Job 9--Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter

Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter
​
9 Then Job answered and said:

2 “Truly I know that it is so:
    But how can a man be in the right before God?
3 If one wished to contend with him,
    one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength
    —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?--
5 he who removes mountains, and they know it not,
    when he overturns them in his anger,
6 who shakes the earth out of its place,
    and its pillars tremble;
7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
    who seals up the stars;
8 who alone stretched out the heavens
    and trampled the waves of the sea;
9 who made the Bear and Orion,
    the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10 who does great things beyond searching out,
    and marvelous things beyond number.
11 Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;
    he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12 Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?
    Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

13 “God will not turn back his anger;
    beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
14 How then can I answer him,
    choosing my words with him?
15 Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
    I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
17 For he crushes me with a tempest
    and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18 he will not let me get my breath,
    but fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!
    If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
20 Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
    though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21 I am blameless; I regard not myself;
    I loathe my life.
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
    ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
    he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
    he covers the faces of its judges--
    if it is not he, who then is it?

​25 “My days are swifter than a runner;
    they flee away; they see no good.
26 They go by like skiffs of reed,
    like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
    I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’
28 I become afraid of all my suffering,
    for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29 I shall be condemned;
    why then do I labor in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow
    and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 yet you will plunge me into a pit,
    and my own clothes will abhor me.
32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.
33 There is no arbiter between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.
34 Let him take his rod away from me,
    and let not dread of him terrify me.
35 Then I would speak without fear of him,
    for I am not so in myself.

---

This is part of Job's reply to Bildad.  See how Job does not really deny what Bildad said, but disagrees partially with the assumptions Bildad made and therefore the conclusions that Bildad drew?  The problem was not the facts or even the logic, but the presuppositions that read to a long conclusion

Job questions how a man can even stand as "righteous" before God!  There is no doubt that God will not punish the righteous, but Job now wonders if there is anyone who is actually righteous.  We know the answer to that from Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14:1-3, and Psalm 51:1-3, but remember that none of that was written yet at the time of Job, and yet Job seems to understand it (probably by the work of the Holy Spirit who guides and leads us into all truth and reveals all truth to us).

Job seems to come to a conclusion here that he is going to need to reach again at the end of the book--though he calls for an audience with God to challenge Him, no one could have a debate with God, because no one could answer a single one of His questions.  This is exactly what we'll see at the end of the book.  God's ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9).

We then see Job prophesy and tell that God is in control of all creation--the sun, the earth, and the starts of heaven, including the constellations, and yet He is both not seen physically and His work is not seen or understood by us as humans (again, Isaiah 55:8-9(.  Job doesn't stop there though.

The next verse is a little confusing in the translation that I've given you, so let me let you know that "Rahab" is "the proud"--remember that names and character traits are synonymous at this time.  I person is their nature, name and character--it is their identity.  Some commentators believe this a name for the people that would become Egypt, though that doesn't really matter here.  What matters is that we understand that Job is essentially giving the principle that "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5, and Proverbs 3:34).

Job then once again proclaims his innocence in this particular matter (remember that Bildad seemed to have indicated that specific sin leads to specific judgment and both Bildad and Job, and Eliphaz as well, seem to be struggling with the idea of original sin and sin nature and that we are born guilty, not innocent.  There is an idea of "innocence" in the Old Testament with people who are innocent before other men, but not really anyone other than Adam and Even originally before the Fall who are innocent before God--we do however see God get justice for those who were victims of violence and were unjustly killed for example and He will say that their "innocent blood" has cried out to Him (one example is when Cain killed Abel, yet we know that doesn't mean that Abel was without sin).

Job even seems to correct himself in this part of the passage where he starts of saying, "If I could summon Him....." but then comes back and talks about how mighty God is and asks, "Who can summon Him?"  Job's conclusion is bitter and sounds much like the book of Ecclesiastes.  From the perspective only of this life and without eternity in mind, the end of all men, both the righteous and the wicked is the same--death.  What benefit then is there to being righteous if God kills the righteous and the unrighteous all the same?  That is an excellent question!  Remember that Jesus told us to count the cost of discipleship (being a follower of God) and that it would be full of trouble and adversity.  Job concludes this because he believes that only God has the power of life and death, so it is logical to Job that God must somehow get pleasure out of bringing calamity to the blameless/righteous/just (different words are used in different translations, but the idea is the same here).  Job still has not yet reached the conclusion that sin corrupts the natural man and that the natural man must die but that the soul of man (his eternal part) can be "born again" and he can be given a new spirit and that part--the "real" you--can live on forever and ever in peace and harmony with God because of Jesus' penal substitutionary atonement.  How could Job understand any of that though before Jesus did any of it?  The same way that any of the other prophets would see, albeit dimly, and understand what little they did about Jesus and His first coming--through the work of the Holy Spirit.  It seems like we see a battle here the book of Job as the Spirit is leading Job to understand more about God and His plan for redemption and salvation and this is at odds with what Job (and his friends) currently know and understand about God and the laws by which He runs the universe.

Job then tells his friends that he cannot simply be what we would call stoic and pretend that none of this bothers him (the "tough guy" look that many guys think they are supposed to have).  That's just not going to work in this situation because not only is the physical pain too much to ignore, but so is the perceived injustice because Job has to live with the fact that he doesn't deserve this, and that seems to hurt and bother him more than the physical pain.  Job seems to be saying that he could deal with the torturous pain if he knew that he deserved it.

Job then again seems to get a glimpse of the fact that there is nothing he can do to clean himself up, even if he comes in close contact with the things that people thought of as most pure (snow) and the things that people used to purify themselves (lye).  You cannot make yourself clean on the inside by cleaning the outside.  This seems to be the point Jesus makes in Matthew 23:25-28 (part of the "Seven Woes" to the scribes and Pharisees).

Then Job comes to the conclusion of this part of his response.  God and man are separate and not equal and for that reason Job cannot simply summon God (our word today would be subpoena) and force Him to show up in court to answer for the charges being brought against Him.  No, there is a need that Job sees for a Mediator between God and man.  We partially see this with the office of the high priest in the Levitical system, but even that is inadequate, but we see the true answer to that request in I Timothy 2:5, "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,"  Wow!  Jesus is the exact answer to the request that Job has been praying, and because He is asking something that is consistent with  the "name" of the Lord, he is sure that it will come to pass, but not in the way that he wants or expects at that moment.  Job wants someone to help settle that dispute, but there is a bigger issue between God and man where eternity stands in the balance and God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, will step into the role of being Mediator between God and man.  As Hebrews 4:15 tells us, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." (Remember that the role of the high priest was to be mediator between God and man).  With that in mind, I encourage you to read the book of Hebrews and see how the priesthood of Jesus is greater than the priesthood of Melchizedek and Aaron (Hebrews 3-4 and 7-10)