“[God] is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him,
    that we might confront each other in court.
If only there were someone to mediate between us,
    someone to bring us together…”
Job 9:32-33 (NIV)

Late in his life, my Grandpa Vander Well served as the bailiff for the Plymouth County courthouse in Iowa. One summer while I was in my teens I spent my Spring Break with him and accompanied him to work each day. It was a really fascinating experience to sit and watch the proceedings, to visit with the attorneys in the break room, and see how a courtroom operates. I remember drinking coffee for the first time that week.

Today’s chapter is Job’s response to his friend Bill’s brief and direct conclusion that Job’s children died because they were being punished by God for their sin, and Job must equally to blame for his own sufferings, having been sentenced to his suffering by God.

Job’s response is filled with courtroom words and phrases:

“prove” (vs.2)
“dispute” (vs. 3, 14)
“answer” (vs. 15)
“plead” (vs. 15)
“Judge” (vs. 15)
“mercy” (vs. 15)
“hearing” (vs. 16)
“justice” (vs. 19)
“guilty” (vs. 20)
“court” (vs 32)
“mediate” (vs. 33)

While Job knows he is not sinless, he would love a chance to plead his case against God in court and prove that he is blameless of anything that would warrant his suffering. He despairs of this desire, pessimistically believing that God doesn’t care about Job or his suffering. He doubts that God would even show up for the courtroom trial he dreams about.

In the midst of Job’s rant, he mentions something very interesting. Before that fateful day in which he lost everything, Job experienced a good relationship between he and God. Now, however, he sees the relationship between he and God as a chasm of irreconcilable differences. Job mourns that there is no mediator to bring the two sides together.

Along this chapter-a-day journey I’ve discovered that I can find references to Jesus throughout the ancient Hebrew writings if I have the eyes of my heart open to seeing them. Job’s plea for a mediator is one of those Jesus sightings. Jesus made it clear to His followers that He came to this earth to reveal God the father to humanity and to provide a way to know God. In His prayer the night of His arrest Jesus prayed to God the Father:

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.”
John 17:20-23 (NIV, emphasis added)

Paul put it to his protégé Timothy this way:

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus…”
1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV, emphasis added)

Job’s cry for a mediator is essentially humanity’s cry for a mediator, for Jesus would bridge the relational divide that Job is suffering.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself empathizing with Job. While I’ve thankfully never experienced the level of suffering he’s experienced, it doesn’t take that level of suffering to feel the relational divide with God. In my experience, it’s not unusual for humans to acutely feel the relational divide and the pessimistic doubt of God’s care or concern. The Great Story, however, reveals God graciously and generously bridging that gap Himself in answer. As Jesus put it:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16-17 (NIV)

In find that an encouraging thought with which to finish the work week.

Have a great weekend!

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.