For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
Job 19:25-27
Here is an excerpt from John Piper’s Advent poem, Job, Part 3
Job scanned
The faces of his friends, if there
Might be some opening, or prayer.
“O, I discern the hand of God,
My friends, I grant no other rod
The slightest countenance. What I
Deny is not that God on high
Makes winds to blow and lightning strike,
But that he rules as you might like.
I do not know why I lie here
And you sit there. But I am clear
It is not that I’ve sinned and you
are clean. Your maxims, be they few
Or thousands, will not stand before
The bar of God. O that some door
Were opened to the court of God,
And I might make my case unflawed
Before the Judge of all the world,
And prove this storm has not been hurled
Against me or my children there
Because of hidden crimes. O spare
Me now, my friends, your packages
Of God, your simple adages:
“Be good and strong, but weak when wrong.”
They make good rote and clever song,
But do not hold the wisdom of
Our God. A whisper from above
Is all I have. Yet from it I
Have learned through horrid nights that my
Redeemer lives, and when my skin
Has been destroyed, then from within
Shall I behold him on my side,
And I will live though I have died.”
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 