Bible in 90, Day 37: If only there were a mediator!

Job 8-24

*image courtesy of creationc at www.sxc.hu

While Job’s friends hurl their insults at him, he realizes that there is only One who’s accusations and judgments really matter.  Job knows that he will stand or fall before God, the Judge.  He uses frightful imagery to describe this Judge in chapter 9.  He speaks of the Judge as Creator, the One who made the stars and constellations, One whose wisdom is profound and His power vast.  He portrays God as an unstoppable force.  He sums it all up saying, “If it is a matter of strength, he is mighty! And if it is a matter of justice, who will summon him?” (Job 9:19).

Job realizes his guilt before a Holy God.  He knows that even if he were “innocent” before man, he is guilty before God.  He knows that God is not a man that can be taken to court.  Job cannot summon Him before some tribunal, for He is the Judge!  God is God, and Job is not.  Realizing this, he cries out in desperation:

“If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both!” (Job 9:33).

Job knew that man cannot stand before God and hope to be found innocent.  He cannot stand before God’s holy judgment.  He needs an advocate, a mediator, an arbiter that can put his hand on both God and man.  This is the perfect picture of Christ’s mediating work.

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5).

There’s a quote, the source of which I cannot find, that goes something like this, “Man had a debt he could not pay.  God could not pay a debt He did not owe.  We need a God-man!”  That is precisely who Jesus Christ is!  He is the God-man, a unique being in the universe, 100% God and 100% man.  He is the only possible mediator between God and men because He is the only one who’s on both sides!  Job cried out for someone who could lay his hand on both him and God.  In Jesus Christ, you and I witness the answer to that hope.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).  As God, He is holy, righteous, and just.  He embodies the righteousness of the Father.  As man, He can sympathize with our weakness, pain, and temptations.  He took on flesh and dwelt among men.  He is the go-between, the Mediator that Job hoped for.  For us today, He is the Mediator that we must turn to to gain access to God.

Let’s remember this great truth!  Let’s remember that we have the Mediator which Job desperately sought.  Let’s live in the knowledge that because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we can go and, as Job wised he could do, speak to God without fear of Him (Job 9:35).

*originally at Words of Reason