Job 9:20-35 - Job’s Cry for a Mediator (Session 14)

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 9:20–35, Reasoning Through the Bible continues through Job’s response to Bildad as Job wrestles with the painful feeling that God is treating him like the guilty even though he knows he is innocent. This session explores the emotional and theological struggle of suffering people who feel they are not getting a fair hearing before God. 

This study also addresses the problem of evil, the question of why the innocent seem to suffer while the wicked seem to prosper, and Job’s growing frustration as he tries to understand what God is doing. The discussion makes clear that Job is not cursing God, but he is wrongly laying certain accusations at God’s feet because he is seeing the world through his pain. 

The heart of the passage comes when Job cries out for an arbitrator, a mediator who can place his hand on both God and man. That longing points forward to Jesus Christ, the only one who is fully God and fully man, and therefore the only true mediator between God and humanity. This episode powerfully connects Job’s anguish to the gospel hope fulfilled in Christ. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 9:20–35 explained 
•  innocent suffering in Job 
•  the problem of evil 
•  why the wicked seem to prosper 
•  is God unfair 
•  Job’s cry for a mediator 
•  Jesus as the true mediator 
•  fully God and fully man 
•  hope when God feels distant 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

Why A Mediator Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:16

We look around us and we see a lot of evil, pain, and suffering in the world. And we also read the scriptures, we see God presented as holy and righteous and good. But in our lives, God sometimes feels distant. If we just had a mediator, someone who could reach between us and God, then maybe we could have a chance of reconciling our differences. Well, the Old Testament book of Job, he screams out for a mediator as well. And today we're going to find out about that mediator as we reason through the book of Job. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We have a ministry that we go verse by verse through the Word of God. We don't always talk about all of our resources. If you go to our website, you'll find out about them. Our ministry has a great heart for teaching the Word of God and helping you teach the Word of God. So reach out to our website, reasoningThruTheBible.com. There you'll see teacher helps and all of our programs. We also don't often spend much time talking about money resources, but we are in need of funds. We trust that God will raise up someone. If you can't contribute, then we trust that someone will. But we could have a greater reach if we had more giving. So you can find out on our website how to do that. But today we're gonna be looking at Job's call for a mediator. If you have your copy of the Bible, open it to Job chapter 9. As we've seen, Job is responding to Bildad. Bildad had a very mechanistic view of God that if someone was in pain, then it must have been because of sin. If they were doing well, it must be because they're righteous. Job is pointing out some of the flaws in that thinking. So, Steve, can you start reading at Job 920 and read through verse 26?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me. Though I am guiltless, he will declare me guilty. I am guiltless. I do not take notice of myself, I reject my life. It is all one. Therefore I say, He destroys the guiltless and the wicked. If the whip kills suddenly, he mocks the despair of the innocent. The earth is handed over to the wicked. He covers the faces of his judges. If it is not he, then who is it? Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good, they slip by like reedboats, like an eagle that swoops in on its prey.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Job is very down on himself and down on God. He's seeing the world through his pain and suffering, and he's convinced that things are only going to stay bad and never get better. Job is saying in verse 20 that he is innocent, but whenever he tries to open his mouth, his words will condemn him anyway. He's very down on himself. He's very down on God, saying that he's not guilty, but God's going to find some reason to consider him guilty. So Job feels he doesn't really have a chance, a fair shot before God. Verse 22, Job has come to think that God will punish both the guilty and the innocent alike, regardless of what they've done. So, Steve, what do you see when somebody has an attitude like that? I mean, obviously we know God is fair, but here Job can't see it. He knows he's innocent, but he feels like God is treating him like he's guilty.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Well, looking at it from Job's perspective, Glenn, I think it's just as you stated, he knows that he's innocent, but look at the situations that he's in. Somebody might come to the conclusion, well, what else is he supposed to come to as a conclusion other than I'm innocent, look what's happening to me, yet look at the other guilty people that are out there that aren't innocent and yet they're prospering or they're not coming under the infliction that I've got. So therefore, this is the conclusion that I've come to. I don't think that is out of the realm of what we experience today, trying to understand things that happen to us, especially whenever we are followers of Jesus Christ, followers of God. Whenever inflictions come upon us and tragedies, things that happen, we automatically, I think, do what Job is doing, trying to understand what's going on. And as we mentioned in our last session, we're not always going to understand what is going on in this lifetime. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. But I think in the next lifetime, we will understand certain things. There are things that happen to us because our bodies break down, because there are diseases that are in the world today. We're living in a fallen world. We do have wicked people that are around us that inflict injury on innocent people. Those are things that happen in our world, and the innocent and the believers in Jesus Christ are caught up in many of those situations. But that doesn't mean that we abandon God because we can't understand necessarily what is going on. So I think, again, as we see Job going through all of the things that he's saying here in these verses, whenever he's pushing back against his friends, I think in one way or another, we all can empathize with Job and maybe sometimes feel the same. I've had those same questions, for instance, and saying, why is it that these things are happening to us? Why is it that here I am, I'm a believer, yet this affliction is on me? Well, what we shouldn't take away from it is that the infliction is on us because we have done something wrong. That's exactly what his friends are telling him. And Job kind of sounds a little bit, Glenn, that he's agreeing with them to a certain degree, or at least he gets close to agreeing with them, but we haven't seen him abandon God yet.

The Problem Of Evil Explained

SPEAKER_01 6:37

He's not abandoned God. What he does do is lay some problems at God's feet that are a little bit unfair. If we look at verse 23, he says there, the last part of 23, he's talking about God. He says he mocks the despair of the innocent. Job is seeing a God that's uncaring, that's mocking the despair of innocent people. This brings up what the modern philosophers have called the problem of evil. And the problem of evil says if there's a good God in the world that's all powerful, then how could there be evil and suffering in the world? Of course, the skeptics and the atheists try to use the problem of evil to say God is either non-existent or powerless. The real issue, though, is therefore if there is such a thing as evil in the world and a desire for good, then we must have an objective standard that's larger than the world, that's larger than my opinion and your opinion, some sort of a moral measuring stick to measure what is good and evil. So if evil exists, then there must be a God that has an objective standard. If we say God is non-existent, then we have no grounds for pointing at something and saying it's evil. But because there's evil, then there's a God. If we deny that God exists, then all we have is whether I like it or you like it. And the problem of evil is worse for the atheist than for the theist. We at least have the book of Job as theist, and we say, well, there's a God that's in control, and in the end, there will be a punishing of the evil and a reward of the good. That's what we see in the book of Job. He also says in verse 24, the earth is handed over to the wicked. Job looks around him and says, God has just given over the world to wicked people. So, Steve, do we sometimes feel like the innocent are suffering while the wicked are prospering?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

I think that's a prevalent idea in our society today. We see that the innocent is caught up in wicked things that happen all the time. And we do have that question that is going on. Trying to understand, as I've mentioned before, what is going on, we see that Job is taking this personally. He is running these things through his mind. And he has come up, as you pointed out a while ago, he's accusing God of some things that are not true. Much like Job knows that he is innocent, but yet is being afflicted and asking why, he is attributing to God things that happen that God is not inflicting on other people. He says there in verse 24, he covers the faces of its judges whenever the earth is handed over to the wicked. Then he asks the question Well, if it's not he, meaning God, then who is it? Well, the answer to that question is it's the fallen world in which we live in. It's the choices that people made. It's the loving God that gave us the ability for us to make these choices. We're not robots here doing everything that God wants us to do. He gave us the ability to think and to love him and to honor him or to reject him, to do things that we want to do or not. That shows that he's a loving God. So for Job now to attribute the grace that God has given to us as free human creatures to operate on this earth to do what we want to and have free will to do what we want to, to then pose that as it's God's fault in everything that happens is a wrong premise that Job is putting on God. Just like his friends have put the premise back to him that God punishes the wicked, you're being punished, Job, because you're suffering. Therefore, you're wicked. It's a wrong conclusion on the part of his friends concerning Job. And this in verse 24 is a wrong conclusion of Job that he's made about God.

Faith When Life Turns Dark

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Today we often have some of the same complaints. We look around us, it seems like the innocent are losing and the wicked are winning. But the book of Job tells us that God's in control, he's on the throne, and in the end, the wicked will be punished and the righteous will be rewarded. That tells us that in the end, people will not get away with evil. The Lord will eventually make everything right. He doesn't wink at sin and he's not asleep at the switch. He will right every wrong, reward every righteous deed, and punish every evil deed. We have that as an assurity in the Word of God. Let's go on into the next section. He's going to hint that God is unfair. Steve, can you start at verse 27 and read down to verse 31?

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Though I say, I will forget my complaint, I will put my face in order and be cheerful. I am afraid of all my pains. I know that you will not acquit me. I am guilty. Why then should I struggle in vain? If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lie, then you would plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes would loathe me.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

So here Job again is hinting that God is unfair. He says God's counting him as guilty. And if so, then why should he care enough to try to get well? Why should he care? If God's just going to be against him, then what difference does it make if he tries to get well or even tries to live a righteous life? If he were to purify himself with snow and lie, God would plunge him back down into a mud pit. It is language like this that makes us understand why God is so upset at the end of the book. God shows up and says, Who do you think you are questioning me? Because here Job is laying his issues at the feet of God, basically saying, There's nothing I can do because God's going to be against me.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

I think, Glenn, what we're seeing as we go through these verses is we're seeing a person who is saying, Woe is me, and all this affliction that is on me. And they're now kind of in a backhanded way blaming it on God, which a question comes up for us. Is Satan's accusation that he made to God that started this of saying, Yes, if you strike Job personally, then he's going to curse you to your face, meaning that, well, you've given him everything, you've blessed him. And of course, if you bless him, then sure he's going to follow you. But if he's inflicted with something, then he's going to stop following you. He's going to curse you. That's a question that we need to ask ourselves for the ones that are in a period of blessing from God right now, that there is no type of affliction that is happening to them in their life. Everything is going fine. They can go around and saying God is good and God is good all the time. And He has blessed me. I am being blessed by Him. The question is: what type of outlook are you going to have towards God if or when some type of suffering comes about in your life? And I think that that is something that we need to be prepared for. I think going back and looking at these things that Job is accusing God of here, it's a human response to somebody that has been blessed in his life, but now is going through suffering. And again, I don't think he's gotten close to actually cursing God, but he is laying some false accusations on God. A question that we need to take away from this is what would we do in these types of situations? Are we going to stay faithful to God or are we going to come up with these same type of questions and false premises against God that Job is coming up with?

Jesus As The True Mediator

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Those are great questions. And each of us needs to look ourselves in the mirror and answer them. Am I following God only because I have good things from him, or would I keep following him even if things were really bad in my life? I think here with Job, the original accusation from the devil at the beginning was that Job would curse him. What I don't see here with Job, I don't see an angry man that's cursing God. What I see here is a very frustrated man that feels I have no way out of this situation, that whatever I do, bad things are going to happen. He's falsely laying that at the feet of God, saying, well, God must be against me. I don't see him cursing God like Satan said, but I think the question for us is still valid. If I were to encounter even worse situations than I am now, would I keep following God? And probably all of us that have lived in the Christian life for a while, we've seen people that run into some issues and they walk away from the Lord. And we have other people that run into 10 times as many issues and they're still faithful. And so I think God still does indeed pass these tests on us to see who really loves him. Do you love him merely because of being a fair weather friend, or are you going to love him because of who he is, no matter what our circumstances are? Let's go ahead and read the next section because in here, Job is finding the need for a mediator. Starting reading in verse 32 says this, For he is not a man as I am, that I may answer him, that we may go to court together. There is no arbitrator between us who can place his hand upon us both. Let him remove his rod from me, and let not the dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear him. But I am not like that in myself. So there in verse 32, God is not a man that we could answer him. Job says he needs a mediator, an arbitrator. Job recognizes the need for someone to go in between himself and God, someone who could place his hand on both of us, is the phrase he used. So, Steve, who is the only person who could be a mediator between God and man?

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Well, as I mentioned before, it is Jesus Christ, Jesus the anointed one, the Messiah. He is the one that is a mediator now between us and God because he is the one who has come and paid our sin debt. It's because of what he's done on his death, burial, and resurrection. Job is actually saying, I am a nobody. I can't get God, the creator, in a courtroom together with myself. I don't have any case to make. I am a man. I'm not going to be able to talk to him. I'm not an equal to him. There is no match between me and him. Therefore, I wish that I had a mediator that could converse with him and could speak on my behalf with God. And it's a great thing, Glenn, that we do now have that mediator through Jesus Christ to be able to do that. We don't have to wonder, like Job is doing here, when he's saying there's no point in me getting God in a courtroom because I wouldn't be able to have a case or even be able to talk to him. No, we have somebody now that can talk on our behalf, and that is Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

We are fortunate to have Jesus Christ as our mediator. And it's interesting that all the way back here in Job, and again, the many of the Bible scholars believe this is one of the first books written. So way back here in Job, we have the need for a mediator. So that brings up the question of why. Why is Jesus the only one that can mediate between us and God? What does Jesus have? What are his characteristics that make him qualified to be a mediator?

SPEAKER_00 19:14

He was fully human and fully God. And because he is fully human, then he is our kinsman. He's our kinsman redeemer, as we've mentioned through the study of Book of Ruth. He is someone who had the ability to be able to redeem us, who had the means to be able to do it, and had the desire to do it. So he is our kinsman in that regard because he is fully human while still being fully God. Job is really saying, if I could get this mediator down here and have this mediator just tell, remove this judgment that's being put on me, this infliction that is being put on me. I need somebody to be able to communicate that to God. Well, what has Jesus done through his death, burial, and resurrection? He has removed the sting of death, as Paul puts it. Death no longer has any type of power over us. Sin has no type of power over us anymore because of the work on the cross that Jesus Christ has done.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Jesus is indeed the only one that can be mediator because he is both fully God and fully man. He has two natures. If he were merely one or the other, then he could not truly mediate. He would need to be able to, as Job says here, place his hand on both of us. That's why Jesus had to have a fully human nature and a fully God nature. In the early years of the church, the church fathers worked all these teachings out to make this clear. Jesus has a fully complete human nature. He also has a fully complete divine nature. And they're not mingled together into some sort of a third thing. They are distinct. He is completely man and he is completely God, unified in one person. The theologians call this the hypostatic union. This is one of the key teachings because Jesus had to be a mediator, and to be a mediator, he had to have a hand on both of us. He had to have a divine nature and a human nature. The apostle Paul told us over in the New Testament, quote, there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He said that in 1 Timothy 2 5. Hebrews chapter 8 and chapter 9 both say that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant. So we have here places where the Bible clearly teaches that He is between God and man. He is a man and he is God. And he can mediate. And we are quite fortunate to have that.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

You know, Glenn, here at the last part of this chapter in verse 35, Job says, Then I would speak and not fear him, but I am not like that in myself. Speaking of in the previous verses, he said, if I could just have an arbitrator that could actually communicate with God to remove this rod of judgment from me, Job finishes it up there in that verse 35. Then I would speak and not fear him. And we have that through Hebrews, it tells us that we can now boldly go to God the Father directly to the throne of grace. But we can now can do that through Jesus Christ. He has given us the ability to directly go before God. And it says, as I mentioned in Hebrews, boldly go to God and plead a case. So Job here in verse 35 puts forth that he is not able to do that as he says, but I am not like that in myself. I put that we're not like that in ourselves either, but we can do it through the acts of Jesus Christ and what he has done, and that he is our mediator that gives us the ability to now do that. Isn't that such a great thing?

Final Reflections And Next Passage

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Oh, that's fantastic. Those last couple of verses there in chapter nine that you were alluding to tell us a great truth. Let me read them again. Says, let him, Job is talking about God, let him remove his rod from me and let not the dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear him. So what he's saying is, oh, if God would just remove his hand of punishment upon me, but I wouldn't be scared of him. And I just look him in the eye, and we've reasoned this thing out. I find it humorous because God finally shows up at the end of the book, and Job is more afraid than anything else, and all he wants to do is hide. So Job gets so overwhelmed at the sight of God at the end that he has nothing to say but to apologize. Very often people today feel the same way as Job in chapter nine. They criticize God and they think that when they get in front of God, they're gonna tell him a thing or two, and they're gonna question why is God doing things. But if God were to actually show up, then they would act just like Job. They would be hiding their eyes and apologizing at the overwhelming majesty of the Lord God Almighty. That brings us to the end of chapter nine, and we're gonna stop here. Next time, we're gonna see more of Job's response and what Job thinks of his own life. And we're gonna learn some great spiritual truths from the book of Job.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Thank you so much for watching and listening. And as always, may God bless you.