WANTED: PERFECT ARBITRATOR

I had a friend who was a lawyer. He regularly represented companies as they confronted union demands. It was interesting to hear him talk about the kind of negotiations, tactics, and attitudes that were displayed sitting around the table. Often it was verbal combat: union against employer; employer against union.

When such combat reaches a stalemate, an arbitrator or mediator is sometimes the best solution. This has to be someone capable and skilled in bringing two parties together.

In the book of Job we find a man wrestling with God as he dialogues with his several friends. Job, in answering a friend, speaks about his dissatisfaction that he cannot interact with God in the way he could interact with another person. God seems distant to Job and God is fearfully awesome. So Job wistfully says:

"If only there were someone to mediate between us, 
    someone to bring us together, 
someone to remove God’s rod from me, 
    so that his terror would frighten me no more." Job 9:33, 34

We who stand on this side of the Cross smile and respond: Job, you were right. We all desperately need an arbitrator or mediator. We need someone perfectly holy so he can connect directly with the Almighty God. We need someone who can bridge the gap our sin has created. We need someone human and sympathetic to painfully fragile, sinful and vulnerable humans. This is why we rejoice in Christ! He is the One!

You didn't know it then, since God's full revelation had only begun to unfold. But Job from your eternal perspective you now know. And you can understand why we Christians sing and live joyfully because our Mediator, our Arbitrator, our Redeemer has died for us and now lives for us, forever.