During this Advent Season, I journeyed each day using Handel’s Messiah as my guide.  On Christmas Day I ended with the Hallelujah Chorus which seemed so fitting for the celebration of our Savior’s birth.  The third and last portion of the Messiah focuses on Christ’s return and reign.  I could not leave this wonderful piece without including a few more days in Part 3.    It begins with Job 19:25-26.  Job is in discussion with his friends who encourage suffering Job to curse and reject God.  Job however, relies upon God’s justice and speaks these words of encouragement to his friends that echo throughout the ages.

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
²⁶ And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I shall see God,”

How has your year gone?  How did you face the trials that the year brought?  Did  you see time like Job as a journey that is led by hope in your Redeemer?  Or did you get bogged down in the daily struggle and lose sight of who was walking with you each day and who was there for you to lean upon?  Job had confidence that He served a living God that will someday reign on earth.  Even if he dies before this happens, he has the faith that he will live to see God.   Do you share that conviction with Job?  Peter shares our hope in Christ and echos Job’s conviction in 1 Peter 1:3-7.  Trials of life come but our hope remains steadfast in Christ.  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Let’s end this year by turning our focus back upon God, claiming the assurance and  Hope of Job, that our Redeemer truly Lives!

Linda