Re:Verse passage – Job 9:32-35 (day three)
“There is no umpire between us,
Who may lay his hand upon us both.”
From time to time in his long articulation of his plight, Job says something that begs the question – at least as his words reach our ears in the year of our Lord 2022. Job says, “If only there were a mediator between God and me.” (The translation “umpire” seems kind of humorous, but it gets the job done.) The question Job’s utterance begs is this: Is there no mediator? Job takes it as a given that there is not. But that was then; this is now. And what a “now” it is. Jesus is that mediator – the only one between God and man, as Hebrews teaches us. This mediator, though, is no neutral party, but a fellow sufferer with us, that we might also know his resurrection.
It’s such a relief when a read-through of the book of Job gets to chapter 9! Just realizing we have the mediator/advocate/umpire Job longed for is wonderful. And He doesn’t try to prove we’re innocent; He says, “They’re guilty…but I’ll take their punishment.” How blessed to live on this side of the cross!