When Job's friends came to comfort him their theology made their comfort difficult. They said, God will not cast away a perfect man (Job 8:20). Their word perfect meant “one who is brought to completion” in his relationship with the Lord. The only answer they could come up with was that there was something he had failed to do. There was some sin of omission, some darkness in his soul, or some secret sin for which he had made no sacrificial offering. Therefore, it was necessary for God to punish him.

How many times have some of you heard, “If you had done everything you were supposed to do in relation to God, you would not be going through all this.”

In his desperation, he longed for a mediator who could come between himself and God. He knew of none. He said, For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment; (“God is not a man with whom I can argue my case,”) neither is there any DAYSMAN bewixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both—Job 9:32, 33.

Deep within his spirit—placed there by God—was a longing for the Mediator Who would come in the fullness of time—Galatians 4:4. Hope was beginning to come to birth in him. A confidence was growing in him that made him able to keep his faith in spite of what he was going through.

We might wonder if Paul had Job in his mind when he wrote I Timothy 2:5,6. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

DEAR LORD JESUS, thank You for being my Mediator. Thank You for bringing about my own reconciliation with God. Here are some people I love who seem to have no hope. Please draw then into the atonement You have accomplished by Your death for any and all of us who will repent and believe.

We are reconciled to God by Jesus Christ.—II Corinthians 5:18-21