Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall behold God,
whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will seem and not another. Job 19:26-27
As believers we know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8), but sometimes we might think of the presence with the Lord as just a spiritual existence. Our bodies stay here and are buried, but our souls get to see Jesus face-to-face. While that is true, it is also true that we will have a body of some kind. And then one day, our physical body that has turned to dust will be resurrected (see John 5:28-29 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16).
Job knew and understood this truth, as our text for today makes plain. How could he be so confident that from his flesh he would see God after his body was destroyed? The previous verse answers: “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will rise up over the dust of this world.” Job fully anticipated seeing that moment when Jesus comes to rule and reign over this entire earth. He knew he would see it with his own eyes; it would not just be a spiritual experience.
We have the same guarantee. In fact, we will be coming down from heaven with Him (see Revelation 19:14); and then we will be ruling and reigning with Him, here on this earth (see Revelation 20:6), in our perfect resurrected bodies. Spend time today thinking about the guarantee we have of a bodily resurrection and how that impacts our thoughts of the future and our lives today.
Joshua Steiner