27. A Mediator Sought

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Hymns: RHC 13 Abide with Me; 10 Still, Still with Thee; 207 Golden Harps Are Sounding

Job 9:25-35


25Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. 26They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey. 27If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself: 28I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. 29If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain? 30If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; 31Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. 32For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. 33Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. 34Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me: 35Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me. (Job 9:25-35 KJV)

 A Mediator Sought  

OUTLINE

  • In Life’s Closing Day (v25-26) 
  • In Finding Peace with God (v27-31)
  • In Representing My Needs Before God (v32-35)

INTRODUCTION

How does one prepare for his final day on earth? Is there one who can usher us from life into eternity? When Job, in his predicament, was as it were, forced to be confronted with these enigmas of life, the end of life, he sought for the Mediator between himself and his God. It was a logical sequence of thought in a man’s life. Pondering he asked “is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.” Between him and God, is there a Mediator that can represent himself to bring his needs before his God? Indeed, we know there is, in the Person of Jesus Christ, the God-Man.

1 Timothy 2:3-6 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Hebrews 9:15 And for this cause he (Jesus)is themediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressionsthat were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Jesus as God, He represented God to reach out to sinful men and as a Man, He represented man to reach God. He is the only true Mediator between God and man.

Jesus says to us in Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

God has enabled this saint to look in anticipation of the Christ that will enter the human history, the Mediator between God and man.

Three thoughts for our consideration:

  • In Life’s Closing Day (v25-26) 
  • In Finding Peace with God (v27-31)
  • In Representing My Needs Before God (v32-35)
  • In Life’s Closing Day (v25-26)

25Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. 26They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.

The postman of yesteryears has to run on foot to carry a message or ride on a swift horse to deliver a post quickly. Or a runner in a race runs swiftly in order to obtain the prize. He compares that swiftness to the ebbing of his life. He felt that he was taking his last journey of life. Life will quickly leave him. He likened his life as a fast boat quickly passing out of sight and as the eagle pursuing its prey. 

It is a time of reflection and contemplation as he saw his body’s deteriorating condition severely weighing upon him the reality of end of life. It is a sombre and solemn moment in a person’s life.

Usually family members will be around to provide comfort through their presence with the dying. For Job, he has his friends with him, they will there with the intetion to comfort him, instead, they ended up tormenting him.

  • In Finding Peace with God (v27-31)

 27If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself: 

Job has lost his health, his wealth, his children, his friends and he sought to be at peace with himself in his dire straits. He says I will forget my complaint. I will not let the dark, melancholy thoughts to overwhelm him. He sought to comfort his own heart.

28I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.

And yet, he was afraid that the agony of his condition would mentally torment him, surround and overwhelm him, so that he should not be able to stand up against them, or under them; that they would increase and continue with him, and so he should never be released from them. [Gill]

He felt a sense of a guiltiness within him which he sought to be acquitted. Gill observed well, “that he was confident that God would not justify him but condemn him in a spiritual sense; Job did not despair of his everlasting salvation, he knew and believed in his living Redeemer; he knew he should be acquitted and justified by his righteousness, and not be condemned with the world; but he was certain of this, as he thought that God would neither “cleanse” him, as some render the word, from the worms his flesh was clad with, and from the filthy boils and ulcers he was covered with; nor clear him so as that he should appear to be innocent in the sight and judgment of his friends; but go on to treat him as if he was a guilty person, by continuing his afflictions on him, even unto death; he had no hope of being freed from them, and so of being cleared from the imputation of his friends, who judged of him by his outward circumstances.”

 29If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain? 

Spurgeon observed here, “The sufferer is in double straits. While he is tossed about by Satan, his friends are discharging their arrows at him, and the Almighty troubleth him. To shelp such a sufferer we must be careful to distinguish between the causes of his sorrow, and divide between his affliction itself and the further sorrows which he has brought upon himself by his unwise efforts to escape from it… A quickened soul becomes conscious of guilt and the soul that is quickened makes ineffectual attempts to rid itself of the stain of guilt and to deter His people from self-righteousness it pealses God to plunge deeper into the mire those who attempt to cleanse themselves, that only by severe training are men led to look alone to God for salvation – it needs omnipotence to teach us that salvation is of the Lord.”

30If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; 31Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. 

Snow water is water from heaven. It flowed from the mountain covered with snow and are contained in vessels, considered the best water for cleansing, whitening the skin, and cooling the body in perspiration and even healing, contracting pore on the skin. Yet, these seemed to be ineffectual to wash his guilty soul.

Gill observed well, “it signifies, in a figurative sense, that let him take what methods he would to cleanse himself from sin, they were all in vain, his iniquity would be seen, and remain marked before God; and indeed there is nothing that a man can do that will make him pure and clean in the sight of an holy God; this is not to be done by ceremonial ablutions, such as might be in use in Job’s time, before the law of Moses was given, and to which he may have some reference; these only sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, or only externally, but could not purify the heart, so as to have no more conscience of sin; nor by moral duties, not by repentance, as Sephorno; a fountain, a flood, an ocean of tears of humiliation and repentance, would not wash away sin; if, instead of ten thousand rivers of oil, so many rivers of brinish tears could be produced, they would be of no avail to cleanse the sinner; nor any works of righteousness done by man, for these themselves need washing in the blood of the Lamb; for nothing short of the blood of Christ, and the grace of God, can do it.”

  • In Representing My Needs Before God (v32-35)

32For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. 33Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. 34Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me: 35Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

He felt himself useless to vindicate himself before God. He sought for a daysman literally a mediator that can go between him and God to plead his cause. 

Matthew Henry said well, “This complaint that there was not is in effect a wish that there were, and so the Greek translation of the Hebrew text reads it: O that there were a mediator between us!Job would gladly refer the matter, but no creature was capable of being a referee, and therefore he must even refer it still to God himself and resolve to acquiesce in his judgment. Our Lord Jesus is the blessed days-man, who has mediated between heaven and earth, has laid his hand upon us both; to Him the Father has committed all judgment, and we must. But this matter was not then brought to so clear a light as it is now by the gospel, which leaves no room for such a complaint as this. That the terrors of God, which set themselves in array against Him, put Him into such confusion that he knew not how to address God with the confidence with which he was formerly wont to approach him.”