HEBREW WORD STUDY – I KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVES

HEBREW WORD STUDY – I KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVES   Ani Yodahthi Go’ali  Chi    אני ידעתי גאלי חי  

Job 19:25 For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:

Alice was a grandmotherly elderly woman who hails from South Georgia.  She comes equipped with a genuine dirt water Southern accent and makes good use of it.  

The other day she told the story about her daddy.  As she told it, “Ma’ daddy was a preacher, a Baptist preacher. He’d baptize anyone, didn’t care if you were Catholic, Presbyterian or Methodist, he’d baptize ya.  He even tried to baptize the dog.  The dog, he didn’t like it much, he fought ‘em.  The deacon, he says, ‘Why you trying to baptize that poor dog, he didn’t do nutin wrong.’ But my daddy he said, ‘Ya just gotta be sure.’  Yep, that’s what my daddy always said, ‘Ya just gotta be sure.’”

I have to agree with Alice’s daddy, like the old preacher said, “Ya gotta be sure.”  Job was sure. In the midst of all his suffering, losing his children, his wealth, and his health, he still said, “I know my Redeemer lives.” Look closely at that word know.  The Hebrew word is yada’ this is the same word that is used in Scripture to describe the intimacy between a man and woman.  This knowing is an intimate knowing, one that Job has endeared to himself.  Old Job was absolutely sure, he was certain that his Redeemer lived. It is interesting that the writer uses the word redeemer rather than deliverer or savior. Most commentators believe Job was referring to God as his redeemer.  Yet, was not God in the role of a judge.  He was after all the one who lifted his protection from Job so the enemy could afflict Job.  Yet a redeemer is someone who pays a price on your behalf. The word in Hebrew is go’al which is an avenger, one who pays a ransom, to redeem one from slavery.  Just what was God going to redeem him from? 

Job’s friends were accusing him of some hidden sin that brought about his affliction. Job wasn’t buying into it. Let’s face it, for many of us Christians, the first thought we have when we fall into difficulty is to wonder just what sin we committed that brought about this trouble. Then we try to decide if our sin was bad enough to warrant such trouble. 

Job knew he was not suffering for his sins.  He knew that there was a redeemer who was alive, one who would pay the price for his sins.  Job knew he had a redeemer and from the context, he was not looking to any normal human being to be his redeemer, he was looking for a redeemer from his sins and that fits only one person in the human form and that would be the Messiah who I believe is  Jesus. He could not explain the reason for his suffering but one thing he knew, it was not because of any sin he committed for there would be a redeemer who would one day ransom him from that sin.  Of course, Jesus had not yet come to die for his sin, but God doesn’t live in time.  So long as Job was trusting in a Messiah to redeem him, his sins were covered in the blood of Jesus even though in the physical world Jesus hadn’t yet shed His blood. I tell them that old Job was sure about an event yet to come, can you be sure of an event that has already taken place? Like Alice’s daddy said, “Ya just gotta be sure.”