CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF JOB (FROM CAC'S NOTES)

CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF JOB (FROM CAC’S NOTES)

There are seven ways in which Christ is set forth in the ancient book of Job, and they are all ways in which we need to know Him.

1. The Offering: The Burnt-offering (Job 1:5).
2. The Mediator: “There is not an umpire between us, who should lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9: 33). “Oh that there were arbitration for a man with God, as a son of man for his friend!” (Job 16: 21).
3. The Redeemer: “And as for me, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and the Last, he shall stand upon the earth” (Job 19:25). “Hearken unto me, Jacob, and thou Israel, my called. I am He; I, the first, and I, the last” (Isaiah 48:12).
4. The Wisdom of God: “But wisdom, where shall it be found?” (Job 28:12).
5. The Interpreter: “If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his duty” (Job 33: 23).
6. The Ransom: “I have found a ransom” (Job 33: 24). “And now, take for yourselves seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept” (Job 42: 8).
7. The Accepted Intercessor: Job himself becomes a type of Christ as the accepted Man who becomes the Intercessor for those who speak wrongly of God (Job 42: 10).

The first is the burnt-offering. Job feared God and he had a sensitive conscience; and another thing, he knew what was in the heart of man. He knew there was great danger, especially in times of natural enjoyment, that something might be ^[p. 276] in the heart of man that was sin before God. But he knew something else: he knew there was a way in which sin could be covered. God had made it known long before Job’s day, and Job always had it in his mind (Job 1:5). So he offered burnt-offerings for his sons. A burnt-offering means that man cannot be accepted before God except on the ground of the death of Another. There has been one precious death in this world which has been such a sweet savour to God that it is a sure ground of acceptance for those who have sinned. We cannot be too simple about this. Never mix anything up with the death of Christ as the ground of your soul’s rest. (A) man said, ‘I am a believer, I was converted so many years ago, I came to Jesus’; at last he said, ‘Christ died for me’.

But it is to be noticed that Job was thinking of his sons, not of himself. Many are like that: they are glad to hear of missionaries going to the heathen, or of people working in the slums to bring them to Christ. Job did not really stand in the value of the burnt-offering himself. He had to learn it by a long and bitter experience.

We know the history. He lost everything and his health, and he wished he had never been born. Two of his friends had given him some good advice, as friends are apt to do, but what they said did not comfort him. But it made him think of the greatness of God. He saw it was no use contending with God. God had made everything. And He was so holy that it was no use trying to cleanse himself. There was no one to come between such a God and such a creature. In the anguish of his heart he said, “There is not an umpire between us, who should lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9:33). The umpire is what is called in New Testament language the Mediator. The distance between God and man required an umpire. We cannot say there is no umpire now (1 Timothy 2:5,6).

Then in Job 19: 25 Job utters one of the most triumphant notes of the book: “I know that my Redeemer liveth”. This is what men need who are under death. You want One ^[p. 277] who can redeem your soul from death. In fifty years time how many will be here who now live on the earth? (Revelation 1). This brings us to the need of Christ as God’s wisdom (Job 28) to meet the whole condition as it exists. It is not found in the land of the living. Would this show the wisdom and wonder? Christ is the wisdom of God.

Now if there is a Burnt-offering, an Umpire, a living Redeemer, and Christ as the Wisdom of God, how does man come to the blessing bound up in Christ in this wondrous character? Chapter 33 supplies the answer: Christ is the Interpreter to show us the way into it. Repent, and believe the gospel. Uprightness is needed. See the different ways in which God speaks to man in this chapter. The Interpreter says, ‘Now take God’s side against yourself’. Say ‘I have sinned’.

God has found a Ransom. He has a righteous way of freeing from the pit and from the power of him who is the angel of the bottomless pit.

Finally, Job himself becomes an expression of Christ as Intercessor and Advocate (chapter 42).