Sunday 20 May 2012

Sunday Reading: Job 19:23-29

Key Verse: Job 19:26
26  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Devotion:
Job was a man who had absolutely everything to complain about because of all that Satan had made go wrong in his life at that point. God allowed this all to prove a point, that no matter what happens to us in our lives, we should always be allowed to praise God because we know where we are destined for! God had worked in Job’s life to allow him to see just how much He was willing to do for Job when he followed God and kept His commandments. Because of that knowledge that God was always with Him, Job knew that he had a certain future and that that future would allow him to be with Christ in spirit and in body.

If we start to think about our death we may well get a bit upset with having to face that point when we lose our bodies and they get buried or burned. But we can also know, just as Job did, that we too will be with Christ, not just in spirit but in our bodies as well. We may leave them behind for a while when we die, but come the time for Christ to come back to the earth, we will be re-united with our bodies after they are changed from this corruptible state they are in now to an incorruptible state so that we can be with God in Heaven for eternity!

I’m not sure if Job will have wanted his body after he saw just how much it had gone wrong in that short time of Satan’s troubles on him, and I’m sure that he would have wanted it changed before he faced Christ! We can be sure that when we do face Christ we will also have a perfect body – one that no longer has the ailments we have now, the shortcomings, the faults and the broken things we have now. Job somehow knew that he would have a physical body in heaven at some stage and not just to be a spirit. This has been affirmed by Christ so that we too can be sure and can also look forward to that glorious day.

I think one of the greatest things is going to be that we will be allowed to cast our eyes upon Christ, to be able to see Him in person and in our renewed bodies. Not to have to be presented as a corrupt body, but to have a renewed and perfect body so that we can stay with God in heaven! That is a sure knowledge that we have because we believe it to be so. Our faith is in the promises of Christ. Our faith is not in ourselves or what we can define, but in the perfect and literal promises that Christ has given us Himself – those same promises that Job apparently knew then as well.

Points to Ponder:
Do you ever wonder what else can go wrong?

How often do you remember the perfect state we are destined for?