Umpire

“There is no umpire between us, who may lay his hand on both of us.”  Job 9:33

Umpire – Job was a righteous man.  God even said so.  Yet so many bad things happened to Job that it just didn’t seem fair.  So one of Job’s friends encourages Job to take his case before God.  After all, God is fair, isn’t He?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a righteous man.  My past is filled with sinful disobedience.  When I hear Job’s reply to the suggestion that we can plead our cases before God, I lose hope for me.  Job, the righteous man, simply says, “How can I even imagine arguing my case before God?  What could I possibly say in front of the Creator of the universe?  God does what He wants to do.  Who am I to question it?  Even if I am innocent, I could never prove it in front of the Almighty.”

Then Job says something quite amazing.  He says, “Oh, I wish I had a mediator to stand between God and me; someone who would plead my case for me.”  The Hebrew word is yakach.  As a verb, it means to argue or convince.  In this verse, it is the one who argues for me, who convinces the judge of my case.  Job, the righteous man, says he needs an advocate.  If he needs one, I certainly do!

And God heard Job.  God heard Adam.  And Eve.  And Able.  And Noah.  And God heard me.  God, the Judge of all Mankind, did provide an umpire, a mediator, an advocate.  God sent Yeshua, the deliverer.  Jesus (in Greek).  Job was right.  We need someone to stand between God’s judgment and our situation.  But no man would ever be able to do that because every man requires an advocate.  Every man is guilty.  So, there was only one solution.  God sent the only one who did not need an advocate. 

Jesus answered the plea of Job.  Jesus, the one who was truly innocent, stood up for you and me and plea our case.  Then he did the utterly unthinkable.  He took our punishment on himself so that we did not have to bear the consequences. 

Today I stand “not guilty” before God.  But I am considered “not guilty” only because my guilt was given to someone else, to the mediator that Job longed to see.  I am not “innocent”.  I was never really innocent.  Instead, I am redeemed, bought back from the guilty verdict by the hand of another.  He gave me what I could never earn – my life.  Today I have great news for Job.  The mediator arrived.

When you take your case to God today about life as it is right now, are you standing with the mediator?  Have you given the mediator your power of attorney?  Or are you still trying to work out a deal by yourself?  In God’s court, there is no plea bargain and no self-defense.