A Ransom Found

If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, and he is merciful to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom; let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’; then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.
Job 33:23–26
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A Ransom Found
Ransom is the price paid for one’s freedom.  These verses speak of a ransom found. But what is the freedom for which Job seeks. He is in a state of despair, his property and health have been destroyed, his children have all died and his closest friends continue to blame him for it all.  Job wants a reprieve from the suffering; he wants to be set free from the misery. In fact, Job longed for death (3:21).  This is understandable, none of us would ever want to suffer as Job suffered.  Yet the ransom found, and the ransom spoken of here is not simply a rescue from pain and suffering. It is so much more.  It is a rescue form the death Job desired. For as we know the ransom was that of Christ.  His all-encompassing atonement for the sins of the world paid out in His death on a cross, was the ransom price. Where we could not do it, Christ stepped in and delivered.  No price we could ever pay would ever be enough. But God’s love for His creation overcame all of our failures.  His perfect Son was the ransom which would be needed.  The death of God on a cross was what it would take to reconcile us to the Father, so therefore, Jesus willingly went to the cross, carrying our sins.  And it was on that cross where the price was paid and the debt to sin was cancelled. Our Ransom was found, and through Him we are saved.