Into Job now…
Besides verse 1:20 which just blows me away continually that after all the devastation, what does Job do?
“…tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped.”
He WORSHIPED. He said “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” After everything that just happened in v13-19. He literally throws himself down before the Lord in submission and worships him. Amazing. Nuts. Wow.
Fast forward – Job’s friends are trying to “rationalize” with him, suggesting that he must have done something wrong to deserve this. Yet, the Bible clearly says he did not. (1:1 – ‘he was blameless and upright’). In one of his rebuttals to his well-meaning friends he says of him and God–
There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.
Oh…but there will be.
1 Timothy 2:5-6
For there is one God and one mediator between God and man – the man CHRIST JESUS, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
We are not hopeless. God has provided the arbiter in Jesus! He has mediated between us and God with his perfect life of obedience and his cross – justifying us. Faith in who Jesus was and what he did reconciles us to God – restores us. Jesus “lays his had on us both” – us and God and makes all things new. Praise God for his mercy, grace, and love for providing us our arbiter, Jesus!
Mike Ruel 