Job chapter nine is Job’s response to Bildad. Bildad is one of Job’s three friends who nothing more than miserable comforters (Job 16:2). Bildad believes that Job should repent, and that his suffering is due to Job’s sins. He even believes that Job’s children’s sins brought them God’s judgment (Job 8:4). But if you read the opening of Job you will see that Job would daily repent for his children’s actions if they perchance had sinned (Job 1:5).
Job responds to Bildad’s claims asking, “I know it is so of a truth: But how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, He cannot answer him one of a thousand” (Job 9:2–3). Job knows how great and powerful God is. On the other hand, Job considers himself to be weak and lowly.
God is holy, and humanity is impure. Sin defiles and soils. The Hebrew definition for “sin” is to “miss the mark” or “fall short.” Paul wrote, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). What mark do we miss? We miss the mark of God’s character. On the other hand, sin is deeper than missing the mark. Sin stains (Jam. 1:27). Sin is considered idolatry (Col. 3:5). Sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). Finally, sin leads to death (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 6:23; Jam. 1:15).
God is Holy and without sin. God’s holiness and perfection, and our sin keeps us separated. Job said, “For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, And we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9:32-33).
What Job needed was a daysman. The word “daysman” means to be an arbitrator. The meaning is that of someone to reconcile our differences, the laying on of whose hand expresses power to judge between the two persons.
Job can’t cleanse himself from the stain of sin. Job didn’t have anyone in the heavens who could relate to his suffering and plight. Job could not find the words to sufficiently plead his cause. What Job needed was a daysman who could represent both sides.
Job is not God, and God is not a man. If only God were to become a man that He might understand Job’s condition. Not just Job’s only, but all of humanity. Job is not the only to feel unclean from sin. All of sinful humanity needs someone who can cleanse us from the defilement of sin.
Beloved, there is good news for you! But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. The apostle Paul added, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Only Jesus Christ could be the daysman. Because only Jesus has the qualities necessary to answer both God’s demands, and the human need. As a man, He represents our needs to a holy God. As God, He represents God’s holiness to sinful humanity.
Job, here is your daysman!