Job 9:18-33 "HE will not suffer me to take my breath but fills me with bitterness. If I speak of strength, lo, HE is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead ? If I justify myself mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life. This is one thing, therefore I said it, HE destroys the perfect and the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly, HE will laugh at the trial of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covers the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and who is he ? Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasten to the prey. If I say, I will forget my compliant, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself: I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that THOU wilt not hold me innocent. If I be wicked, why then labor I in vain ? If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt THOU plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For HE is not a man, as I am, that I should answer HIM, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman (Arbiter) betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both."
Job was in the midst of suffering, under the divinely permitted testing of his faith by Satan his adversary, when this plaintive cry escaped his lips: "Neither is there any daysman (Arbiter) betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both" (v.33 pictured at top of post). The surrounding verses make it clear that Job, while trying to understand GOD's purpose in allowing this grief and misery, was conscious of sin. In fact, he freely acknowledged to GOD, "THOU wilt not hold me innocent" (v.28), and he gave a confession of guilt: "If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me" (v.20 pictured below). Furthermore, he cried in agony, "If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt THOU plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me" (vv.30-31).
His anguished cry was for an arbiter, a mediator, to lay his hand on both GOD and man and hold them both accountable in this matter of judgment. Job speaks for all sinful people as he seeks reconciliation with GOD, knowing that "if I say, I am perfect [my mouth] shall also prove me perverse" (v.20 pictured above). He pleaded for someone to "lay his hand upon us both" (v.33 pictured at top of post) -- to bring us together, mediating between us. Here Job is, a sinful, finite creature, as are we, who realizes that he cannot argue his own cause before the eternal JUDGE and regards it unfair that his JUDGE and his INDICTER should be the same PERSON. But, thank GOD for the DAYSMAN, the MAN CHRIST JESUS, WHO is the MEDIATOR between GOD and man. JESUS paid the penalty, in full, for the sins of the whole world and has provided reconciliation with GOD; the FATHER is satisfied with the sacrifice of HIS SON. CHRIST has laid HIS hand upon both GOD and man, bridging that immense gap. PRAISE GOD HE did ! JED
Your servant in CHRIST,
Julie
Copyright, FEATURE: A Daily Bible Study Guide.
Used with permission. www.featoday.org
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