In Job, chapter forty-two, verse eight, God calls him “my servant” in verses seven and eight and states twice the acceptance of his prayer in verses eight and nine. God will hear Job’s intercessory prayer for his three friends because of his righteous standing. Still, restoration to the favor of God granted Job spiritual authority with God.
Amazingly, the sacrifices prescribed for Job’s friends were similar to those of Balaam prescribed for Balak, as in Numbers twenty-three, verses two through twenty-nine. Perhaps this is one indication out of many that the age of Job was that of Moses or before it. “My servant Job shall pray for you.” Strangely, this was the very promise with which Eliphaz himself had closed his third and last speech. His words received a striking fulfillment of himself and his friends. As Job prayed and offered sacrifice for those who had grieved and wounded his spirit, the mediation of Job seems to show the character of Christ as the sufferer and the mediator on behalf of man.
Job’s friends were good men and belonged to God, and He would not let them be in their mistakes any more than Job. But having humbled him by a discourse out of the whirlwind, God takes another way to humble them. They are not to argue the matter again but must agree on a sacrifice and a prayer to reconcile them. Those who differ in judgment about lesser things yet are one in Christ the great Sacrifice ought to love and bear with one another. When God was angry with Job’s friends, he put them in a way to make peace with him. Our quarrels with God always begin on our part, but the making of peace begins on his part. Peace with God is to be had only in His way upon His terms. These will never seem impossible to those who know how to value this blessing: they will be glad of it, like Job’s friends, upon any terms, though ever so humbling. Job did not insult his friends, but God graciously reconciled to him. Job easily reconciled to them. In all our prayers and services, we should aim to be accepted by the Lord, not to have the praise of men, but to please God.
The mercies of God are not limited, as some have thought, to the chosen race. However, the principles of God’s action are the same universally. He deals with men upon a principle of mediation: whether the mediator be Moses, as the mediator of the first covenant; or Job, who was the accepted mediator for his friends beyond the pale of the covenant; or whether the mediator be Jesus Christ, as the one Mediator between God and man.