The Middle Man
“When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Exodus 20:18-19
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5.
Adam and Eve had the wonderful privilege of a direct relationship with God. There was no need of an advocate, mediator or middle man. In Genesis, God walked and talked with them….until such time as they disobeyed Him and He put them out of the Garden. Eventually, God no longer had direct communication with his creation.
During the Exodus, God led Israel into the wilderness with the desire to communicate directly with them. God called Moses to deliver his people from Egypt but once in the wilderness they decided that Moses should be the middle man for them… they did not want to talk directly with the God of their deliverance/salvation. (Exodus 20:18-19) Israel later enters into a time of chaos, everyone doing his or her own thing. God then establishes Judges to deliver his people from oppressors, and to direct them in His way. This era drew to its conclusion in the days of Samuel.
“Look,” they told him, “you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have. Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.” 1 Samuel 8-10
There is nothing new under the sun, according to Ecclesiastes 1:9. Even today, we are never satisfied with what we have, always looking for something better, always telling God what we want instead of desiring what God wants for us. Like the Israelites, we don’t want God to be King….we do not want God to rule our lives, we fight against being subjects in the Kingdom of God. Howbeit, our resistance tends to be very subtle but the bottom line stays the same. We want to rule our own lives, while living under the protective cover of the Kingdom of God.
God gave Israel their request in the form of a king. He warned them, about how a king would treat them. “But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. “We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.” 1 Samuel 1:19.
So the era of the King starts with Saul; and another middle man comes into play. What is a middle man? According to scripture the middle man is one who goes to God on behalf of the people and goes to the people on behalf of God. God leads and directs his people using a middle man. Ideally, God desires to walk with us, talk with us, as he once did in the Garden of Eden. Eventually, according to God’s eternal plan, he cut out the middle man when he manifested himself in the flesh and came to earth in the person of Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross he tore the veil in the tabernacle that separated man from direct contact with God the father. There is now no need for a middle man. Jesus returned to his heavenly estate and sent the Holy Spirit as his earthly representative.
No longer do we need a priest to enter the temple on our behalf, or speak with God or offer sacrifice for us. The Christian is now a temple of the living God – He dwells in us by His spirit. (2 Corinthians 6:16) Christ is in us, living in us and is with us all the time. As a result there is no need for a middle man. However, Christ is the middle man for the unbeliever, for those who have yet to experience deliverance from the sin of unbelief. No man can come to the Father, except through Christ, the bridge between heaven and hell. (John 14:6)
Jesus is the ultimate middle man, in that he died for our sin, we receive forgiveness of our sin and he brought us back into relationship with God. Jesus sent his Spirit, who became the last middle man to guide the world to saving knowledge of the finished work of Christ on the cross. “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.” (John 16:8-11 NLT) The Holy Spirit is now the middle man between the non-believer and Christ Jesus, the savior of the world.
The Christian life is not a matter of behaving like Christ but about allowing Christ, himself, to live in and through you, Galatians 2:20. When that happens, God has direct communication with you. He then can walk with you, and talk with you, and have a personal relationship that he has always wanted to have with you. Christian, we do not need a middle man any longer. The ultimate middle man, Jesus, restored what was lost in the Garden of Eden; a personal one on one relationship with God, and he reestablished the Kingdom of God on earth once again.
He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit is saying … (Matthew 11:15)
Pastor Rosita
