that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor.
Job is broken, and his friends mock him. In the middle of that he wishes for someone to argue his case with God, the way a man speaks up for a neighbour — a longing commentators tie to the mediation of Christ.
What drove him to the wish
Job's three friends had one explanation for his ruin: great suffering means great wickedness. That pressure pushed him inward, and out of it the cry went upward.
The Bible TreasuryHis friends harassed him. They directed and confined his mind to this one point: God's doings were all according to man's acts. So, since he suffered so much, he must have been wicked to an extraordinary degree… He feels how terrible his affliction and suffering is. Yet now and again the link he has with God, as a soul born again, slips out. He has not yet seen himself in the sight of God. So he holds that there is no injustice in his hands and that his prayer is pure, and he looks to plead with God, as a man pleads for his neighbour. He has a partial sense of God's greatness, but not of His holiness. The reason is that he has never been near enough to God, for it is nearness to Him that produces the sense of His holiness.
A cry for arbitration
Job had made this wish once before, and now, close to death, his mind returns to it.
F. B. HoleSome translate the opening words of verse 21 as, "Oh that there were arbitration for a man with God!" So his mind went back to his desire for the "Daysman," recorded at the end of Job 9. A man might plead for his neighbour or friend, but he felt there was no one to step in between God and himself, and he could only expect a short time before his end.
Faith stirring under the complaint
The wish follows Job's claim that his witness is in heaven. One writer sees faith waking up in a man who is otherwise raving.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinBut in all these ravings, faith, which lies asleep in his heart, asserts itself and tries to wake up. He says, "my witness is in heaven, and He that vouches for me is on high." So he clings to God. This word suits us well — we know Him who has gone on high and who vouches for us there. But Job did not know Him as we know Him.
A longing that Christ answers
Some readers have dismissed Job's words as a sad oddity. One commentator objects, and points to where the longing is met.
William KellyIn any rendering, Job is certainly looking for God to plead as well as judge. It is strange that any Christian should think Job said this "with melancholy quaintness." The better view sees in it a remarkable longing after what was more fully realised in the mediation of Christ with God — a man for men, and God with God. But truth must first be learned in the soul's guilt and need, not by the flickering lamp of the scholar. Only then is it prized and really known.
What Job wanted, believers already have
Job could only wish for such a person. Another writer contrasts what Job knew in part with what believers now hold.
Samuel RidoutHe knows, though not fully, for he has not yet seen, that there is One who pleads for him before God. What he longs for, we know that we have — One who pleads for us with God as a man pleads for his neighbour. We know a High Priest who feels our weaknesses. He "always lives to make intercession for us."
Elihu steps into the gap
Later in the book another speaker, Elihu, takes up Job's case. He opens by answering this very wish, quoted here from an older translation.
Samuel RidoutHe reminds Job of his own desire for such a person: "Neither is there any daysman between us, who might lay his hand upon us both" (Job 9:33); "Oh that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbour" (Job 16:21). To this desire Elihu now replies: "Behold, I am according to your wish, in God's stead; I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make you afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy on you."
Summary
- The pressure. Friends who insisted his suffering proved his guilt drove Job in on himself — and out of that squeeze came the wish for someone to argue his case.
- The wish. He asks for arbitration: a go-between who can step in between God and himself, the "daysman" he had already looked for in Job 9.
- The faith. Under the raving, faith stirs: his witness is in heaven, and he clings to the God he is complaining about.
- The answer. Elihu steps up first, "in God's stead." The full answer is Christ's mediation — a man for men, and God with God.
- The possession. Job longed; believers hold. We have a High Priest who feels our weaknesses and always lives to intercede — the wish of Job 16 answered in fact.