Job is a shadow of Jesus at the heart of our gospel, displaying “the best man in the worst fortune.”
In the next few verses (Job 33:23-26) we have a veil lifted on the climax of human history. We read: “If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man His uprightness, then He is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom’; his flesh shall be young like a child’s, he shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, he shall see His face with joy, for He restores to man His righteousness.” This is worth reading the whole book to discover! H.W.S. Robinson, in The Cross of Job, describes the book of Job as “a first draft of the gospel story.” He continues: “The Christian faith…has welcomed innocent suffering into its very heart. It has taken the world’s sorrow and given it the possibility of a new meaning, a transfigured purpose. By common consent, at the historic center of Christianity there is the cross, and the cross means innocent suffering serving a divine purpose” (p 56). Look at these glorious truths! God is both upright and gracious. In order to exercise both His grace and justice towards man, there needs to be a mediator. If so, a ransom can be provided. If man will acknowledge God’s uprightness and his own need, he can be delivered from going down to the Pit. But more, it will be a “born again” experience for him, as if he were a child again. Now he will have unbroken access to God in prayer, he will be the object of God’s delight, and—wonder of wonders—God will impute to redeemed man His own righteousness! Thank you, Elihu! Clearly it was the Spirit of God who revealed this to you. Let all His redeemed ones thank the Lord today for our beloved Mediator and all that comes to us through His suffering!