Job 6:22

Have I ever said: “Give me something on my behalf?”

   “With your wealth, pay a ransom for me.”

 

Minutia. Little things. Details. We recently watch a show about an investigator that harped about how the details matter. I get that. I try to pay attention. And then sometimes, I realized they don’t. The differences between “did” or “have” and “said” or “say” are huge, unless they are not.

“Give something on my behalf” stands out as a little more important. One source had “make me a gift”, another “I need your gift”, and others “bring unto me” or similar.

There is a huge concept in the difference between asking for a gift and asking for something on your behalf. If Job is the richest guy around, he would never need to ask for a gift for himself. But if money is not enough to fix every situation, then maybe you need help. If Job is the most powerful, smartest guy around, then he does not need help either. But maybe money, power, and smarts are not enough. Then what? Job is the richest, the most powerful, and the smartest, so he has never had to turn to any of them for help. But he has turned to someone for help, and done it a lot, and it paid off ever time before now. He trusted God to do what only God could do. He has had this submissive stance with God. He is using it to show how misinformed his accusers are.

Job is talking about how God has given something on his behalf that no one else could do. It is a window into the sacrifice that God gave for our souls. It is something we cannot do on our own, therefore, if it is to be done, we must ask for His help.

Therefore, I picked the words that were not about a gift so much as something on his behalf.

“From your wealth” had only one alternative of “from your substance”, but “wealth” created a better mental image of the immeasurable value of Christ as opposed to “substance”. “Offer a bribe” was the alternative to “pay a ransom”. A bribe seems too negative for the situation and “ransom” is more consistently used with the sacrifice of Christ for us.

We have a friend who is experiencing the fallout from the failures of their parents. The parents both failed at something, miserably, and now their child is being protected from making the same kind of failure. The problem is that parenting is supposed to allow failure, promote success, and encourage confidence. Once I learned the depth of the parents’ failures, their actions have a logic source, just not a good one. I want my girls to take on the world and know that success is trying. Outcomes are the realms of God. Job has probably never asked anyone other than God for anything, yet, his ”companions” have probably asked him for help at every turn. Help that he has given, because he could.

The audience might not have figured out that Job was telling us that importance of Christ and the price His death paid for us, but as we study Job in retrospect, it becomes obvious that God is using it to teach us all about Him. We cannot save ourselves. Our sin has made us indebted beyond our ability to pay. We can suffer eternal death, but God has provided us oh so much more, if only we ask for His freely given gift.