Foreshadowing in Job

 


I just “happened” to come across a couple of very enlightening passages in the Book of Job yesterday during my quiet time a while ago. The first is Job bemoaning his situation before a just God:

Job 9:29-35
New King James Version (NKJV)
29 If I am condemned,
Why then do I labor in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow water,
And cleanse my hands with soap,
31 Yet You will plunge me into the pit,
And my own clothes will abhor me.
32 “For He is not a man, as I am,
That I may answer Him,
And that we should go to court together.
33 Nor is there any mediator between us,
Who may lay his hand on us both.
34 Let Him take His rod away from me,
And do not let dread of Him terrify me.
35 Then I would speak and not fear Him,
But it is not so with me.
He speaks for every single person (except Jesus, of course) who has or ever will live. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)!
But even in this book of the Old Testament, there is a strong foreshadowing of God’s plan of salvation through Jesus. Just listen to what Elihu says in response to Job and Job’s friends:
Job 33:23-30
New King James Version (NKJV)
23 “If there is a messenger for him,
A mediator, one among a thousand,
To show man His uprightness,
24 Then He is gracious to him, and says,
‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom’;
25 His flesh shall be young like a child’s,
He shall return to the days of his youth.
26 He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him,
He shall see His face with joy,
For He restores to man His righteousness.
27 Then he looks at men and says,
‘I have sinned, and perverted what was right,
And it did not profit me.’
28 He will redeem his soul from going down to the Pit,
And his life shall see the light.
29 “Behold, God works all these things,
Twice, in fact, three times with a man,
30 To bring back his soul from the Pit,
That he may be enlightened with the light of life.
Jesus redeemed humanity once for all and those who believed knew that it was always going to happen – they just didn’t know all the details (see also Isaiah 9:1-7).

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