Our Umpire in Heaven | The Institute for Creation Research

Our Umpire in Heaven

"For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both." (Job 9:32-33)

Job, in his sufferings, was mystified by the complete silence of God, whom he had loved and tried to serve faithfully all his life. He longed somehow to be able to come before the great Judge to plead his case, but this was not possible, for God was not a man like himself. He did not even have a "daysman" to mediate between himself and God.

Oh, yes, he did! And so do we. A "daysman" is an arbitrator or umpire, or mediator (as this word is usually rendered in modern versions). But how could there be an umpire to mediate disputes between God and man, unless such an umpire could somehow be both God and man, able to "lay his hand upon us both"?

There is one perfect umpire, of course. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Timothy 2:5-6). The ransom He paid was His own blood, with which "he entered in once |for all| into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:12).

Thus the God/man Christ Jesus is perfectly able to bridge the chasm between God and man. Perhaps an even better connotation of "daysman" is that of "advocate." Now, when Satan, "the accuser of our brethren" (Revelation 12:10), accuses us of sin before God, as he did against Job, our great Intercessor defends us. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1), and "he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). HMM

The Latest
ACTS & FACTS
Creation Kids: Llamas and Alpacas
by Bethany Trimble and Susan Windsor* You're never too young to be a creation scientist and explore our Creator's world. Kids, discover...

ACTS & FACTS
Dr. James J. S. Johnson Goes Home to the Lord
Dr. James J. S. Johnson, chief academic officer and associate professor of apologetics for ICR’s School of Biblical Apologetics (SOBA), joined...

ACTS & FACTS
Designed to Fill the Waters
Marine invertebrate animals (jellyfish, crabs, snails, etc.) thrive within our global ocean, the largest habitable space on Earth. Their adult...

ACTS & FACTS
Go to Sleep, Wake Up, and Christmas!
One of my favorite Christmas memories happened when my youngest son, who is autistic, first began to understand the excitement of this joyous holiday....

ACTS & FACTS
Pseudogenes Are Not Pseudo Anymore
Introduction One of the past arguments for evidence of biological evolution in the genome has been the concept of pseudogenes. These DNA sequences...

ACTS & FACTS
How General Revelation Can Inform a Theory of Biological Design
Holiness! Omnipotence! Just exclaiming these attributes focuses our attention where it should rightfully go—to God. Another attribute often overlooked...

ACTS & FACTS
Yosemite National Park, Part 2: Glaciers, Seeds, and Biblical...
The beauty of Yosemite National Park is breathtaking, but the park holds more wonders than stunning scenery and craggy heights. And the history that’s...

NEWS
Silurian Horseshoe Crab
Supposedly, throughout the past hypothetical millions of years, sub-human primates became man, dinosaurs evolved into birds, and a group of mammals...

NEWS
Stunning Enigmatic Dinosaur Discovered
New species that are 100% dinosaur continue to be discovered by paleontologists with increasing frequency. One such recent discovery, described as “both...

NEWS
The Coelacanth: A Living Window into God's Design
Imagine a fish designed with such precision that it has thrived in deep, dark ocean waters for generations unchanged, resilient, and wonderfully suited...