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Luts becomes in the Hebrew melitsah where it can mean `a mocking song' or a `taunting proverb', retaining its
original meaning of treating a foreigner as a barbarian (Hab. 2:6), or it can mean `interpretation' in the second sense,
as in Proverbs 1:6. Such a messenger, such an interpreter, mediator or daysman, Elihu describes as `one among a
thousand'. Job was acquainted with this figure, having used it himself, for he had complained:
`If He will contend with him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand' (Job 9:3).
Dr. Samuel Lee cites an Arabic proverb which reads:
`But as for men, a thousand of them are as one, and one as a thousand, if matter distresses'.
Such a faithful messenger and mediator is looked upon as rare and all the more to be prized and heeded. Now
what will be the `message' of this `messenger'?
`To shew unto man His uprightness' (33:23).
How are we to understand this passage. If we take it to mean that the divinely sent messenger is to reveal to Job
that he is after all righteous, such an interpretation runs counter to the whole teaching of the book. `To show' (Heb.
nagad) means `to put or place before'. The verb in the infinitive occurs elsewhere in Job only in 1:15,16,17,19, and
in each case it is a `messenger' that `tells' Job of something that happened external to himself.
The pronoun `his' refers not to Job, but to `Him' of Whom the messenger speaks. It is the glory of the gospel,
whether preached by Paul in the New Testament or to Abraham before Job's day, that it reveals `a righteousness of
God' graciously reckoned to those who believe Him.
`Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom' (Job
33:24).
Deliver (Heb. padah).- This word is found in Exodus 13:13 and many parallel passages, with the meaning `To
redeem upon the payment of a compensation or price'. As a noun it is translated `Ransom' in Exodus 21:30, where
it is `a sum of money' that is `laid' upon an offender whose life is forfeit as a consequence of transgression. In
Numbers 3:49 the word is translated `redeemed' and is again associated with `redemption money'. Elihu makes it
plain to Job that such a deliverance or redemption is based upon atonement, for the word `Ransom' is kopher. Here
we have the word which underlies the whole sacrificial system of the law of Moses, the great foreshadowing of the
reconciliation effected by the offering made by the Lord Jesus Christ. None of the three friends uses the term,
kopher. The glory of the mediatory message of Elihu the Daysman is that it brings to Job this great essential to the
salvation of man. The blessed sequel, `his flesh shall be fresher than a child's', was literally realised by Job himself
and is full of the promise of resurrection with which Job had already identified himself.
It would take us too far afield to attempt to set out the shades of meaning that attach to kopher; let it be sufficient
for the present to know that the word is used of the ark in Genesis 6:14; the Mercy Seat in Exodus 25:17; atonement
(Lev. 4:20); reconciliation (Lev. 8:15); forgiveness (Deut. 21:8); satisfaction (Num. 35:31); sum of money (Exod.
21:30) and ransom (Exod. 30:12). If our conclusions are true, then Moses would have much to meditate upon
during those formative years in Midian and thereby be prepared for recording and dispensing the great sacrificial
system that occupies so large a space in the law that God gave him for Israel.
The whole of the complicated teaching of the book of Job culminates in verses 27, 28:
`He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;
He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light' (Job 33:27,28).
We are soon to hear Job make this confession and to see the reality of his restoration. Before we reach this
consummation, we must consider Job's own statements concerning resurrection and the allied teaching of the
Redeemer. Here we shall find basic truth under teaching concerning a Redeemer Who lives, a ransom that has been
paid, and a resurrection where all will be more than restored. How fundamental to all Scripture is this most ancient
of books! What a preface to the whole canon!
As a supplement we give a revision of the structure of the book of Job which has been supplied by a beloved
friend and reader. This brings into prominence some important aspects of the book and its message.