Prayers
Glorious God, You show us the way of wisdom by Your Word. Throughout the centuries of Your dealings with us You raise up godly men who hear Your voice, who fear You, and who follow You. Thank You for the gift of men like Job who are upright and blameless among their generation. Even the best of the sons of Adam face horrible tests. Help us, O Lord, in the day when we lose our possessions and our livelihood. Help us when children die before their parents. How can we understand Your providence? Naked we came into this world, and naked we shall leave it. Blessed be Your Name. We worship You even as we mourn. You alone are God. Strengthen us in the truth.
O God, we have faced such devastating trials, and we have been given grace sufficient for every need. We have feared You and have continued to turn away from evil. But what will we do if You stretch out Your hand against our flesh and our bones? What will we do when we face physical pain that is more than the worst grief? What is the limit that we can take? Surely every man has a limit. What suffering would be too much for us? Only You know the answer. There is no comparing trial with trial. When we are brought through one, the scar still remains. The next one adds to the grief. Are we stronger now or weaker? We cannot tell. Will we be finally overtaken by a small matter that was one test too much, or will we be given more grace from You to face the new stone thrown on the pile of rubble that was already on top of us? Will we rise above it all? Teach us, O Lord! Give us wisdom and a heavenly perspective, so that we will not curse You and die. You are God.
Father, will You hear us when we have an unmeasured lament? Can it be possible that we would lament the day of our birth in our sorrow and that somehow those words would still be acceptable to Your ears? We do want to live today. Nonetheless we know that there is a pain and a turmoil that finally causes the strongest Sampson to tell his secret to some wicked Delilah. We know that You are sovereign. We absolutely refuse to believe that the trouble that comes upon us has some other first cause. Everything that happens must ultimately come back to You, for You are the Lord God Almighty, the God over all creation and providence. You can never be charged with wrong. You are love and goodness with absolutely no shadow of evil in You. Yet we will never reduce You to a mere spectator of this world or some sleeping giant. You know the beginning from the end, and You are working out Your holy will.
O God, the righteous man has withstood the loss of his possessions and his children. He has even faced bodily pain and trials that seem too much to bear. Now must he bear the rebuke of smaller men who presume to correct him? Surely any man loved by You would need the patience of Job to take this additional trial. Thank You for Your Word, by which all other messages must be tested. Will the righteous man be accused of impatience in the day of suffering? Must he face subtle accusations that his suffering is a result of his own sin? Keep lying spirits away from us, O Lord, or strengthen us in Your Word so that we may resist the devil, that he would flee from us. Can mortal man be in the right before You? Yes, but only in the Righteous One Jesus Christ. Can a man be pure before his Maker? Yes, but only in the One who is the purity of God from on High. Is it true that You who charged angels with error have no regard for the sufferings of righteous men? No, precious in Your sight is the death of Your saints. You love the righteous, and You are with us in every affliction.
Father God, in the midst of flawed and evil messages there may still be much truth. Grant us the discernment to see the difference between truth and error. Man is born to trouble after the fall of Adam. We should trust You. You are a marvelous Provider. We know these things and we believe them. Yet there is the overwhelming fact of suffering in the tent of the righteous. Who can understand Your ways, O God? You are in charge of everything. You are the Source of our hope. We hear the good Word from many voices. Why is it that we cannot bear that Word from some men? We could read it ourselves and embrace it. Perhaps we would hear it from someone we respect and readily receive it. Give us patience. Many would speak, and many more hearts presume to have a word of correction that is not spoken. We will hear Your voice, for we are Your sheep. You are able to keep us through the day of comforters who bring no comfort.
Lord God, have mercy on those who suffer. Father, some who are exemplary for righteousness face terrible difficulty. How can those who suffer keep on going? Grant to us a new patience and comfort when it seems as if all is lost. We know that You are here with us, but our suffering friend or companion may not know what to believe in a day of grief. If we have gone astray, show us. We do not know what to say. Please Lord, be near us today.
Our Father, our lives on this earth are portioned out for us by You. There is much that is unpleasant in even a normal stay of seventy years. In a day of unusual trouble and grief, normalcy seems far away from us. The trial is so deep for the man who is in anguish of soul. Father God, what are You doing? Where are You? We do not know. How can we stand this, O God? Even to see friends go through this kind of difficulty is so hard. What if we are the ones in the center of the storm? Lord, help us. The life of Your servant seems strangely empty. Remind us again of the cross. Grant us ears to hear the message of Your love.
Merciful Lord, we have said more than we should. We have thought that we knew things that we do not know. Your providence is beyond our wisdom and understanding. Would we accuse a godly man of sin in the day of his greatest loss? He has been serving You in faithfulness in every way that we could ever see. We know that You do not owe him anything, but who are we to offer words of instruction? Forgive us, O Lord. Remember the prayers of Your Son for us, and help our brothers and sisters who seem to be swallowed up by astonishing and overwhelming trouble.
Our Father, who can contend against You? You stretched out the heavens and formed the constellations. We see the works of Your hands everywhere, but we cannot see You. Who are we to say to You, “What are You doing?” We appeal to You for Your everlasting mercies. Teach us to have gentle hearts in the day of trial. We are not blameless, O Lord. You surely love Your servants. The testimony of the cross is the greatest story of love. We shall not be condemned, for Your Son has faced a pit of judgment for us. Thank You that we have a Mediator in Your holy Son. We will worship You forever in Him.
Great God, what can a righteous man do when he hates his life? Keep us from guilt in our thoughts and our words. Father, You have made us. You are the Friend of those who truly serve You. What are You doing to us? Could it be that You are fighting against Your friends? Lord, we cannot win a contest against You. Is a relationship with You too dangerous for us to survive? Surely You know how to shorten the days of a trial that we cannot bear. Give us a glimpse of a better day. Help us to trust You again, and to live.
God of Hosts, how can we stand the speeches of men in a day of deep trouble? We know that You are the Almighty God. Will righteous men be called stupid and wicked when they are facing crippling misery? The encouragement of lesser men who presume to correct their superiors is a dreadful burden. They have little of any worth to say to a troubled soul. Bring us through a season of dreadful trial by Your saving love.
Our Father, give us a listening ear, a reasoning mind, and healing speech. You are almighty. You are stronger than any man. You are wiser than all Your creatures. You raise up and You tear down according to Your decrees. The pathway of nations is in Your hand. This we know very well. This we believe. Yet we face Your discipline. We do not know why, and we do not know what to say. Settle our restless hearts as we consider Your nature and Your works.
Lord God Almighty, we would speak to You. We would argue our case with You in the day of trial. We know that judgment begins with Your household. How much more can we take? Though You slay us, our hope remains in You. Though You discipline us, Your Son has the words of life. O God, we do not understand what You are doing. Yet we consider the cross and we have hope. Surely there is a better day coming. Surely there is something more in Your hand beyond correction.
Father God, our lives on this earth are brief. You have appointed our limits. The fact of death is all around us. What will come of us when we are laid low?Thank You for the great fact of resurrection. Thank You for the clarity of the age to come that has been displayed for us in Jesus Christ, risen from the grave. Despite our suffering, we cling to this hope, that as He is, so shall we be. There is life beyond mourning. Help us to see this in our darkest hour.
Merciful Lord, in a day of trouble suffering people say things that they should not. When we hear such words, teach us to let love cover a multitude of sin. Keep self-righteous corrections far from our lips. Send us away from those in trouble if we will only be miserable comforters. We cannot fix everything today. The sum of justice is not here on this earth and in this age. There is another day ahead. You will speak at just the right time.
God Almighty, send forth Your Spirit as the best of all comforters. Give us a heart that is willing to receive Him. Surely You are not a foolish teacher like so many men. Father, we do not understand the providences that we face. Lead us into more helpful thinking. Teach us with words that heal. We know that the answer for us is with You, but we cannot always see that good way.
Father, there are times when our suffering is so difficult that we assume that our life must be over already. Teach us to persevere even in such a day. Train us to see some glimpse of light when all appears so very dim. Even when we are covered by deep clouds of trouble, Your Son is still the light of the world. Help us to see Him in Your Word, and to remember the cross.
Lord God, will we be miserable comforters who can only think and speak of ourselves? Will we keep on correcting those who seem to have no light of life left in their eyes? What can we say about death? Is it time to speak about sin and misery? Is there a word of hope that will be useful, or should we say nothing? Is it time to smile? Is it time to cry? Restrain us from making brash accusations against those that You have blessed in former days. You can make a man recover from a difficult time of loss. Teach us the blessedness of waiting. Teach us the wisdom that comes from loving.
Glorious Lord, in the day of our greatest trial there is no helpful answer that comes to us from foolish men. Our suffering is real and we do not understand what has happened to us. We seem to have no help from anyone. There is no mercy. You have touched us in discipline, and we do not understand. Yet we know that our Redeemer lives. We know that we will see Him in a great day of resurrection. We cling to this hope, for our best days are clearly not in this life.
Father God, despite every trial and even every suggestion of Satan, You are with us. You bless us in so many different ways. Every gift that we have is surely from Your grace. Every kindness comes to us not by our merit, but because of the wonderful righteousness of Jesus Christ. All of us face the trouble of a death that seems to be approaching us. Yet we have hope because of Jesus Christ, for He has conquered sin and death for us.
Lord God, not every event that happens in Your providence is easily understood by us. Some men who are very wicked live unusually long lives. They may have many descendants, and people mourn their loss when they die. A righteous man may die in the prime of His youth and no one knows what to say. Who can fathom the loss of the unborn child? There is so much that we do not understand. One man dies with such a wonderful life story of achievement and joy. Another has been witness to so many horrors. They both go to the grave. We are given no answer to these facts. They cause us to wonder about You. Yet You are the everlasting God, and You are worthy of our full and everlasting trust. We believe in You. We know that You are in control. Help us, O Lord.
Great God, we know that You do not need us. Yet You have created us for Your purposes and You will be glorified through our lives. Even the wrath of our enemies will praise You. You are in charge of birth and death. All of the years in between these two events are also within Your sovereign power. We commit ourselves to the care of the weak, for You save the lowly. You who provide for the poor, please have abundant mercy upon us through Your Son Jesus Christ.
Our Father, we want to talk with You. The troubles in our lives seem to overwhelm us. We cannot see behind the veil of this creation. We sincerely desire to keep Your ways. We know that You do what You desire. We have questions for You, O Lord, and we do not know where we will find answers. Thank You for the answer of Your Word. Thank You for the answer of Your Son. Thank You for the answer of the cross.
Gracious God, grant to us insight from Your Word and from the experience of living in this world. How are we to understand the lives of the wicked? There are so many perplexing facts that fill this fallen world. We see such evil deeds over many decades and we wonder how a person can be allowed to live for even a moment. The wicked are able to live like all others, and then they die like everyone else. There must be something here that we do not see, because what we see does not seem to make sense. There must be a future that our hearts have not yet embraced. Bring about the great fulfillment of Your plans of justice and mercy. We long to see Your glory and goodness with our eyes in the land of the living. Teach us to believe Your promise of a future age of perfect righteousness as a certain fact even now.
Father, stop the mouth of the fool who would say wicked things in the face of Your righteous servant. Silence the voice of the one who accuses with no knowledge and who adds insult to injury. We know that we are loved by You. We rest in the embrace of our Redeemer despite the troubles that assail us.
Our God and King, we need the voice of truth. Please speak to us through the Scriptures today. You are the God of creation. What You accomplish in the skies and the seas are wonders to behold. Even these great things are but a whisper of Your greatness. If we were to see You in all of Your heavenly glory we could not survive for a moment. Help us to hear the Word of Your steadfast love and to worship You even when there is so much that we do not understand.
Lord of Glory, we thank You for the perseverance of Your Son. He was continually being charged with impropriety when there was no sin in Him. He kept on walking toward His atoning death for us as lesser men accused Him in their arrogance and ignorance. His end came in His work on the cross. In the eyes of men this seemed to be the worst disgrace, but it was His greatest act of obedience. Now we have found our glory in that cross, for we have been reconciled to You through the suffering of our faithful Mediator.
Great God, reveal to us Your wisdom according to Your plan. You know how to do many great things that cannot be seen by men. Gems are formed in the secrets of the deep. You are doing wonderful things in the hidden place of our souls through the suffering that may be evident to all. Bless us with the great blessing of wisdom according to Your decree for us, for this great gift can only come from Your hand. You have established great wisdom that no one can know, and You have searched it out. You who control the wind and the waves have appointed that some would fear You and turn away from evil. For us, this is true wisdom and understanding, for we could never search out all the hidden resources of Your greatness.
Father, we do not know how to return to an earlier day of joy and honor. Now we have been brought to a time of such loss and disgrace, and we do not understand why. What can we do with our new life? The old life is forever gone, for we are different now because of the suffering that we have faced. Help us to receive trials as gifts from Your hand, and to move ahead to the day that You have prepared for us. Surely You are doing some good thing.
Lord, we thought that we had the insight that we needed to keep on going, and then in just a moment we were struck again by thoughts of trouble and accusation. We have been humbled again, and the wicked scoff. Your Son was mocked by rude soldiers who knew nothing of Your covenant. Why, O Lord? What was the purpose of the crown of thorns? Was that necessary for our salvation? Did every detail of His suffering for us have a purpose? Surely all of this was ordained. You love Your Son, and You love us. We have been united with Him in His sufferings. We will also be united with Him in His resurrection.
Glorious Lord, we will not give in to sin. We will fight against the impulses of evil that may rise up within us. Despite every false accusation, and regardless of every pain and temptation that may fill our lives, we will believe You, we will love You, and we will serve You. Give us grace for the day of the most severe trial. Please cut short the day of testing, lest we be swept away by our own sin and our thoughts of revenge. Teach us the way of the cross. Forgive our enemies. Hear us, O God! Help us now!
Father God, we must not justify ourselves and accuse You. Help us to humbly receive the true correction of one who rightly speaks in Your Name. Though Your servant be young, and though his credentials may not seem impressive to us, help us to discern rightly the truth of the Word preached and the power of the Spirit at work in the life and ministry of Your ambassador.
Lord God, may the servants who bring Your Word to Your people do so with boldness. May they rightly listen to Your suffering servants and may they be made to know our needs. Above all we need You. You are greater than our problems and greater than us. May Your servants continually point to You. Even in the worst pain or trouble, we need to think about Your character and Your works. May our Mediator plead for us, and may He be our eternal Ransom before You. Use Your teachers to show us the wonders of Jesus Christ. Help us to hear true wisdom by the power of One who is the very Spirit of Truth.
Father, there is so much about You that is so very right and very good. What a joy it is to contemplate Your greatness. There is no wickedness in You. You will repay man according to his ways at just the right time. You love justice. You are righteous in everything that You think and do. Your knowledge is perfect, and Your ways are always right. You do not need to hear the testimony of any man, for You already know all things, and all of Your judgments are perfect. You do not need to repay anything to man as if You owed anything to anyone. We humble ourselves before You. We hate every rebellious thought that we once cherished. You alone are God and we worship You.
Almighty God, we look up to the heavens. Though we would rail against You in our discontent, we cannot actually force You to give us an answer for what we deem to be unfair behavior on Your part. We have been so wrong in our thoughts and in our unrighteous anger. You are the Provider of every blessing. You give us songs in the night. Have mercy on us now. Forgive us, for we have multiplied words without knowledge.
God of Wisdom and Glory, You are both righteous and mighty. The most powerful men of the earth must answer to You. Their days come and go. The arrogant man thinks great thoughts about himself but he cannot add one day to his life. If You speak he must listen. You will surely remove him from his place of authority whenever You please. You are exalted in Your power. Your works of creation are all around us. You rule over all Your creatures and all their actions in a way that should inspire the greatest fear among men. We should worship You. We certainly cannot charge You with evil.
Sovereign Lord, You thunder wondrously with Your voice. You do great things that we cannot comprehend. We see Your grandeur in the heavens over many days as the seasons change. We know Your majesty in a different way when You roar from above with a sudden storm. You rule over the changing landscape of the hearts and minds of men. We have seasons of life that come upon us slowly. We also face unexpected troubles that seize us in a moment. There is nothing in all of the events of men and angels that is beyond Your authority. We bow before You in the day of gentle showers. We must think of You as well when the skies suddenly burst forth with violent thunder. You reign over us. You call Your weary children home at a time that is in accord with Your holy decree. You give and You take away. We live and we die. Blessed be Your Name.
Father God, You speak. We must listen. There is no one like You. You have created all things out of nothing. The sun rises and sets. The seas have come over the land and they have been pushed back to their appointed limits. You know the wonders of snow, hail, ice, rain, heat, light, stars, and every living thing under the heavens. O God of glory, if we have any wisdom, it is a gift from You, for You are the source of all wisdom.
Great Lord of Glory, we cannot run our own lives. We certainly could not rule over the wide array of living creatures as You do. There is such an amazing variety of animals everywhere. Each species has special abilities and limitations. You reign over all of this amazing display of Your creative power. Who are we to question You?
Glorious God, we are cut to the heart. Have we been faultfinders who have spoken against You? Would we dare to charge You with evil and condemn You as if we were right? Our own right hand could never save us. There are large and powerful creatures, seen and unseen, that are stronger than us. Would we imagine that we could contend against You? Have mercy on us.
Mighty God, Your Word is wonderful. When You speak of Your creatures, we know that You are greater than them all. Give us the sense to bow before You. Thank You for the holiness of Your Son for us. We have sinned against You first in Adam, and then in our own lives. Yet You have redeemed us with all Your great power and love. We remember again who You are, and we worship You. We cannot fight against You as if You were our inferior. We have been proud and rebellious. Please forgive us. We remember the love of the cross and have hope.
Lord, You can do all things. No purpose of Yours can be thwarted. We have heard of You, but one day we will see You. Teach us to speak of You what is right. Thank You for our Mediator. He is far above us in righteousness. Bless our latter days more than our beginning. What may seem to be lacking in the present age will surely be given to Your servants in the age to come. Precious in Your sight is the death of Your saints. We believe Your promises and we worship You.
Devotionals
Job was a godly man. This book of God’s wisdom, written within the context of tremendous human suffering, begins with this important point. Here was a man of moral integrity, a worshiper of God, who turned away from all evil. This man would suffer greatly, and it would be tempting for others to conclude that the reason for his suffering was his own secret guilt. This wrong opinion has to be denied in the very first verse of the book.
Not only was Job morally upright, he was also greatly blessed by God until the time of his disaster. He had a big family and much livestock, so in terms of his possessions, there was no one in his place and time greater than he. Job did not take any of this for granted, but was aware of the danger of sin in his family. He sought to come before God in appropriate ways to address the possibility of even secret sins among his sons and daughters. We might imagine a modern-day Job, a very godly man, known by the Lord alone to be faithful in his life of prayer on behalf of his adult sons and daughters. We are told that Job did this continually. There was no action or secret sin on Job’s part that triggered all the misfortune that came to him.
God Himself spoke glowingly about Job in the heavenly council, when all the angels appeared before Him. It was God who brought up the matter of Job to His adversary Satan. He must have had some good purpose in doing this. God boasted of Job to an enemy, a deceiver and accuser. What Satan would do with malice, God must have meant for good. This was not a divine accident, nor can we conclude that God was maliciously toying with his beloved servant Job.
Whatever might have gone into the plan of our good and powerful God, we know something from these opening verses that Job never knew: Job’s trouble proceeded from a contest between God and Satan. Satan was only able to operate within the bounds established by the First Cause of all things. This angelic enemy would not yet be permitted to touch Job personally.
Satan’s challenge against Job before the face of God was very formidable. His accusation was that Job was not faithful and obedient for nothing. Job, he claimed, was just like everyone else. He was not motivated by love for God, or by the recognition that good is better than evil. He did what he did in order to get what he wanted. If he lost God’s protection and the substantial blessing of God over his life, then he would curse God to His face. This was what the accuser contended, and this was the test that was approved of in heaven.
We are left to understand that all of the disasters that follow in the remainder of this chapter were somehow accomplished through the agency of Satan. They occurred through the work of ruthless raiding parties, through fire from heaven, and through a great wind, but we know that Satan’s fingerprints were on everything, as a workman might leave his mark on his tools. Yet above all of these other beings and forces, and above this accusing angel, there is one God who is over all. The tragedy was unfathomably terrible, as if the Lord and all secondary agents and causes brought together in one moment a concerted attack of power against this great man. His property was gone, his servants were dead, and finally, far worse than anything else, all of his descendants were consumed in one great disaster. The only survivors were those who arrived at the same moment from all directions to tell this great man the awful news.
The response of Job was real. He grieved with signs that fit his place and time: tearing his robe and shaving his head. Then he bowed down before God in worship. His words were simple and true. He knew he came into this world with nothing, and that he would one day leave this world with nothing. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.” He refused to charge the Almighty with any wrong, and he did not sin against God.
This was an awful test brought upon a godly man. Yet what could Job do? He could not change anything. He could not bring his children back. He could not restore all of his possessions. He could not get his hands on any man or angel for retribution. Centuries later, there came a man far more righteous than Job, and He too was tested, but His test was more severe. When He was nailed to a cross, He could have changed everything. Job could not reverse His troubles. Jesus could have come down from the cross and destroyed His adversaries. He did not do this. If He had, we would have been lost, and God’s honor would have been attacked by His own Son.
How is it that God works His purposes of grace through the hands of evil men and angels, and even through the horror of His own Son’s death? Think of the greatness of the one who suffered for you. He came from heaven, not from Uz. He always did what was right in the fullest possible way, and He continually ordered His life according to His Father’s good pleasure. He saved His children from destruction at the cost of His own life. He did not suffer because He was evil, but because we were. His great losses were full of meaning; the way of our salvation, through the humiliation of the Son of God, has somehow become for us a thing in which we glory. Through the willing loss of the richest life ever known among men, our poverty has been erased, and we have been granted an incomparable gift of the greatest worth. God’s adversary has now been defeated, though we still feel his anger for a brief time. There were evil hands raised against the most righteous Man of all time in order that we might be saved, and God, who is the First Cause of all things, meant it all for good.
We have come again to the heavenly council of God and to a second encounter between the Lord and Satan concerning righteous Job. Once again it was the Lord who brought up the name of His beloved servant who had suffered so deeply, losing all his possessions and his sons and daughters. Still, this righteous man would not turn against God, and the Lord brought this matter to the attention of Satan. We wonder why. We are in a poor position to ask this question. We have not entered into the heavenly council. We do not understand the things that matter most there. We would be foolish to judge God. The Lord is above all. We should listen and learn.
Satan was in that council, and he did dare to speak. He claimed that the test had not been severe enough to examine the true heart of Job. He challenged the Lord with these words: “Skin for skin!” We imagine that we would give up our life and our health for many noble purposes. Many parents suppose that they would gladly suffer great physical pain so that their children will be spared discomfort, and I suppose that there may be some truth in these assertions. Yet it was the attack against Job’s body that Satan claimed would be the worst challenge. It would finally reveal the truth about him, a truth that was not unearthed even when his children were killed. The second round of the testing of Job was thus commenced. Job’s health would be in Satan’s hands, with the one condition that the man’s life would be spared.
Satan went out from the presence of God and set to work against Job, and the great man was filled with sores all over his body, sores so bad, that he used a broken piece of pottery to scrape his skin. Here was a man who was the picture of greatness brought low. Full of disease from a demonic source, he sits in ashes, in deep humility before the God he continues to know, and even to defend. It must have seemed to others that it would have been better for Job if he had died. This was his wife’s suggestion to him, maybe even through some foolish sense of care for her husband. “Curse God and die,” she said.
Job did not take this awful bait. Like Jesus, when Peter tried to turn Him away from the cross, Job utterly rejected the evil suggestion. It would have been the way of foolishness to turn against the Almighty. Job accepted his life as coming from God, whether the experience might at one moment feel good, and at the next moment feel very bad, it all came from the Lord, and it all needed to be received with faithful patience. Thus Job took even the great trouble of physical pain, and still clung to his integrity. He would not curse God. He would not sin with his lips.
What followed then set the stage for the remainder of the book. Job had passed the awful test of the loss of his possessions and his progeny. He had remained faithful despite the marring of his flesh. But now his friends came to show sympathy, and this would be the challenge that would require the most patience. In this chapter there was no obvious sign that Job’s friends would be anything but a comfort to him. When they saw him, they had trouble recognizing him in all of his misery. They wept. They tore their robes, and placed the dust of mourning on their heads for their friend. They sat on the ground with him. They didn’t say a word. Apparently he did not say a word either. They were all made silent by this spectacle of great suffering.
The problem would come when Job spoke, as we will see. They were not prepared for the depth of his emotions and his suffering. They could not take the cry of a man who called out to God: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Job had been a man who was above them, but now he appeared to be below them, and they presumed to be his judges.
Jesus came very low when He was born. He left behind all of His heavenly riches and the society of another world where He was visibly and obviously the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This was a great trial, but He also faced all the physical suffering leading up to His crucifixion. In the story of Job, the Lord placed a limit on what could be done to that righteous man. He could not have his life taken from him, but there was no such limit upon the sufferings of Jesus. His death was required for our life, even the shameful death of the cross.
At various points along the road that He walked to atone for our sins, He had many friends and the admiration of large crowds. But when the end came, one of His friends had betrayed Him, another denied Him, and all of them scattered like sheep when their Shepherd was struck. He had friends that seemed to sympathize with Him, but who could not understand what He alone had to face, the guilt and penalty of our sins. This Savior had more than the patience of Job. He knew what was in a man. He persevered to the end. He did this for our salvation, and He has accomplished our full redemption. In Him our sins are forgiven.
Job lost all of his possessions. All of his children died. He lost his health and comfort. In all of this, he did not curse God. But after his friends sat without words, mourning with him for seven days, he did finally speak, and he began by cursing his “day;” that is, the day of his birth.
His speech was full of godly grief, the inspired poetry of a man of sorrows. There is a clarity of vision that can come to a man at such a time. Though he may not see everything well, he sees and feels loss, and he mourns. Job wished that he had never been born. More than that, he wanted that day entirely removed from the providence of the Almighty. Somehow it should have been reclaimed by the darkness of non-existence. It should have lost its place forever among the days of the year, so that when that month came in its season from that time forward, the day before it would proceed directly on to the day after it. It must disappear so that no one might mistakenly let forth a joyful cry on such a dark day.
There are those who seem to curse anything that is light. Job suggested that they be employed as experts in this task to curse this day when he was born. Let those who were angry and foolish enough to scream into the ears of some gigantic vicious beast, rousing up that Leviathan, let them scream to one who could bring destructive anger upon that day. Let there be such darkness over the stars, so even if people were gathered at the edge of the horizon, waiting for the sun to come up, they would see no glimpse of light off in the distance on that day. Why should that day be so dishonored? Because it was on that day when the womb that contained the tiny child that would be Job was not shut forever to keep the young one from seeing the light of the morning, and because of this birth, the eyes of a godly man had seen much trouble.
Job continued in his meditation with the word that so often brings no acceptable answer to the mourning soul: “Why?” He did not even say, “Why did I lose my possessions, my children, my health?” His question was deeper than that: “Why did I not die at birth?” Why were the knees of my mother there to provide me the first place to rest my living form in the world outside of the womb, her resting legs bent so that my frame could stretch out upon that couch of limbs, where my mother smiled at my eyes and I gazed in infant wonder at her face? Why were her breasts there for my nourishment and comfort that I might live and grow, only to face the miseries of this age that would one day come upon me so suddenly? Why did I not die soon after leaving the womb, to be in the place of the dead who are at rest, the place where even the greatest men go, despite their great endeavors and achievements? Even more, why did I not die prior to leaving the womb, an infant who would never have seen the light? I would have simply gone immediately where the departed live. There the wicked are finished oppressing others, and the weary find rest. Prisoners are not facing the lash of men or even the barking orders of someone in authority over them. Whether he was small or great on this earth, every man makes his way to that place of death, where even the slave is free of his master.
Why is anyone given the light of mortal life, only to face a destiny of misery here? Why are men kept alive who seek their own death more than hidden treasure? This kind of despair can come upon a person who has faced great loss and can see nothing good ahead; his time on this earth seems to have come and gone, but he is still here, and he cannot understand why. God seems to have trapped him in life, in a world of misery, where memory has lost its sweetness through bitter association. He can’t eat with joy. He has his tears and his groans. He is not at ease. He’s in trouble. Why does such a man still live?
We must not be too quick to answer Job’s questions. There is much danger in answers that are too quick by half. First we should take a moment to hear what he is saying and to agree with him. While we live in a world where there are many wonderful displays of a Creator who is powerful, wise, and good, there is no doubt that there is something wrong here. We should agree with that observation and not hide from it.
Then we may eventually be able to add this one thought: This world cannot possibly be the end of the story. From our recognition of misery and grief, and from the insight of some true hope beyond this world, we wait for the Voice of God to come. That Voice came through the words of the prophets of old, and then finally and perfectly that Voice came in one person: Jesus Christ, our Lord. Our Savior came into this world of despair, and he tented among us in mortal flesh. His death was the end of death for His beloved children, and His resurrection was the beginning of an eternal age of resurrection for those who have been redeemed by His blood. If this world of mortality and misery were the end of the story, we would have no good news to proclaim. But Christ has died for us and risen from the grave, enabling us to live now with both grief and grace.
Job was in horrible trouble, and some of the things that he said probably seemed extreme to his friends. This is not unusual. Our listening ears and open hearts are normally the best gifts that can be given to our suffering friends when no words will help.
Much of this Old Testament book of wisdom is taken up with the cycle of speeches that begin in the previous chapter of the book, when Job spoke against the day of his own birth. His words needed no response. They come from a man brought low. But now in the fourth chapter, Eliphaz the Temanite does venture a reply. He cannot hold back his insights.
Eliphaz knows that Job has a record as a great man. He has instructed many people and strengthened those who were weak during their own days of difficulty. Now his own time to suffer has come, and he seems to Eliphaz to be unduly impatient, as if he could be censured for having advice for others that he could not now heed.
This friend directs Job to God in such a way that he hints at his true opinion of the great man’s trials. He asks, “Who that was innocent ever perished?” The suggestion is clear but will become even more obvious as the book continues. “Job, this must be about the sin of your children. Job, your pain must have something to do with your own secret failures.”
Eliphaz appeals to his own consideration of the lives he has observed among his people. He hints at what will be the conclusion of his theological reflections. People perish by the breath of God. Surely this must have something to do with God’s wise judgments. Surely it must have something to do with a man’s sin. Job and his family may have appeared righteous, but they must have hidden their sins from public view. This all sounds quite reasonable to those who have not been greatly humbled by afflictions that they simply cannot understand.
But Eliphaz has more to add beyond his own observations. Yes, Job was a lion among the people, and he has been brought low by the hand of God, but Eliphaz considers what he believes to be revelation on this matter that has come to him from the land of spirits. He says that a word was brought to him that he believes to be spiritual insight. He receives it as a sure word, a word that was given with some palpable sense of fear and trembling, a word from some unusual spirit-form that moved before his eyes from some unusual source that he decided to trust.
That strange spiritual revelation had two important components, both of which were false and destructive, though Eliphaz received them as gospel. The first was stated in the form of a question: “Can a mortal man be in the right before God?” This is a very important question. At first it appears that the answer must be “No.” We know that God is great and perfectly holy. We also know that there was only one Man who had no sin, and He lived long after Job’s death. We know that we need God in our lives. Yet this question of “Can a mortal man be right before God?” deserves some further consideration. Could it be that God Himself, with all of His holiness and love, could make a way for people to be judged as righteous in His sight? Stated this way, we now know that the answer is emphatically “Yes!” While no man except Jesus can be right before God in his own merit, Jesus has provided all the merit necessary for us to be seen as right before God on account of His righteousness and His death for us. The spirit leading Eliphaz toward a humble-sounding suggestion that no one can ever be right before God is actually bearing a horrible and deadly lie. God has made a very important way for us to be right before Him through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The lying spirit who instructed Eliphaz made another assertion: “If God finds fault in angels, and we know that He did find fault with the angels that fell, then surely He must have no real concern for His fleshly creature, mankind. They came from dust, and they return to dust. How could God actually be expected to care about such low beings?” In this second supposed revelation, we hear the over-reaching that often betrays evil. There is a rush to defend fallen angels and to express a disgust of humans, claiming that they die without wisdom and perish forever without anyone caring.
Once again, we must protest. Man is created in the image of God. Angels are ministering spirits who are destined to serve men, the heirs of salvation. There is no redemption for angels, but God shows that He loves mankind by this: God became a man in order to save men. Christ’s incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection show forth the wonder of the Lord’s great love for His people. Christ did not die for angels. He died for men.
This experience of Eliphaz and the advice that proceeds from it is not spiritual in any good way but demonic. The truth is that the love of God for men has been supremely displayed in the cross of Christ. It is through this cross, and through all the excellencies of Christ offered up to the Father on our behalf, that we are rightly judged as justified in the sight of God. The suffering of one perfect man will ultimately be shown not to be a point of evidence in some claim that God considers men to be hopeless worms. Instead, it becomes the most important proof that God loves us and has made a way for us to be counted as right in His sight. He gave His only-begotten Son up to a life of the greatest suffering and a death that was the only way to defeat death, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but would have everlasting life.
We continue with the first speech of Eliphaz as he brings a word that he may sincerely think that Job needs to hear. We discovered in the prior chapter that the spiritual advice that he received in some special experience in the night is nothing other than the doctrines of demons. He told Job two things: 1) There is no way for a man to be right in God’s eyes, and 2) God could not be bothered with a creature as low and miserable as man. In the process of pressing these points upon Eliphaz, the spirit that spoke showed a defensiveness toward fallen angels in this accusation against God, saying “His angels He charges with error.”
The words of Eliphaz are not only discouraging, they are deeply wrong, no matter how sincere anyone might be who brings them to this suffering man, Job. God has made a way for us to be right in His eyes through the gift of His Son. This fact alone proves that both statements are lies. We can be counted as righteous through the righteousness and death of Jesus, and God must have a great regard for man if He became a man to die for men. Eliphaz is not yet finished. He unfortunately has more to say.
Eliphaz has heard from a spirit that he takes to be a “holy one.” He now issues a subtle taunt to the man of God: “To which of the holy ones will you turn?” The question assumes that Job in all his troubles has been rejected by every heavenly helper. Why is he rejected? Eliphaz quotes a proverb: “Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.” Is Job a simple fool who has given in to jealousy and anger? We remember the Lord’s assessment of this great man of righteousness from the opening verses of the book: “There is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil.” Here is one of the key concepts that we must consider throughout this book. Job’s counselors are less righteous than he, yet they have presumed to enter into judgment against their friend. Though their claims become more obvious as the speeches continue, we can already see the subtle insinuation here that the reason why Job has suffered is because of a secret sin.
Job is a fool (one who does not really attend to the Lord’s Word), Eliphaz seems to hint, and that is why his children are far from safety, that is why his possessions have been taken, and that is why he suffers affliction. All of this would not be so wrong were it not for the fact that Job was actually the most righteous man of his day. Eliphaz considers himself above Job. He says, “As for me, I would seek God.” Eliphaz thinks he understands what he would do if all his possessions were suddenly taken, if all his children died, and if he had lost all his fleshly comfort. Of course, no one can know what he would act like in such a situation until he was visited by such overwhelming affliction. All boasts of how godly any of us would be in theoretical situations of testing are empty.
So much that Eliphaz says here is actually true. Yet his suggestions are completely out of place, coming from his mouth as a reminder or correction to Job. Yes, God is great in all He is and all He does, but it is not the time or place for that reminder, and Eliphaz is not the man to give it. God does catch the crafty. God does rescue the needy. Yet His mysterious providences are so difficult for us to understand, and they could easily be misinterpreted by outsiders who do not know what He alone knows.
Consider the most amazing example of this kind of mistaken assessment, when those who were truly foolish and most unrighteous considered themselves perfectly qualified to pass judgment on the only completely righteous man, the man who was facing the end that one might only associate with God’s wrath and curse. Was that man who went to the cross put in that exposed position in order to profit from the advice of lesser men? What if the passersby from priestly ranks had said to Him their best words of spiritual advice? “Blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.” Could any of them have been in a position to really understand the cross and to counsel the Son of God? “Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good.”
The truth is that the full reproof that Jesus faced was for our sake. Jesus would be blessed in the end, but not before facing the curse we deserved. Through it all, our Savior never despised His Father or the ways of our God. Jesus would have more than a ripe old age; He would show forth the eternal power of a divine and indestructible life. But first He would have to be cut off from the land of the living. Who can speak to such a man and presume to tell Him the right thing to think and do? “Come down from that cross, if you are the Son of God.” His reply to them: Nothing. And He stayed His ground. Therefore, by His stripes we have been healed, and we who are united with Him are with Him not only in His death, but also in His resurrection. It is not our place to correct Him, only to receive His love, to praise Him, and to thank Him.
Job has faced great difficulty in the loss of his possessions, his children, and his health. To hear the critique of a man like Eliphaz at such a time as this is an extra burden to bear, yet this too is somehow from the hand of the Almighty. Job is well aware of the sovereignty of God in suffering. He has faced evil, yet he is not content to blame the secondary causes for his misfortune, as if these losses were somehow outside of the Lord’s decrees. Job knows that he is ultimately facing the arrows of his almighty Lord. The terrors that he must live through, including the indignity of the ill-timed advice from an adviser who was less righteous than he, still comes from the Lord who commended Job for His righteousness.
Job acknowledges that some of his words have been rash, but he rightly suggests that the reason for this failing is that the calamity he has faced is heavier than the sand of the sea. It would be best for us not to judge Job in this situation. He has faced providential trials that he cannot fathom. His words reflect the depth of his misery. To expect him to say all the right words now would be like expecting a starving animal to make no noise at all. It would be a very unnatural demand that Job would simply smile silently through these troubles. Even the sinless Son of God, in the day of His deepest distress, acknowledged before everyone that He felt forsaken by God. This was perfectly consistent with His fullest statements of faith in His Father to deliver Him from trouble.
But now Job feels as if he has no reason for living. The banquets of earth’s bounty he has no taste for. All he can desire in his pain and grief is that the Lord would crush him and his life would be over. Is it surprising that Job would express such an honest sentiment? Who, when facing their worst fears, does not have very similar feelings? If the Lord should return today that would not be a moment too soon for those who are in extreme pain. We are waiting for the heavenly world that Christ has won for us.
Eliphaz’ wicked suggestion that Job faces these troubles because of His own sin completely misses the mark. Job has been unusually faithful. He has listened to the Word of God fully and has not denied the instruction of the Holy One.
There is a limit to what anyone can take. Job’s heart is not made of bronze. His body does feel pain. His sense of resourcefulness to fix his own miserable condition is completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of his loss and his great discomfort. Now must he be insulted as well? Is it actually the will of the Lord, in some way, that this servant should suffer more than he already has? Will Job’s friends withhold kindness from him in his hour of greatest need?
There is a way of offering spiritual advice that is far from being the light of the world. When Jesus was touched by a woman who had been bleeding for years, He did not lecture her on the biblical legislation concerning clean and unclean. He healed her immediately, based on her outrageous action. He saw the faith coming from the heart of despair, and not the broken law that reached forth an unclean hand toward the Messiah. What do we hear in the words of those who are in despair? Is there a cry of faith somewhere under all the confusion? Is there something of more value that we can communicate beyond our desire to see a suffering saint capable of moving beyond his troubles?
The friends of Job have no words of any value to him, though they may think of their words as apples of gold in settings of silver. Perhaps they would understand Job better if they had suffered as he had. We have a great High Priest in the heavens who is able to sympathize with the most pitiful suffering saint. He faced the extremity of divine punishment for us, and He is able to bring us words of comfort that come from One who understands. His promises for the future are not mere wishful thinking. He has conquered sin and death and secured for us a full world beyond our emptiness and miseries.
There is nothing that Job’s friends can pay to change his calamity. He does not want their money. The price that overturns misery this deep is far above all the gold in the world. It is the precious blood of Christ that is the cost of our redemption.
Job does not need his rash and honest words to be corrected by men. He needs the security of a world beyond his current losses, which can only come through the death of the Messiah. Consider the difference between the love of the cross and the reproof of our cries of agony coming against us from men who are less righteous than we are. There is no comparison. In the midst of the worst pain that men can face, we can truly say that Jesus knows, and the He understands. Perhaps through the lens of the cross and in the light of God’s promise of a resurrection kingdom, we can begin to see in brighter light the outlines of His promise that He is working all things together for our good.
God does not hide from us the fact of misery which is a part of this life. He does not ask us to lie to Him and to say that our lives are perfectly easy. Throughout this book, as we consider the complaint of Job, we must remember that at the conclusion of this difficult ordeal, the Lord corrects those who were Job’s critics with these words: “You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” Because this is, at least on some level, the Lord’s assessment of Job, we should be looking for what is right in Job’s words before we rush to discover what might be wrong.
Man’s service on earth is hard. His days here are like those of an indentured servant. He counts them, waiting for the time when he will be free. Job was despised, rejected, distressed, and afflicted. Every moment was like a month of emptiness at best, or like a night of misery and sickness when someone looks for the dawn to come. Yet help did not come with the day, and the troubles of his waking hours were not solved when the sun went down. There was no escape for him on earth.
Job found it very difficult to have any sense of hope in the world where we live under the Lord’s heavens. It was hard even to imagine that there would be hope for him beyond the earth, though he would stretch forth his soul toward an eternal resurrection hope in a later speech. For now, he simply acknowledges the problem of the human condition, not as a mere observer of the sufferings of others, but as a righteous servant of the Lord, participating in the most horrific afflictions.
At least for the moment, it does not seem to him that his eye will ever again see good. This perspective is easy to correct from the sidelines, but Job is not on the sidelines; he is very much in the thick of the brutality of a life fully lived. Though the span of mortal life is truly a breath, there is a way to live it fully, and that way takes a man through suffering and loss.
Rejoicing in suffering is not today’s story for this great hero of the Scriptures. Our word for Job is not encouragement, but the silence of one who mourns with the man who mourns. He has a correct assessment of the futility of his existence. He speaks to the One who holds the key to all life, the great God of providence who does all things well, all that pleases Him. Job has a question for this God in His depression and anguish: “What are You doing to me? What kind of man am I that You feel like You need to treat me this way? Am I some dangerous sea monster who must be stopped? Is that it?” There is no answer to this kind of forthright inquiry. It is important that we not supply one.
Job has more to ask the Lord. Let him speak for now. Later he may despise his words, but that is between him and God. For now, it is apparently the plan of the Almighty that we should hear his cry to God. He says, “Isn’t it enough that I have suffered these losses in my real life? Is it necessary that you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions in the night?” Again, no answer.
Job has not changed his mind about life. He longs to be done with it. He does not ask for length of days today. He simply asks that the Lord leave him alone. No heroic measures to extend life are desired by this man. Only that God would look away from him so that his life could be over. Job feels the battle, and he knows who it is who raises these weapons against him. He does not make a reviling accusation against any fallen angel who cannot be seen. He speaks to God.
“Yes, man sins,” he says, “but how have I hurt you so badly that you have made me your mark? Why do you seem to be fighting against me? Why am I not simply pardoned? I am ready to die.”
Centuries later, the perfectly righteous Servant of the Lord would come. He would live without sin, yet with an awareness of sin, since He was willing to be a sin offering for us so that we might be pardoned forever. He became God’s mark, a target for His wrath. He did this so that we would be released from bondage to our iniquity and to the divine judgment that we deserve. He is our answer, and He has become our freedom and our hope.
Because of His suffering in our place, it has become possible for us, not only to have the expectation of a resurrection life in heaven and beyond, but even to rejoice in our sufferings. This does not preclude our honest assessment of the miseries of this life, and it does not prohibit our complaint to our benevolent Father in heaven concerning the intensity of His decrees touching our own bodies and souls. Yet, because of the cross of Jesus Christ, and because of His resurrection, we do not ultimately grieve as those who are without hope, though it may take us some time in the midst of struggle to remember what we know and believe.
Until then, the Lord hears the cries of His afflicted servants, and the One who sits at the right hand of the Father is able to sympathize with us in our suffering, and to help us in our time of questioning. As we search for what we might say to the one who suffers, it might be best for us simply to agree with him in his despair. Have we been permitted to watch this confusing drama of difficulty as outside observers? Let us maintain quiet hearts of sympathy with a silent expectation that the Lord will surely rescue His suffering servants, so many of whom are more righteous than we are.
There are three cycles of speeches that go back and forth between Job and his three friends in this wisdom book on the subjects of suffering and hope. We are in the first cycle, which gives us our first opportunity to hear the wisdom of each of Job’s three friends. We have already heard from Eliphaz and considered Job’s reply to him in the presence of God. Now we hear from the second friend, Bildad the Shuhite.
Whatever we might imagine concerning these three friends, we know this: They are not as righteous as Job. We also know that they do not speak rightly about God. That does not mean that everything they said about God is wrong. We should look for Job to identify some of the right things they say, and we should keep our eyes open for their errors.
One of their most significant errors is their attitude toward the suffering and righteous man Job. As we move from Eliphaz to Bildad to Zophar we are not getting better but worse, and as we move from speech one to speech two to speech three for each man (Zophar is not even given a speech three) we see more and more evidence of their poor attitude toward Job.
Bildad begins by calling this amazing suffering man’s complaint a “great wind.” He would step in between Job’s words and the Almighty in order to defend God. It is not that Bildad is wrong about God’s justice, righteousness, and mercy, yet Bildad does not need to instruct Job on these matters. Furthermore, there are many things that happen under the sun that are not right and good. Our understanding of God’s complete sovereignty over all things does not imply that all things that He decrees are good. Some things that happen are very bad, and are in some sense against the will of God.
Specifically, Bildad seems to have figured out why Job’s children died. That is what his words suggest: “If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.” Bildad, like a false prophet, believes that he can answer questions that only God can know, things that the Almighty has chosen to conceal for His own glory. Bildad is fairly certain that he knows what has happened here. He also knows how to fix the problem: “If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then He will rouse Himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.”
Of course, it is not that easy. Some things cannot be restored. The order of life and death in this world after the entrance of sin insists that death cannot be overturned. The Lord does not bring about a resurrection every time a righteous mother and father ask for the return of their child. That is a fact. The Lord’s compassion fails not, but His ways are very difficult to interpret. Some events that look like the worst disasters can be great moments of God’s mercy, but not so plainly that anyone should even say so.
Bildad also calls Job to listen to what wise and holy men of old have discovered about these matters. There is something to this kind of advice. People have thought about the problems of misery and death for centuries. Even some who have spoken words of mere human wisdom have been keen observers of natural revelation. Yet Job was not a man to be lectured on this point. As the “greatest of all the people of the east,” he surely had awareness of what previous interpreters of the existence of man had concluded concerning the ways of the Almighty.
What has happened to Job’s children, and therefore to their father, is a devastating event. Yet, as Bildad points out here, these troubles do not spring out of the air without some source. Papyrus grows where there is a marsh. Something makes the plants grow, but something makes those plants die before others, as if they were cut off before their time. This is true, and Job certainly knows these things, as he himself will say in the next chapter, but Bildad suggests that he is able to say something more about Job’s children. Were they godless? The hope of the godless shall perish. Did they forget God? Such men and women trust in something that is no more secure than a spider’s web is for a fly. His house may fall on him, even if his beginning was very promising.
Bildad ends with words that he must have thought to be an encouragement about the future, but there really is no replacing lost loved ones. Such consolations about better days ahead are only a deeper wound to the grieving heart.
But here is hope for the children of God, based on the deep wounds of the Son of God for us: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” Here is love for us and for our children: Not that they are without sin before God, or that we are perfect in holiness, but that Christ is without sin, and His righteousness is perfect before His Father, and that this same Jesus died for us. We can say this: “The promise is for you and for your children.” We can proclaim this fact: “All who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” The message of suffering and hope that brings healing to our bones cannot be about our merit or about the merit of our children. It must be about the worthiness of the only-begotten Son of God who suffered and died for us, and who lives forever to make intercession for the unworthy.
Bildad, Job’s second friend, has just completed his first speech. He has suggested that the problems that Job’s children faced were a result of their sin. Job does not immediately appear to be offended by this suggestion. We should easily admit that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Job does have a response. He asks one of the most important questions that any person can ask: “Can a man be right before God?”
This is not the first time that this question has entered upon the pages of this book. The Spirit that spoke to Eliphaz brought up this very question with an anticipated answer of, “Absolutely not!” There is something to that answer, though it is very wrong. It needs more words. We should say, “Absolutely not! Not in ourselves.” A way has been revealed through which people can be declared righteous before God in the Lord’s gracious provision of a Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world. God has provided a sacrifice for us. The blood of an animal would not do. A perfect man was required, a man without sin.
If you consider the Old Testament, there had to be a way for man to be right before God, since God promised His people a heavenly home full of beauty and eternal glory. Yet God also said that He would be no means clear the guilty, and from Adam all the way to the children of Job and beyond, everyone was guilty. The only solution had to come through substitution. We needed someone who would provide all the righteousness that God required, who would stand as our representative, taking the penalty that we deserved and providing the righteousness that we needed. This is the only way for a man to be right before God, but this one way is a good way, and we gladly embrace it.
In ourselves there is simply no way that we could contend against God. We cannot expect to do battle against His holiness and succeed. He rules the entire universe. He placed the stars in the skies. Who are we to match wits with Him? Though every suffering servant of the Lord might question God concerning horrors of providence, by what right can we demand an answer from the Almighty? We may still shake our fists, but there is no sanity in this. He shakes the earth.
We do well to remember what Job says here about God: “He does great things beyond searching out.” Job himself may not be able to take in this good advice yet. He is plainly overwhelmed. What is so hard for this man to accept? It is not apparently the enormity of his loss, the pain that has come upon his body, or even the words of correction that come from those who are not his match. What is infuriating to Job is that he is sure that he is in the right, and though he knows it is a foolish request, he would like to have his day in court against the Lord.
Job says, “I am in the right,” and in some sense he is, at least concerning what he says about God. We know this because God insists on it. Could it be that Job is technically right, but he still should not seek to prosecute a case against the Being who is the source of all being?
Maybe we should not take Job’s words too seriously, but they cannot be ignored, and there is at least the chance that we do not take them seriously enough. Maybe it is true that God is crushing Job with a tempest of sorrow. Maybe it is a fact that the Lord has multiplied this man’s wounds without a cause, at least not any cause that this greatest man of the east, or any lesser man, could ever have rightly discerned. But just try to win a debate with God on this or any matter. Job knows that the very thought of such a contest is absurd, though he still seeks his day in court.
We struggle for answers. We wonder whether these troubles of life are randomly distributed by the Lord. But no, that cannot be correct. How could we suggest it? That is just pain, looking for some help in unbelief. The soul will never be satisfied with that kind of solution. But what is the reason that all of this has happened to Job? Is God mocking Job? No, that cannot be right either. Could it be that we are just to ignore the pain and act as if it did not even exist? Can we imagine it away? Impossible. There is simply no way out of this. Job cannot get beyond this suffering. He must go through it. He must find the full life intended for him in it. Ultimately he must find the God who loves him in the midst of this deliberate pain.
When the one man came who could make it possible for us to be right before God, He also encountered unimaginable suffering and affliction. He was not willing to run away from it, which would have destroyed the glory of the grace of God. He had to yield Himself up to it. He had to trust the Father in it. He lived the fullest life that a man could ever live, not because He had length of days, or so many descendants, though in a sense He had both of these, eternal life, and many children in those He redeemed. The measure of His life was in the depth of His purposeful suffering. He felt the weight of the sins of His people, and He deliberately leaned into it. Now He has become the one Mediator between God and Man. There is something in this for which Job was longing. He wanted a Mediator who would stand up for him before God. Because of Him, we are counted as right before God. We are as white as snow because He faced the dark pit of the penalty that we deserved. His perfect love for us has delivered us from all fear of eternal torment. Now we lean into our own suffering with some measure of confidence, and even with joy, if we are able, and we receive the fullness of a life that includes grief, knowing that in Jesus Christ we are counted as the beloved children of God.
When we face substantial suffering, our common impulse is to run from it. We have been considering the fact that the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth may be calling us to lean into the trial that we face, to feel it, and eventually to profit from it. To do this well as worshipers of God, it may help us to speak honestly to God as we experience even the deepest despair.
Job says here, “I loathe my life.” But he continues to address the Lord directly from the bitterness of his own soul. God does not ask us to pretend that everything is all right. It is not all right. A horrible road is being traveled by the Lord’s servant, and he need not wear a fake mask with a smile on it. That kind of hypocrisy will not do. Above all, we need to be honest with God, who already knows our emotions more fully than we do ourselves.
Job asks the question that everyone seems to ask in his worst moments of horror: “Why?” Yet he does not ask in some impersonal way, as in, “Why did this happen to me?” His understanding of these events and his words to the Almighty show forth his understanding that God is a personal being, and that these events have come somehow from His throne. He says, “Let me know why you contend against me.”
Job understands himself to be the work of God’s hands and not an inherently evil bit of matter. He knows he is good, just as all the creation of God is good (1 Timothy 4:4). For the Lord to hurt him, he thinks, is to favor the designs of the wicked. Job has questions for God, genuine questions that flow from the anguish of his soul, questions to which he does not know the answer. Some of these questions take the Lord’s servant from the topic of his own pain and loss to a consideration of who God is. This can be a good thing. In Job’s pain, he wonders whether God is somehow like a man. Does God see as a man sees, or is it something different altogether? Is God pretending to learn something through this, since the Lord must know that Job is not guilty of the things his friends insinuate about him?
One fact is central to of all Job’s thoughts: “God, you made me.” Then a question follows close on the heels of this fact: “Are you just going to destroy me altogether now?”
God was the creator of Job’s body. He was also the maker of Job’s excellent character. Are both his frame and his spirit to amount to nothing? God gave Job steadfast love. Will all of that be swallowed up in despair? Will it all turn to bitterness? Surely the Lord had a purpose in His own Almighty heart. Will everything in Job end in this broken and sad lament?
Job cannot see a way out of this. He cannot find a path that will lead to his vindication. Should he sin like a madman now, after living what he honestly believes to be a righteous life? No, he knows that the One to Whom he speaks in his cries is watching him, and God will not acquit him of iniquity. As he is now, he is already on display before the world as if he were a disgraced man. Even if his health and position were somehow restored, can Job know that the Lord will not do this to him again, working wonders against him?
“What is the meaning of my life?” This is not a passive question from Job in a quiet moment of reflection. It is personal. This is the life that God has given to him at this moment. If it is to have some meaning, only God can say. Job has no answer. He concludes this speech with the same desire he expressed earlier, for God to rewrite the past, to take him from the womb to the grave. If not, he asks God to leave him alone. Bring on the darkness. What else is there?
The depth of darkness for a man who is publicly exposed as guilty depends on the character of the man. Because Job’s character is so great, for him to be brought so low before the eyes of the gaping world is repulsively dark. But it was a far darker day when the Son of God was nailed to the cross. Was He guilty? Not in the least. Was He publicly humiliated before the world? Yes. His title, “King of the Jews,” was mockingly written in three languages. The cross speaks a word of the worst disgrace. This was the darkest day. And on that cross, the Son of Man cried out to God. Was he heard?
Yes, He was heard. And early on the first day of the week after that darkest day, a new era dawned. Somehow, in the light of the cross and the resurrection, a better light shines on the troubles of Job, the righteous servant of the Lord. This Job was saved by Jesus. Though he could not understand what was happening to him, Job called upon the Name of the Lord, and he was saved. Now we see his losses from the vantage-point of that brighter New Testament day. Yet the day of our own despair may still be amazingly hard for us to understand. Let us continue to call on the Name of the Lord, knowing that a still brighter and eternal day has been won for us through the darkest suffering ever known to man.
We have heard from Eliphaz and Bildad, and we have heard the reply of Job to each of these men, but we know that there is one more friend who joins in these speeches, and we also know something about the downward trend. As we come now to Zophar that Naamathite, we need to brace ourselves for a difficult and subtle attack against this great suffering servant of the Lord.
We have been able to mine gems from the words of Job, words that he himself later seems to regret. Wise men are even able to learn from fools, and Job is no fool. Yet Zophar says that Job’s speeches are babble, the speech of a mocker, and simply wasted words. Again we are reminded that the Lord Himself, at the conclusion to this book, will say concerning the three friends of Job, “You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
Job is already, at least in part, aware of the ridiculousness of his desire to defend himself in the face of the Almighty. He knows that he could not stand in such a situation. Yet Zophar will use this occasion to press upon Job what this good man knows far better than Zophar. The Lord is wise. His knowledge is beyond us. God is merciful. These things Job knows. He knows that he cannot actually compete with Almighty God in any contest that could be imagined, but this man who regularly sacrificed on behalf of his children that they might be forgiven by God, now speaks out of his horrible loss because he cannot understand what God has done. Do not tell him that God is beyond his understanding. That is what Job has been saying, though his way of expressing himself may not seem polite to someone who is not facing his pain. He says that he cannot understand God, and he calls out to Him in the strongest way, not as a detached observer, but as a crushed lover of the One who gives life and who takes it away.
Yet Zophar says more than this. He says that God knows worthless men. What is his point? Why is Zophar talking about worthless men? Is Job worthless? Is that the answer to the deep questions of the Lord’s discipline of those He loves? Is that the message behind the mystery of the cross of Christ? Are men just worthless workers of iniquity, just like stupid donkeys? Is our problem that we just will not accept how worthless we are?
This doctrine of Zophar is not biblical. It certainly does not deal rightly with the account of our creation in the image of God with dominion over the creatures in a world that was very good. It does not even do justice to the account of the fall, when God announced not only our judgment, but also our rescue at great cost to a certain Seed of the woman who would come one day to crush the head of the serpent. It certainly is not a correct understanding of the birth and death of Jesus Christ, since God gave His one and only Son for our salvation. Man is not a worthless being or a fruitless donkey. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and among all men, Job is surely one of the greatest. Zophar talks of man’s worthlessness in the context of a great man’s extreme suffering. This is surely not the right message to bring healing and hope to the downcast.
Job is not a stupid man, nor a man that others should refer to as a person of iniquity. It may seem humble to talk about the depravity of someone this way, but the context of Zophar’s words must be examined. Who is speaking? To whom is he speaking? How are his words likely to be received? What is going on in the life of the person to whom he is speaking? Isn’t it natural to assume that Job will get Zophar’s point, a point that is not all that hard to figure out? Something like this: Zophar is able to correct Job in his evident cursed state, as the worthless man that he apparently is, a man exposed as stupid and full of iniquity by the very troubles that he has faced. Zophar can administer the necessary correction to the secretly ignorant and immoral Job and set him on a path that will lead to healing and prosperity, if only Job will listen and put away all his sinful behavior, of which there is no outward evidence.
This argument is a complete denial of everything that everyone knew about Job. When we have an inkling that we know something about a suffering person, and yet we have no proof, we too quickly place ourselves in the posture of God, who alone knows the heart. What did people plainly know about Job? What was Job’s past, the real evidence that men really did know? How did he raise his family? How did he treat the poor and the weak? Was he a man of powerful love? Was he someone sought after for truth and wisdom? Yes, to all of these questions.
What about Jesus, then, the suffering Servant of the Lord, dying on a cross? Was He a genuinely righteous man? Was His teaching true? Were His works of healing real? Did He give sight to a blind man? Did He successfully call Lazarus out of the tomb? Was He good in all His ways and merciful to those in need? Did anyone have a right to instruct Him when He was dying on the cross for us? Yet even Peter thought that the cross was a bad idea, and no one seemed to understand why He had to suffer. But now we see that He died for people who we too often judged to be worthless. If we will see our Savior rightly, we will begin to measure the worth of a redeemed human being in light of the depth of what it cost to save him. He has saved us. We are not worthless. Through Him we have found hope that goes beyond our final breath.
Wisdom begins with God. His gifts of knowledge, discernment, and godliness in making good choices for living are not equally distributed among the sons of men. Some people have much more of these blessings then others. Job has more than any in his time and place, but during these days of severe tribulation, lesser men have presumed to be Job's advisors and have suggested that the great man has hidden secrets of evil that have led to his downfall, a claim for which they have no real evidence. They think that the evidence is plain for all to see. Job is suffering horribly. Since God is just, this trouble Job faces must be a reflection of his depravity. This tempting error in thinking is not true, discerning, wise, or charitable.
Some of the advice that they would give to Job is as obvious as it is inappropriate to his own situation. Yet it is presented as something special to the suffering man, and he cannot resist this retort: “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.” Job is rightly aware that these advisors are not wiser than he. Not that Job is above learning from someone who is beneath him, but the teaching must be more than error, presumption, and pious platitudes in order to command his respect.
He does have more to say about his situation, and if they would consider the facts that he shows them, they might be moved in the direction of sympathy, which would be far more appropriate than guesses and baseless accusations. After all, who was Job, this man who had suddenly become everyone's joke? It was just the other day, before all of this trouble came upon him, that no one would have dared to treat him with disrespect unless they wanted to be exposed as an obvious fool. Job had habitually cried out to God, and He had been heard many times in the past. He was known by everyone to be a just and blameless man. What happened to this man between one moment and the next? How did he go so quickly from being known as one of God's obvious favorites to the one who would be rightly condemned by God and man? Could this actually be?
Not only that, those who would think that the man's troubles were all the evidence necessary to establish his guilt before God, were they actually willing to affirm the other side of that wrong theology of providence? Are all men who live safe and secure in their riches always the most righteous among men, or is the truth more complicated than that? Is it not the case that some well-known thieves seem to be safe and happy? The person who has never faced significant trials, is he always the most virtuous among men? Such people, if they are religious, may think that their blessing is a direct reward for their obedience, and they may have a contempt for those who are facing misfortune. Remember that Christ came to suffer great tribulation for those who were low and hurting. He did not come from heaven to condemn them, but to serve them.
These would-be advisors to Job might seem wise for a second, but they miss the true righteousness of the suffering servant of the Lord. They will not acknowledge the obvious facts about him, but would teach him things that all creation declares. Ask the animals. Talk to the birds and the fish. Even the bushes that cover the earth are aware: The Lord is God. He has life in His hand. He is wise, and His power is far beyond anyone. We cannot stop the Lord. Talk to the farmer who depends on the rain and the sun. He knows the truth. God is above all. Powerful and wise men do not make God afraid. What does anyone have that has not been given to him by God?
Is there some king, priest, counselor, or elder who can teach the Lord a thing or two? He can sweep them all away in a moment. It is the murkiness of Job's case that should be the only clear fact to any observer who is truly wise. There is no sensible answer. Everyone should be able to see that of all the people they have ever observed, this should not be happening to Job.
When Christ came to die for us, certain facts should have been obvious, so clear that if little children had not been willing to acknowledge them, then the rocks would have had to cry out. Jesus was good. Line up all the men who think of themselves as something, and who labor to convince others that they are worthy of attention. Gather them all together and put them on a scale with only the weight of the goodness of Jesus of Nazareth on the other side. All the pompous people of this creation are light as a feather compared to Him. His horrible suffering and death could not possibly testify to His own secret evil. One moment He raises the dead as He prays to God, and in the next moment He appears to be forsaken of His Father. If people thought they understood His suffering, if they thought it must be a sign of His secret evil, this much was clear: Wisdom did not begin with them. No, He died for us. The wisdom of God in person died for us, and both the wisdom and the power of God rose from the grave.
It is one thing for a man who lives in comfort to speak of God's sovereignty. It is something else when someone who is at his lowest moment says the very same thing. A suffering man has an opportunity for good that others may never know. He does not have to do his good part with a smile on his face. He does not have to be as eloquent as Job. He may have no words, or very few words, as was the case with our Lord in His greatest trial. His being communicates, and the few words he utters will have a special power. Job says more than most would have the heart to say. We cannot ignore his teaching. We must sit at his feet and learn.
While Job speaks to men, he especially speaks to Almighty God. He would ask the Lord questions about things that Job, and we, simply cannot understand, as we wonder, “Why?” Others may think that they know the answers behind Job's tragedy, but this great man himself knows that he does not understand, and he knows that only God could ever explain His reasons. The simple answers of men are lies, though each of their statements might seem true. Put them all together, and they do not really explain the depth of the problem, and they certainly do not heal the gaping wound of grief and pain.
Better to keep silent. Those who seek after godliness and wisdom know that this is the way, but we find it very hard to stop talking. But now we need to listen to Job, rather than attempt to instruct him. He is telling us some simple things that are worth hearing. He says that wisdom cannot be a lie. We may think we speak for God, but if our words add up to lies, then what we have to say is not from God. We cannot think that we are rightly defending God when we are unwilling to deal with the truth. Silence would be a much better defense of Him if we know that we do not possess the key that would unlock all of life's painful mysteries.
What if God should suddenly speak to us about our defense of Him? What if He should meet us and uncover our errors? He knows of Job's righteousness. He knows that the change in Job's fortunes from one day to the next did not proceed from the man's secret sins. How would the Lord treat those who were so quick to falsely accuse His servant Job? Just one glimpse of God in His wrath, or even in His loving discipline, would be so dreadful. Our great web of syllogisms would fall to pieces before Him, and so would we.
But Job has something to say, and he suggests that he understands the danger of opening his mouth at this time. What is his good word? “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” There is so much wisdom in these words. They affirm that God is in charge as the One who brings about all things, even this episode that Job cannot understand. But Job’s words teach us something more. Even if his life ends by God's own hand slaying him for an offense that he did not commit, even in such a case where God's servant cannot understand what has happened at all, he will trust God. His trust in God will be stronger than his weak understanding of the events of his life.
We need to see that this resignation of soul is not a quiet peace in the face of adversity, but words of faith from the bottom of an ugly well of what seems like unjust suffering. Job still wants to talk directly to the Lord about this. He takes comfort that only the godly man could appear before the Lord Almighty, even to bring a complaint against Him. Despite Job's understanding that no man can stand in God’s presence, yet Job wants God. But for Job to be able talk to the Lord, God would have to take away this awful discipline of pain, and the overwhelming dread that men face if they come before God Himself with an inquiry.
Job wants the truth. He feels pain that he knows ultimately comes to him from the very Being that he trusts. Where has he gone wrong? What happened here? Is it something from long ago that now Job must pay the price for, some old sin of his youth? We think about such things when we suffer, and we find no reliable answer.
When the Servant of the Lord, the eternal Son of God, the Son of Man came to die, He knew the reason for His suffering. He had the answers for which Job was longing. Thus His suffering, though marked with loud cries and tears, was finally the obedience of a dreadfully quiet resignation. There was so little to say. Jesus did not need to ask the Father whether His troubles were the product of the iniquities of His youth. He had never sinned. What was the answer behind the misery of the cross? Jesus died for the sins of Job's youth. If there was any sin in Job's words at this age of more mature torment, Jesus died for those sins too. He was slayed for our iniquities. Through it all, as He faced what He always knew would be His terrible day, He trusted God. Because of this, we live. And if we suffer, even if we are slain by the Almighty, yet we may trust Him whose love for us is unwavering, even when our bodies seem to be wasting away in front of our eyes.
Life is serious and challenging. We have a real sense that something is very broken, and that this can't be the end of our story. But without the revelation of God telling us what we could not possibly figure out by our own observing and thinking, we are left wondering whether we have any firm foundation for hope. And what would a good ending be to the eternal plans of God, anyway? Through much of life, we ignore these kinds of big questions, but tragedy may insist that we search more fervently for a satisfying answer.
Job has certainly felt serious trouble. He feels the brevity of a life that can at the same time suddenly feel far too long. Others have died too soon. Must we live on in pain for many more years? Their lives were too short. Ours may feel like they will never end. But when it is all over, it is shown to be a very brief life, and since the fall of Adam, it is certainly full of trouble.
In comparison with the fleeting flower of a man, there is the towering permanence of our unseen God. Will God judge man? How can we live for even a moment in His presence? There is simply no comparison between man and God. He is from forever and is unto forever by His very nature, and we seem to be a mist. That's the wisdom that comes to us from honest observation. Precious people come and go. It is hard enough to lose a great dog after ten years; so how can we make our peace with the loss of a child? Yet God has numbered the days of mankind, not just in general, but the specific number of days for every individual. He is truly the Almighty One. He must number the days of His creatures.
If we are to compare our holiness and purity with His, the contest is just as laughable. Job asks for what any sensible person should request if he knows of God's glory and cannot see a way to rightly be in His presence: “Look away from me and leave me alone.” How many people have gone far enough in their spiritual thinking to reach this point, but have seen nothing else that makes sense beyond it? They rightly sense the unbounded greatness of the Lord, and they see their own limits like a prisoner in a cell. The cell has some fascinating entertainments, but it is still a cell. The bars are there. There are limits beyond which a man cannot pass. With this kind of insight, it is easy to imagine a person's desire to be left alone to eat his bread in whatever peace can be his.
It's different for a tree. A new shoot can somehow sprout from a dead stump. How many times can that tree seem to pull new life out of the jaws of death? No one knows. A little sunlight and water, and suddenly there may be a bud, and then a branch, and a new fresh beginning. But man has too much in him that does not appear to be a continuously renewable resource. Where is the courage of youth? Even if someone finds courage, eventually he may not know where to find the energy he needs to do something good with the courage he has. Eventually he dies, and then what? Where do we see resurrections happening? We don't see them. People can say what they want to about souls, but we can't see them either. This is all very distressing and depressing.
But the suffering servant of the Lord hopes for something more than this. He has to, because he knows of the greatness of God, and the love of the Lord, and he reasons that tragedy and death must give way somehow to a better day. He may be afraid to say it, but he has a longing to be concealed by God from the waves of death that seem inevitable. He wants to live again, but in a place of renewal and relief. He is happy to serve now in the land of death, if only a reasonable hope could be discovered. He will not be satisfied with a myth. There must be a real basis for the heaven he desires, a world where people live again. He will wait for the call of God, bringing Him up to that higher ground, but is there any fact that establishes the undeniable reality of what he longs for? Is there some way to remove our transgressions so that we can have life forever with God?
The righteous man scans the earth and the skies for that one fact of hope, and he sees instead much evidence of decay. Mountains crumble, and even solid rock does not last forever. Is there a fact of hope that can stand? Death is everywhere. Even if sons continue to live, fathers die, and what do those fathers know of anything then, whether good or bad about their sons? What does such a man feel when the soul is removed from the body? What does he rejoice over? What makes him mourn? Is there one fact that can give a suffering servant hope?
Jesus Christ is the one fact we seek. In Him we have a rational basis for the joy of heaven. Job longed for Jesus, for His provision of the solid ground of God-satisfying justice and man-loving salvation. In His cross we have a rock. In His resurrection we have a solid point of satisfying evidence for a wonderful and full hope.
Even before the fact of Christ was revealed to man, true servants of the Lord hoped in God. The answer for us is not a denial of the futility of this world, but an honest and true consideration of an end that would be worthy of the glory of our great God. In Christ we have the ground of our every hope and the perfect display of the glory of God now revealed for man to see and even to worship.
When people try to comfort those who are suffering deeply, they may wonder if there is anything worthwhile that they can say. There is, of course, the danger that a person may mean well and still say some regrettable thing that is not well received. Sometimes in life, less is more, and nothing may be best of all. There is a difference between heaven and earth. Earth can be very murky and cloudy, and situations of deep confusion may require silence as we wait for an age of clearer skies.
The three friends of Job have listened to a somewhat lengthy speech from the Lord's suffering servant. It is their turn to say something. That can be almost irresistible. Eliphaz begins, and he accuses this great man of doing away with the fear of God. He has not been listening carefully enough. Job does fear God. Listen to his speech with a sympathetic ear. Do not accuse him. He is a broken man.
Once you make a mistake of speaking when you should be silent, it seems all the more difficult to stop. The words that flow from the lips of Eliphaz are like stray rocks tossed in every direction. They may miss the mark, but they still may cause damage. Iniquity, crafty, condemned . . . Are these words that you really want to use when you are speaking to a suffering man of eminent godliness? Most of all, Eliphaz seems to have decided that Job is an arrogant and self-righteous man who has spoken as if he were God. He has decided that it is time to take Job down a notch, rather than to come alongside him in an attempt to lift him up. He makes his points with question after question that might be right for God to ask Job. For Eliphaz to speak this way seems inappropriate. Not every word that may come from the mouth of God should make its way out of our lips.
Eliphaz wants Job to admit that the great man has not had appropriate deference before the Almighty. He makes one other point: Job is actually no better than many of them. They have perhaps felt something of Job's great wisdom in the past, but now the events of his life have brought the mighty man low, and one wonders whether some are too ready to admit that this providential humbling is perhaps well-deserved.
“What do you know that we do not know?” They see their own words as the comforts of God, words that deal gently with Job, and they are apparently stung by Job's rejection of what they see as apples of gold in settings of silver, words fitly spoken. They seem to have concluded that the kind of lament that Job has been expressing is obviously out of place, and that it needs correction. Job has thought too highly of himself, they want him to see, since he is just a man, and a man cannot be pure.
Eliphaz repeats here his earlier insights about how God does not trust in the beings that populate the heavens, and that man is certainly below any one of those angels. There is an unseemly derision of humanity in his words, as if he were offended by his own species. Who has convinced Eliphaz that he should think so little about those who have been created in God's image, beings who will one day judge angels?
The problem here is that Eliphaz has decided to take offense on account of the words of a man more righteous than he, a man who is almost overwhelmed in grief, pain, and trouble. In allowing himself to become offended by Job's unwillingness to acknowledge sin as the root issue behind his trials, Eliphaz has somehow thrown off all restraint and self-control. Abominable, corrupt, unjust, wicked . . . Can there be any doubt that Eliphaz is suggesting that these words are accurately applied to Job? He follows this all up with his own graphic conclusion that the end of Job will be much worse than the beginning. Job is marked for the sword. Why? Because he is actually a godless man, although no one suspected it in earlier days when he was doing so well.
It is something for us to consider that at the very center of God's plan for His own glory was the Trinitarian determination that God would become man. This would no doubt have been a shock to Eliphaz. It is certain that the words of Jesus of Nazareth were deeply offensive to many who heard Him. Their response against Him eventually showed an unbridled lack of self-control. Here was a man who was far more righteous than Job, and they hated Him, so much so that they wanted to see Him brought down and taken out. In the midst of this suffering, the response of the spotless Lamb of God was one of perfect restraint. Here was the divine Son of Man doing what had to be done to save us. He is the one who calls us to come alongside the suffering with lovingkindness, and not with undue censure.
The thoughts that bad comforters bring are not unique. Baseless accusations are well-known to the grieving. They regularly accuse themselves of the things that the most insensitive person might say. In the case of Job, we have a man who was apparently unwilling to do this to himself. He would not let the wrong ideas of his accusers stand unchallenged. He spoke against the words of Eliphaz, because he was unwilling to agree with a lie.
It is easy to be a bad critic. It is harder to build someone up in the right way. Job tells his accusers that there is a way for the good comforter to speak. Baseless accusations can inflict unjust wounds, but words of wisdom can be used to heal. Strengthening someone with your words is not an easy thing to do. Job is truly a wise and godly man. He could have used his lips to take away pain and to help a man who might be overcome with familiar words and thoughts of condemnation.
But now Job has been made tired and weary, not just by his friends, but by God and His providence. There is no friend who is able to bring the right words that would strengthen and bless him. Job sees his own condition, he looks at what he has lost, and he considers the way that others stare at him. He cannot help thinking that God is deeply against him.
What might a helpful healing word have been? I am nervous even to make a suggestion. I would rather Job were here with us. He would know the right thing to say for such a moment. I hear what Job speaks in his sufferings, and I wonder what I should say to him. I move first in one direction but then I immediately want to backtrack, going off in the opposite way.
Should I just affirm the horror of this situation? Will that actually help, or will it just encourage self-pity? Should I speak of how great a man Job truly is? That would be true, but it would be uncomfortable, and he might not want to hear what I had to say. Should I offer a mild corrective, that surely God would not leave Job in this condition, and that there must be some other answer that we might never know or understand behind these sad assaults? “Job, please don't allow yourself to conclude that God is ultimately against you. I don't understand what has happened, but God hating you cannot be the solution to this mystery and misery.” Would that help? Would it be the right word given at the right time?
But what if the man I am trying to comfort is far wiser and more righteous than I? What if the trial is so insanely severe, that no one could really know what to say? What if the facts seem like what Job speaks of here? He says that people are gaping at him with complete disrespect. Somebody hits him in the face. Now there is a whole crowd there, and they are all against him. The godly man is given up to the ungodly, but it is not just what men have done to him, since we are told that it is God who gives him over to the wicked.
Who is this man? What if this is real and not Job's melancholy imagination? Who is this man that God breaks apart? God made him somehow to be the target of His wrath. He is brutally attacked, and in some way the Lord is behind it, but for what purpose? How could it be that God would send His wrath upon this good man? What could make sense of this story? It is not the fault of the victim. He is crying so much that it affects his complexion and his eyelids. He did not do anything wrong. His prayer to God was pure, and yet this is happening to him.
There is something going on in this passage. The facts seem to match the story of a different suffering servant and not Job. We need a witness from heaven to explain this to us. Are we imagining what is not really there, or is it not Jesus who is being described in the wise words of Job? Is this part of the answer to all that Job faces? Is Job living out some gross miscarriage of justice that prepares us for the most complete satisfaction of the justice of God that would one day be accomplished for our sake, when the righteous one would suffer for the ungodly?
Let the story of that righteous blood be told as long as this age continues. Send us a witness from heaven to turn this horrible drama into good news. Send us someone who would have the right words for a situation in which my words might get me into trouble. The friends of Job could not possibly tell that story. But there is now a man at the right hand of the Father who knows this story best of all. He sends forth messengers of the truth who speak His word everywhere. We hear it and believe. Somehow everything begins to make sense. In just a little while, we will be in the place of eternal life with Him, and despite the difficult sufferings that we have faced in this life that we cannot make sense of, on that day we will have the fullness of joy in knowing the Father and the Son.
We understand what a broken bone is readily enough. We may have been through the difficulty of that kind of injury, or at least we have seen others with a cast on an arm or a leg, so we are not entirely unfamiliar with such troubles. But what is a broken spirit?
Job says here, “My spirit is broken,” and he goes on to say, “My days are extinct,” and “The graveyard is ready for me.” A person with a badly broken spirit is convinced that his life is already over, though his body is still alive. This is a very empty feeling for a man to have.
We are made to be people of hope, people who look to the future with some real sense of confident expectation, but tragedy and grief do something to us where the misery of the present seems eternal, and there is no sense in our hearts of life beyond loss.
How does Job know that he is still alive? He feels the pain of his body, and he knows the grief of his broken heart, but there is one other thing that occupies him. He sees the mockers who are around him, taunting him, and he dwells upon their provocation. Do they realize that they are tormenting a great man? Do they hope to cheat him out of something, or is it simply good entertainment to see the once respected man in such a low condition? They will not ultimately prosper in this kind of evil, and Job knows that.
Who is responsible for this deplorable situation? We can blame the criminals who stole this great man's property. We can point to these three advisers who are such miserable comforters. Yet Job knows too much to end his complaint there. Job knows that God is above all, and that God rules. Therefore he speaks of God in his sorrow and confusion. He says, “He has made me a byword of the peoples.”
Job is honest about his situation. The disrespect of the jeering mob is a horrible insult. Yet he is determined to face this aspect of his trial as a righteous man. He will hold to his ways. It is not easy to do this, to continue to hold to righteousness when it would appear from all the visible evidence that the day for righteous living has apparently come and gone. Yet Job knows that God can renew the strength of the righteous man. But can Job really believe that now? Apparently he holds to the righteous way under the most formidable stress, and yet he is not showy in his claims, only strangely resolute.
Job does not pretend that there is any merit in the chorus of the ungodly who find his afflictions entertaining. He admits plainly, “I shall not find a wise man among you.” How does someone ever say something that blunt? There is only one way for a man to speak this way without incurring guilt. His words must be true and just. Job knows himself to be more righteous than his three companions who are falsely accusing him. He knows himself to be more godly than the mocking crowd who abuses him.
In this true assessment, Job is a great suffering servant. As Christ spoke the truth about the Sadducees when He plainly said that they knew neither the Scriptures nor the power of God, Job spoke the truth about people in his own generation. His words were recorded for us by the Lord, so that we might forever understand, avoid, and reject the ways of his presumptuous accusers.
In Job we have a man who speaks the truth, who feels his life is over, whose spirit is broken, who would like to find a reason to hope again, but who cannot yet remember where that hope can be found. He has more righteousness than all those around him, but he falls under the weight of some limitation. He cannot see hope, at least not yet. He does not seem to know something that he seeks to find. The Lord is not done with Job yet. There is more suffering and indignity for this beloved servant of God, but there will also be more knowledge and hope that he will soon discover.
He will not simply sink into the dust, but he will feel the weight of his own limitations more accurately before this trial is over. Jesus, the greatest Servant of God, was willing to suffer. He had perfect knowledge of the power of His death for us and a full measure of hope that the promises of God would be fulfilled.
Because of Jesus, Job truly has a future, even when he does not seem to have any hope left of which he is aware. Jesus has secured our future with His dying love. His hope was perfect, and His knowledge was true and complete. Therefore, we are kept safe even in our worst moments of despair.
People have only so much patience, even when they are trying to make extra efforts to show self-control. An insult from a person whom they have reason to despise is a hard thing to take. It is very tempting in the heat of self-pity to return evil for what surely feels like evil. The friends of Job feel insulted by the great man. It is Bildad's turn to speak, and he has something to say to Job.
“Why are we stupid in your sight?” Loving mothers don't like to be thought of as cold-hearted people. Successful entrepreneurs don't like to have to shut down their own struggling enterprises. And intelligent and accomplished teachers don't like to have their wisdom treated as stupidity by those to whom they have been speaking. When these things happen, a person just might lash back at the people he was trying to serve. Bildad apparently thought that Eliphaz, Zophar, and he had made some important points, diagnosing Job's secret problem, and suggesting a way back into the good graces of God. Job has responded by saying to them, “I shall not find a wise man among you.” That's too much for Bildad to take, so he points to Job's wounds and mocks him: “You who tear yourself in anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you?”
Job admittedly looks ridiculous. He has been scraping at his sores with a piece of broken pottery. No doubt he would bear the scars of this insane experience for the rest of his life. Now they are perhaps his shame. One day they would rightly be thought of as badges of glory, for he would be the man who was brought low for some unknown reason, who was then met directly by God, and was declared to be righteous in the midst of those who had lost their patience with him.
This is not how Bildad thought that Job's story would end when he spoke his indignant mind to God's suffering servant in Job 18. He was convinced that Job's troubles would be incurable, unless Job would humbly listen to the godly advice of his friends and would repent of his secret sins.
Yet Job had showed no signs of the listening ear and repentant humility for which they were looking. Therefore, it would appear that he would only move from current disaster to final doom. Like all the wicked, his light would eventually go out, a victim of his own secret and evil schemes. Bildad expresses this expectation of a horrible end with very colorful language. Job's heel is caught in a trap. Calamity consumes his skin. Some offspring of death eats his limbs. He is like a man dragged from his tent by a vicious beast in the night, who is then taken to some cruel master for his final condemnation. Job will have nothing left at all, and people will not even want to remember him, lest they seem to be in league with a man who was so obviously cursed. He will have no survivors and no future generations. The community that once honored him will be afraid to invoke his memory, lest they catch his horrible guilt by association.
Bildad closes his second speech with suggestions of two sweeping accusations against Job. Though he does not say directly, “Job, I am talking about you,” there can be little doubt that he means to connect all these remarks about a wicked man to his earlier words, “You who tear yourself in your anger.” His two charges against his friend in the final verse of the chapter are these: Job, you are unrighteous, and Job, you do not know God.
Of course, these charges were false. Job was the most righteous man of his day, and his knowledge of God was far above that of his neighbors and friends. But Bildad was insulted. Those who think of themselves as more righteous than they really are can only take so much. When they are stung painfully enough by a remark that hits them at their point of presumed identity and excellence, they will eventually reveal what is on their minds.
Why did Jesus have to die? From the vantage point of the lawless hands that were raised against him, he had to die because He had fatally provoked them. His evil had to be publicly exposed. He had to be put to shame as an example for others who would presume to speak against the traditions of the elders, and to publicly teach against leaders who firmly held to their righteous superiority in those traditions. But there is a bigger and better story here which must be granted the final word. From the standpoint of Almighty God, Jesus had to die as the perfectly righteous man, the one who knew the Father from before all time. He had to die in order to satisfy the demands of the Lord's justice against us. He had to die to procure our redemption with His spotless blood. He was the only man who could do this. The cross was once His shame, but now His wounds are eternal reminders of His glory and our forgiveness. This story of God's love has now become our good news. We have received this Word with hope, and we worship God through Jesus the Messiah.
Job's friends thought that they were bringing him great wisdom from God. The suffering servant of the Lord did not receive their words in that way. He said that these men were tormenting him. He even doubled his count of the times that they had spoken here. We have heard five speeches from them at this point in the book, but Job referred to “ten times” that they had cast reproach upon him. This was a heavy burden for this good man to face. How many others have had to face unjust accusations in a time of great loss? Only the Lord knows. Yet, it is in this chapter, during this time of intense suffering and provocation, that the Lord's servant finds a sudden expression of his resurrection hope.
This is what you and I need. It is a good thing for us to have an accurate assessment of our own sadness and of the hopelessness of life under the sun. But we must have something much better alongside such honest medicine. Tears alone cannot bring the healing and restoration for which we long. In a world under a sentence of death, there is only one thing that can make us full of happiness—the resurrection from the dead. Yet how could we ever believe in something like this when we have never seen it with our eyes? How could we believe in a coming resurrection when we are overwhelmed by the providence of God?
God must speak. He must speak to us, and this speech must find a hearing and ready ear. Our spirit within us must testify to the truth of the prophetic word that comes from the mouth of the Lord's servant and is processed by the ear of His holy ones. In the case of Job, all of this seems to happen within the one man who has suffered such deep affliction. A spirit of prophecy must well up within this suffering servant, so that he becomes the prophetic agent who brings forth the Word. Then his own ears must gladly take in the word that his mouth has spoken, and his own spirit must resonate with this message that has come to him from the Lord through his own prophetic office.
This is what happens at the center of these three cycles of speeches and responses, and the result is an amazing statement of faith in the resurrection of the dead at a time when there may well have been no written word of God yet revealed for any man on earth to consult. No one can say when the book of Job was written, but many experts tell us that it may have been very early indeed, perhaps among the earliest words of written Scripture.
The first twenty-two verses of this important chapter are the heartfelt lament of a man who recounts his sad condition, acknowledging the sovereignty of God in his suffering and the misery of his loss of the comfort of any community of respect and sympathy. Job is alone, and the words of his friends have only further wounded him. He is despised by everyone and is in terrible pain. The final words of his lament are a cry for mercy to his friends. “Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!” He believes that God has surely pursued him as one pursues an enemy, but he would plead with these friends to look at him and to realize that his weary flesh cannot take their continual assaults.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, or out of the depths of his own prophetic soul, springs forth an amazing word from heaven, and Job himself seems to know it. He wants these words of hope to be written with some method of extreme permanence. These words are so right, so true, that they simply must not be allowed to drift away into the mist of this fading world. These words must hold. They must stand. “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” This is the word of the Redeemer of God's suffering children. This is the word of truth, the truth of our deepest longings. Though our hearts may faint within us, death cannot be the last message for the Lord's beloved flock. There must be a resurrection.
Our hearts are greatly encouraged by these verses. What a revelation! Yet far beyond this word is the revelation of the incarnate Word of God, the only Redeemer of God's elect. Jesus has purchased us with His blood. The Redeemer has indeed redeemed us. The death of the perfect Redeemer was required, but there had to be life beyond redemption if the words of Job were to prove true. Job had insisted that he, in his flesh, would see God, and that the Redeemer would not only be a dying Redeemer, but that He would be a living Redeemer, and that this living Redeemer would stand upon a renewed earth.
This is the antidote to the report of death all around us and within us. This is the river of life for which we have the greatest need in our grief and disappointment. It must not only be spoken by the Lord's servant, it must be heard by the Lord's people. Their spirits must rise up at the preaching of it, so that they might receive the testimony of the Holy Spirit that they too are sons of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is fine to know of sadness and sin. It is good to be honest about our assessment of the troubles of this world. But we need something more than brutal dying honesty. We need a full measure of resurrection truth. Without this certain fact of the life to come, surely nothing makes any sense, for our God does not take the human race through centuries of sadness only to end this tale of woe with a pathetic whimper.
In the previous chapter, something that we readily recognize as most extraordinary had taken place. Job, this great man, this suffering righteous servant of the Lord, in the face of groundless accusations against him, brought forth a wonderful prophetic utterance concerning the coming resurrection of the dead. The opening question as Zophar begins his second speech is this: Will Job's friends recognize that they have heard a word from heaven through Job's lips? Will they value Job's great solution to the problem of humanity and to the fallen condition of this creation?
Zophar does not seem to have heard any of the glory of resurrection in Job's powerful oracle of truth. He has heard a message, but he has not received it well. He says, “I hear censure that insults me.” Job's friends needed correction, and God himself would have a word about them at the end of the book, but if they could have listened to Job and received the truth that he proclaimed, they could have received not only correction, but also a deep and blessed hope.
In order to hear the hope, you must listen beyond the correction. Those who are well don't need a doctor, and some who are convinced that any correction is too much to bear will miss the joy that comes from the healing touch of the best physician. When you refuse to acknowledge the disease, there is no point in talking about a cure. But pretending that you don't have cancer is not the same as being cancer-free. These “comforters” had a serious disease, but they were deeply offended by Job's rejection of their wisdom and could not rightly hear what he was saying.
When someone needs to hear correction but feels offended, he may not only miss out on the benefit of the word of reproof, he also may continue to listen to and pursue the lies of his own heart, lies which take him further and faster in a wrong direction. Zophar was persuaded that out of his own great understanding, a spirit was bringing answers to him that needed to be expressed. Informed by this inner light, he presumed to continue to instruct this great man Job.
What were his insights, his great thoughts of old? The rejoicing of the wicked is brief, and though he seems to have great prosperity, it will only be for a moment. Can anyone miss the fact that he refers to this great man who has given such an astounding resurrection prophecy as one who is wicked and godless? If that is not blunt enough, Zophar reminds Job that the wicked man will perish like his own excrement. He will be forgotten like a bad dream. When he dies, there will be nothing to pass on to his children. They will be forced to beg from the poor, for the bones of their father will lie down in the dust.
What else does Zophar have to say? He speaks about the evil of the wicked man and his destruction. Why doesn't he plainly identify Job as the wicked man? But then what evidence does he have of any wickedness beyond the man's suffering? This is not wisdom. It is evil presumption and is made far worse by the fact that it follows one of the most astounding revelations in the Bible about the life to come.
But Zophar is insulted. He will not listen, and he must share more of his supposed spiritual brilliance. The evil of the wicked man may be hidden deep within him, like food within the stomach that has gone bad, and it will come out again. This is how Zophar makes sense of Job's troubles. They are the vomit that has finally come from the hidden evils within this surprisingly wicked man. Is this what you are tempted to think of your own suffering, rather than remembering the love of God, and considering how he may have entrusted you with a special opportunity that of necessity included your present pain?
These thinly-veiled accusations simply do not fit this situation. Job has not “crushed and abandoned the poor,” so why are such words spoken to his face? Yet Zophar continues his colorful rhetoric. Job, if Job is the horrible man he is talking about, is just a wicked imposter like so many hypocrites, and thus he has become a target of God's holy anger. God hates him for his evil ways, and that is why the Lord's sword has come against him. For Zophar it is as simple as that, and no fancy talk of Job about knowing that his redeemer lives and that at the end of the age, he will stand on the earth in his flesh and he will see God, none of that will turn Zophar away from his self-appointed spiritual task of reminding the suffering man that the wicked will quickly perish.
Our Savior lived a brief life. He was cut off from the land of the living. Many would think of Him as being cursed by God, presumably for some secret faults. They thought for certain that God would deliver Jesus from the horror of the cross if God really delighted in Him. Yet He was wounded for our transgressions. The answer to the dilemma of the suffering of Jesus is not discovered by presuming that our Lord had his own secret sin and that He was hated by God. To get to the truth about Jesus, we need to hear the prophetic Word that informs us about the love of the Father for His sinless Son, and of the salvation that has come to us through the wounds of our perfect Substitute. To hear this word, we need to first hear the truth of our own sin. But if we are too offended by the correction that comes to us from God to listen to Jesus and His ambassadors, then we will miss the good news of the dying love of our righteous Redeemer, who has sent forth His Word for our salvation and encouragement.
Job's friends would do well to listen to his words and consider them. His teaching is true, but they are unable to receive it. The presentation of truth is sometimes more complex than the teaching of error. Job’s friends have a very simple point to make. Though they have not yet accused Job as plainly as they might, their point is still clear: A suffering man's troubles are a sign of the judgment of God against that man. Though others may have considered Job to be wise and righteous, it is evident that God does not see it that way. Why else would He give the man such horrific losses? It must be because of the man's secret sins. Therefore, a suffering man should repent. This is their simple idea.
This understanding of the providence of God is not correct. Job's words tell a more complex story. He approaches this question of suffering from a different angle. His friends have presumed to suggest sin where they have no proof. What about the lives of those who display their wickedness openly in a way that is obvious to all? Do they regularly have their lives fall apart in the manner that Job has experienced? What does the evidence show?
Job urges this reasoning upon his friends, claiming that his words would be their comfort. Even though a false view of suffering might seem comforting to those who are not in the midst of sorrow, it will not serve them well when an evil day touches them. The truth will be more comforting, though it might not seem to bring any hope when it is first considered. The truth begins with God, looks at the fact of Job's righteousness that was known to all, and then wonders at the Lord's providence. It does not deny the sovereignty of God or the greatness of the Lord's suffering servant. The truth waits upon the Lord, knowing that there is much that has not yet been revealed, and that even the revealed things may not yet be fully understood by us. The truth does not deny the dismay of the suffering servant. It turns ever toward the Lord, though a man may not be able to comprehend what he sees with his own eyes.
Job speaks mostly about the wicked in this chapter instead of the righteous. The friends of Job should readily see his point when they investigate the clear facts in the case of those who are known to be unrighteous. The wicked live. Sometimes they live a long time. They may have many children, and those children may live long and healthy lives. They may have many possessions and seem to be very happy and self-satisfied. They do not appear to be troubled that something is missing in their lives. They seem to have everything.
Not only are the wicked often happy in lives, they may even be a picture of peace in death. They go to the grave in peace, as far as anyone can observe. They may have not wanted anything to do with God or God's ways. They may have actually spoken against God or denied His power and His love. Why are people in that situation allowed by God to have prosperity? This story occurs all the time if we are willing to be honest with the evidence. We may think that the trouble that the wicked deserve will ultimately be visited upon their children, but there are many children of wicked people that appear to be doing very well. Even if God does visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him, isn't it the case that some people who are concerned only with themselves will not be troubled by the difficulties that their descendants face?
Surely God knows what is right, but as men honestly observe the wicked, does it make sense to us to see them and their children doing so well? No matter how we may evaluate the life of any man and no matter how appropriate or inappropriate we may consider the patience and mercy of God in any one case, isn't it still the fact that all people go to the grave? How can we make sense of that? There is something that just does not add up according to human observation and sanctified reasoning. This is a key insight, one that will bring us comfort as we rest upon the Lord who knows.
The fact is that Job's comforters bring no comfort. Though their simple view of life may appeal to those who do not know any better, all that anyone would have to do to have second thoughts about this theory is to talk to people who know that the righteous often suffer deeply while the wicked live easy and happy lives. If they would think about that, then they could come to Job's conclusion that something in all of this is just not right, and that their teachings on suffering are just empty notions.
What is somewhat surprising is that the discovery of the brokenness of this world could actually yield comfort to the one who is willing to ascribe the greatest power, wisdom, and glory to Almighty God. God knows that the righteous suffer, and He knows that the wicked often live at ease. He knows that things don't add up. He knows what we also should be able to embrace, that there must be something more. It is this something more, this better ending befitting such a great God, which caused Him to enter into our pain so fully in the person of His Son. The death and resurrection of Jesus and the renewal of the earth in the Messiah is the more complicated divine answer that finally satisfies our souls. Those who think that everybody receives what they deserve have oversimplified the data to tell a story that simply is not true. God's plan of suffering and grace is a much better story, and it does bring glory to God and true comfort to people who deal with the real facts of life.
Job has just finished bringing to the attention of his friends an important question for their consideration. If their simple idea of God's providence is correct, that a suffering man's troubles are a sign of the judgment of God against that man, then what about the wicked? Why do so many of them, and even their children, seem to live and die in peace and prosperity? Job draws attention to the brokenness of this world and asks his friends to consider the facts.
As Eliphaz responds at the beginning of this third cycle of speeches, there is no indication that he has felt the force of Job's words. He may have been listening with his own answer running. He seems to have been more impressed with his own earlier spiritual experience than with the wisdom of Job. Remember that he had a spirit glide by him in the night with this tempting message, “Can a mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?”
This is a very important question which is still ringing in the ears of Eliphaz. He begins his third speech with a similar rhetorical thrust, “Can a man be profitable to God?” There is a way to ask a question that anticipates a certain answer. Here a negative response is expected. A mortal man cannot be righteous before God. A man cannot be pure before his Maker. It should be even more obvious, it must seem to Eliphaz, that a man cannot be profitable to God. End of discussion. Except for this: If there is no qualification to these affirmations of the low condition of mankind, then we have lost the gospel.
This is not easy to see at first examination. After all, isn't our understanding of man's total depravity one of the basics of our religion? Yet even a great truth can be taken in an ungodly direction. What do we conclude from the doctrine of total depravity, the doctrine that rightly insists that every quality of man has been tainted by sin? Does that mean that there is no hope for man? Does it mean that man is worthless? Isn't there some way that God has provided for a man to be counted as righteous in His sight? Isn't it also true that God has prepared good works for us, that He will crush Satan under our feet, and that He insists that our labor in His Son is not in vain? This is the mystery of godliness. We are in the Messiah Jesus Christ and He is in us. In Jesus, a man can be right before God, a man can be pure before his Maker, and a man can even be profitable to God, since God can make him to be profitable. Not that God had some inherent need for outside help, yet this is the way that He has chosen to display His glory, through union with man in the person of His Son, and through making man righteous and fruitful for His kingdom.
But Eliphaz has no sense of the mystery of godliness, the mystery of the union between God and man. He also has no sense of the force of Job's argument concerning the prosperity of the wicked that should have caused him to see that his understanding of God's providence was too simple. Missing all of this, Eliphaz, more clearly than before, accuses Job of sin, making up several specific charges such as this one: “You have given no water for the weary to drink,” as well as comprehensive statements of Job's guilt like this one: “There is no end to your iniquities.” This is why Job suffers, according to Eliphaz.
Eliphaz has seized upon the doctrine of human depravity in such a way that causes him to deny human worth. He holds to the transcendence of the Almighty in such a way that seems to deny His imminence. For Eliphaz God is high in the heavens, not close to us as a merciful Father. Even though the divine being fills our homes with good things, He does it from afar.
The solution for Job, according to Eliphaz, is the same that has been pressed upon the suffering servant of the Lord in prior speeches: Repent. Agree with God. Everything will work out. God will hear your prayers. Light will shine on your ways. Then you will be someone.
When our Lord came to save us as the singular answer to the mystery of godliness, even His disciples and admirers did not seem to hear His greatest wisdom. Though the great man Nicodemus came to Him by night with a heart of respect, referring to Jesus as a prophet sent by God and noting His miracles, he had no sense of what Jesus was doing. He did not understand about spiritual rebirth. To appreciate the reality of regeneration, it is necessary to accept the fact of human depravity, for we are dead in our trespasses and sins. But we also need to appreciate some other truths, the love of God, His power, and His eternal purpose to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.
If you want to start with one Christian truth, choose the cross. The cross of Christ is a storehouse of all the truth of God. In His death, which His disciples found so difficult to understand, He displays the great mystery of godliness. He has taken our depravity, and we have been granted His righteousness. Without this mystery, the human problem admits no real solution. Without the fact of the cross and the companion fact of our Lord's resurrection, Jesus' instruction that we must be born again from above would remain a strange idea that we could never fathom.
We have some sense that Job’s calamities took place sequentially, one right after the other, almost instantaneously. When Job's friends heard of it, they traveled to be with him, and they stayed with him in silence for seven days. Then Job spoke out of his grief, and his friends replied, and this very challenging trial of false insinuations from miserable comforters began. We are not told if all of this happened at once. Could it be that these conversations took place over some lengthier period of time? Job's words at the start of chapter 23 begin by marking the passage of time. “Today also my complaint is bitter.”
Those who have faced profound loss tell us that there can be some period of spiritual anesthesia, during which a person has not yet taken in the full gravity of what has happened to him. After all of the comforters have come and gone, some people report that it is only then that they begin to more fully feel the weight of tragedy. The pain of loss may continue for many months and years, when it may seem to them that joy will never again return. For such a person, another sorrowful “today” can seem to be all that is left in life.
Grief may often come with physical pain, but in Job's case, his grief has been compounded by additional extreme physical maladies that make his life very low. Grief alone can make a person feel like he has no energy for living. What if disease is added to that grief? Job says, “My hand is heavy on account of my groaning.” He is like a man who cannot find the strength to move.
With the last speech of Eliphaz, insinuation has moved toward direct accusation. Much offense is given, yet Job is not consumed with hatred for his friends. He wants to talk to God. But where can he find the Lord? He would like to enter the throne-room of the Almighty to present his case before God. He would have much to say, he supposes, and he imagines that he might even anticipate what God would answer. Job’s first desire is not to contradict Eliphaz, Bildad, or Zophar; he wants God.
What would God do? Job muses: “He would pay attention to me.” He says, “There an upright man could argue with Him.” He does not speak of himself as someone vile before the King of kings, but as one who has been righteous. This may sound like a horrible presumption, and yet it is God who started this book with a similar assessment of Job, spoken in that heavenly court where Job wishes to be. Job has not said that he has attained righteousness apart from the grace of God. That would be presumption. Could it be that this suffering servant is telling the truth, that by the grace of the Almighty, Job is who he is? And he is not what his accusers suggest him to be. Job says that God would acquit him. He does not say how, just that God would acquit him, and that He would acquit him forever. Do you want to be acquitted by God forever?
Yet Job returns to his great problem. Where can he find the living God? He sees His works everywhere, but where is He? Job cannot have a conversation with the works of God. The answers that he needs will not come to him by contemplation. He needs to hear God, and he wants to do this in person, where God could actually be seen.
If this problem of finding God could be solved, Job is confident that when tried by the Almighty, he would come through that test as gold from the furnace. He has kept the commandments of the Lord. Yet this line of thought does not ultimately give Job peace. He contemplates again the great wisdom and sovereignty of God, and he is strangely troubled. There cannot be any mistake in God's ways, can there be? No one can actually change God's mind on a matter like this. He does what He wants to do, and His decree can never be stopped. He is left in dread of the God to whom he must talk face to face, the God he cannot find. Through all of his troubles, Job is not yet ready to stop thinking, and he is not finished speaking about the mystery of what has taken place in his life.
God determined in His council before the foundation of the world that at just the right time He would come in person. He determined to take on human flesh as a Suffering Servant and to display the height of both His justice and mercy in the death of His Son. Before that time, God had appeared in a more temporary way on many occasions, and He had spoken through His prophets great words of truth. But when the Word of God came in person, He did not need grace.
Any other man who might be righteous has been counted as righteous through God's grace. But when Jesus came, He obeyed the law of God fully from the inner resources of His own complete perfection. Here was the beloved Son of the Father in the fullest pleasure of the Almighty. This Jesus died for us. We hear of His righteousness and His love. His Word is a tremendous aid to those who suffer in His name today. But one day, we shall see Him face to face in a world of eternal light.
God will never consent to be dissected by His creatures. He reveals Himself to us on His own terms.
We understand from His Word that the Lord is eternal, but does this mean that we actually understand what eternity past truly is? How can we think about a past with no beginning? We must simply accept the fact that God is, that He alone is the I AM.
We also need to embrace the concept that God could never ever be guilty of sin. He is the Law-Giver. He will judge others according to His commandments. There is no judging God. The very thought is completely out of place. There is no one above Him who could hold Him accountable in any way.
Yet those who suffer are tempted to question the providence of God. We can easily find fault with the Almighty, though we do not know how a matter ends unless He chooses to tell us. God knows. We look at those who abuse the poor and the powerless and we wonder how God could allow such things.
Some people are unwilling to look at life honestly. Those who observe will soon find out that there is much misery everywhere. Sometimes it comes to us from the actions of personal enemies, but many times we face trouble simply from the forces of nature under the control of Almighty God.
On any day, there are those throughout this world who have no shelter from the elements. They have to find their food wherever they can. When the storms come, where will they take cover?
Of course, there are wicked people who would “snatch the fatherless child from the breast.” How are we to understand that kind of intentional and personal cruelty? But this is life. And no one can bring a charge against God for any of this. He is the potter, and we are the clay. We cannot suppose that we would be a better God than He is. He will not even enter into that kind of debate with us.
Every day, people die. People cry for help, and they hear no answer from heaven. The powerful may continue to abuse the weak, and God does not step in and stop them. Why is that?
Some seem to be in love with the darkness. They imagine that their thoughts and their actions are hidden. They suppose that they will get away with their abuses, and what is worse, they seem to be right. Will God not knock the weapon out of the hand of the murderer? Why does He not stop the adulterer who acts as if God does not exist? Why is the world of darkness allowed to win the day, at least for the moment?
Some will say that God's judgment will swiftly come against the unrighteous for all their evil. Soon their days will be over. But everyone goes to the grave. Where is God's justice? Why would He give even one more moment of life to someone who abuses the poor and has no heart for the widow and the orphan?
The Lord has the power to give life and to take it away. He sees what the wicked do, and yet He extends their lives. When He cuts them off and brings them low, is it any different than what happens to all men? “They are exalted a little while, and then are gone.”
Job speaks about the human condition as one who has observed life and considered certain undeniable facts. He concludes his speech with these words of challenge: “Who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?”
The friends of Job have been willing to bring forward words of speculation. Their guesses have not been for good, but for evil. They have guessed at Job's sin and have ignored his righteousness. Not only have they imagined wickedness in a righteous man, they have been unwilling to admit the truth about openly evil and abusive people, that they continue to sin, and yet they seem to prosper. They die as the righteous die, at least according to all that men can observe.
While there is much truth in Job's words, many hundreds of years after he suffered, another righteous man came to suffer and die. His coming was the arrival of a tremendous fact. Here was the great Law-Keeper. Who could credibly accuse Him of any sin? He was innocent. He died the death that we deserve. He is the one fact that has established our hope. A perfectly righteous man has faced a sinner's death. Now sinners can have eternal life.
God is glorious. All worship begins with the recognition that when we come into the presence of the Almighty, we have come to One who is far above us. As Bildad offers these very brief but forceful thoughts that conclude the speeches of Job's friends, he begins with the greatness of God. When we speak of the glory of God, what exactly are we talking about? As often as we use the words, “glory,” “glorious,” or “glorified,” we still find ourselves puzzled about what it is that we are actually saying.
Bildad points first to the dominion of God. The Lord is in charge. He rules over all things, seen and unseen. If someone who lived under a powerful monarch were to approach the king, he must do so in fear, with a due regard for the power of that royal person, power over the life and death of every one of his subjects. If that majesty had no constitution to which he was subject, no laws that stood above him that he must follow, then he would be able to execute his will according to his mere good pleasure. What glory! Millions have lived under the authority of such human kings over the course of history, yet each of those rulers only had power within the limits of some geographical area. They had no authority over angels, and any rule that they had over men came to them by the decree of God. But God Himself is over everyone in heaven and on earth. He is glorious in His dominion. If anyone rebels against God, he makes war with the one Almighty Sovereign. Only God can say when that war is over, since the offense is against Him. If He determines a way to have peace, then there is peace.
Dominion is not the only element of the glory of God. Those passages in the Scriptures that speak of His glory refer to the perfection of His many attributes, and particularly to the visible brilliance of the one who is Himself unseen. The One who dwells in unapproachable light is the source of Light. In His light we see light. If there is a glory to the sun, or to the moon and the stars, there is a greater glory to the One who made light, and who gives light.
When we consider the glory of God's light, we are drawn to extol Him not only for His wisdom, knowledge, and truth, but also for His holiness, righteousness, and goodness. There is an ethical glory to God as the very Source of all that is right. His Law is perfect, and it is safe to follow Him.
All this Bildad knows. But there is another important doctrine that Bildad seems to have ignored, which is closely related to the doctrine of the glory of God. This doctrine is that of the image of God. God created mankind in His image. There is some point of connection between the source, and the image of the source. The image is not the source, but is like the source. There is something of the glory of God in the image of God. Not only that, on earth, only mankind is created in the image of God, and the destiny for the image-bearer of God is glorious.
Mankind at peace with God is to have dominion over the earth and even over angels. Mankind at peace with God will shine like the brightness of the Lord in the glory of the new creation. Mankind at peace with God is perfected in holiness and without any ethical spot or blemish. Bildad is unable to see the reflected glory of God in even a great human being like Job. Perhaps because of this, Bildad has no sense that there could be any way that a human being, whom he speaks of as a maggot and a worm, could ever be right before God.
We live after the time of the shadows that existed from the Fall until the coming of the Son of Man. We know that when God, the Almighty King, announces that we have peace with Him, no one should dare to contradict Him. We also know how God has accomplished that peace. He sent His eternal Son to be the perfect image-bearer of the almighty and invisible Sovereign of creation and providence. Though the visible shining glory of Jesus may have been hidden from the eyes of men for a time, He was the perfect display of all the moral righteousness of God, and He has been granted the fullness of dominion over heaven and earth as the God/Man Savior and King. Now He shines in the glory of His heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father. This perfect Image-bearer of the Almighty made the way for our peace with God through the glory of the cross.
Finally, Bildad and his friends miss the glory of the love and mercy of God, that mercy that caused His Son to willingly satisfy the just demands of the Father in order to win for us a glorious destiny as image-bearers of our King. Jesus is our peace. Job, and millions like Him, who have seen something of the dominion and fear of God, have now been brought near to the One we are permitted to call our Father. Jesus is the only way for us to be pure in the sight of God. Mankind was created to reflect the glory of God as the image-bearers of the Lord. In Christ our destiny has been secured.
Job has been reminded by one of his friends, Bildad, about the glory of God. Bildad said, “Dominion and fear are with God; He makes peace in His high heaven. Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does his light not arise?” God is great, and there is no man who is beyond hearing that Word. But then Job did not really need a reminder of that point, particularly at this time. Given all that has transpired, and given who Job is, he has a few of his own insights concerning the greatness and glory of the Lord.
The words of his friends—combined as they are with baseless accusations, a wrong understanding of humanity, and a deficient statement of our standing before God—are not helpful to a man who feels like he has nothing left. They only reinforce the fact that men less righteous than Job have presumed to counsel him as if he were a man who has no wisdom.
It is true that God is greater than our own ability to make some name for ourselves. Job knows this, though he will know it even more fully before his story is over. Until the point when the new Job will be an even better teacher than the man who speaks here, we can listen to his words in this chapter and take in much from the one who speaks of the glory of God.
There is no place that anyone can go to hide from God. Even the dead tremble before Him. He is over the skies as the One who designed the system of planets in which the earth has been placed. The vastness of the ocean is not bigger than Him. He is not impressed with our great thoughts of our own knowledge. The moon affects the tides according to His plan. He knows what transpires beyond the horizon, past where any man can see.
Not only is He the Creator of light and dark, the waters above and the waters below the firmament, the dry land and all of the vegetation that covers it, the sun, moon, stars, fish, birds, and all kinds of animals; He is also the Maker of mankind—male and female, He created them. He knows our triumphs and our failures. He has a plan for everything, and His purposes will surely be accomplished.
Beyond all that we can see, God knows even the history and destiny of heaven. Are there powers in realms above? They tremble before Almighty God. Would they defy Him forever? They will not be able to withstand Him for long. If they seem to win a battle, it is only because the Lord of eternal wisdom has determined that such an outcome fits best in His winning of a much larger war.
Is there some Rahab, some wicked creature of the sea, that would taunt a man and crush him? Such a one is God's plaything. He can shatter any foe in a moment.
When you gaze into the night skies, you can see the work of His fingers. If the winds come in a moment and take away all that we have, He can still calm them with just a word. He can restore what a cloud of locusts has consumed.
Is there some serpent, who is crafty in his ways, who comes to steal, to kill, to destroy? God can pierce him before he releases his deadly venom. God is powerful to save, even powerful enough to raise the dead.
All of this does not make God weary. He is able to do far more abundantly beyond anything that we could ask or think. We hear only His whispers. What if He were to speak to us in the full weight of His thundering voice? This He has done in Job's soul. Why has He put His greatest servant to grief? Who can understand that?
If we have a hard time understanding the Lord's great works of natural power, if we cannot fathom the ways of God with a man like Job, can we understand the Lord's plan for His own Son, the righteous Jesus? If there ever was a shout of God that was beyond our comprehension, if there ever was an affliction that should take our breath away, it was that which our Lord faced for us. Who can understand what was necessary for the satisfaction of the transgressions of the Lord's chosen people? Yet Christ faced that thunder of God, and now He lives.
It was not necessary for Bildad to teach Job about God's glory. There is more than enough mystery to the greatness of God and His inscrutable ways for all of us consider forever. But Christ has conquered sin and death for us on the cross. This is not so much to be exhaustively understood as it is to be humbly embraced. He has our future in His hands. He can be trusted with our afflictions and our grief. He has won for us our salvation.
God is in charge of all things, as the church has so often confessed in our creeds when we say, “We believe in God the Father Almighty.” Add to this fact the honest observation that the world that we live in is broken and that we who live in it are supposed to feel the disorder and mourn things that are wrong. For many, admitting these two propositions creates a tension that is so deep that they may be tempted to give up on something here. Some deny the power of God. Others would pretend that everything is good. Critics of the faith may just simply contend that the God that we imagine must not himself be a good God. Job chooses none of these faulty alternatives. Job never says that everything is fine. He never contends that God is not in charge of all things. Despite remarks that are critical of what God has done, Job never says that God lacks goodness. Instead, Job honestly says this bold statement, “The Almighty has made my soul bitter.”
Job is not the only person in the Bible to express these honest feelings. See Naomi in Ruth 1 and Jesus on the cross. There is one more important claim that Job makes: God has done what He has done, not because of evil in His beloved servant, but despite the fact that Job has actually been in the right. This contention is what sets Job apart from his comforters. They are convinced that Job must be in the wrong, but here Job emphatically insists on his own integrity.
Job will not lie about what he knows. If he pretends to agree with his friends in their understanding of the meaning of his suffering, then he would be engaging in deceit. They simply are wrong in their foremost assumption, that the intense suffering faced by Job is evidence enough of the Lord's displeasure with this great man. As Job has examined his own conscience concerning sin, he is able to say, “My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.” How few of us could say words like this without tremendous self-deception. We would be tempted to accuse Job of this as well if it were not for the fact that God so fully commended Job in His heavenly court at the beginning of this book.
Job does not urge that God is merciful, that we are all sinners, and that therefore God will have mercy upon him as he has mercy on all humanity. Job believes in God's justice against the faithless and the wicked. He knows that God would be right to be angry with Job's enemies, and with those who are counted as the wicked and the unrighteous. In fact, our only hope with God is that we will somehow be counted as one of the righteous, which is precisely what has happened to us, inside and out, through Christ's representation of us, and through faith in Him. Job does have faith in God, in God's promises, even in the resurrection of the dead. And this faith has been lived out in front of his neighbors, as Job has truly pursued daily repentance and a life of obedience to the precepts of the Almighty.
But is Job any different from the ungodly? The answer is an emphatic, “Yes!” Everyone is not the same. Though we all can be judged as guilty before God, everyone will not acknowledge this and seek to obey the Lord by His grace. It is simply not the case that everyone takes delight in the Almighty, especially in times of adversity. Not everyone will call upon God. It is noticeable in all of these interchanges between Job and his friends, that without being showy or sanctimonious, Job is the only one who actually cries out to God.
Job does not simply sing about the marvelous grace of the Lord, as great a theme as that is. He has an honest and substantial disagreement with his friends concerning who is the righteous party in this rhetorical conflict that we have been able to witness since the third chapter of this book. If Job were to pretend that his friends were more righteous than he was, he would be a liar. He will not do this. They are right that God will judge the wicked, but what they are doing to Job is wicked, and God will judge them.
Many worshipers of God do not have enough of an appreciation of some very basic facts about the Lord. God is good, all the time, and His wisdom is perfect. He is the only One who can definitively speak concerning the nature of ultimate righteousness. He is and always will be against wickedness. The wicked cannot dwell in His presence.
Christ's cross is not only a display of the mercy of God, it is also a public vindication of His justice. The One who died for us was far above all of His companions in the perfection of His righteousness. God was not simply making necessary allowances for Christ in His evaluation of His Son. He glorified the Name of Jesus because this one Servant was fully worthy of that glory. In the death of our righteous Substitute, our sin was atoned for, and the wrath of God against evil was not ignored but fully satisfied. This is the only way that God shows mercy, not by ignoring the glory of His justice but by fulfilling that justice through the sentence of His wrath upon our Redeemer, who took the hell that we deserved. In this way our Almighty God brought the greatest bitterness upon the life of His own beloved Son, in order that we might not perish under the weight of all of His glorious justice.
Man is an amazing and resourceful creature of God. He has discovered precious metals and gems in the depths of the earth. Getting at these wondrous and valuable objects is no easy matter. No other creature could accomplish it. Gold and sapphire do not grow on trees only to be plucked like low-lying fruit harvested by the casual traveler. Mining requires knowledge, planning, skill, determination, and hard work. Darkness gives way to light in hidden places inside the earth. Rivers are dammed up and as the waters drain away, dry land is rediscovered, and once-hidden beauties are revealed as treasures made visible. The most majestic creatures of sky and land could never accomplish that kind of harvest from fields of glory beneath the surface of the deep.
As impressive as mining is, Job, the suffering servant of the Lord, urges any who will listen to him in his reduced state, to consider the glory of mining for wisdom. Where shall we find wisdom? The first problem to which he draws our attention is that men do not know the worth of wisdom. Therefore, they seem unwilling to put in the effort necessary to observe life, to consider, evaluate, and to draw sound conclusions. But there is a bigger problem than our lack of interest. We cannot discover ultimate wisdom simply from observation and sound reflection. Job says that wisdom “is not found in the land of the living.” Apparently wisdom comes from another place, and we do not have free access to mine there, no matter how much effort or intelligence we might apply to such a worthy enterprise.
If something is beyond a person's ability, he may hire someone else to do the work for him. But wisdom cannot be bought. Since we know how to mine for precious metals and gems, perhaps we can finally dig up enough below the earth to buy anything we want. Can't anything be purchased for a price? No, there are many things that money cannot buy, and wisdom is one such thing. It is of surpassing worth.
So where does wisdom come from? The gold and sapphire of the earth are God's illustration for us of the answer. Just as the lion cannot see those glorious treasures as he walks the face of the land, man cannot see the glories of heavenly wisdom. There is a place of understanding, but it is hidden from the eyes of all living. The world of the dead has heard a rumor of it, but there is some other realm in which wisdom truly abides. God knows that place, and He knows the way to it.
It is one thing to know the place of wisdom, of life, and of love, to have heard of these things with your ears, and to have longed for that place and all its treasures with your soul. It is another to know the way there. God knows this. To know the way to ultimate wisdom is to know the way to God. He dwells in a land of wisdom, and it is from that high place that He governs all things in heaven and on earth, doing all that pleases Him.
From that place He sees everything, and He knows. More than that, He rules, and in His ruling He makes beautiful use of all the depths of His own wisdom and knowledge. In wisdom He made the earth, and in wisdom He sustains all that He has made, even the man He uses to speak these words, His friend, Job. Job's sufferings are not just a little rain shower. They are a torrent of trouble and sorrow from the Almighty. These trials include the gale of advisers who make up stories of Job's sin and then insist that they have understood the ways of God in the life of this afflicted man. Through all of this, there is some comfort in knowing that not only is the hand of the Almighty powerful, but also that the heart of God who ordains all things is wise.
We should be able to endorse the words of Job that close this chapter, words that Solomon seemed to echo in the book of Proverbs: “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.” If Job's friends had the wisdom to hear this word from heaven through the lips of Job, they would do very well to consider and to repent of their own presumptuous advice. They do not know Job's sin. They do not understand why Job has lost so much and been afflicted suddenly with so much pain. They do not comprehend the ways of God. They should surely have placed their hands over their mouths. They should be the first ones who repent in dust and ashes.
Ultimate wisdom is real. It comes from the place where God dwells. The Wisdom of God came as a man to display the perfect reverence for God, obedience to all His precepts, and supreme love for us on the cross. We have not understood that cross, but we receive it, we embrace it, we boast in it, and we proclaim it. Jesus is Himself heaven's richest gem, the source of all life, and the embodiment of the dwelling place of God. He is the temple in that place. Even now, we worship in Him. He is the only Way for those who are trying to discover where they might find the Wisdom that will stand the test of divine judgment.
Is a memory of good times always pleasant? No, for a person adjusting to life after loss, thoughts of former days of blessing can be bitter. We want to go back, but there is simply no way to return to the life that we once knew. Job was in his prime before disaster struck. He had a vital sense of communion with God just a few months ago, but now where is the Lord? God was once a present reality, a great light of wisdom shining over him, directing Job in the way of thinking and living.
What was life like then? The Lord was in Job's home as a powerful Friend. Job's children were all around him. Was anything wrong back then? If so, Job cannot seem to remember it. All was shining with the light of heaven, and everything was plentiful in goodness and beauty, not only within his home, but as he moved out from that place of strength to be useful in the city square.
Job was not only a man of private peace, but also of public concern. He used to take his place at the city gate in order to make wise judgments that would help those who were in need. Everyone knew this about Job. They used to see him coming and would make way. A hush would come over the crowd as other respected men stopped talking because Job was now there.
Then he would speak, and everyone would remember again why they made their words few in his presence. Job had messages to give that fell well upon the ear, words that were heard and recognized as right and timely. Can we imagine what it would be like for a man like this to face scoffing rudeness now? And all of the disrespect that he faces has come to him not as a result of his transgressions, but because of his tragedies, and because of his unwillingness to own up to some secret unrighteousness that others presume to be hidden within him.
Now he faces disapproval in public; before he was approved. Job was once a benefactor and helper of people who needed to be rescued. People used to cry for help, and Job was there to hear and to provide assistance. Because of this, the poor and the lonely used to bless Job's name, and even sing for joy about the man's goodness.
Live for a moment with Job in the bitterness of good memories that are no more. Come mourn with him awhile, and with all the righteous who feel that even the blessings of the past have become a deep pain in the present. Feel the goodness of old days and know that the way back into the garden is blocked by an angel with a flaming sword, not because of Job's sin, but because of God's mysterious providence.
One day the memories will once again be sweeter treasures, but not today. Won't you sit by Job and enter into a blessed past that has become a present pain? Let him talk; he only has three little chapters left before he will listen and even learn. Hear his words and become a deeper person as you discover past victories that have turned into defeats.
Do you see the past? There Job is at the city gate a few months ago, clothed in an invisible righteousness that everyone acknowledges. He helps the man who cannot see, and the woman who cannot walk leans on his arm. Here is a young boy running up to him, an orphan who calls him “father.” Job is on his way to the house of someone he has never met before. He arrives at just the right moment, confronts some oppressor with words of wisdom, snatching a new friend out of the jaws of the wicked. Later that night, when evening comes, Job drifts off to sleep in peace, thinking about how everything will continue for him and for his family, and how he will die in grace. People will listen to his last words, and his children gathered around his bed will close his eyes gently with their fingers after his final breath, and they will weep with many who have known him as their friend and protector, people who are better men and women now because they have known a man named Job.
But now move forward to another day and mourn not only the blessings of the past but also dreams that seem lost forever. Mourn for the man who fed thousands with bread from heaven in the wilderness. He healed the blind with a word and restored a child to a grieving parent. When He taught, it was not like any other teacher; He spoke with divine authority. He stilled the seas and He walked on the water. And He never sinned. They wanted to make Him king. But now everyone is ashamed of Him, and even His disciples run away. Someone spits in His face, and another slaps Him. They pierce His hands and feet, and He dies on a cross. He does not die peacefully on His bed with those who love Him gathered all around. He is lifted up as an object of sin and shame. But listen to these words that He finally utters as He breathes His last: “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”
Jesus was a great man who experienced a very sudden turn of events. His is a story of the kind of deep tragedy that seems to destroy not only the present and the future but also the past. Yet today, millions boat in His cross, believing that our hope has been secured by His death and resurrection. If we are companions to those who suffer deeply, let us listen to them speak about the past and mourn with them about the good times that once were and about dreams that cannot be. If we face loss ourselves, let us do the only thing that we can do: commit our lives into the hands of the One who gave His beloved Son that we might have a future and a hope, knowing that our present suffering is not worthy to compare with the glory that will one day be revealed.
Where do we find our satisfaction in a day when our best memories only bring deep sadness? Until someone has experienced this kind of loss, he may imagine that good memories will always be good, and that only bad memories, shame, and regret will be troublesome. In the previous chapter we were able to see something different by connecting with the loss of this righteous man, Job. The happy past is gone, and those memories do not yet bring joy but pain. The reason for the pain is not the past itself, but the sadness of the present and the flaming sword of God prohibiting our return to a happier day.
Paradise is lost, yet there is still life. “But now,” Job begins in this chapter, “they laugh at me.” It is a common observation that we may not truly appreciate what we have until it is taken away. The respect that Job may have once taken for granted is gone. Job lived in a culture where older men who had proven themselves wise were respected by others, and where the children even of the foolish would learn to show deference to the most honored members of the community. But now Job has fallen at the intersection of various tragedies that could barely have been imagined before they came to pass. He has been brought low not only in terms of his emotional condition, but also in the esteem of others who have decided that these events must be a sign of the Lord's displeasure with a man they once counted great. Even the most wretched ones now think themselves to be superior to Job.
They are not quiet or discreet in their disrespect of the Lord's suffering servant. They have songs about him and have turned his story into a proverb of what happens to the man with secret sin. They consider him unclean and come near only to spit in his presence, to push him till he stumbles to the ground, and to prevent him from continuing on his way. They are a crowd of enemies who roll over him. His honor and prosperity are gone like a vapor that has passed away from sight and is forgotten.
His soul, his life, is being poured out like a man who is slowly dying from hidden wounds. Each day is an enemy that takes hold of him, shaking his weak frame, and leaving him worse off than the day before. There is no relief in the night, for his pain admits no rest. In the awful present of Job's existence, the greatest trouble that he faces is not from the people around him, or the physical and emotional pain within him. His greatest distress is not even from unbelief, but from faith. He knows that God is, and he knows that God rules. God has cast him into the mire. Do not think that the answer to the book of Job is that Satan is the one who has done all this. Satan is not the Almighty One. God is in charge. God decrees. God must permit. Job's faith troubles him now. He knows that God is God.
Job cries out to the Almighty One, but where is His help for His beloved servant in this time of distress? Job knows that God sees and that God alone knows the truth. He feels the cruelty of the Lord's sovereign power. He feels the unrelenting persecution of events that he knows to be in the Lord's ultimate control. All that seems left to him now is death. He is desperate, but what can he do?
It is our instinct to look for someone who is more powerful who can help us in a day of disaster. Job knows this from the giving end, but now he is in the needy position. He used to hear the cries of the poor and the oppressed, and he would come to their aid. He was not emotionally detached from the troubles of others. He wept for them, and he grieved at their losses. But now he cries out, and where will his help come from? He hoped for good, and evil came; evil, darkness, turmoil, loneliness, disgrace, pain, and mourning; they came to Job, and they will not go away.
The past is the past. The former days of blessing are gone. What is left is the seemingly unending “now,” and God cannot be found. Will this ever end?
When Isaiah spoke of the sufferings of the coming Messiah, he acknowledged that Jesus would be despised and rejected by men. Yet the deepest pain that our Redeemer faced was not the hatred of a mob, the denial of a disciple, or even the betrayal of a friend. He knew that He had come to earth to face the wrath of God for us. There was no other way to atone for our sin. So the prophet writes, “It was the will of the Lord to crush. He has put Him to grief.”
Jesus suffered this for us. When we suffer deeply as people of faith, we do not atone for anyone's sins. We could never do that. But we do face the problem of our faith. Where is my sovereign God who works all things together for my good and His glory? This is not the cry of unbelief, but the pain of belief. Perhaps it is of some comfort to those who face this kind of distress to remember that Job, and especially Jesus, faced the agonies of faith. The Son of God went through that trial for your salvation.
Throughout his speeches, this great servant of the Lord has not specifically defended himself, except to say that his friends are wrong in suggesting that he has some secret sin that caused his fall. As they spoke against him, they were increasingly specific in their suspicions, creating areas of sin for which they had no evidence. Job did not really need to refute their charges, since their inventions of his wrong-doing lacked all credibility. Their main point of evidence was Job's unusual suffering. This they thought to be enough proof all by itself that something was not right in Job's soul.
Now as Job concludes his remarks, he gives us some insight into his true hatred of sin. He sets the record straight, in case there was any confusion on this matter, and he emphatically denies their insinuations. He is a man of God, and no lesser man should accuse him of unrighteousness, suggesting that his sin is a sign of the Lord's disfavor.
This may sound like boasting, but Job will not let their false words go unanswered. Where should he start? Well, Job does not go around looking at young women. He knows the dangers of that kind of loose imagination, and he has made an arrangement with his eyes that they are not allowed to wander where they should not gaze. Though no one else might see an improper glance, God would know, and Job has not been willing to bring calamity upon his house because of his undisciplined desires. Remember, this was a man who habitually offered sacrifices for his children just in case they sinned with some excess in their family celebrations. Those children are now gone, and Job knows that it is not somehow his fault.
Job lays out all that he is before the gaze of God, and urges the Lord to bring upon him the justice that he deserves if he really is a liar and a cheat. Has he been some adulterer or thief? If so, then may God take all of his crops and give them to someone else. Has he enticed a woman with improper affections and advances? Then may someone do the same to his wife. A person who lives that way is a fool. Job wants nothing of that kind of behavior. It rightly leads to the grave. Has Job been unjust to those who worked for him like a pig-headed man who will not even listen to the concerns of those who serve him? God knows that such a charge is a lie. If he had abused the poor, he would have offended the One who is the Creator of rich and poor alike.
What has Job's life been like? Is his righteousness only the avoidance of evil? No, Job has habitually given to the poor from his fields and his table. The fatherless and the widow have always found a friend in him. He was not a man of pious words devoid of action. He saw those who needed clothing and shelter, and found a way to help them out of his own storehouses. Has Job abused the poor? If so, then let the Almighty dislocate this godly man's shoulder and tear out his arm from its socket. How many of us would want to taunt God like this concerning how faithfully we have attended to those who needed our help?
How about the inner life of the soul where no man can see? Job was once a wealthy man. Did he trust in his gold rather than his God? That would have been easy to do. It is easy to have secret idolatry that perverts the hearts of even the best men. Was Job happy when his enemies faced suffering? Did he curse those who hated him? But this has not been the story of his life. He has been a righteous man, and yet all of this has happened to him. His goodness was not a matter of concealed transgressions discovered in due time by the Lord's discipline. His godliness was real.
O God, hear this good man when he cries out to you! What has Job done in order to bring about this horrible sorrow? Where is the indictment against him? He is begging to know his offense. But what can any man say? What would a great prophet of God say? What would God Himself say?
Doesn't anyone have the courage to say the obvious? Job is a righteous man. From everything that anyone could have known, he was least deserving of this kind of treatment of all those among whom he lived. If Job is not safe, how can any of us still live? Why am I allowed to live in peace when Job suffers so deeply? Can't we just admit that this makes no sense?
Job has finished his speech. We think now of the righteousness of Christ, all that he rejected that needed to be avoided, and all that he embraced that had to be accomplished. Here was the keeper of the Law, condemned by those who imagined themselves to be the Law's most loyal defenders. Yet they did not keep the Law they loved. There is only one vindication that would be a worthy end for such a man. If He must lay down His life for our sake, let Him have the honor of taking it back up again. If He must face the disrespect of fools, make it so that one day every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And God, make a way for a faithful man like Job to be saved by your grace, because we just don't understand what has happened to him. Amen.
Job's words have ended. Suddenly there is another voice to listen to, the young man Elihu, and we are told that he burned with anger at the great man Job. We have been defending Job up to this point in the book, because we know that God speaks so highly of him both at the beginning and the end of this great work. We have also critiqued Job's friends, because God Himself says that they did not speak rightly of him. Yet God has nothing to say about this man Elihu. We hear his words for several chapters, and then suddenly God speaks to Job directly. Is Elihu speaking for God in his critique of both Job and his three friends, or is he a brash young man who should have kept his thoughts to himself? We are not given a direct answer. Yet we do see that Elihu picks up on themes that Job himself has developed, and that the Lord will continue these same themes when He speaks in person at the end of the book.
The question remains: Is Elihu righteous in his anger toward Job? We are told that this prophetic figure was angry with righteous Job because Job justified himself rather than God. There is something important here that is worthy of our consideration. Job knows that God is more righteous than he is, and yet at times in his speeches the great man has wanted to enter into judgment against the Almighty, and to presume to correct the Fountain of all righteousness. This fault is not the secret sin that Job's friends presumed to invent. It became known in the course of a public discourse. It was a real fact, not a supposition. Job presumed to enter into judgment against one more righteous than he: God. This was ironically displayed in the course of less righteous men presuming to be judges of Job. Job felt the insult of that. It was a lesson that he needed to learn himself.
Elihu also rebukes Job's three friends. They had found no honest answer to the dilemma of Job's great suffering, but instead of being silent in their ignorance, or simply admitting that they did not understand, they declared Job to be in the wrong, though they had no evidence. They needed to be corrected, but Elihu did not want to do the job. He waited for someone else to speak, but no one older or more respected came forward. Burning with anger, he finally felt compelled to talk.
At various points earlier in the book the friends of Job presented their conclusions as if they were the teaching of God. Remember that Eliphaz spoke of a spiritual experience he had one night and assumed that he must be giving a secret word from heaven that should be received as true. All three men were greatly insulted by Job's complete rejection of their advice, as if they had spoken the Word of God. Now a younger man speaks, and he claims that he really does speak for God, not merely as one who finds out what God has said and teaches about it, but as a prophetic mouthpiece of the Almighty.
Can Elihu avoid hypocrisy in his critique of Job? Job has judged the most righteous being, God, in order to declare himself righteous. Job's friends have entered into judgment against Job, a godlier man by far than any of them. How can this young man Elihu speak against both Job and Job's friends without committing the same offense? The only way around this trap is for Elihu to speak, not out of his own righteousness, but out of the Spirit of divine prophesy.
Elihu is aware that Almighty God is using him. Throughout the history of God's leading of men, He has chosen certain people to be His prophetic spokesmen. When they speak, God speaks. There have been many others who have presumed to represent God, and yet they have been judged to be false prophets. The only way to discern whether someone is a true prophet is to test what that person is saying according to the known speech of God.
Elihu will speak for the next few chapters. He is full of words that he feels constrained now to deliver. He cannot contain this message within himself. He must speak. He will not do so like a man who is trying to impress others, lest God take him away for presumptuously impersonating a prophet of the Lord. We will listen to his words and measure them, not by our own judgment, but by the established Word of the Lord. We will let Scripture interpret and validate Scripture.
In the fullness of time, a final Prophet of God came. At about thirty years of age, He suddenly stood up to speak about the kingdom of God. He called Israel to repentance, and He brought a Word of life to those who had ears to hear. Many wanted Him to stop speaking, but He was the Word of God made flesh. He would accomplish His purpose. Eventually He would say these words: “It is finished,” and He would take His place again in the highest heavens. Though many would presume to judge Him, there is no one who is righteous enough to do so. Despite all of the confusion and sin among His followers, all who are in this one final Word of God have been granted heavenly life. He has the words of life. He is the Word of life.
Elihu speaks to Job as one who is an ambassador of the Almighty. Not that he is God Himself. No, he is from the dust of the earth, just as Job is. He is not necessarily a man of great physical power who would force Job to admit anything or to say a word against his own will. Elihu is just a man, and he promises Job that his message will not be too heavy upon the Lord's servant.
Elihu has been listening to Job's words. Does Job really want to press a case against God, focusing on his own purity? Yes, Job is pure in the company of men, but will he focus on his blamelessness in the presence of the only wise God? Does Job actually want to go on to point out God's faults, contending that God is his enemy? Will this line of defense help Job in some way?
God is greater than man. He does not ever need to give an answer to even the most righteous man on the earth. There is no good reason to contend against Him. Does anyone expect that God will lower Himself to answer Job's charges? It is the glory of a king to conceal a matter. How much more with God. God can reveal as well as conceal as He chooses. He shows forth the truth in all kinds of ways among the sons of men. We are not without His excellent testimony in nature. Does the God who created the brain cells of a man need to answer the charge that was formed within the brain of a man?
God reveals Himself in many ways. What He chooses to say, He can hint at in a dream, bringing some measure of peace to a man according to His own mercy. He can give that man a warning in a nightmare, producing a fright that turns him from a pathway of transgression that would have only led to trouble and pain. The way of pride may be hidden from him at a critical moment, averting an untimely death. God can reveal something to a man that way if He chooses.
God's arm is not so short that He cannot rescue a man in as much misery even as Job. A man may be brought low on his bed, wasting away with no hope of which he is aware. He may stop eating because he has no appetite either for food or for life. Yet God may find a mediator for him at the last moment, according to His mysterious plan. There may be one who somehow intercedes with power, who brings just the right word, or who even takes a man's place as his substitute in some discipline, and the man who had been given up for dead will live again.
This is not a message accusing Job. It is a word about God. These prophetic words redirect our attention away from trouble to some new hope from the Lord through His storehouse of power and mercy. Somehow there is a prayer that is actually heard. A man prays to God, and the Lord accepts him. Such a thing can happen at any moment. God has not forgotten how to rescue. God knows how to make a man sing again, even in the presence of angels. That is how great God is. Think of Him for a moment. Then say with all His saints, “God has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.”
The Lord can do this even for a bad man. He can do it more than once for a man of very little merit. He has His reasons, and He is not required to explain Himself to anyone. When all hope seems lost, as a man slips away into the darkness of the grave, the Lord brings the man's soul back from the pit, and the light of heaven returns to the eyes of a mortal man.
This is a good thing for Job to listen to. The Lord's prophet, Elihu, is preparing this man, Job, deeply loved by God, to hear from His Maker, who is able to restore him and to bless him more than He ever had in the past. His new life does not need to be less than His old life. Call off the doctors! Send home the undertakers and the mourners. Job may yet have a life left on this earth since there is a God in heaven who still does wonders upon the earth. Elihu does not want to condemn Job, but to justify him, and he speaks words of wisdom before the suffering man, words from on high, words of life.
If someone is to speak this way to the Lord's suffering servant, he must do so in the power of the Holy Spirit. The message is a good one. It is a message of a Redeemer, a Mediator with God, a Ransom that is found for us, a Jesus pleading before the throne of God above for the Lord's beloved Job. It is a message of the mercy and power of God through His own appointed methods, and not through man making God look bad. That message cannot come by human wisdom or power. It must come from on high, from the place where Jesus lived before He came to save us. We cannot muster it up. It is a prophetic message. It is a gift of God's grace by the Holy Spirit. Let us receive it eagerly and look up to God. Let us find a breath of life in a difficult world of death.
When a prophetic ambassador speaks, he does not demand that men be machines, accepting what is said without carefully weighing the message against the Scriptures. God wants us to hear and even to test the words of those who say they speak for Him, and then to choose what is right. Job's problem was not in critiquing the advice of his friends. He was right to reject their messages. Where Job seems to have erred was in suggesting that he could actually judge God's righteousness. It is one thing to weigh the words of a prophet. It is another to think that we could ever have the capacity to judge God Himself, and to find Him lacking in righteousness. The first is commendable. The second is sin.
When Job says that he is in the right, there is something true about what he is asserting. Particularly when compared with the righteousness of his friends, Job is in the right. Where he veers away from propriety is when he says, “God has take away my right,” as if to bring an accusation against the Almighty. Is Job claiming to be superior in righteousness to the Being who is the source and definition of unchanging justice? If not, how can Job seem to judge God?
Elihu's goal is not merely to accuse Job, but to help him, redirecting him to thoughts of the greatness of God. This is what we really need, though we may not always be ready, or perhaps even able, to take in this good medicine. Our experience of the Almighty will not consistently lift us up. Experience changes. It is God Himself who never changes. The contemplation of God is very different than the contemplation of our experience of God. Let us hear about God. Let us sing about God. Let us think about God. This is the redirection we need, away from our pain, away from injustice, away from what others have accused us of, and toward only God.
If Job is tempted to judge the righteousness of God, it would be far better for him to consider the unchanging justice of the Lord which belongs to God forever, a justice that is beyond our judging, but not entirely beyond our meditation. This is what the Lord's prophet Elihu brings before Job, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We should not try this on our own as if a theology lecture to suffering friends is always the right thing to do. God is speaking through His instrument Elihu. You can take this good Word into your heart through the Scriptures, asking that God would fill you with His Spirit and help you in your distress.
Can we listen to words of God's justice? God never does anything wicked. He knows every man, He sees the way a man gives to the poor, and He will repay him. There is no one above God, who gave God control of the world. He has the capability to end everything in a moment. What would be left of us if God did that right now?
God is not only righteous, but also mighty. Who will challenge Him? No man could ever stand up to the Lord. We die, and He is eternal. He made us. We did not make Him. There are many powerful men on the earth, but let's not look at them. We should gaze at the One who cannot be seen. He can see us. He sees our steps, and He judges rightly. There is no hiding from God. Imagine that: God never needs to conduct an investigation in order to know the facts about a person. We are immediately before Him. He uses this knowledge to take action, taking down the arrogant whenever He wills. If God is quiet, it is not that His eye has been distracted by a subtle enemy. If a godless man reigns, if an enemy should bring trouble upon His people, no one crying out to God brings Him news of which He is unaware. Does it seem that He is not moving fast enough to save? How do you evaluate this disappointment? Which is more likely? That God has made a mistake in His timing, or that something is indeed happening that we do not understand?
Is God going to apologize to Job for what has taken place in this good man's life? Does that seem like the best thing for God to do? Does God have to give us what we want once we are finished with what we think His discipline should be in any situation? Who can say to God, “I think I have had enough now. This would be a good time to restore to me again what affliction has taken away.” Who can teach God what measure of comfort would be right for us, or when precisely one of His beloved saints needs to take more of the troubles of this world, and when those troubles should be over?
People are saying that Job speaks without insight. Maybe they know something, or maybe they don't. But God does know. It is this God who is working out His eternal purpose in Christ. This God sees the events that cut like jagged edges in our hearts, those things that even a man must point to as “wrong.” Yet it is God alone who knows what is necessary for sin to be put away through the suffering of His Son. No one else can turn away from the horror of seeing the cross, and say to God, “Enough already!” God must tear the curtain in the Holy of Holies from top to bottom, and Christ alone is able to say, “It is finished.” If this belongs to God, then He also knows when our present affliction will be over, and when it shall be fulfilled which God has promised, that though “weeping may tarry for the night, joy comes with the morning.”
It is often rightly advised that whoever seeks to comfort those who have suffered greatly should speak less and listen more. What may not be as readily appreciated is that this is also sound advice for the one who is grieving, though not right away. It is true that people need some time to tell their story and to cry out to God. In the first few weeks after loss some people imagine that they are doing very well, and can give great testimony to God in those opening days of grief, but they have probably not even begun to feel the heavy burden of what has happened to them. After the spiritual anesthesia wears off, they may be shocked by the physical heartache and the overwhelming emotional distress and confusion that attack them. Of course they may say all kinds of things at that time, and that is much better than trying to continue to pretend that they are doing well. But eventually the time may come when even they are tired of their own story. They may then come to see that not all of their words to God and to others were true, right, and good.
God can certainly take any abuse we may give Him. He can take our statements that go over the edge, but we need to come to our own conclusion that error and excess do not do us any good. They cannot restore what we have lost. They do not help us to embrace the new life that is ahead of us. They will not heal the wounds of our souls. Job has said some things that might have gone too far. The Lord is using His servant Elihu to redirect Job away from this loss, and toward the greatness of God. Does Job really believe that he would have been better off if he had sinned? I doubt it. But I do not doubt that the thought that his righteous life was useless may have occurred to him. God knows our thoughts.
Of course it is never wise to pursue sin. But Elihu answers these errors of the heart, not by pointing to their obvious folly directly, but by telling Job and the rest of us who would read these words to look at the heavens and to consider the glory of God. We cannot win a fight against the One who loves His beloved people. We will never stain the righteousness of God. This is good to consider. Am I angry with the events that have transpired in my life? Am I perplexed by the actions of the Almighty? Yes, but do I understand that I will never take anything away from the One who created the heavens and the earth? His greatness is beyond my reach. His love is beyond my foolish thoughts. I only hurt myself by dwelling on things that are not true. Praise God, I cannot hurt Him. It is probably time to say less.
Have you ever considered the idea that if God has turned His face away from your cries for a season, that may have been more for your own good than because of God's anger at you? Could it be that God does not want to pay attention to your foolishness, like a father who will not listen to the angry, silly insults that his young son hurls at him? Job has surely not said everything that he has thought, but now a prophet of God is here, and God is able to reveal things that are hidden, so that the hearer is finally forced to admit that the secrets of his heart have been laid bare, and thus he should fall down and worship.
Now it is time for holy redirection toward God, His attributes, His ways, and His many gifts. It is a great mystery how the Holy Spirit will finally enable a person to happily and willingly hear what otherwise might have been rejected as insensitive and offensive. Now the heart that was so bruised remembers that God does give songs in the night, and a hurting soul is helped. God teaches me. If He seemed to turned away for a moment, maybe that was the best thing. He will visit me again.
“Lord, I was foolish when I challenged you the other day. What was I thinking of? This man is right in what he is saying. Thank you for being patient with me. You have not come against me in anger, despite my words. I am sorry that I had some empty talk in my mouth, and that I kept on speaking about things that I could not possibly understand.”
The time has come for Job to say less. He will not even open His mouth until the prophetic figure Elihu somehow gives way to the immediate presence of God. Even then Job will only speak when God insists that he respond. When he does finally talk, his heart will be humble.
Jesus taught for three years. He said of His ministry, “I was sent for this purpose.” Not only did He teach publicly and send out His disciples to do the same, He especially revealed the secrets of the kingdom in His private teaching of His disciples. He had much to say, and all of it was without sin. If we were able to examine even His innermost thoughts during times of deepest trouble and even distress, we could still never accuse Him of any sin. Yet even for our Lord, the time for talking eventually came to an end. There was no need to respond to the charges of enemies who hated Him. He spoke the loudest simply through His willing death for us. Here was a powerful Word that was fully acceptable to the Father. We must eventually stop speaking about our sorrows and start looking to the Man of Sorrows as the Source of all the healing we could ever ask for or even imagine.
The grieving soul needs to find God. This is not an easy thing to do, even for people who have believed in and known the Lord for as long as they can remember. It does not normally help for someone to come to mourners in that condition of permanent life-altering loss and to begin talking to them about God or instructing them that they need to find God and lean upon Him, even though that is a fact. There is one person you listen to more than anyone else on the planet: yourself. It is best to hear instruction directly from your own soul. Say something like this to yourself when the time is right: “Why so downcast O my soul? Put your hope in God!” (Psalm 42:5)
There is one voice that is even more powerful than the voice of a person's own soul: the voice of God. At times throughout the history of God's speech, He has spoken through prophets, as here with Elihu speaking to Job. Job does not interrupt Elihu. He listens. How do we distinguish this speech from that of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar? That is a very mysterious question. Even if the content were entirely the same, which it is not, there is something different with Elihu. He really is a messenger from God. The other men were not speaking for God. God promises that His own Word will not return empty to Him. There is no such promise for the vast crowd of overly spiritual advisers to the grieving, who talk too much when they should just admit that they do not understand what God is doing.
The voice of God through Elihu powerfully reorients the soul of this great man, Job, to the God that he has never stopped believing in and never stopped loving. Bear with Elihu now, for he really is God's messenger until the Lord Himself will speak. Job was the best messenger of God earlier in the book, and now Elihu speaks with a great prophetic spirit and Job listens. Soon God Himself will speak without any prophet, and everyone else will have to fear, listen, and obey. Inasmuch as Job and Elihu have accurately spoken the Lord's Word, God has truly spoken through them. Yet who can help but be taken aback when the Almighty One comes directly from heaven to talk to His beloved servant Job? But for now, Elihu redirects well the heart of this grieving lover of God.
His message? What a mighty God is the Lord! His glory is not only in physical force. He has the power of perfect understanding and faultless accomplishment. His purpose will stand, and His timing is unquestionably right. He sees His afflicted one. He even knows who will be His eternal King, and He will exalt that One above all the nations forever. For those to whom He grants some measure of authority on earth, He watches their works and disciplines their arrogance in His own perfect way. He can make anyone willingly hear, believe, and obey. Some respond to His outward entreaty according to an inward effectual call that men cannot see. Others harden themselves to His instruction and are left in the disastrous pride that will lay them low and hurt those around them.
Here is something amazing to consider: God is free to draw the righteous near to Him through affliction that would normally come to the ungodly. This treatment that seems so unjust to us is not a good excuse to heap ignorant accusations upon the Lord or to scoff at Him as if we knew anything. The misery that we feel is part of the pathway of a powerful ransom for the elect of God, an expression of His love for us, and not a sign of our special sinfulness or of His unusual displeasure. Do not mock at powerful mysteries, but receive what you cannot possibly understand. There is no way to avoid His providence anyway, and through the worst of times, God is still unchanging in His goodness.
Embrace the affliction somehow and embrace God. How can anyone do that? Can a person like Job be expected to be happy about what has happened to his children, all of them gone in a moment? Let's not say too much, just receive what we can never change and marvel at God. As you grow in your recovery, stop wishing for your own death. That is not the attitude of a child who trusts his father. Let the Lord be exalted and let Him teach you as He sees fit according to His own eternal counsel. Take in the affliction, though you hate it, rather than trying to go around it.
This was the pathway of Jesus, the sinless Servant of the Lord. Of course He despised the cross for the evil thing that it was, yet He embraced it for the glorious thing that it became. He extolled His Father, and gave Himself entirely into His hand. The church still sings about this centuries after it has been accomplished: One Man suffered well, and He emerged perfectly victorious for our sake. Therefore, we agree with the Son of God that God is great. We do not understand His eternal nature and His infinite and unchangeable wisdom as He touches our own lives with present sorrow. We see the lightning, and we hear the thunder. It seems too close. We know that the Lord has brought water up into the clouds, and that He is pouring forth His gift of rain upon the earth. And we know that the seed that has been planted in death will yet be harvested in the fruitfulness of life, and that requires not only sunshine, but also rain. Not all rain is gentle. To feel affliction rightly is to find the greatness of God in the storm, and to trust Him in the eternal quietness of His own divine love, receiving and giving back, appreciating and putting to good use whatever He ordains for us in this place of tears and hope.
When we gather together to worship God, our hearts are directed toward Him and away from ourselves. While we come there to find peace, not every moment in His presence is equally peaceful. Some of the things that we hear from His Word are supposed to make us tremble. This is also true of life. There is a difference between our experience of a broad meadow on a day of gentle sunshine and the feelings we have in that same place when the thunder and lightning of God are all around us.
Job has heard the thunder of God. Destruction came down from heaven upon his household. When lightning strikes so close, it may take some time to recover from the shock. Then we look around to see if anyone was hurt. When we are able to feel the magnitude of the loss, that is our focus for some time. Eventually we may be capable of thinking about the Power who gives life and who takes it away. Our eyes one day focus less on ourselves, and we find a more glorious sight to behold as we tremble before God.
This trembling before the Lord's majesty in worship and in life can be accompanied by a simultaneous awareness of the goodness of God and of His amazing ability to work out His purposes through things that are very evil. Wickedness and trouble are everywhere. We can look at the distressing actions of people in bringing harm to others, or we can consider the forces of nature at work in a powerful storm, and we must insist that oppression and overwhelming winds of death are not good in their essential nature. Yet we know that God is sovereign over everything, and He is good. He thunders wondrously with His voice. He does great things that we cannot comprehend. To embrace this truth is to move toward health. When we allow ourselves to think about something beyond the damage brought about by the storm, we can consider the One who has the power behind even the worst tragedy.
Lightning can seem to fill the entire sky. The thunder that swiftly follows may be too much for our ears to take. We run for shelter along with every wild beast. God can bring a whirlwind or a river of ice from the sky that brings down the trees of the field. Do we imagine that these events have nothing to do with the Almighty, that they are simply the result of natural forces without any divine purpose? How then will we ever find peace when we see that our loved ones have lost their lives in that storm? Was God unaware? If the Lord is the Almighty God of heaven and earth, He must be the One in charge of life and death. The storm is not God. The Lord is God over the storm. Look at Him. Consider His power and His greatness. Tremble before Him, and eventually, find peace in Him. We do not know all that He is doing in the storm. We cannot understand whether He is correcting His people, or whether the worst loss we experience is a secret design for the securing of some everlasting mercy. But we know Him, and we know that He commands the storm. Otherwise the storm is more of a God than the Lord, and all is lost.
Consider the wondrous works of God. We don't know how He does them. To faithful science belongs the trembling thrill of examining the secondary forces at work that bring the hurricane. This is a sacred charge, to look hard at the facts of nature, to make hypotheses, and to consider ways that theories can be tested with experimentation. But beyond every second cause of every storm, whether in the heart of the earth or in the secret recesses of a child's mind, there is the First Cause of all things. We must turn to Him for healing.
Even when we think God's thoughts after Him and discover the way that weather patterns function, can we actually make weather for the earth? Even if we could do that, are we able to place the galaxies in motion? Can we do these things and still live? Will others live after our efforts to control the world have run their course? Do we think that we can teach the Almighty? Have we found the flaws in His handiwork, and discovered good solutions that will not themselves eventually cause even greater troubles?
What if a man could come from heaven who would actually have the mind of God with all that divinity somehow resting in His person? What would such a Man be like, who with His divine nature could have knowledge about the storms of the earth and of the mind along with the power to repair both? That would be something! What would the necessary repair be for all our troubles? Would it follow upon the discovery of a technical flaw in the handiwork of God, some problem with His engineering specifications? Isn't it the case that any error would likely be in us and not in Him? If so, then the fix required would be the satisfaction of God's own holy demands.
God has come to us from on high in Jesus Christ. He knew that the problem in this world was in us, and so He became Man to save humanity. The solution was not a secret fix to some technical glitch. It came in the Lord's perfect provision of all the holy righteousness required by His Father. There was one other requirement for the full realization of the repair to heaven and earth: The perfect Son of God needed to die in our place. This was the only way to still the mighty thunder of God that was against us for our sin. This was the only solution that would allow us to find life beyond the folly that, since Adam, has been bound up within the troubled hearts of all of his descendants. God's answer for this troubled world is very different than the repairs that even the wisest and holiest people imagine in their own conceit. The resurrection of Jesus assures us that the solution of the cross of Christ truly worked. Let us gather together then with both trembling and joy, and let us worship God through Jesus Christ together with heaven's glorious host.
There are no words that could adequately express the terror of man in the presence of God after sin enters the world through Adam. The level of anyone's reasonable fear at such an encounter with a holy God is only increased by various complicating aggravations. For example, Job knows so much about God, and the one to whom much is given, from him much is required. Furthermore, at various moments in this great ordeal, God's friend Job has seemed to taunt the Almighty. That can't be safe. Finally, Job's heart has been prepared to greatly fear the Lord through the Word of the prophetic young ambassador, Elihu. To receive such a message awakens conviction of sin. Beyond any of these reasons, there is the overwhelming fact that Elihu has been describing an approaching storm as an example of God's great power, but now the Lord Himself has come to Job out of the whirlwind, and He has some questions for His suffering servant
Even though this passage begins with the words, “Then the Lord answered Job,” what follows in chapters 38-41 is an astounding list of questions. If this is an answer to any of Job's inquiries, it is not immediately apparent. In fact, the only answer that Job seems to get from God is the very best answer for any man of faith who suffers an affliction that he cannot possibly understand. God. God is the only answer.
The way for Job to see that God is the answer is through God questioning Job. Job had wanted to question God, but it is God who will ask the questions. The first one is this: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Job, the most righteous man of his day, a man of great wisdom, a man who has uttered prophetic revelation about the resurrection age to come, has spoken words that are beyond what he could know.
Job was not there when the earth was made. Jesus was there, but Job was not. Jesus was the One through whom all things were made. He is God's Workman. Job did not take a tape measure to the sphere on which we live and determine that all was according to specifications. Jesus knows the underpinnings of creation, and He is Himself the Cornerstone of the coming resurrection world. He came from heaven. Angels serve Him. They sing His praise, as they have since that first moment when those powerful sons of God shouted for joy. They took up their songs of praise again when Christ was born in Bethlehem. The ultimate Son of God was the One they worshiped.
Job was not there when the limits of the seas were determined and the dry land appeared. He could only hear about the world of waters above and waters below. He could be given a report from God about the days of Noah and that new beginning when life came forth from the ark. Jesus knows all of this as the eternal Son of God. He demonstrated His authority over the waters in the sight of His apostles. Job cannot still the waves or walk on water.
Job cannot make the sun rise in the east and set in the west, but Jesus is the meaning behind the sunrise. Every day in the life of Job as that great orb was observed by people, a story was being hinted at. One day Job's Redeemer will come as the ultimate resurrection Daystar. Even now He has made the light of God to shine in our hearts, signaling the coming of that final great age of light for which we have already received the earnest of the Holy Spirit. Job could not take a dead soul and make it alive. Job has no sovereignty over the living and the dead, but Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth.
Can Job bring forth lightning and thunder, rain and snow? He would not know where to start if God gave him the assignment of bringing about the whirlwind from which the Almighty has emerged in order to speak to His beloved suffering child. Do you see the mercy in all these questions that Job could not possibly answer? The redirection of Job toward God through the message of Elihu is now being completed by the great I AM. When everything seems to be spinning out of control, we need to set our hearts on the only Being who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” We might expect these words to refer to a God that we cannot see. But now God has come to us as one who took on human flesh forever in order to redeem humanity, and it is this Jesus who we are told is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is God, and He calls us His friends.
Redirect your heart to the friend who reigns in the heavens, far above every other power. He knows the constellations in the skies, not as a student of astronomy, but as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Consider what it means that the One who died for your sins is somehow the major Player in God, holding all things together by the Word of His power. Do you want to have well-being in tragedy? You will not find it in your own righteousness, even if you are as righteous as Job. You will not find it in your own knowledge and wisdom, even if you are as wise as Solomon. You will find a Rock to rest upon only in Jesus, the Wisdom and Power of God. Stop looking for answers that, even if you knew them, could never satisfy you. The answer is God in Jesus Christ. Trust Him.
It is not an easy thing for us to accept that the ultimate answer to our struggle in life is God Himself. The Lord is not normally visible to our eyes, and we do not know any way that we can see the heavenly world that he has secured for us. What we can see is the world below, the world where we live, and this is very helpful to us in considering the One who keeps that world alive. That consideration requires not only what our senses can take in from nature, but the reasoning powers that God has given to us, and especially the Word that God has chosen to reveal to us. Faith comes by hearing, and living by faith is the only way for the servant of the Lord.
We want to know where God is in our suffering. By His instruction to Job, we should consider what God is daily able to accomplish all across this world. We should think about what we cannot do and be humbled before the Lord.
In the most remote corners of creation, God is. There are places that we simply could not get to. Perhaps if we expended all of our resources we might find a way to go where mountain goats give birth. But what would we do when we arrived? Would we be able to see what God sees, to know what He knows, and to do what He does? He has complete awareness of all of the natural world and full sovereignty over the secondary causes that we might observe. I live in a part of the world where the moose lives, but in my years of traveling, I have never even seen one moose. God knows every moose on the planet. He knows when every calf is born, and he is in control of every force at play in the complex reality of the conception and birth of a wild animal. This is all beyond us.
Not only is God powerful over the details of the beginning of each creature, He also rules over the complexities of the change from young life to the strength of maturity. These behavioral patterns are different for every species. Do not assume that everything in the world of animals is just the result of randomness and survival of the fittest. There is something to these as secondary answers to the questions we have as we observe the world around us. But it is the Word of God, combined with reason and observation, that assures us that God is the Designer who not only currently rules over all, He is also the great Planner who decreed every detail of existence before the first word of creation was spoken. He is the God who ordained all that would happen not only among men and angels, but also among the vast array of the intriguing creatures that fill this planet.
Each beast has a different instinct that is a result of His design, yet the Word tells us that God's reign over His creatures is not simply a matter of instinct and chance. The Lord is engaged in all the details of everything everywhere. If He determines to use instinct and what we observe as chance, that is His decision moment by moment. Donkeys do not speak by instinct and chance, but the Lord can make even a donkey give a message to a man. Did you imagine that such a small thing as that was beyond the One you confess to be God the Father Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of Holiness that was hovering over the waters at the beginning of time? Did you think that you were the sovereign Lord? It is easy to make that mistake in a moment of crisis, but it is a very silly idea.
God is the One. He is the three in One over all. He has a tender but powerful awareness over all the details of life. He is not detached when you suffer. He knows all that He is doing, and He is good.
An ox has a certain way of life that is useful according to the Lord's design. That way of life is completely different from the way of the ostrich. Each has its purpose. Each seems to know his part. A horse is different again. We can observe these animals in general, making observations that help us to learn how one species is not the same as another. Some are able to be tamed, and we can even know specific animals, distinguishing horse from horse, and ox from ox. We may have a certain affection for the one we have observed, and we may do what we can for the care, protection, and usefulness of that one we know by the name we have given to it. We may know one horse better than anyone else in the world. But God knows so much more. He knows every cell. He designed each to work in a certain way. He knows what the fall of mankind has done to the world of nature, and to the life of a man. He knows your suffering, and the cost of your deliverance. He has committed Himself to your salvation as no one else ever could. Trust Him.
He soars above this world higher than the hawk or the eagle. His ways are far above your ways, His thoughts far above your thoughts. Would you have ever been able to know what it would take to secure eternity from the disaster of human rebellion? Could you have come up with the cross? If you had been told that the best solution of all would require the death of your eternal Son, would you have had the moral strength and love to do what was necessary to restore beauty and order to a world of suffering? Each creature has a job to do today. Some will be born. Some will die. Many will suffer for a purpose that they could never understand. It is your task and high privilege, as one created in God's image and redeemed by the blood of His Son, to believe in Him, and to trust Him. He is worthy.
Jesus instructs us in the Sermon on Mount, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” There are certain limits to that instruction. In particular, it is the duty of a superior to find fault with one beneath him in order to protect that subordinate through some necessary correction. Therefore a father will need to help his son this way, and a teacher certainly must find fault with a student in order to correct her work. This is certainly the case in the community of worship as well. That is why the apostle Paul advises the church in Corinth to make necessary judgments in the church in order to protect the community of faith. He even goes so far as to say, “The spiritual person judges all things.”
Judgment becomes problematic when it is done without love, when it is accompanied by hypocrisy, or when an inferior presumes to sit in judgment over his superior. This third offense is called insubordination, and it has surely always been a popular pastime since the day that Satan convinced Eve that God was not giving commands that were in her best interest to obey. The inappropriate finding of fault in a superior is an important theme in the book of Job. Not only have Job's friends done this to Job, but Job himself has done this to God. The Lord now brings attention to this grave error. He calls Job a faultfinder, and so he is. It was right for Job to find fault with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They needed correction. It is never right for anyone to find fault with God. Job has desired to bring a lawsuit against the Almighty. This is a staggering act of insubordination.
God has been questioning Job in order to further redirect his attention appropriately to the difference between a creature and the Creator. So far Job has had no answer to give. Now God insists that Job answer. Job's response speaks for itself: “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”
This is an astounding transformation. It has come about through a brutal trial that began in the heavenlies before the throne of God. It continued with great loss and sickness on earth, but then especially with the vague and unsubstantiated accusations of friends. These earlier developments, especially the final one, gave birth to Job's error. But this was not the end of God's work with Job. He only wounds his beloved servants for the purpose of granting a far better healing. Therefore He sent His prophet Elihu to begin the redirection of beloved Job. After Elihu spoke, Job had nothing more to say. Yet God finished this work of discipline in person. Job wanted to speak with God. Here is His chance.
God continues. Will Job accuse God of being in the wrong and that for the purpose of maintaining his own righteousness? Of course Job cannot win a fight against God. He always knew that. But there is something else for us to consider in the New Testament era. We know more clearly and plainly how the Lord's plan of righteousness truly works. If we aim to prove our right at God's expense, then all will be lost. Our only hope of being declared holy is through the perfect righteousness of God credited to us. What if we were able to prove ourselves right in our own merit, but only at the cost of God being proven wrong? Absurd? Yes, but it would also entirely undermine all our hope of eternal peace.
This point is more of a gospel message than the Lord chooses to give at this time. He reveals the beauty of the righteousness of Christ and the power of His cross little by little and in various ways. The book of Job is early in that process. God does give an answer here. It is true, basic, and good for every era in the Lord's dealings with His elect: “Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” (See Romans 9:20.)
Job's right hand could never have saved Job, but God's right hand has saved him. Christ, who is at the right hand of the Almighty, both saves us and keeps us. We are no position to find fault with God.
This trial that Job has experienced started in heaven. The Lord brought up the name of Job to God's adversary, Satan. That being is one amazing Behemoth. Imagine any large beast that has ever walked the face of the earth and know that you have a better chance of fighting such a monster that you could see than you do in your present warfare against the devil. Satan has been at work in Job's trials, but only as far as God's sovereignty would allow. That same Satan many years later desired to sift Peter as wheat, yet the Lord Jesus had prayed for Him. Though Peter denied Christ three times, his faith would not fail. Jesus instructed him that when he had turned again that he should strengthen his brothers.
It is in the strength of Christ that God will soon crush Satan under your feet. Do not judge the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Do not settle into a pattern of finding fault with the Almighty on account of the trials that He has given you. He has His purposes. You will never fully understand the depths of His wisdom. Surely He intends to hold you through it all, for not one of His children will be lost.
Who can give an answer to God that He does not already know? Who dares to judge Him? Who has something by which he would recommend himself to the Almighty? Isn't God the one who gave that gift in the first place? It is not good for us to think too highly of ourselves. A man can be the smartest man in his nation, but he does not know as much about the shelves in the market where he lives as the one who has been granted the task of keeping those shelves well-ordered every day. God knows all things, but we are limited in everything we do. A humble heart is a most excellent gift for the man who would like to learn how to love others better.
There are many ways that God can move a person toward humility and love. Grief is a great schoolmaster for all kinds of important lessons. Through loss, pain, and shame, a man learns that he is not God. Job was a great man who suffered greatly, but he was also a man who discovered an even higher greatness through a deep encounter with God's Word in the midst of unusual trial. He learned that it was not right for any man to suggest that he might be able to judge God. He learned that he could not gain his own vindication as a righteous man by pointing out supposed flaws in God's perfect righteousness.
God is the Ruler over all realms, seen and unseen. There are many beings in this world that are far too dangerous for us. Though man is an impressive creature, even a lethal enemy, yet any man would be wise to humble himself before God. Man's excellence, when compared to other great creatures of God, is found in his ability to reason, to communicate with language, and to offer to his Maker spiritual worship. There are other creatures that are faster and stronger, but they can be defeated by the plan of even one human being.
You may readily agree with this high assessment of humanity, but how strong do you feel today? Would you want to suddenly face a whale on the high seas? A whale is a very dangerous and resourceful opponent. You cannot expect to take him in with a fishhook. How will you defeat him? What is your plan? When the whale sees you coming, he will not send out a delegation to negotiate. If you expect to defeat him, you will probably have to find a way to kill him, because he will not be your pet. A whale cannot be handled like a parakeet. You will not be able to keep him in a cage and satisfy him with some seed and a little bottle of water for him to peck at. Many dead men have thought that they could win a fight against a whale. They paid for their pride and presumption with their lives.
Now, if you would rather not risk an encounter in the ocean with an angry beast, why do you think that it is safe to offend God? We say, “But God can take our outbursts.” No doubt He can, and no doubt there have been many whales that have let a man or two get away, despite their harpoon attacks. That does not make it safe to start throwing things at a whale. Why do people assume that it is safe to hurl insults at God? Why does anyone imagine that he can stand before God and make a case for his own righteousness at God's expense?
With that in mind, consider God's purpose in talking to Job at length about “Behemoth” in the previous chapter and “Leviathan” in this one. Though Job may not know it, this entire trial has something to do with a creature of God who is stronger than man, amazing in knowledge, unusually crafty, and very evil. If he seems to masquerade as an angel of light, or if he claims that he comes under a flag of truce, beware. He steals, he kills, and he destroys. We are told that we will judge angels one day. What is it that we have as human beings that will allow us to fight against a fallen angel like Satan? Only this: We are united with the head of the church, Jesus Christ. In Him we have one offensive weapon, the Word of God. Our King has also provided us with the very best defensive armor including a shield of faith with which we can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one.
Yet our hope is not in our faith or in our ability to use God's Word. These four chapters of humbling questions teach us a different lesson. In the face of any serpent of the raging seas, God is able. He wins with His voice. One little Word shall fell the strongest enemy.
There is an adversary of whom it can be said, “On earth there is not his like.” He seems to be “a creature without fear. He is king over all the sons of pride.” Yet with the beginning of the preaching of the kingdom of God by men like Peter and John, Jesus saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. That was not because of any strength or goodness in them, but because of the power of our righteous God over all of His creatures and all of their actions. Let us do the amazingly powerful thing that redeemed human beings were created to do. Let us worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and let us use our reason, our speech, and our lives to give to others the gift of love, which can be the best fruit of godly suffering.
We have come to the end of the book of Job. To read the book as an outsider, as a student of Scripture, and as a stranger to deep sorrow will yield little spiritual fruit. The speeches are repetitive to those who cannot feel. It is easy to become unduly critical of Job and of the entire book or to decide that Job's friends were right.
But to read the book from the perspective of the end should yield a very different result. To read it as a person who has known trouble and has begun a new life is to read each chapter with patience. Every speech has something more to say. We find new truth from Job's anguish, and we learn something from the mistakes of friends who became offended when their advice was not received by Job.
When we come to the conclusion of this episode of suffering and hope, when we have been redirected to the Lord by His minister Elihu, and then by God Himself, we find a man who is not what he once was. He is still Job, but he is a new Job, a better Job.
Job has always known that God could do all things, and that no purpose of the Lord could be stopped. But now he knows as one who has discovered that he does not understand as he once thought he did.
He has listened to God. God had said in 38:1, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” The Lord was referring to him. He was the one who had words without knowledge, and now he owns the truth that he had spoken at length about things that he did not understand, things too wonderful for him.
Job has heard, and he has seen. He has been appropriately humbled. “I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Repentance is a good gift of God. It is better than the answers that we seek when we ask God, “Why?” Repentance is not only the cessation of some evil action, or the resolve to take up some new duty. It is a change in orientation that rediscovers this truth: “God is God, and I am not.” It is the restoration of proper subservience of an inferior to the ultimate Superior. All of the other important changes in our behavior flow from this new comfort.
A repentant man surrenders to God as his Master. He gives himself to the Lord as a slave, but he finds himself to be a son. The greatest suffering servant of God was also His greatest Son. He came not to serve, but to be served, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Now He is exalted high in the heavens as the eternal Son of God and the King of the Kingdom.
God wounds his sons only to bring about a far better healing than could have been accomplished without the surgery. The Lord speaks glowingly now about His great son Job. When he corrects Job's friends for their error, He remarks that Job spoke rightly of God. Amazing! We better not ask too many questions at this point. Like the Day of Judgment, when Jesus will say, “I was hungry and you gave me food,” don't say too much. You are being seen in a better light than you thought possible. Your small acts of kindness have been magnified in your union with the glorious Son of God.
The next course for repentant Job is to turn his pain into love by the grace of God and in accord with His command. Job prays for his friends. They have not spoken rightly of God. Job prays for them and they are forgiven. Not only is there prayer, but there is sacrifice. When the final Suffering Servant comes, there is prayer for us and there is sacrifice, not of bulls and rams, but of Himself. By His death we are granted life.
New life is a great gift. There is a new life for a man who has suffered. We experience the heavenly gift in our spirits that have been made alive, but this is only a downpayment of what will surely come. Look for it as the holy men of old looked for a city that only God could make. Look to Jesus, the righteous and victorious Warrior. Look for life where He is, and receive whatever tokens of that life that He kindly bestows upon you even now.
Not everyone gets a second chance under the sun. God bestows His gifts according to His own wisdom. We need to receive what He gives with thanksgiving. Job is given a new family and an even better life. Have you found the sympathy of others in trial? It is God's gift, but a better gift is the steadfast love that He has worked in you through suffering. And the best gift of all is the gift of Himself in Jesus Christ. Choose that better portion, let your heart be thankful. That best gift will never be taken away from you.