Job 9:33 Neither is there any judge between us, that might lay his hand on us both. Job regarded it as unfair that his Judge and his Accuser should be one and the same Person, and he craved an umpire to come between. As a matter of fact, he was mistaken. His accuser was not his Judge. Satan was his accuser, and God was the great and just Umpire of the contest. Still, men have ever felt the need of one who should come between them and God, and assist them in coming to a right understanding with God. The feeling has arisen in part from a similar mistake to Job's, but also in part from a spiritual instinct. Leaving Job's misconception, what may we regard as the truth about this idea of the Daysman? I. WE ARE AT FEUD WITH GOD IN OUR SIN. There is an ancient quarrel between the race and its Maker. Sin is more than disease; it is rebellion. It is more than a stain on our character; it is an offence against God. It is worse than a disarrangement of earthly relations; it is a wrong attitude towards Heaven. These unearthly characteristics of sin give to it a peculiar horror and make it a deadly danger. So long as we are living in sin we are God's enemies. II. IT IS TIME THIS FEUD WERE BROUGHT TO AN END. It only widens while it is left unchecked. The longer we sin, the deeper our antagonism to God becomes. Thus we "treasure up wrath against the day of wrath." This is no matter of mere unseemliness and impropriety. It is a fearful wrong that the child should be fighting against his Father. It must bring ruin on the child and grief to the Father. III. WE NEED A DAYSMAN TO SET US RIGHT WITH GOD. The Daysman is our Mediator. Now, the doctrine of mediation is not so popular as once it was. People say, "We want to go straight to God. He is our Father, we are his children. We want no one to come between us. We simply want to go straight home to God." There is much truth and rightness of feeling in this desire. If anything came between us and God, so as to hinder us, that would be a stumbling-block, an idol, and it would be our duty to remove it out of our way. Any abuse of sacraments, any tyranny of priestism, any person the most exalted, if even an angel from heaven, who came between so as to obstruct the way to God, would be an evil to be deplored and avoided. If even Christ stood in this position it would be our duty to forsake him. If Christianity meant a more difficult and roundabout way to God, it would be right to renounce Christianity, and to revert to a simpler theism. But the question is - What is the nearest way back to God? The exile desires to go straight home. You offer to show him on the route fine mountains, ancient cities, picturesque ruins, he will have none of them. He only wants to go home by the most direct way. But alas! he is far from home, and between him and his home there is the broad ocean. How shall he cross it? Not the Mediator is to help us over the ocean that separates us from God. He is between us and God, not as a wall that divides, but as a door in the already existing wail, or as the bridge that crosses a chasm - not to separate, but to unite. We have a Daysman - Christ. Our nearest Way to God, our only Way, is through him (John 14:6). - W.F.A. Parallel Verses KJV: Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.WEB: There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both. |
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