Job said: I know it’s so. How can man be right before God? If one wished to contend with him, he couldn’t answer once in a 1,000 times. One hasn’t succeeded who has hardened himself against God. God rules the mountains, the earth, the sun, stars, the heavens, the seas, the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and chambers of the south. God does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number. He passes by Job and he didn’t see or perceive him. God won’t turn back his anger. How can Job answer God? Though Job was in the right he couldn’t answer him, and appealed for mercy from his accuser or judge (God). Job summoned him and he answered. He wouldn’t believe God was listening to his voice. God crushes him with a tempest and multiplies his wounds without cause; He won’t let Job get his breath and fills him with bitterness. God is mighty and just. Job is in the right, but his own mouth would condemn him, though blameless, God would prove Job perverse. Job loathed his life. The earth is given into the land of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges. Job’s days are swifter than a runner and see no good. Job was afraid of all his suffering, because he knew God would not hold him to be innocent. Job confessed he would be condemned. God is not a man who Job might answer him, that they should come to trial together. There is no arbiter/umpire/judge between them. Job asked that God take His rod away then he would speak without fear of him.
God allowed Satan to afflict Job, but Job regularly attributes his suffering to God himself. Job is in the midst of suffering, and his friends are making the accusation that Job deserves this suffering because of his sin. Job is honest here that he is unworthy of the kindness of God. In light of the perfect justice of God he admits he would not be able to stand; yet, he knows that he’s not suffering because of a particular sin. Job appeals for mercy from God. Job was in the right but he is still a sinner. He is blameless but in comparison to God he is perverse. Job claimed not to have an intercessor, a mediator between God and himself. Job wanted to argue his case to God, but he is afraid to. By faith alone we have a mediator and an arbiter in Jesus Christ. We are sinners undeserving of God’s grace. We deserve worse than what Job was even experiencing for our sin. But in Christ we have more than an umpire, but we have a sacrifice who bore what we deserve. Praise God that in light of our sin we have hope. Praise God that in our suffering we can still be counted as righteous, not because our righteousness is our own, but it was given to us by Jesus Christ. Where there is no mediator we are exposed to God’s wrathful judgment. With a mediator we have the hope of eternal joy in the presence of God’s glory.