It is about a messenger, an interpreter, who can explain our problems, and bring us a message from God. Any Christian can do, but this is not common. If only we could exercise this role to one another. Ultimately it is Christ, but we also are messengers and there are few around – one in a thousand. In response God is gracious to the repentant individual, and says, ‘Deliver him who was in danger to going down into hell from such a calamity. I have found, and indeed I have provided, a ransom and an atonement to cover his sin, for in the fullness of time I have sent my beloved Son to be the propitiation for his sin.’ The word ‘ransom’ means the price for the ransom of a life. It is used in Exodus 30:12 of the price that each male above twenty years of age should pay as an offering to the sanctuary at the time of the census as a ransom to make atonement for his soul. The Biblical doctrine that sin must be atoned for to satisfy the justice of God, is the foundation of this verse. The ransom was not something which the individual provides, but which God himself provides and which only he is capable of providing. The Old Testament saints were taught that salvation must be of God, forgiveness and mercy are needed. Even in time of Job they understood that God would find a cover for sin.