I have found a ransom

“If there is a messenger for him,

A mediator, one among a thousand,

To show man His uprightness,

Then He is gracious to him, and says,

“Deliver him from going down to the Pit;

I have found a ransom’; - Job 33.23-24

As Elihu continues to try and encourage Job he gives us one of those precious glimpses of the gospel that we find in the Old Testament. Right in the middle of Elihu’s discourse we get a precious glimpse of the redemptive work of Christ.

Elihu is praying for Job here. He prays that there would be messenger or a mediator to show His righteousness to Job. He wants a mediator to deliver him from destruction. Then there were these precious words of which no one could have known the full import at the time.

I have found a ransom.

Elihu certainly didn’t know all the details of how God was going to send His son to pay the ransom for man’s sin, but he did know that only God could provide a ransom, nothing else would do.

The ransom Elihu foresaw is available to all today. Our sin demands a price. The price of sin is death, but Christ has paid the ransom for all who will accept it.

Have you found that ransom?