Finally, God speaks

 

READ Job 38-42

After disaster upon disaster and total silence from God and after severe accusations from his ‘friends’ Job finally hears from God. His words are a challenge, a description of His power and knowledge. Job realizes that his knowledge of God falls short. He never denied Him, but he realizes that some of what he declared was incomplete and fell short. Unlike his friends, Job realizes his mistake and takes responsibly for it.

Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:1–6)

Repentance is key, not only to forgiveness and restoration, but to further understanding of our sin and its power, and of God’s person and work. Job knew God knew the answers, but he needed to ‘see’ the answers by hearing them from the mouth of God.

I must say that hearing truth from preachers, theologians, books and all other sources can fill my head with the knowledge of God, but it is only when God Himself speaks directly to me that I really get it, really understand who He is. Of course obedience must follow. This is the value of personal Bible study; it takes what I have in my head about God and puts it into my heart. Like Job, and with or without disasters, this requires persistence, yet it also means that God must speak. I need to open His book as well as my heart so I can hear Him.

Repentance is key also to hearing. Job’s heart was already moving that way because he was quick to respond to God in sorrow for some of what he had said, unlike his ‘friends’ who were far from admitting their errors. However, after God declared that Job had said and done rightly (perhaps referring to his repentance rather than all his speeches), God spoke to them too:

After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer. (Job 42:7–9)

Note that their forgiveness hinged on Job’s forgiveness. He must pray for them so God would show mercy to them and Job could not do that if he refused to forgive them. This is important for me as I pray for those who presently oppose God and/or wrongly accuse me. I’m to forgive, not hold any thoughts of retaliation or harm.

After God spoke and Job admits his shortfall and prayed for his adversaries, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice what he’d had before. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters . . .  And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. (Job 42:12-16)

Did Satan turn tail and blush in embarrassment? Unlikely, yet this wonderful event points my heart forward to Calvary, the reason for our faith. God the Son died there that we could be redeemed, forgiven, promised all that God can give us . . . but not only that, this is where this accuser of God’s people, the liar and destroyer, was defeated. He moves about something like a chicken with its head cut off, but his end has been secured by Jesus Christ, the author and completer of our faith. All praise to God for a faith that stands every test!