Resurrection

Job 14:14 asks, If a man dies, will he live again?

It sounds like Job wasn’t so sure. Perhaps he asks a rhetorical question? But then in chapter 19:25-27 he writes, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit we must remember... 
I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, when I awake in my flesh I shall see God, I myself will see him, with my own eyes; I, and not another. How my heart (or soul) yearns within me!

Rom. 15:4 says, For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

And what is our blessed hope? Titus 2:13-14... 
...the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession.

Job says... "When I awake in my flesh." We know scripture uses the metaphor “sleep” for death. Job knows of an awakening because he knows his Redeemer lives.

     We know our 
     Redeemer lives!
     Hallelujah!

We are redeemed because, not only do we know our Redeemer Jesus lives by the Power of the Resurrection... but we KNOW our Redeemer! John 17:3 says, This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. And 1 John 5:20... And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true.

Back to Job 14, I would like to read vss. 1-17....

“Man, who is born of a woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil. Like a flower he comes forth and withers; he also flees like a shadow and does not remain. You also open Your eyes upon him and bring him into judgment with Yourself. Who can make a clean thing out of the unclean? No one! Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You, and You have made his limits so he cannot pass.

O God turn your gaze from him so that he may rest, until he fulfills his day on earth like a hired man. For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the shoots of it will not cease nor fail. Though its roots grow old in the earth and its stump dies in the dry soil, yet at the scent of water the stump of the tree will flourish and bring forth sprigs and shoots like a seedling. But man must die and lie face down; man breathes his last, and where is he?

As water evaporates from the sea, and a river drains and dries up, so man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no longer, the dead will not awake nor be raised from their sleep.

Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol, that You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, that You would set a definite time and then remember me! If a man dies, will he live again?

It seems to me that Job here speaks with hope. I have no doubt that Job knew God, but he was shaken to his core not fully recognizing what was happening to him after all his years of extraordinary blessings. And yet he could say, “I know my Redeemer lives.”

Verse 14 continues... I will wait all the days of my struggle until my change and release will come.
Change and release (or deliverance). Paul speaks about both in 1 Cor. 15:51 where he says, Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. And in Rom. 7:24, O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me (release) from this body of death?

Deliver and Release speak of Rescue... from the Law, from death, from the power of darkness. The Greek further expounds on “deliver” suggesting “to draw to oneself (God) as we might have gleaned from Titus 2:14 ... God delivered us for Himself.

verse 15... Then You will call, and I will answer You;
God has called each of us and we have responded in faith. 

You will long for me, the work of Your hands.
God longed for us before the creation of the world because that’s when He determined, according to the counsel of His own will, to call us.

verse 16... But now, You number my steps; You do not observe nor take note of my sin.
My transgression is sealed in a bag, and You cover my wickedness from Your view.”

This is what God the Son incarnate in the Son of God, Jesus, has done for us. He who was brutally beaten and whipped beyond what resembled a man.

I was pondering and considering why was Jesus so brutalized? The other two on the crosses were not, as far as I know. I don’t think Pilate gave an order for excessive brutality since he didn’t even want to condemn Jesus in the first place. Were those soldiers naturally brutal, vicious, cruel, inhumane, severe, violent, wicked? They obviously (to me) enjoyed their job. The only thing that kept Jesus alive was... He could not die... not until He Himself dismissed His Spirit. It was because of SIN that He was so brutalized.

I was dead in my sins and God laid all that on Jesus... and then He was dead. And now His resurrection is my resurrection. God was in my grave, but now my grave is empty, as some hymns say.
Oh Lord, I thank you. Help us to attain to the unity of the faith and of the recognition of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, to the measure of stature of the fullness of the Christ.