Living in the Spirit

November 1, 2022

Scripture Reading: Job 19:23-27a
‘O that my words were written down!
   O that they were inscribed in a book!
O that with an iron pen and with lead
   they were engraved on a rock forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
   and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
   then in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side,
   and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
   My heart faints within me!

and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. (2 Timothy 1:12)

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
  To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
  Redeemed me for His own.

But “I know Whom I have believed
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
  Unto Him against that day.”*

Scripture often reminds me of hymns, many from my childhood that are no longer popular. When I read the line from Job For I know that my Redeemer lives quoted above, I immediately flashed back to a favorite hymn; I know not why God’s wondrous grace. My first thought was that I did not know it was mentioned in Job long before it was inscribed into 2 Timothy. I identify it with Christ. I wonder if the author of Timothy, thought to be Paul, had the same experience of remembering a scripture from his childhood. Paul quoted the Hebrew Bible extensively.

I then set out to find the words to the hymn I remembered and stumbled onto an avalanche of hymns that pick up on that theme, including I Know My Redeemer Liveth by George Frideric Handel.  God is with us yesterday, today, and forever and we are blessed to celebrate God’s love with our ancestors. At the same time, we pass it forward to our descendants with the understanding that Christ was and is, indeed, present in all generations.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-2)

*First verse and chorus  of the hymn I know not why God’s wondrous grace by Daniel Webster Whittle see at https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/333

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for being present with us always. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.