Job was a righteous man who experienced great suffering. Can the same happen to me as a believer too?
What happened to Job is not something that will happen to you who are IN CHRIST today.
You see, one of Job’s complaints was this: “If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together” (Job 9:33 NLT). Now, read these powerful words spoken by Elihu in Job 33:23–25, which describes this mediator:
“If there is a messenger for him,
A mediator, one among a thousand,
To show man His uprightness,
Then He is gracious to him, and says,
‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom’;
His flesh shall be young like a child’s,
He shall return to the days of his youth.”
Elihu’s description of a mediator foreshadows what our Lord Jesus Christ would do and be for us. First Timothy 2:5–6 tell us, “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.”
Job experienced his sufferings because he didn’t have a mediator. But today, you and I do—in the person of our Lord Jesus, who died at the cross to atone for our sins and made us righteous before God. He became our ransom (the Hebrew word for ransom comes from the root word kaphar, which means “to make an atonement”[1]).
Today, on account of what Christ has done and become for us, God says, “Because I have found a ransom, deliver this man (you and me) from going down to the pit.” Beloved, the atoning blood of Christ has canceled all the legal rights that the enemy had against you and your family.
When we receive all that His perfect sacrifice at the cross has accomplished for us, we will see Him deliver us from the pit. Today, you don’t have to live afraid that you will be like Job. Unlike Job, you have a mediator—Christ Jesus. In Him you can look forward to a future full of His promises, blessings, and protection (see Ps. 23:6)!
Joseph Prince, Prayer of Protection—Living Fearlessly in Dangerous Times (New York: FaithWords, 2016), 147–148.
Footnote:
1. OT: 3722, Joseph Henry Thayer, Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, The Online Bible Thayer’s Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon. Copyright © 1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.
