This one should be quick. I love the impact of this passage and just want other people to read it and say "Wow!" with me. The words below are spoken by the titular Job as he converses with his friends after Satan basically ruins his life. Job does a lot of complaining and self-vindication in the book, but the ultimate hope that Job is expressing here is prophetic.

Job 19:23-27

"Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 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, and not another. My heart faints within me!"

Reminder: Job is an Old Testament book written many centuries before the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.

Here, we see Job's resurrection hope. He is looking forward to God's advent on earth, which he will personally witness. I love this! The language is so physical, personal, and if I can be bold - righteously selfish!

Physical.

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 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, and not another.

Job is expecting to see God on earth in the flesh. There's physical standing, physical death, and physical resurrection.

Personal.

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 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, and not another.

Job has a personal investment in this coming day. It isn't just that God is coming to stand upon the earth; it's that Job is going to be there to see Him when He does!

Selfish.

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 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, and not another.

This is my favorite part. Job is so insistent that he goes the extra mile to exclude some alternative ways of reading this passage. It's his Redeemer, his skin, his flesh, for himself, seeing with his eyes, and no one else will stand in for him. Job is saying "No matter what else, I know that God is going to raise me physically from the dead and I am going to see him face-to-face, in the flesh. Me. Not a descendant or a symbolic substitute. ME."

Glorious. We're all going to meet Jesus (the Redeemer, God standing on the earth) one day - each of us in the flesh. My prayer is that anyone who reads this would meet Him as Redeemer, and not as Judge.

In Christ,

Various