A Brief Exegetical Look at Job 33:23-28.

Yet, if there is an angel at their side,

a messenger, one out of a thousand sent to tell them how to be upright,

and he is gracious to that person and says to God,

‘Spare them from going down to the pit;

I have found a ransom for them—

let their flesh be renewed like a child’s;

let them be restored as in the days of their youth.’

Then that person can pray to God and find favor with him,

they will see God’s face and shout for joy;

He will restore them to full well-being.

And they will go to others and say,

‘I have sinned, I have perverted what is right,

but I did not get what I deserved.

God has delivered me from going down to the pit,

and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.’

Job 33:23-28 (NIV)

Historical and Literary Context

The story of Job is generally thought to be set during patriarchal or pre-patriarchal[1] period due to the absence of any mention of the Temple/Tabernacle and Law, as well as the fact that Job is the head of his family and regularly offers sacrifices without the need of a priest[2]. Also, Job lives 140 years after God restores him to health and wealth, which is consistent with the age of men for several generations following The Flood[3] (check out Genesis 11:10-30 which recounts Shem’s descendants down to Abram, most of the men lived between 200 and 450 years, with the later generations living shorter life spans than the generations closer to the flood).

Job 33:23-28 is set in Elihu’s speech, just before God answers Job. Elihu has waited until the other friends have spoken their piece before addressing Job’s stubborn insistence that he has done nothing wrong. This passage addresses Job’s previous thoughts on a heavenly mediator or arbiter who would either stand between God and him, or who would actually present his case before God.

Theme and Purpose of the Text

            Job 33:23-38 comes at the beginning of Elihu’s speech, and in the middle of the section that covers the process of discipline: discipline is accomplished through suffering to prevent people from destroying themselves. This is a new spin on an old topic as Elihu shows that God cares about people even when they have sinned. They suffer so that they will see what is right, repent, and return to God. God’s justice and mercy are addressed and Elihu shows that God is capable of exercising both in the same act[4].

This theme of using suffering as a means to draw people back to God is found throughout the Old Testament and is continued in the Gospels and Epistles. Therefore Elihu has brought to light an important aspect of how God works in the lives of His people.  

Exegetical Issues of Job 33:23-28

            There are two exegetical insights in this passage and both revolve around the “mediator angel” in heaven (vs. 23). The first insight is about the function of the mediator. Previously Job had wished for “someone to arbitrate between us” (Job 9:33) and then continues the thought in 16:19-21 by wishing for an intercessor to plead for him before God. Elihu has picked up on this thought and says that the mediator would “tell a man what is right for him” (33:23). Elihu is saying that this mediator would actually act more as a translator who would translate and make Job understand how to remedy his sin so that he could change his situation. [5] In Elihu’s view, Job is guilty and needed to do something to atone for his sins, thus, the mediator is on God’s side and is not vouching for Job’s righteousness.

            The second insight concerns the identity of the “angel” or “mediator”. In verse 23, the phrase one out of a thousand may indicate that God has a substantial team, or a group of angels, who are in charge of completing such negotiations before God[6]. However, this same phrase is used in Job 9:3 as a comparison of God’s knowledge to man’s knowledge to show how exhaustive the intellect of God is, and how restrictive the minds of humans are. Therefore, it seems more likely that there is not a team of angels negotiating cases, but rather a single, very special, high ranking angel[7]. The phrase one out of a thousand seems to be a literary device to indicate the uniqueness of the mediator performing the task and not an actual ratio of the angels capable of performing such a task.

Application

            Perhaps we sometimes forget that death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection were not God’s Plan B. This was God’s plan all along. Elihu and Job both bring to light some very interesting ideas about who God is and how He works in the world. In the end, they were both right. There is a mediator in heaven who pleads our case before God (Job 16:19-21), and this same mediator has translated and communicated to us a better way to live. The mediator is, of course, Jesus Christ. He stands before God on our account and calls us righteous because he has paid the ransom for our unrighteousness (Job 33:24-25). He wraps us in his righteousness, and gives us the Holy Spirit to indwell our souls and teach us how to live righteously, since we have already been declared to be so.

            Verse 27 stands out to me as an incredible promise and hope of the Christian life: that we can pray to God and find favor with him, and see His face and be filled with joy. What kind of life are we living if God’s favor and immediate presence don’t bring us incredible joy? What a beautiful promise for God’s children! That we should be found to be righteous as Job, and be blessed with the presence of God. This is my prayer for you this week, that you would know that God has found you to be acceptable because you are covered with Christ’s righteousness, and that you can come into His presence joyfully.

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[1] Norman C. Habel, The Book of Job (Philadephia, Pennsylvania: Westminster Press, 1985) 39

[2] David J. A. Clines Job: 1-20 (Dallas, Texas: Word Books Publisher, 1989) lvii. Francis I. Anderson Job: An Introduction and Commentary (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1976) 62

[3] Clines Job: 1-20,  lvii

[4] David Atkinson, The Message of Job (Leicester, England: Intervarsity Press, 1991) 125

[5] Francis I. Anderson Job: An Introduction and Commentary (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1976) 250

[6] Anderson Job: An Introduction and Commentary, 250

[7] John E. Hartley The Book of Job (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1988), 447.                   

Esther, Part 2

Esther as Queen.

The Bible does not record whether Esther was taken by force or went willingly. It only states that in the harem, under Hegai’s supervision, she received beauty treatments with hundreds of other “hopefuls” (Esther 2:12) whose beauty would prevent them from living full lives and being any better off in the end.[1] She was being prepared for a sensual night with a pagan king to whom she would probably not be married.[2] Mordecai’s command to keep her true identity a secret meant that she did not observe the Torah laws. She was put in a very compromising position in the harem because she violated the dietary and moral laws of the Torah.

Furthermore, her obedience to her God was challenged because after her night with the king, she was raised to the high position of Queen; where she would be pressured to submit to the will of her husband regardless of her ethnic beliefs and values. Indeed, she became Queen not because of her obedience to the law of God, but because of her beauty and her ability to please her pagan husband (Esther 2:17).[3] While Esther is not intended to be a moral example to be followed, her story does communicate the morally ambiguous situation in which she found herself, which is how real life often is.

After gaining the favor of the king, Esther again entered a different world. Now she was honored with a banquet and moved into the Queen’s apartments (Esther 2:17-18). She continued to be attended by several maids who participated with her when she fasted before going to see the king to reveal Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews (Esther 4:16). The text does not disclose whether Esther struggled with her new life because of her Jewish heritage or not. She seemed quite comfortable in the palace and with her role as queen to Xerxes and appears to have assimilated to that lifestyle quite easily. But using Walters and Auton-Cuff’s study, this assimilation was most likely done involuntarily using a false self. Therefore, it is likely that, at least at first, Esther did struggle with this final transition.

Prior to Haman’s decree to destroy the Jews, Esther’s life was one of inaction, adaptation, and survival. Only after she was petitioned by Mordecai did she become active within the Persian government (Esther 5). Levenson states that, “Mordecai seeks to call his cousin back to her Jewish roots. She must not allow her queenship to go to her head.”[4] Mordecai was calling Esther to remember her true self. Therefore, Esther’s response showed appropriate maturity. She was quite aware of what she risks going before the king without being called due to her knowledge of Vashti’s fate.[5] “The Persian court was not a safe place because Xerxes held great power and he wielded it unpredictably, making decisions from dubious motives with impaired judgments.”[6]

Esther’s worldview up until chapter four reflects one that many TCKs share: “This is just the way things are.” In their struggle to adapt to new cultures and social situations, a TCK’s morals and value system are usually challenged. [7] As mentioned above, she appeared to show no concern over the fact that she was wed to a man who was easily manipulated. However, when she realized that she too would be killed as a Jew if Haman’s plot succeeded, she used her knowledge of the court and king to her advantage (Esther 5:1). While her worldview at first seems somewhat narrow with her easy acceptance of the Persian way of life, it was expanded when she realized the role she had to play in God’s plan for His people in the kingdom.[8]

God often puts us in compromising situations to test our obedience and true love for Him above all else. If we don’t love God more than everything and everyone else in our lives, we will fail, as Esther almost did. It is vitally important, therefore, to build a community of fellow believers around us so that we can be supported in our faith, and can support others as well. Our spiritual survival is dependent on having a strong, faithful community around us.

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[1] Linda Day, Esther, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005), 59.

[2] Karen H. Jobes, Esther, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999), 113.

[3] Jobes, 113.

[4] Jon D. Levenson, Esther: A Commentary, The Old Testament Library (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), 81.

[5] Levenson, 2-3.

[6] Jobes, 69.

[7] David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds (Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2009), 20.

[8] Levenson, 82.

Esther, Part 1

As mentioned previously in the Mordecai posts, the research below is taken from my thesis work completed at Denver Seminary. As such, it would be help to know the following while reading this post:

My thesis was entitled, “Using a Biblical Third Culture Model to study the Lives of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Mordecai.” The Third Culture Model I developed was based largely off of David C. Pollock and Ruth E Van Reken’s Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds[1] in which Pollock and Van Reken explore the culture differences of children that have grown up or spent a significant amount of their childhood and formative years overseas and outside of their passport country.[2] They reason that a third culture kid’s (TCK’s) first culture is that of their passport country, their second culture is the one in which they currently live, and their third culture is the one they develop as they try to balance the values of both cultures. Pollock and Van Reken found that the characteristics of TCKs are similar regardless of their nationality and where they currently live. That is, an American living in Singapore, a Japanese child living in Brazil, or German child living in Canada will all develop and exhibit similar characteristics.

As such, Pollock and Van Reken reason that, “TCKs are not a new phenomenon. They have been around since the beginning of time but, until now, they have been largely invisible.”[3] Therefore, this model was used to study the TCKs that lived during the Babylonian exile. It used modern research on TCKs and cross cultural experiences to try to better understand the choices, actions, and behaviors as seen in the Old Testament Scriptures. Esther was a Jewess, living in Susa, the capital of Persia. She, therefore, was constantly stepping into two different worlds: the religious and cultural heritage of her parents as children of Israel, and the religiously plural and secular society of the Persians.

Esther was an orphan adopted by her cousin, Mordecai (Esther 2:7). The Bible does not give details as to how old she was when she lost her parents or the situation under which they died. It may be assumed, though, that from a young age she received an informal education that consisted of instruction in parenting, food preparation and preservation, tending small city gardens, running a household, and producing textiles.[4] With the other women in the community, she would have learned the social customs, moral values, religious beliefs and rituals of the Jewish people.[5] Being that Mordecai was most likely part of a noble family; Esther would have lived a life of some affluence.

A study done by Kate A. Walters and Faith P. Auton-Cuff analyzes how growing up as a TCK shapes a woman’s identity. Walters and Auton-Cuff found that because women define themselves in terms of relationship and connection, any movement between cultures causes a disruption in their identity formation. Thus, in a new place, the woman must first survive, adapt and cope with the change before she can reform her identity based on the relationships she develops around her.[6]. Unfortunately, often times a woman’s voice is silenced as she tries to behave in an acceptable fashion so as to be seen as “good” and develop relationships with others. Thus, they put on a false self to be accepted and “fit in” at the cost of their true selves.[7] In a community based society, rebelling against the social norms, acting out, and causing problems are greatly discouraged because of the difficulties it brought upon the family and not just the individual.[8]

In light of Walters and Auton-Cuff’s research, Xerxes project to find a new Queen sent Esther’s world spinning. She was taken away from her home and family and put into a harem (Esther 2:8) where she would eventually be used to satisfy the king’s lust.[9] In this new place she struggled to define her identity while trying to adapt to the new situation. Her value to the king is based largely on her appearance. Indeed, the Bible records that Esther pleased Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem of virgins (Esther 2:9). Her beauty was such that even a eunuch was moved by it.[10] The text also says that she won Hegai’s favor. The term used for “favor” is actually hesed, which refers to the covenant loyalty and love that existed between God and His people due to His covenant with them. Thus, Esther gained from Hegai a covenant loyalty or a special kindness that was not necessarily based on her beauty alone.[11]

In the harem, Esther was isolated, and probably protected, from the other women because Hegai had provided her with a private apartment and seven attendants from the palace staff (Esther 2:9). But it also meant that she entered a new place in the harem, and again had to go through the process of learning to adapt, cope and build relationships. At this time she was under strict instructions to not reveal her identity as a Jewess from Mordecai (Esther 2:10). Therefore, according to Walters and Auton-Cuff, Mordecai’s command to her effectively silenced her true self and required her to put on a false self. Therefore, the year spent under Hegai’s care was one in which she lived as the other women did and did not give away her ethnicity by adhering to the food laws in the Torah.[12] As she prepared for her night with the king, she was aided by seven women who were of a different nationality than herself.[13] The close contact with these women would have exposed Esther to the different policies, practices, and moral values of Persian women in the palace court.

Esther’s story communicates how hard it can truly be to live as a Christian in the real world, and how easy it is to conceal one’s identity and just “go with the flow.” However God calls us to be lights to a world of darkness, therefore blending in is not a long term option. In the next post I will talk about Esther’s move into her new role as Queen, and her actions as Queen of Persia.

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[1] David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds (Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2009).

[2] Pollock & Van Reken, 13.

[3] Pollock & Van Reken, 4.

[4] Leo G. Perdue, “Israelite and Early Jewish Family: Summary and Conclusions” in Families in Ancient Israel by Leo G. Perdue, Joseph Blenkinsopp, John J. Collings and Carol Meyers (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), 172.

[5] Perdue, 172.

[6] Kate A. Walters and Faith P. Auton-Cuff, “A Story to Tell: The identity development of women growing up as third culture kids,” Mental Health, Religion and Culture 12, no. 7 (November 2009): 762-763.

[7] Walters and Auton-Cuff,  766.

[8] Walters and Auton-Cuff,  765.

[9] Jon D. Levenson, Esther: A Commentary, The Old Testament Library (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), 58.

[10] Mervin Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, New American Commentary 10 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1993), 316.

[11] Breneman, 316.

[12] Breneman, 316

[13] Joyce G. Baldwin, Esther, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1984), 67.