JOB now says that God is not a (strong) man, as he is, so that they could come together in judgment. Job has yet to find out that God is much more than merely a strong man. He longs for a daysman — an umpire or mediator — “that might lay His hand upon us both.” We know this longing of Job has found an answer far beyond Job’s fondest hopes, in the coming into this world of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one and only mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:55For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (1 Timothy 2:5)). He had to die upon the cross and be made a sin-offering before He could be that mediator for the sins of His people. But now God can justify and His righteousness rests upon the sinner that believes in Jesus.
Job’s three friends’ unjust treatment of him caused him to break out in this longing for a daysman who could and would plead his cause before God, and “lay His hand upon us both.” But he did not understand what this meant, for God was waiting for Job to realize that it was the pride in his heart that was the root of all his troubles. God was for Job, but He was not for his self-righteousness.
Then in chapter 10 Job goes on to speak in the bitterness of his soul—because he had not yet learned what God was doing with him. He received not one word of sympathy from his friends, so he says, “I will leave my complaint upon myself.” “I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; show me where Thou contendest with me.” We know that God did show Job this very thing. Then he says, “Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of Thine hand.” This was true, but it was satisfaction in his own righteousness, which is no ground to stand on before God. It is sad that even now, when we have the whole Word of God and the complete record of His dealings with His people, that there are Christians who complain as bitterly as Job did, when they ought rather to see the goodness of God in all His ways with us. It is said in Romans 2:44Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Romans 2:4), especially in connection with the unconverted: “despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” How often has a sorrow or trial that has come into one’s life proved to be “the goodness of God” that led to ultimate blessing, though it appeared to be anything but that at the time.
Job says God has made and fashioned him, yet Thou does destroy me.” He was filled with confusion and he gets to feel as if God were against him like a fierce lion. He was humbled and broken, yet still he saw no hope for himself but to look forward to death, “the land of darkness” as he calls it. But he was ignorant of all that, and later on he says that he was uttering things that he knew not. How little did they enter into the bright future that waits the children of God — that blessed future with Christ, in that new and heavenly scene of glory, beyond death and the grave, into which He has already entered and into which He is soon to bring all His own.
ML-03/06/1960