THE FAMILY ALTAR for 13 April 2026 

April 13.

"And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in

my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine

eyes shall behold, and not another." Job 19:26.-27.

"Sweet truth to me, I shall arise And with these eyes my

Savior see." That was the blessed assurance Job had in his great

suffering and which he here confesses. He turns his eyes away

from all sorrow, tribulation, and death to that life which, he

knows, awaits him at the side of his Redeemer, a life which shall

never pass away. He is divinely sure that he will arise from the

grave and that his poor pain-racked and disease-wasted body shall

be gloriously renewed, and that he shall see his living Eedeemer

face to face. 0 glorious hope of every true Christian ! He can

truthfully sing and say: I am only flesh and blood, And on this

corruption seizeth ; But I know my Lord and God From the grave

my body raiseth, That with Him eternally In His glory I may be.

Glorified I shall again With this skin then be enshrouded, In this

body I shall then See my God with eyes unclouded, In this flesh

I then shall see Jesus Christ eternally. 0 what joy that will be,

to rise from the bed of corruption in our glorified bodies and to

see our loved ones again, who died before our eyes so frail and

weak and helpless, but who now wear the shining robes of im-

mortality! And greater joy still to see Him face to face whom

we loved, and believed in, as our Savior, although we never had

seen Him here. How often our hearts moan and cry in this

valley of darkling shadows : "As the hart [the deer] panteth after

the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, 0 God. My soul

thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and

appear before God?" (Ps. 42, 1. 2.) What joy, what rapture,

will fill us when with these our eyes we shall see Him, our God

and Savior, in all His matchless beauty and glory, and then also

see and understand His saving ways with us ! That will be a

never-ending Easter Day of joy and happiness. And it is all won

and procured for us by our blessed Savior's resurrection from the

dead. He Himself gives us the assurance: "Because I live, ye

shall live also." He prayed for us: "Father, I will that they

also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that

they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou

lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." (John 17,24.)

How can we do otherwise than joyfully confess with Job : "I know

that my Redeemer liveth"?