The Book of Job is arguably the oldest book in the Bible and the greatest light to come out of Job’s suffering we find in chapter nine. He’s talking about how “I keep crying out to God and He’s not answering me.” Have you ever been there?
“I don’t know what to do.”
“He doesn’t seem to hear my prayer.”
And then he says in Job 9:32, “He is not a man as I am, that I may answer Him or that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand, lost both.” Job’s anguish brought him to the realization that is the greatest realization in the world. “I need a mediator.” “I need somebody who can put His hand on us both. I need someone who can lay His hand on God and someone who can lay His hand on me.” In other words, someone who can pursue the interests of both of us and the needs on both sides. A mediator is a person who is concerned with the interests of both parties.
Turn to chapter 19. Job says in verse 23, “Oh, that my words were written or that they were inscribed in a book.” Guess what? They are! Here we are, 4000 plus years after this man lived who are writing his words. By the way, you have no idea how words and actions that you take in obedience to the Word of God will be echoing in eternity. He says, verse 24, “That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead forever.” Well, they are, Job. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He will stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know that in my flesh I will see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, how my heart yearns within me.”
Wow! The fact that the Redeemer is eternal, the fact that the Redeemer is a man, the fact that the Redeemer is going to stand on the earth, and the fact that because “I know him, even though I die, I will stand in His presence.” You’ve got the whole gospel right there in Job 19.
God took Job through what Job went through. And you remember the end of the story, because you remember what James says, “You’ve heard of Job. ” You know, the example of the endurance that he is to us. But you also know “the end intended by the Lord …” that He is very gracious and merciful. Job ended up with ten more children and a whole bunch more, and he lived 140 years after his trial.
My friend, every test, every trial, every difficulty that comes into your life is permitted. It wasn’t God that attacked Job. It was the devil. And he could only do it to the extent God gave him permission. And it’s the same with your life. And it’s the same with mine. We need discipline to equip and prepare us for something so much greater. Our time is short. Let’s redeem the time because the days are evil and eternity is forever. And the honor of Jesus Christ that’ll be worth it all.
Watch the five-episode series “When God Hides His Face” >>>CLICK HERE<<<