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We may make as great a discount as we please, and remind ourselves that these
figures of speech which ascribe human emotions to God are to be used with great
discretion. We are sure, that Job, in his perplexity and fear that God had forsaken him or
was antagonistic to him, would heave a sigh of relief if God's "desire" unto the work of
His hands was so intense, that it could justly figure that He "turned pale" with its
intensity; for then the whole aspect would be changed. He could wait, and wait with joy
until his change comes.
We move now with Job to chapter 19:, a chapter that contains those well known and
wondrous words: "I know that my Redeemer liveth".
We say "well known", but we have been surprised to find how few, comparatively, are
aware of the wealth of teaching that this word "Redeemer" contains, for it is really "A
Kinsman-Redeemer", an office with several features of vast import. To appreciate the
wealth of Job's acknowledgment here, in chapter 19:, we must turn back to his earlier
sense of need. One of the complaints of Job in his deep distress, was the infinite distance
that must necessarily intervene between a man of flesh and blood, and the Almighty:
"If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand" (Job 9: 3).
He moves mountains; He shakes the earth; He commands the sun; He doeth great
things past finding out (Job 9: 4-10);
"How much less shall I answer Him, and choose out my words to reason with Him?
If I had called, and He had answered me; yet would I not believe that He had
hearkened unto my voice" (Job 9: 14, 16),
and so Job goes on bemoaning the distance that was necessarily between the finite
creature and the Almighty Creator. He brings his complaint to a conclusion, which
contain in its questioning, the answer of the ages--The Kinsman-Redeemer.
"For HE IS NOT A MAN, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should COME
TOGETHER in judgment" (Job 9: 32).
One of the translations of the Hebrew word for `together' is "alike"; it is also
translated "be joined" and "unite" as in the well known passage:
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity"
(Psa. 133: 1).
Job would have no problem about brethren dwelling together in unity, his problem
was how can MAN and GOD come together? The coming of Christ and His glorious
Gospel has answered this once for all for the believer, and modern teaching has taken
from "the man in the street" the wholesome fear of the Almighty that is expressed in Job.
Job continued:
"Neither is there any Daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both"
(Job 9: 33).
Moffatt renders this verse: