Bible Characters – Part 21

Series – January 2025 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Bible Characters
Gleanings From The Old Testament,Part 21

Job’s Question
How can a man be righteous before God? —Job 9:2 NKJV

Man’s Problem
Job was a pious man “who feared God and shunned evil” (1:1). God even said of him that there was none like him on the earth, “blameless and upright” (v.8). His godliness, however, was no guarantee of prosperity. No, Job got acquainted with the problem of suffering in a very special way. Even the most pious man on earth was not spared suffering! Of course, we immediately have to add, “in as far as God allowed it in His wisdom.” God had a special purpose with Job’s sufferings: He put him to the test in order for him to get to know himself better as well as to get to know God better. Job learned to repent in dust and ashes and to bow before God’s majesty and sovereignty (Job 42).

Moreover, and this is the subject on which we would like to meditate now, he was led to express a number of gospel truths which have been revealed to us clearly in God’s Word. First of all, Job spoke about the fundamental needs of man. Although he is God’s creature (10:9-12, 27:3), he belongs to the family of a fallen Adam (31:33). He labors under the yoke of sin (7:21, 9:28-31, 10:6). The wrath of God rests upon him (6:4, 9:13, 10:17, 14:13, 16:9). As long as he lives here on earth, his is a fierce battle to wage (7:1), for he is subject to the power of Satan, death and the grave (Job 1, 2, 14, 17).

Is there a solution to man’s need and, most of all, to his sin problem, which is the deeper cause of his misery? Job desperately wondered how a man could “be righteous before God” (9:2). Could an unclean thing ever produce a “clean thing” (14:4)? Job 15:14 says, “What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous?” Even “the heavens are not pure” in the sight of God (v.15).

In Job 25:4-6 Bildad stated this problem quite strikingly: “How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in his sight, how much less man, who is a maggot, and a son of man, who is a worm?”

God’s Answer
Although the New Testament fully answers these questions, such as in the letter to the Romans, which deals with the justification of the ungodly, yet there are important hints at the glad tidings even in the book of Job.

Job understood his hopeless position and the fact that God, the righteous Judge, had to condemn him. He was also aware of the fact that salvation could be realized by the intervention of a mediator between God and men. This is the second issue we now want to address: God’s answer to man’s hopeless situation, from which he is unable to deliver himself.

Job showed the right condition for man to be saved: “I would beg mercy of my Judge” (9:15). Our own achievements, good works, and piety cannot offer the solution to our need. We need to realize that only the Judge who condemns us justly can provide a way out in His grace, without detracting from His justice.

This is exactly what He did when He sent a Mediator who met all His righteous demands, and who also met all the sinner’s needs. We know this Mediator: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6). By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Job could already speak about Him. In Job 9 we read about a mediator between God and men for the first time. After Job realized that he was a lost human being who could only hope for the grace of his Judge, he expressed his longing for such a mediator: “Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both” (v. 33). In other words, he was saying, “If only there were someone who could bridge the distance between mortal man and God, the supreme Judge.”

Well, the gospel tells us about the coming of this Mediator, who bridged the enormous gap and obtained satisfaction for both parties. He was the only One capable of doing so, since He is both truly God and truly man.

In the book of Job we find a number of titles of this unique Mediator. He is the “Surety” provided by God Himself (17:3 KJV). He is the “Messenger” who descended from on high, the “Interpreter” testifying to the truth (33:23) and the “Ransom” found because of His finished work (v.24).

This One went into death but rose again, and now He holds the “keys of Hades and Death” (Rev. 1:18 NKJV). Together with Job we can exclaim, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth” (Job 19:25). He is “the Resurrection and the Life,” and one day the bodies of the deceased saints will be freed “from the power of the grave” (Jn. 11:25; Ps. 49:15). It is correct to believe in the resurrection of the body: “That in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:26).

Thanks to the work of the Mediator, we have been brought to God already now (1 Pet. 3:18). Christ has reconciled us to God, and we have been translated into His kingdom (2 Cor. 5:18; Col. 1:13). We have been brought into His light and placed before God as His own children (1 Pet. 2:9; 1 Jn. 3:1). Perhaps very soon we shall take that place in bodies that will be glorified by Christ’s transforming power (Phil. 3:20-21).

In our flesh we then shall see God, “face to face,” as the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:12. This is the climax of our blessings, all secured for us by the precious blood of the Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ. These things are still freely offered to all those who would take refuge with Him.

By Hugo Bouter (adapted)

Look for Part 22 of this Series next month.

The truth concerning the resurrection of believers is closely linked with the Lord’s resurrection. Just as Christ was raised bodily from the grave and taken up to heaven in that same body (Lk. 24:36-40, 50-51; Jn. 20:19‑20), so it will happen to those who trust Him as Savior. When He comes, those who have died in Christ will rise first, then all living believers will be caught up together with them to meet Him in the air (1 Th. 4:14-17). At that time He “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Phil. 3:20-21 NKJV). Our bodies will be altered to be like His body of glory. These verses are clear and decisive. —Leslie M. Grant, “Caught Up Together”