Job 9:32 Commentary and Bible Study

Job argues the impossibility of pleading his case with God because of the great distance between them. The majesty of God and his elevated being, as the Sovereign Lord of all, places him beyond the reach of man. He cannot be summoned and questioned and asked to explain his actions. We cannot understand the mind of God, the far-sightedness of his objectives, the manifold different purposes that all come together in a single plan. And yet, remarkably, in the final chapters God does come to Job and even allows him to question the Lord and explain why these events have happened in his life. But when he has this opportunity, Job chooses not to make use of it, but covers his mouth and is ashamed that he ever dared to ask for such a thing. Barnes comments that the disposition of Job to yield was at this stage because he saw that God was superior in power, rather than that he was right, and that he felt that, if he had the ability to manage his cause as well as God could, then he might justify himself. But true submission to God comes from a deep conviction that God must be right, and can never act without justice and wisdom. If we were capable of understanding the whole matter, we would agree that the Lord’s actions were perfectly right, kind, and for our good. But since in this life our knowledge will always be restricted, this attitude always requires faith.The word translated ‘daysman’ comes from the Hebrew participle of a verb meaning to judge between, to arbitrate, to act as umpire. It does not possess the more specific mean of mediator which New Testament theology has in mind when it refers to Jesus Christ as one who takes the nature of God and man and reconciles them to each other. Job is rather calling for one who can ensure that there is fair dealing between God and him, and who does not allow the Lord to exercise his superior power to Job’s disadvantage. He does not believe that his request could ever be granted, but it is an expression of his sense of weakness. How can a mortal man come into the presence of the eternal and omnipotent God? Therefore if God wishes to have communion with man, which surely he does, and if the whole project of forming man as a creature capable of communing with God is not to prove in vain, then let the Lord put away his anger and present a gracious face to his servant. Right now in the midst of his trials and suffering, Job finds it very hard to see God as anything other than a disciplinarian, set on using force to compel obedience. But Job cannot draw near to such a fearsome God. Let God therefore speak with gentler tones. This is surely an appeal that will tell with the Lord.