Job 33 Devotional

A Ransom Found

Elihu speaks to Job directly, and gently at first. Then he takes up Job's complaint that God never answers (33:13). God speaks in more than one way, Elihu says. He warns in dreams to turn someone from pride (33:14-17). He also speaks through pain, as a sick man wastes away and draws near the grave (33:19-22).

Then he adds a hopeful picture. If a messenger stands beside that dying man, a mediator to show him what is right, he will plead for him to be spared, because a ransom has been found (33:23-24). The man is restored, sees God's face with joy, and confesses that he sinned and did not receive what he deserved (33:26-28). Whether or not Elihu has read Job's situation rightly, this picture reaches toward what Job has longed for since chapter 9: someone to stand between. Jesus said he came to serve and to lay down his life to ransom many (Mark 10:45). The mediator Elihu imagines and the ransom he speaks of are found in him.

To think about: How does knowing the ransom has already been paid in Christ shape the way you think about your own sin?