Introduction:
Any student of antiquity knows that history is replete with bad decisions, for examples: The Trojans brought the famous wooden horse inside their city walls, not realizing it was full of Greek soldiers who would open the gates from the inside and invade them. Napoleon decided to invade Russia and returned with just a tiny fraction of his once grand army. He met his Waterloo. The Titanic was outfitted with only enough lifeboats for a third of the total passengers and crew it could carry. What is happening with decisions like these? Sometimes it’s just individual arrogance, foolishness or it can be exhaustion that produces such bad decision. Job was making decisions about God, life and death at the worst possible time for him. Jobs decisions about the nature of God and His attributes were not correct. First he believed…
I. God would not listen; Disputing is Futile. (Job 9:14-20)

1. Job believes he can say nothing to change his situation. Even in a position of uprightness, he would have no defense because what can a man articulate to a holy God? Job understood that a man could not debate with God or demand answers from him. Job reasons, even if I am right the only thing I could possible do in the presence of such an awesome God is beg for His mercy. In verse 16 he understands that God is so awesome that if He really did answer what could he say? If I could subpoena him and he responded, I’m not sure he would even listen to me. Last week we talked about the great attributes of God that frustrated Jobs thinking.

2. Job felt that God’s might was against him, (17) not for him. God is Omniscient vv. 1- 4 / om•ni•scient God is Omnipotent om•nip•o•tent vv. 5-10. Omnipresent vv.11-13.Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: – Jeremiah 32:17

Why would God stoop to answer such a man? In this sense it did no good for Job to consider the awesome power of God, because that power seemed to be set against him. Verse 19 says, “God cannot be told what to do. If this has to do with strength, God is the strong one.
If it’s a matter of justice, who dares to summon him to court? So Job come to the conclusion in verse 20 that he is innocent but it does not matter his words would condemn him. He believed he was blameless but God would find him guilty because no-one can debate with the God.

Application:
It is irrational for Job to come to such conclusions in this state of mind and being. However, this is often what happens to people when their pain is so horrible and they are dispirited and depress. We recognize that Job has misunderstood the nature and the purpose of God in his situation. Let this be a lesson to all of us to “never make decisions when your decision maker is broken”!
Sometimes we make decisions in the spur of the moment, at times of stress, chaos, anger, sickness and when our adrenaline s running high. Bad decisions are made in these situations. Therefore, they are not the best circumstances to make any decision, big or small. You may have been in this situation in your life. Good decisions are made in a place of peace, when you can take the time, freedom and solitude to select healthy choices. Your past decisions have had a great influence on where you currently are in your life. Your choices today and tomorrow will have an impact for years in your future, some for the rest of your life. I have said this before and I think this is worth repeating. “Too many of us in our decision making are setting ourselves up today concerning tomorrow, so that when tomorrow gets here we are totally disillusioned and shattered because today’s decision does not become tomorrow’s reality.
II. Job’s strong sense of condemnation. Vv. 21-24

1. Verse 21-24 displays how futile Job case of innocent is: Look at his last statement: If God is not causing all these things, then who else could it be? Job knew God was sovereign over everything. And even though he was innocent, Job knew he could not prove it before God. His emotional state was now so unraveled that he no longer believed that he could count on God to be fair with him even if he did get his day in court. God blinds the eyes of the judges and the righteous suffer he thought, another bad decision about God.

2. In verse 25, Job says that his days are swifter than a “post” the word in Hebrew is “ruts” which means runner; they flee away, they see no good.” Job felt that his life was passing by so quickly that his days would be over and God would leave this whole matter unresolved. He used the examples of ships made of reeds or papyrus that were the clipper sailing ships of those days because of their speed.

Job felt that his life was spinning and running completely out of control. Time moved fast and was like a hostile predator against him; as the eagle that hasteth to the prey. (like an eagle swooping on its prey).

3. Again Job comes to a fault conclusion in verses 25-28… I know that You will not hold me innocent:
Job felt that he had already been tried and condemned by God, and that it would do him no good to cleanse himself before God. In the next three verses Job despairs of his innocents.

Job knows that even if he were able to wash himself with “snow water,” God would still find him unclean and would still condemn him. Spurgeon saw the washing with snow water as a description of the vain things that sinners do to justify themselves and cleanse themselves of their sin.
• Snow water is hard to get, and therefore considered more precious.
• Snow water has a reputation for purity, and is thought better able to cleanse.
• Snow water comes down from the heavens and not up from the earth, and is thought to be more “spiritual.” Snow water and soap each speak of great effort to be pure.

And isn’t that true? We don’t have anything that we can offer God. Job accepts the fact that he can’t get to God in his own strength. We can only get to Him through who came down from heaven. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. – John 6:38

Even if he repented he believed that God would just plunge him into the pit. The Hebrew word literally means a pit (as a trap); destruction or corruption. Job’s experience told him that sometimes God crushes the innocent for no reason at all. We who are privileged to see the drama from the divine perspective know that Job was innocent and that God did have a cause, a cause beyond the purview of Job, a cause that could not be revealed to Job at the moment.” The more Job considered the greatness of God, the more he felt plunged into a pit of depravity.

III. Job longs for a Mediator to help. (Job 9:32-35)
1. Job acknowledges God’s greatness, and it is that greatness that makes him feel as if his situation is hopeless. If only there were someone somewhere who could represent him before God. At this time in his struggle, such a mediator was all that Job could hope for. Here, then, was Job crying out for someone who could stand firmly between God and himself to create a way of engagement, a possibility of contact.
2. When Job cried out that God was not a man like he was (verse 32), his words were true. But they are no longer true. We have a great promise of a Mediator that Job did not yet know of: For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (1Timothy 2:5). What Job longed for is fulfilled in Jesus. He fulfills all the qualifications for a mediator, someone to stand between two parties in disagreement:
3. There was a day when God became a man in order that He might bridge the gap that Job so painfully described. When God sent His only Son Jesus into this world to become one of us, He did so in order that it might be possible for there to be a mediator between God and man. Since Jesus Christ was fully God, He could reach out one hand to His Father in heaven. And because He was fully man, he could reach down His other hand to us.
4. This is truly the Gospel in the Old Testament! Here the thought of a mediator between man and God is born. And we can see this story through the lens of the Gospels and know that the thread of salvation that runs through the entire Word of God is here in Job chapter 9. God has made a way for us to come together!
Conclusion:
Jesus Christ is not only our Savior but also our Mediator, giving us direct access to God. Though we have no right to approach a holy God on our own, Jesus offers us His righteousness so we can come directly into the presence of God with His acting as Mediator. Folks our primary purpose is to embrace our supreme God by faith and to worship Him.