Year 2, Day 103: Job 9

Job gives us some really great thoughts here – and as I would expect I can only find the slightest of flaws within his words.  Let’s start with the minor flaw and then go quickly into the wonderful points of truth that Job brings to the table about God.  Finally, we’ll end with what may be the first (from a historical dating perspective) recognition of the need for Jesus Christ.

Lie: I Am Righteous

The only flaw I can find in Job’s words is that twice he calls himself “right.”  (See Job 9:15,20 – other translations might say “innocent” or “just” instead of right.)  Now, let’s be clear.  God does consider Job righteous.  But he is far from right; and he is certainly far from innocent or blameless.  He is righteous because he has turned to God and understands the importance of God’s role in his ability to have any righteousness at all.  But the only reason that he is right, righteous, just, or justified is because of God.

However, this is my only quibble with Job’s words – and it is fairly insignificant.  We can say with confidence that Job did not bring this tragedy upon himself and he certainly did not deserve it.  So in that perspective – as a refutation of Bildad and Eliphaz – Job can say that he is innocent with respect to why this calamity has happened to him.  But as a whole, Job is as fallen as you are or I am.

Truth: Who Is Bigger Than God?

Let’s move on to some of the great theology that Job does paint in these verses.  Who among us can actually answer God’s accusation of our sinfulness with anything other than, “guilty as charged?”  Who among us can contend with God even once and be in the right?  We among us can harden their heart against God and truly succeed in the end?  What Job is really asking is – who among us is bigger than God?

Truth: God’s Power Is Bigger Than Ours

Then we get to this awesome description of God in Job 9:5-10.  God moves mountains effortlessly; we do not.  God causes the earth to shake; we do not.  God made the stars and the sun; we did not.  God stretched out the heavens and laid down the sea under His foot; we did not.  God arranged the stars into constellations; we did not.  God’s acts of greatness are innumerable; ours are not.  God perceives us; we fail to perceive Him.  Job does an incredible job of giving us perspective on the greatness and sheer magnitude of God.  And even what Job says is still understating who God is and what God can do!

Truth: We Have No Defense, Just Confession and Repentance

The rest of the chapter is then devoted to the pointlessness of trying to make a defense against God’s action or God’s accusations.  We cannot answer God.  We can only appeal for mercy.  We cannot lift up any defense against His righteous accusations.  He is wiser, mightier, and more righteous than all of us put together!  Who among us can think of anything other than our own reasons for condemnation when we are in His presence?

Truth: We Need An Arbiter

This leads us to the end of the chapter – and what a beautiful end of the chapter it is.  Job 9:33 is such an incredibly profound verse: “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand upon us both.”  This is such an incredibly profound verse because it is at this moment that Job realizes the need for Jesus Christ.

Now, let’s think about this historically for a second.  Most people believe that the story of Job predates Moses, and likely could even predate Abraham.*  If this story does genuinely predate Moses, then Job is the earliest book in the Bible to be written.  What this likely means, then, is that in the oldest book of the Bible we have a clear reference to at least one person who is able to make the theological connection for their need of an arbiter between them and God.

I don’t know about you, but that is really cool to me today.  The fact that we can put our finger on that verse and conclude with reasonable assurance that even as far back as Job there were loyal followers of God who knew that life would be better with an arbiter between them and God is powerful stuff.  Job understands that if there was someone who knew what it was like to be God and who knew what it was like to be human – then his ability to stand in the presence of God might actually be possible!

Let that thought really sink in for a second.  To put your hand on someone’s shoulder is to identify with them and connect to them.  This whole chapter is about Job’s inability to stand in the presence of God without being completely convinced of his condemnation and his guilt.  But if there were an arbiter – someone who knew what it was like to be both God and human – Job hints that he believes that things might be different.  If there were an arbiter, Job might be able to stand in the presence of God meaningfully.

This is just a really cool thought on so many levels.  But the most fundamental element of this thought is that here we have the most basic understanding of why we need Jesus: without an arbiter, we cannot meaningfully stand in the presence of God.  In order to be able to stand in God’s presence, we need someone who knows what it is like to be both human and God.  That is the most basic understanding of why Jesus had to come.  He had to be the bridge between us and God.

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* There is little Biblical evidence for this claim.  Ezekiel mentions Job twice in his book, implying that at the latest Job was a contemporary of Ezekiel.  However, we are also told that Job lived 140 years after the events of this book took place – and since Job had grown children at the beginning of this book he was likely at least 30 or 40 at the beginning of this book.  From the Biblical perspective on ages, human beings were not recorded as living 180 or more years except for the time prior to Moses – and actually the age fits for having Job as a contemporary to Abraham.  However, please understand that this point is largely conjecture and not based upon empirical Biblical evidence.