#644 An Arbiter

- a person who settles a dispute or has ultimate authority in a matter.

“Truly I know that it is so:

But how can a man be in the right before God?

3 If one wished to contend with him,

one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength

—who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

5 he who removes mountains, and they know it not,

when he overturns them in his anger,

6 who shakes the earth out of its place,

and its pillars tremble;

7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise;

who seals up the stars;

8 who alone stretched out the heavens

and trampled the waves of the sea;

9 who made the Bear and Orion,

the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

10 who does great things beyond searching out,

and marvelous things beyond number.

11 Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;

he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

12 Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?

Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

13 “God will not turn back his anger;

beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.

14 How then can I answer him,

choosing my words with him?

15 Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;

I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.[a]

16 If I summoned him and he answered me,

I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

17 For he crushes me with a tempest

and multiplies my wounds without cause;

18 he will not let me get my breath,

but fills me with bitterness.

19 If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!

If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?[b]

20 Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;

though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

21 I am blameless; I regard not myself;

I loathe my life.

22 It is all one; therefore I say,

‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

23 When disaster brings sudden death,

he mocks at the calamity[c] of the innocent.

24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

he covers the faces of its judges—

if it is not he, who then is it?

25 “My days are swifter than a runner;

they flee away; they see no good.

26 They go by like skiffs of reed,

like an eagle swooping on the prey.

27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,

I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’

28 I become afraid of all my suffering,

for I know you will not hold me innocent.

29 I shall be condemned;

why then do I labor in vain?

30 If I wash myself with snow

and cleanse my hands with lye,

31 yet you will plunge me into a pit,

and my own clothes will abhor me.

32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,

that we should come to trial together.

33 There is no[d] arbiter between us,

who might lay his hand on us both.

34 Let him take his rod away from me,

and let not dread of him terrify me.

35 Then I would speak without fear of him,

for I am not so in myself. Job 9 ESV

Job starts his answer by agreeing with Bildad. This is why it so difficult, he affirms that God rewards righteousness, but here I am and I cannot think of any sin I have done that equals the reproof. If it were an eye for an eye, than who did I kill that God would take my children away from me? Even those of us who have the advantage of reading this have problems within our doctrines, or our deliveries. God is more like Santa Claus than the sovereign creator to us, as we first hear and piece Theology together. He is making his list and checking it twice, going to find out who's been naughty or nice. By Job's own measure he is on the nice list, but he has to wonder given the present circumstances, "who can be right before God?"

Who can argue with God? How can a man summon God to appear before him and hear his case? Job's righteousness, as he understands it, is based on a human standard, that in all the world of men, there is none as honest, respectable, religious and charitable by comparison. He appeals to things that men respect, like wisdom and strength, but it is the holiness of God that leaves none righteous before Him.

5You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? 6All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. 7No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and made us melt in the hand of our iniquity.…Isaiah 64:6

In verse 8 it speaks to God's creative force behind the universe. On a quick search you can find at least 7 other references to this in the old testament that He stretches out the heavens, and I am no scientist but if you think about it in distance, distance being time, like light years, it seems as though he stretched it to where it needed to be in His design. He gave it age and distance in a short period of time. He tramples the water, and there seems to be the Messianic appeal starting early here, but for sure when we see vs. 32 and 33 where God is not a man, and there is no arbiter. Job is starting to realize his inadequacy in being able to stand before God on his own, and Job's friends do not comprehend this since they still feel that they have God all figured out. There is this void in that God is not like us, that He has not come into being, but is being, and His ways are not our ways. There is then another void, in that though we are made in His image, God is a spirit and because of the fall, we are spiritually dead. This is a distance unfathomable, which men try to measure with human reasoning, tools and the faculties of a broken existence. So, since I cannot become God, and there is this breech, I need God to take on humanity, to become my representation, an arbiter, ever before the throne. 

Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.…Philippians 2:6-8