Job was a man who sat in the gate of the city and acted as a judge between the innocent and those who had power to take advantage of their plight, because the innocent often had no power to resist (Job 29:7-17). He, therefore, struggled with his own troubles, which he believed he didn’t deserve. Nevertheless, God is God, and Job is not. God is the Creator and has the right to do as he pleases with the vessels he creates. Job understands this, but has trouble seeing the Lord’s point, if his judgment is always right or just. More than the suffering Job was forced to endure, he wants to understand the perspective of a just God, who would permit the calamities that have overwhelmed Job. Whether it was directly caused by God or permitted to take place through the efforts of evil men, Job wondered: where was the right in it all?
All men live according to a code. That code may not be ethical or moral, but it is a code, nonetheless. It is what makes sense for that particular group. For those who live to be wealthy, they live and operate to attain that wealth. That code it is known, today, as the bottom line. For the wicked it may be what they call the business, and in politics it is power or authority. For Job it meant something different, something ethical, whereby the cause of the weak and the abused would be considered and given weight, even among the rich, powerful and wicked folks in his day. Therefore, he looked to God to act on his behalf, but when God seemed to be the oppressor, Job’s world, vis-à-vis his worldview, his wisdom seemed to crumble and fall apart. His days, his good days, where gone! They had been completed more swiftly than the king’s messenger, sent to deliver important information. The good days went by faster than the swift boats in the water and more quickly than a hungry eagle swooping down on his prey (Job 9:25-26).
Some things are easier said than done. Job wanted to put a pause on all that was going on. He wanted to forget it all, the suffering and the injustice, and comfort himself a little (cp. Psalm 39:13) before his life came to an end (Job 9:27). Yet, Job simply couldn’t change his thoughts, because he felt alienated from God (Job 9:28). More than anything else, this troubled him. Why was this happening? Where’s the sense in it all?
It seemed as though the Lord had already judged him, so how and why should he labor to show himself innocent (Job 9:29)? Even if Job should argue and successfully present himself as spotless before God, yet the Lord would find his righteousness as filthy rags and plunge him back in the muck and mire, which Job thought to have cleansed himself (Job 9:30-31).
The problem is: God is God, but Job is a mere man, so how could he ever justify himself before his Maker? What right has the clay to say to the Potter: “Why have you done this?” (Isaiah 29:16; Romans 9:21)? In Job’s words: “He is not a man, as I am!” (Job 9:32). That is to say, if God were a man, things might be different. Then, we might come together in judgment, vis-à-vis in the gate of the city, in court! Then, perhaps a daysman could be found who would appoint them a day, a Mediator, who had power to lay his hand upon both Job and the Lord (Job 9:33), a mere man in this context, and bring Job’s cause to a just conclusion.
Then Job wouldn’t be so afraid of God’s power, for his rod, as it were, would be lifted by the Mediator long enough for Job to catch his breath and present his cause to someone with power enough to pause the suffering and protect the innocent from the one mightier than he. Nevertheless, Job said: “This is not so with me!” (Job 9:34-35). He felt frustrated, between a rock and a hard place, with no way out. Yet, he couldn’t have foreseen that his desire would become a reality in Jesus. The Father had placed all judgment in his hands, and he, as Mediator, between both God and mankind, took man’s plight upon himself. Thereby removing the sin that separated God from man, opening the gate to the Garden of Eden, vis-à-vis heaven or the Most Holy Place in the Temple of God (Genesis 3:24; Isaiah 64:1; cp. Matthew 3:15; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21), which is symbolized by the tearing of the veil in Matthew 27:51 (cp. Mark 15:38; Hebrews 10:19-22).
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[1] “A kangaroo court is a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides, and is typically convened ad hoc. A kangaroo court may ignore due process and come to a predetermined conclusion. The term may also apply to a court held by a legitimate judicial authority which intentionally disregards the court’s legal or ethical obligations.” (from Wikipedia)
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