Job 9: If Only There Were a Mediator
Updated: Oct 6
Right in principle, wrong for the moment
Last time, we listened to Bildad bring good theology to a grieving man. Instead of helping, it hurt.
In chapter 9, Job doesn't argue with the facts: "Yes, I know all this is true in principle." But then he asks the question that drives the whole chapter:
“But how can a mortal be righteous before God?” Job 9:2
That question is not abstract for Job. He is not sitting in a lecture hall. He is sitting in ashes, covered in sores, mourning his children, and trying to understand why God feels so unreachable.
A courtroom no one can win
Job keeps reaching for courtroom words: court, defense, judge, guilty. "If someone wanted to take God to court, would it be possible to answer him even once in a thousand times?" (Job 9:3).
Job isn't claiming to be sinless. The book calls him blameless (Job 1:1), meaning he has done nothing to deserve this. But look where his own logic leads: "Though I am innocent, my own mouth would pronounce me guilty" (Job 9:20). Before a holy God, even Job's best isn't enough, and neither is ours.
Later, God really does question Job out of a storm (Job 38–41). Job's words here turn out to be a preview of that encounter.
Everywhere but here
Job describes God's power on a grand scale. He "marches on the waves of the sea" and made "the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades" (Job 9:8–9). Then Job says,
"Yet when he comes near, I cannot see him. When he moves by, I do not see him go" (Job 9:11).
Job can see God's hand in the stars, but not in his own life. We all have seasons like that. They start in childhood, when a parent's discipline feels like love has gone missing. Only later do we see they were there all along.
When God finally answers, He points to those same stars, Orion and the Pleiades (Job 38:31). What crushed Job in chapter 9 becomes an invitation to trust. And in Mark 6, the God who walks on the waves comes to His frightened disciples on the water and says, "Take courage! I am here!" (Mark 6:50).
When pain does the talking
Job is honest about how he feels, even when it isn't flattering. He isn't even sure God would hear him: "And even if I summoned him and he responded, I'm not sure he would listen to me" (Job 9:16). He believes God is the one behind his suffering, and he can't see why. "For he attacks me with a storm and repeatedly wounds me without cause. He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me instead with bitter sorrows" (Job 9:17–18).
He will not let me catch my breath. My mom used to say bad things come in threes. I never believed it, but I think of her whenever hard things start to pile up. Job's losses came in waves.
His pain even says, "When a plague sweeps through, he laughs at the death of the innocent" (Job 9:23). I don't believe that, and neither does the rest of Scripture. God later corrects Job's "ignorant words" (Job 38:2). Yet He tells the friends, "you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has" (Job 42:7). They spoke neat theology about God. Job spoke honest pain to God. Job wondered if God would listen. He did.
"My life passes more swiftly than a runner" (Job 9:25). At 57, I feel that more every year.
If only there were a mediator
Job reaches the bottom of the problem. Even if he washed with "soap and lye," he couldn't make himself clean (Job 9:30). Neither can we.
Then he says something remarkable:
"If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together. The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment. Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength." (Job 9:33–35)
I had read Job many times and never really seen this. "God is not a mortal like me" (Job 9:32), so no one can stand between them. The Hebrew word behind "mediator" pictures someone who lays a hand on both sides. To do that, the mediator would have to belong to both.
That is Jesus. "There is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Fully God and fully human, He took the punishment Job feared, so we can speak to God without fear. Job didn't know His name, but his longing keeps growing until he declares, "I know that my Redeemer lives" (Job 19:25).
If you are hurting today
Maybe you're in your own Job 9 season. You can see God at work in other people's lives, but He seems to pass you by. You may wonder if He's listening at all.
He is. God heard every word Job said, even the angry ones, and still called him "my servant Job" (Job 42:8). Your honest prayers are not shut out.
I sometimes wonder if the Father smiled as Job said, "If only there were a mediator." Hurting and confused, Job was reaching for the very thing God had planned all along.
You can't make yourself clean enough. But the Mediator has come. Through Jesus, you can bring your pain to God without fear. Keep talking to Him. He's listening and he loves you deeply.
Blessings,
Stacey
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