How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?
Job is answering his friend Bildad, and he has just spent a dozen verses describing a God who moves mountains, seals up the stars, and passes by unseen. Against all that, his question here is simple: does a man have any words that could stand up in God's presence?
Where Job's confidence starts to break
In the verse just before, even the proudest helpers bow under God. One commentator hears the first crack in Job's own confidence:
William Kelly"If God will not withdraw His anger, the proud helpers stoop under Him. How much less shall I answer Him?" There he is beginning to feel his weakness. He was not a proud man; but as all men are, until they learn better, he had a very good opinion of himself. That must all come down. If a man is to be blessed, the blessing will not come by a good opinion of oneself. That opinion is wrong. It is the greatest hindrance to the blessing of God and to the enjoyment of His grace.
Older translations read "how much less shall I answer Him," which ties Job's question straight to the verse before.
Words chosen for a plea, not a defence
Job weighs what words he could choose, then drops the idea. The only speech he can imagine is of a different kind:
Leslie M. GrantWhat words does Job have with which to answer God? He feels unable to choose words that might have any effect. However righteous he may be, he felt hopelessly unable to make any impression on God by his speaking. He feels he could only beg for mercy from Him whom he calls "my Judge." Even then he doubted that God would listen to his voice.
Why clearing his own name fails
The rest of Job 9 works through the options. The first is the obvious one: could Job clear his own name?
F. B. HoleCould he justify himself? This would at least mean giving up the defiant attitude and quietly admitting he was wrong, and so needed to be justified. Self-justification is a very attractive idea, yet Job raised it only to dismiss it as unworkable. He knew he had only to open his mouth to condemn himself. What is more, anyone who would justify himself before the searching eye of God must prove his own perfection. Nothing short of that would satisfy.
What made it worse is that Job was sure the blows came from God. One writer puts it like this: "He cannot answer Him in His majesty, and he does not see His love."
Why he needs someone in between
If Job cannot speak for himself, the only hope is that someone else speaks for him. Later in the chapter he says he knows of no such person. The qualifications he lists show why:
F. B. HoleHow clear it is that Job knew he was a sinful creature before his holy Creator. He knew he had in himself no means of getting right. That being so, his only hope was that a third party would step in; but he knew of no such third party, or "daysman." His three friends could not take the part, and no other man could. The daysman must be great enough to lay one of his hands upon Almighty God, and gracious enough to lay the other upon poor, diseased and sinful Job.
One dictionary explains the older word "daysman": it "signifies 'mediator,' or 'umpire'" — one who "might lay his hand on us both."
The answer Job could not reach
Job's own book leaves the problem open. One writer names the person who answered it:
William KellyChrist became the mediator between God and men. And He is not just a mediator. He is a mediator who is as divine as the God before whom He acts as mediator for us. If there had not been the hand of God in the cross, there could have been no divine redemption… therefore what now comes in is the righteousness of God. And there is nothing against that. But it is a justifying righteousness; it is not a condemning righteousness. The same God who condemned under the law saved under grace, because of Christ.
Summary
- Collapse. Job's "how then can I answer Him?" is the sound of a good opinion of himself coming down. That collapse opens the door to blessing; it does not close it.
- Speechless. He can find no words with any weight before God; the only speech left to him is a plea for mercy to his own Judge.
- Dead ends. Self-defence fails: his own mouth would convict him. Nothing less than perfection would satisfy the searching eye of God.
- Gap. What he needs is a daysman — someone great enough to lay a hand on God and gracious enough to lay the other on a sinful man. Job knew of no one.
- Answer. Christ became that mediator — as divine as the God He stands before for us. He brings in a righteousness that justifies instead of condemning.