Man’s Cry for a Mediator

Man’s Cry for a Mediator

Job voiced man’s cry for a Mediator. The theme of his poetry could be called the question of the ages: “How can man stand right with God?” The book of Job is the oldest of all the books of the Bible. It was evidently written by Jobab, a cousin of Abraham, about the time that Jacob went to Egypt. Portions of this book show how vital a problem was man’s need of a Mediator in Job’s day. Read Job 4:12-17. We have a picture of a man asleep in his tent at night. In a vision he heard a voice saying, “Shall mortal man be just before God? Shall a man be pure before his maker?”(marginal rendering). This is the Old and the eternal problem that has confronted the thinking man of all ages.

Can mortal man be justified or acquitted before God? Shall fallen man be pure before his Maker? Note the word “mortal.” The word “mortal” applies only to the physical body; it means “death-doomed,” “frail”; in other words, a subject of the devil. Man became mortal when he passed under the dominion of the devil. The problem is: Shall a mortal man, or a death-doomed, or a Satan-ruled man stand uncondemned in the presence of God? Read Job 9:25-35.

In the ninth chapter, Job speaks out the deepest soul agony of universal man. He lies in his tent surrounded by those whom he loves. He opens his heart with perfect freedom, speaking the fear that grips his soul in the death struggle. He gives figures of speech that describe the rapidity with which life passes to the aged. He continues, “If I say I will forget my calamity, I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer, I am afraid of my sorrows. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent; I shall be condemned.”
Every false hope has fled; he is alone with his guilt and despair.

He says, “What is the use in trying to brighten up and put off my sad countenance; I am afraid of my sorrows.” It is the frankness of despair. It is the hopelessness of full-orbed knowledge. “I shall be condemned.” He cries, “Why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow-water and make my hands never so clean; yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.”

What a picture: “Mine own clothes (or self-righteousness) shall abhor me: for he is not a man, as I am that we should come together in judgment.” Job knows that he cannot face God, for God is not mortal. He is not under the bondage and guilt of sin as is Job. Then Job utters the saddest words that ever fell from the lips of a human being. “There is no umpire betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.”

In other words, there is no Mediator between us who has a legal standing with God, and at the same time can sympathize and understand as well as represent humanity. This is Job’s cry for a Mediator; it is not the cry of Job alone, but Job has gathered up the cry of the ages and breathed it forth into one hopeless sob.

How bitterly he says, “Let him take His rod away from me, and let not His terror make me afraid: then I would speak, and not fear Him; for I am not so in myself.” Job 25:4-6, “How then can man be just before God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold, even the moon hath no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm, and the son of man, that is a worm!”
“How can he be clean that is born of a woman?” The writer here has the fall of man through Eve before his mind.

When he tells us that the stars are not pure in the sight of God, he is referring us to Adam’s treason when he turned creation into the hands of the devil. Satan has defiled it so that God cannot look with joy upon it. In speaking of man as a worm, he shows the depths into which man has fallen. The worm has reference to Satan and the Old Serpent, and man who is termed a worm is spiritually a child of the devil, utterly hopeless and without approach to God.

Job has voiced clearly man’s need of a Mediator. Jeremiah recognized that man had need of a Mediator. Jeremiah 30:21, “And their Prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is he that hath had boldness to approach unto me? saith Jehovah.” The margin reads, “Who hath been surety for his heart that he might approach Me.”

Jeremiah realized that no man had a right to stand in God’s presence, nor power to do it, and he tells us that there is one being who will be able to draw near, standing uncondemned in God’s presence. He foretells of the Mediator whom God will provide for man.

Requirements of a Mediator

We saw that man’s need of Eternal Life and righteousness could be met only by the Incarnation of God’s Son. Again the Incarnation is the only answer to man’s need of a Mediator. No human being born of natural generation could approach God on man’s behalf because of the universality of Spiritual Death.

The requirements of a Mediator for man are the following
1. He must be a man, for he must represent humanity.
2. He must possess the capacity to understand and to sympathize with the temptations of man.
3. He must also possess a standing of righteousness with Deity.
4. He must not be a subject of Satan; he must be free from all Satanic authority.

These requirements could be met only by the union of God and man in one individual.