to ride correctly, the less my horse seemed to understand what I
wanted him to do. I adjusted and readjusted the reins… no luck. I repositioned
my legs… nothing. I moved my position in the saddle… useless. Finally, in
exasperation, my instructor yelled, “Look ahead! Don’t concentrate on where you
are; look at where you’re going!” That was an “Aha!” moment. When I
lifted my head, my back straightened, my shoulders relaxed, my hands moved down
into the correct position, and I’m sure that my horse heaved a huge sigh of
relief. Simply looking ahead helped to get me out of the rut that I had been in,
and I was able to ride the movement correctly. I’m sure that it must be the
same with other sports – soccer, tennis, even football. You don’t focus on
where the ball is at any given time,
but on where you want it to go!
Practicing our faith is very much like that. It is tempting
to focus our faith on where our lives are right
now, and never to look ahead to the future. We don’t tend to anticipate
what Jesus has promised us will take place in the future. But if we never look
ahead, we get stuck in all the problems that we face in living day-to-day. And
we all know that those problems can be very sticky, indeed.
No less a person than Job reminds us of our need to keep looking
ahead, even as we recognize the troubles and sorrows that we are dealing with
right now. And if anybody had problems, it was Job. You remember Job. Job was a
completely righteous man. Even God said so. But Job lost everything – all his
flocks, all his herds, even all his children – in a series of terrible,
unanticipated disasters. And Job complained about it. Oh, my, did Job complain
about it! He complained that he didn’t deserve any of it. He complained that
God was unfair. He even called for God to come down out of heaven and meet him
fair and square in a court of law. Job was pretty sure that any jury in this
world or the next would find that he had been treated unfairly by God. Job
focused on his problems, all right. But Job also looked ahead. And in one of
the most striking statements of faith in all of scripture, he shared his
confidence in God’s promises. “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the
end he will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in
my flesh will I see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes!” (Job
19:23-27)
Now, that is a powerful statement of faith! But to get the
full effect of Job’s statement, we have to unpack the language a little bit. We
especially need to examine the word “redeemer.” In Hebrew, that word is
“go’el,” and it has a very particular meaning. A “go’el” is someone who buys
back family property that has been sold to pay off debts. Chapter 25 in the book
of Leviticus talks about the duties of a “go’el.” Verse 25 states, “If one of
you becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to
come and redeem what his kinsman has
sold.” A “go’el” can even buy back a family member who has been sold into
slavery! The instructions are in verses 47 & 48. “If a foreigner among you
becomes rich and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the
foreigner living among you, one of his relatives may redeem him.” That’s who Job was looking for, a “go’el.” But Job
didn’t need to be bought back from human slavery. He needed someone who would
rescue him from the evil that had him in its grasp. Job believed that somewhere
there was a “go’el” who had the power do just that. Somewhere, someone existed
who could get Job out of the mess that he was in!
Christians have traditionally interpreted Job’s statement of
faith as referring to Jesus Christ. We may not be literal slaves to people who
force us to work for them day and night, but we are slaves nevertheless. We are
slaves to sin, whether we admit it or not. Because of the culture we live in, because
of our particular circumstances in life, even because of the way we are born,
we are not the people that we want to be! Paul put it this way in his letter to
the Romans (7:18, 19, 24): “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot
carry it out; and what I keep doing is the evil that I don’t want to do! What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from
this body of death?” Paul’s answer is that no one but Jesus Christ can redeem
us from that kind of slavery! No one but Jesus Christ can be our “go’el.”
Now, much of the time, it doesn’t look like Jesus is doing
his job very well. The effects of sin are everywhere! You see them every time
you open a newspaper or turn on a radio or watch the evening news. If we don’t
want to get stuck in the pit of despair, we need to look ahead to Jesus’
promise for the future. Our redeemer does
live, and will live eternally! He is risen from the dead; and one day we will
see him with our own eyes standing on this earth. One day, all sin will be
erased, and all people will be washed clean. One day, everyone will be
perfected by the one who gave his life for us. Job’s confession of faith is our
confession, too. “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will
stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh
will I see God.” We just have to look ahead to catch a glimpse of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment