Job 42

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 has discovered that he does not understand as he 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 subserviance 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 thing 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 finally 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 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. Ans 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.