Who May Lay His Hand On Us Both? (Job 9:1–33; Lord’s Day 6)
Job cried out for what seemed hopeless: “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.” What Job so hopelessly hoped for is our hope. The mediator must be a true and righteous man, because God’s justice requires that human nature which sinned must pay; he must also be true God, so that by the power of his divinity he might bear the weight of God’s wrath. Dr. Daniel Hyde proclaims that our Lord Jesus Christ is exactly the arbiter Job needed—and we need.
Let us respond to the Word of God by confessing its teaching as found in the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 6, questions and answers 16–19:
Q.16. Why must the mediator be a true and righteous man?
A. Because God’s justice requires that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others.
Q.17. Why must he also be true God?
A. So that, by the power of his divinity, he might bear in his humanity the weight of God’s wrath, and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.
Q.18. Then who is this mediator—true God and at the same time a true and righteous man?
A. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us for our complete deliverance and righteousness.
Q.19. How do you come to know this?
A. The holy gospel tells me. God himself began to reveal the gospel already in Paradise; later, he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; and finally he fulfilled it through his own beloved Son.
I want to begin tonight with the story of Job. You know who he is, but his story is somewhat obscured in the Old Testament because it’s long and somewhat hard to grasp what’s being said. The basics are that he was a godly man evidenced by his sacrificing for his sons and daughters in case they sinned (1:1–5). And the Lord blessed him with much earthly success. Then we read behind the scenes how the Lord asked Satan if he had considered his servant Job. Satan said Job only served God because he was blessed.
So the Lord gave him permission to do what he wanted over all Job’s possessions. The result was the death of all his animals, servants, and children. Yet Job was steadfast: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:6–22). So Satan went to God again and this time God allowed him to touch Job’s body, only sparing his life. Job’s body was covered in sores, which he scraped off using a piece of pottery. Job’s wife then said, “Curse God and die;” Job remained steadfast: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (2:1–10)
Job then lamented his own life in chapter 3: “Why did I not die at birth” (3:11). Then his friends tried to comfort him.
First, in chapters 4–5 Eliphaz told him what he had seen in life: that God blesses the godly while he curses the sinful. Therefore, he asked, “Can a mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” (4:17) His advice was for Job to repent: “As for me, I would seek God and to God would I commit my cause” (5:8).
Job replied in chapters 6–7 that because his vexation and calamity was heavier than all the sand of the sea (6:2–3) he desired to die (6:8–9). Then Bildad spoke to Job, emphasizing that God is just. Gee, thanks friend! He told Job that his children were sinners and so got what was coming to them (8:3–4) and so Job needed to confess whatever hidden sins he was hiding from God in the hopes that he’d be merciful (8:5–7).
Job’s first response to them is in chapters 9–10. “Truly I know that it is so,” meaning, that God is just (9:2). And if there was any human being in the history of humanity of whom we could say, “God helps those who help themselves,” surely Job was that man! But look at Job’s question: “But how can a man be in the right before God?” (9:2) Even if Job entered into a legal contention with God, God would be too wise and too strong for him (9:3–4). Even if Job were in the right, he could not speak to God (9:15); in fact, his own words would condemn him (9:20). Then we read seemingly hopeless words:
For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
that we should come to trial together.
There is no arbiter between us,
who might lay his hand on us both. (9:32–33)
What Job so hopelessly hoped for is our hope! Jesus Christ is exactly what Job needed! God is just and we are not. And so our greatest need is to satisfy God’s justice so that we can be accepted by him. We already know this so QA 18 is no great surprise, “Then who is this mediator—true God and at the same time a true and righteous man?” Quoting 1 Corinthians 1:30 the answer is, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us for our complete deliverance and righteousness. The question is what makes him able to be that arbiter between a holy God and we a sinful people?
He Can Lay His Hand on Us as True Man
The first reason Jesus is Job’s hope and ours is that he can lay his hand on us as true man. Why must—listen to that strong language—the mediator be a true and righteous man? The answer is as Job and his friends all knew, God is a just God: Because God’s justice requires. Requires what? That human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others. Adam sinned and we his sons and daughters continue to son. Because God is just humans must pay for their sins and satisfy God; he won’t punish an angel or an animal for human sin.
But as Eliphaz asked, “Can a mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” (4:17) And as Job knew, “But how can a man be in the right before God?” (9:2) In other words, we need not only a human being to stand in our place before a holy and just God but a righteous man to make the satisfaction we cannot make as sinners. That man is Jesus Christ, whom Paul describes as the second Adam in Romans 5:12–21, whose “one act of righteousness” (v. 18) brings us righteousness and life. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus “had to be made like his brothers in every respect…to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17).
He Can Lay His Hand on God as True God
This leads to the second reason Jesus is Job’s hope and ours: he can lay his hand on us as true God. Again, our question is so strong: Why must he also be true God? (Q&A 18) Remember what Job said? Even if he wanted to reply to God, God was not only too wise for him but too powerful. He’s God. He removed mountains! He shakes the earth! He owns the sun and stars! (9:5–12) Only God can save us. As our Catechism so wonderfully says this is so that, by the power of his divinity, he might bear in his humanity the weight of God’s wrath, and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life. Obviously no sinful human being can sustain the weight of God’s wrath. But even a righteous man cannot because God is the Creator and human nature is a creature. One is infinite the other is finite.
Do you see how the shadowy hope of Job comes into clear focus in our Lord Jesus Christ? Who are we to think that we can satisfy the demands of God? Who are we to think that we deserve to stand before a holy God? Where our sin abounds, where death abounds, where condemnation abounds, where helpless, needy people abound the grace of God is found in super abundance in Jesus Christ! What a God! God’s solution of grace to Job’s desperation not only fits our need perfectly, it is infinitely greater than we could have ever expected! Let’s give him praise!