Tag: God Restores Righteousness - Job 32-34

Job 33:19-28

“Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed

and with continual strife in his bones,

so that his life loathes bread,

and his appetite the choicest food.

His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen,

and his bones that were not seen stick out.

His soul draws near the pit,

and his life to those who bring death.

If there be for him an angel,

a mediator, one of the thousand,

to declare to man what is right for him,

and he is merciful to him, and says,

‘Deliver him from going down into the pit;

I have found a ransom;

let his flesh become fresh with youth;

let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;

then man prays to God, and he accepts him;

he sees his face with a shout of joy,

and he restores to man his righteousness.

He sings before men and says:

‘I sinned and perverted what was right,

and it was not repaid to me.

He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,

and my life shall look upon the light.’

Tag:  God Restores Righteousness

This passage is from Elihu’s speech that was delivered to Job and his three friends.  Elihu is a young man who is not pleased with the “older” men in regard to their failure to “answer” Job and Job’s justification of himself.   In the above passage the theme is God’s restoration of righteousness.   Elihu is explaining that man, without some mediation, is lost and has no one to offer mercy to him.   His point is that, without intervention, man is going to be destined for destruction and failure.   But, with mediation, God can and will deliver and restore righteousness to him.  This is the Old Testament version of Romans 3:21-26.   In that passage God gives us the knowledge we need about giving man righteousness, because Christ mediated it for us.  Christ propitiate God’s wrath and now we have righteousness.   God redeems us with the blood of Christ and brings us up out of the pit.