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Now we begin to look at meanings in the text.
Within the framework is another level of dialogue. This level has to do with redemption. In chapter 6, the subject of why Job repented in ashes after God's speech and how this could be answered by who Job is was addressed. To explain this, we need to go back to chapter I of the Book of Job. The narrator says that Job made sacrifices for his children the day after feasts to cover them for any sins they may have committed (1:5), as well as having them purified. This is the same behaviour as repeated in chapter 42. He is repenting for whoever sinned. This is a very strange way for people to behave unless they are redeemers. This is the role Job is portraying in this story and it links some other aspects of the book together. It is also his admission that he does not have a complete understanding of who God is. He is accepting his lack of understanding about God and repenting for his friends after God has pointed out their improper treatment of Job.
What is a redeemer? It is someone who pays the price to redeem or buy back something. This could be as simple as buying back something from a pawn shop, or as complicated as the saving or redemption of souls. There are different kinds of redeemers. You can be your own redeemer if you pay a fine for a traffic ticket you have gotten. There is the kinsman-redeemer spoken of in Ruth (2:20, 3:9 and 12, 4:1, 2, 6, and 8.) He is the brother or other male family member who marries the widow of one who has died. This is done so the family line will be carried on and any land that has been sold out of the family can be purchased back. A person can be a redeemer by praying and interceding for others as Abraham did when he prayed for Abimelech (Gen.20:17) or when he bargained with God over Sodom (Gen.18:16-19.) A person can be a redeemer when he puts himself in jeopardy in order to save the lives of others as Joseph did when he went to Egypt (Gen.45:5-7 and 50:19 & 20.) Jesus was a redeemer for the saving of souls. He gave up his life as a sacrificial lamb for our sins, harking back to the blood sacrifices the Hebrews made in atonement for their sins (Leviticus). These are all examples of redeemers. The Old and New Testaments are permeated with stories of redemption. In the Old and New Testaments, redemption is an important theme and often it is the sinless that pays the price for the sinner in the struggle for salvation. This is one of the themes of Job.
In chapter I, Job is making sacrifices in the place of his children. In chapter 42, the Lord says he will only accept Job's prayers for Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad's atonement. Both cases show Job acting as a redeemer. His innocence of sin plays an important role in his ability to be a redeemer of this sort, similar to the importance of Christ's ability to be a redeemer. I see in Job a preview of the redemptive role of Jesus and a hint of what the Lord expects of godly men and women.
It is an interesting facet of the Book of Job that it begins and ends with the same themes. During the beginning, Job is called a good man and at the end the Lord says he speaks correctly about Him. Job makes sacrifices for his children to atone for their sins at the beginning of the book, at the end of the book God will allow only Job's prayers for his friends' atonement. The framework of this book is in balance, ending as it has begun. The internal dialogue is a struggle to understand the framework within which it nests. The themes of innocence and redemption can be easily lost, buried under the rhetoric contained in the arguments of Job and his friends in the inner dialogue. They are very important themes and seem to have been somewhat ignored in the past. Reading with the focus on the dialogue's relationship to the framework begins to carry a different meaning and the book as a whole becomes more clearly understood. In this chapter, the dialogue is not so important as it is involved more with the meaning of suffering and how God deals with his creatures.
Why were Job and Jesus selected for their roles as redeemers? It was their very goodness or innocence that qualified them to act in a redemptive capacity. The ability for carrying another's sins requires the vessel to be empty. Both Job and Jesus were made empty of themselves, through suffering, and tested in their commitment to the Lord, showing themselves victors over the satan and Satan before they were the bearers of the sins of others. Job is the story of just a man while Jesus is the son of God made flesh and in no way was Job equal to Jesus but within the framework of the story there are similarities between his suffering and Jesus’ suffering. Both men were chosen by God for their final redemptive acts and both lost all they had before the act of redemption for which they were chosen. To both all was restored at the end. Job had all his wealth and family restored, Jesus had life and the kingdom of Heaven restored to him.
If either Job or Jesus had been less than they were, their stories would probably not have been told. The Lord chose them because they were his best creations. When a person gives up something unimportant to him, it is not a real loss. When he gives up something he cares about very much, it becomes a sacrifice. God asked for sacrifices from the Jews in atonement for their sins and he demanded they sacrifice the animals without flaw, the best of their flocks. God, also, brings the best he has to the altar of sacrifice because He who is the law asks of His people only those acts which He will do. It is the human animal that will ask more of others than he is willing to give of himself. God knows that He cannot get our attention with anything less than His best and to turn us back to Him, He gave up His only son. It is impossible to stand idly by and guilt free when one who is innocent suffers for our sins. Job is a story which teaches this principal. When this form of redemption happened at the cross, lives were changed and continue to be changed by it more than 2,000 years later.
Job and Jesus showed by their lives that they put God first and everything in their lives came after. For this reason they were able to cooperate with the Lord in the salvation of others. Job paid the price for his friends so that God did not deal with them in the way they deserved. Jesus paid the price and because of him God does not deal with us in the way we deserve. This is the center of redemption. The punishment for sin is lifted off our heads because of the sacrifice of Jesus, just as punishment of Job's friends was lifted off their heads by the prayers of Job.