“Lay down a pledge for me with you; who is there who will put up security for me?
Job is at the end of himself: his spirit broken, the grave in view, his friends offering nothing but suspicion. So he stops arguing with men. He asks God Himself to stand as his guarantee. Then comes the question that exposes his whole problem: who else would take his hand on it?
A plea turned from men to God
Job does not aim this plea at the three friends sitting with him. He presses it on God, because no one else was left.
William KellySo Job asks God to step in and be surety for him with Himself: who else would strike hands with him? His friends had shown they were morally unfit. And God, who had closed their hearts to understanding, would not lift them up.
To be a surety is to take on someone else's debt. Job's second question — who will put up security for me? — asks if anyone will do that for him.
The mediator he needed and could not find
Job's question is a real search. He had looked for someone able to stand between him and God, and had found no one.
J. T. MawsonHe must be one who can stand between us — between God, holy and just beyond measure, and the sinner, guilty and troubled in conscience — and put his hand on us both. And, he says, I know no one who can do it. I have felt the need of such a one, longed for Him, sought for Him, but I have not found Him.
The same cry, rising again
This cry keeps coming back in Job's speeches. One writer names what it is reaching for.
Charles StanleyAgain the longing cry for the priesthood of Christ goes up from the heart of Job.
Asking God to be your guarantee
Job asks God to secure him with God. The Psalmist prayed the same way, and the request finds its answer in Christ.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe Psalmist asks God to be surety for him for good, Ps. 119:122; and the Lord Jesus is made surety of a better testament, or covenant, than that made with Israel. Heb. 7:22. He is the powerful One. He is certain to bring about, at the right time, everything foretold that He will do in carrying out God's purpose.
What it costs to strike hands for another
Job asked for a pledge. Scripture also warns what giving one costs.
He became surety of a better Covenant (Hebrews 7:22). Solomon, who was both wealthy and wise, warns in his book of Proverbs against standing surety: whoever is surety for a stranger will suffer for it (Proverbs 11:15). Still, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His matchless grace, took up our cause — strangers indeed. He Himself took on our liabilities and paid our debts. The sorrows and sufferings of the Cross show us the price He had to pay for our Redemption.
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Faith speaking through the complaint
Much of Job's speech here is bitter. Yet his plea shows he already knows something he has not yet seen.
Samuel RidoutJob knows, though not fully, since 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 that pleads for us with God as a man pleads for his neighbour. We know a High Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, who "ever lives to make intercession for us."
Summary
- The gap. Job needs someone to stand between a holy God and a guilty man, with a hand on both. He knows of no such person.
- The appeal. His friends proved useless. So he asks God Himself to be his surety with God, since no one else would strike hands with him.
- The pledge. A surety takes on another's debt; the Proverbs warn that whoever does it for a stranger will suffer for it.
- The answer. Jesus became surety of a better covenant. He took up the cause of strangers, took on their debts, and paid at the cross.
- The possession. Job longed for what he never saw. Believers now hold it: One who pleads for them, a High Priest who feels their weakness and always lives to intercede.