Job is one of the masterpieces of world literature. It is studied
today even in secular colleges, and students are required to write
papers comparing Job's sufferings with those of the Greek god
Prometheus. I know this, because I just recently loaned a
commentary on Job to my neighbor who had to write just such a
paper. Victor Hugo called the book of Job, "Perhaps the greatest
masterpiece of the human mind." Carlyle claimed that nothing, "Of
equal literary merit," has ever been written. If it has such merit as
literature, of how much more value ought it to be to us, who believed
it to be the inspired Word of God? Yet few Christians ever read it,
and fewer still understand it when they do. It is the story both
simple and sublime. It calls for too much thinking to appeal to our
age of push button results.
It has a happy ending, however, in common with many great
stories. It differs from most, in that usually the villains do not end
up happy. The wolves, witches, and wicked, usually end up dead or
defeated, but in Job even the losers end up happy, because they are
dealt with in mercy. It ends with a total triumph of God's grace. In
this respect, it becomes a picture of the ultimate outcome of all
history, and the lives of all believers. This happy ending, after much
suffering, is filled with so many practical lessons that we are going to
consider it verse by verse.
In the chapters before this, from 38-41, God had been asking Job
a whole series of questions. These made Job realize that God alone
was master of the universe, and that man was powerless and
ignorant before his power and wisdom. Now, in this concluding
chapter, Job answers the Lord and says in-Verse 2:
I know that thou canst do everything. Job admits that God
is absolute sovereign. After hearing of all of God's wisdom in
making the wonders of the universe, He recognizes that nothing is to
hard for God. In fact, He knows now that God can even use evil to
bring forth good. The second phrase is more accurately translated
in the Berkley version, "And that no plans of thine can be foiled."
Or, the RSV has, "No purpose of thine can be thwarted." God is not
only able to accomplish His purpose, He definitely will. However
one solves the problem of evil, believers know they will all be happy
in the end.
Job is submitting to God here. The arguments about suffering
are over, and nothing has been accomplished, but now Job sees that
the only real conclusion is to submit to God's sovereign purpose,
knowing that it will certainly be accomplished. Samuel Terrein
says, "Existence is fulfilled when man is aware, not of his ultimate
concern, but of becoming the concern of the ultimate." In other
words, the greatest knowledge in life is to know that God cares for
you as an individual, and that you can trust your destiny to Him.
This is a parallel to Paul's statement that nothing can separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Job has arrived at
certain security, even in the center of suffering. This means, even if
he is not restored, there will be a happy ending, for he cast all his
care upon God.
Verse 3. In this verse Job quotes the question that God asked him in
38:1-2. He repeats it in order to answer it, by admitting that he
spoke out of ignorance. He had sought to justify himself at God's
expense. He knew he had not sinned, and he knew he was unworthy
of such suffering as he was enduring. So he said in that state of
mind, it must be God who is wrong. He was right as to his basic
innocence, but wrong in accusing God of injustice. Now, after God
has spoken, he recognizes he was speaking in ignorance.
Theologians are often guilty of speaking of God in such a way as
to hold Him guilty for evil. All men need to come to an awareness
that some things are beyond their understanding. We all have finite
minds, and when we speak, as if we comprehended the infinite, we
obscure the issues, and encircle them with ignorance. Many debates
would end as happy as this one if those involved could be made to
see their arrogance in presuming to speak on the mysteries of God's
infinite mind. When God speaks, even a righteous and godly man
like Job becomes aware of the poverty of his wisdom. He thought he
could speak on deep things, but now he confesses his folly. No man
can measure the bottomless depths of the wisdom of God, and the
sooner one learns this, the greater wisdom he will display in
remaining silent when he is ignorant.
God be merciful to us if we ever get the notion in our heads that
we fully understand Him and His will. When this happens, God is
reduced to humanism. When we lose a sense of the majesty and
mystery of God, we cease to be Biblical believers. The Biblical
believer, like Paul, is aware, that at best, we see through a glass
darkly. There is no end to the light to be gained. We have not
scratched the surface of the gems of truth available to those who
hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Even if we knew all that the human mind is capable of knowing,
we would have a poor concept of God if we thought we had
exhausted his wealth of truth. The truly wise man admits with Job,
in the presence of God, I speak in ignorance. There are things too
wonderful for me. They are beyond my comprehension. This
admission leaves one always open for more light from God.
Verse 4. In this verse Job again quotes a question of God to him
from 38:3. God fired a series of questions at Job, like-"Where were
you when I laid the foundation of the earth? What do you know
about the stars and their order? Can you make it rain? Have you
entered the gates of death?" He asked a whole series of questions
about things beyond the knowledge of Job.
Verse 5. Job responds and confesses that his concept of God has
been weak. It was built on hearsay rather than experience. He
heard of God by means of the ear. That is, he was taught about
God, and he believed in God, and was a righteous man, but after his
personal encounter with God, he feels like he hardly knew God
before this. It was as if he just had an intellectual knowledge of
God, but now he has personal experience. He says, "But now mine
eye seeth thee." This is not to be taken literal, but the experience is
literal. It is like when we say, oh, now I see! We now comprehend
what we did not see before.
Job is saying, now he really knows God, and has a great concept
of God. He, like so many, had dragged God down into the realm of
mere words. God was a subject in theology to be explained, instead
of a person to be encountered. This has happened over and over
again in history, and it has happened again in modern times. Men
talked about the God is dead theology. They treated the three letters
GO and D as if the mere word was God. They only knew God by the
hearing of the ear, for He was only a word to them, a word to be
debated. They did not have a personal encounter with God. In a
real sense, Job's God died also, or rather, his false concept of God
died when he came to an awareness of the real majesty of the living
God. Inadequate concepts of God are dying all the time, and this is
good, for then people are free to see the true God, just as Job did.
Here is where our Pietistic heritage comes in. Pietism does not
reject the intellect, and the need for adequate theology in words, but
it says, this is not the essence of the Christian faith. Men can learn
all of the right answers, and be able to explain the trinity,
atonement, heaven and hell, and still not be redeemed and
transformed by these truths. It is only personal encounter and
commitment that makes one a child of God. Only by personal
experience can one really know the reality of the true God.
Pietism, however, contains the same danger as does rationalism.
The pietist can lose the sense of the wonder of God, and can get so
chummy with God that he ceases to be the God of the Bible. He
becomes something like an invisible friend, on the level of Casper the
friendly ghost. Someone has said, "To become familiar with
holiness is to deny it." When we lose the sense of the mystery of
God's holiness, we cannot experience true worship. The God of the
Bible does die in the human heart when He is reduced to the level of
a mere buddy. Until men get a vision of God that fills their hearts
with awe, they will go on babbling about God being dead, for
without wonder and mystery God is dead in their hearts. In the
Ballad of Rolfe Humphreys we read,
There are no more wonders anymore.
Energy equals MC square,
And two plus two are always four,
And who are we to think we care?
All the enchantments, old and rare,
Are runes we cannot read; forlorn
Under persimmon-tree, or pear,
We've never seen a unicorn. If the sight of an unicorn would add some
measure of luster to life, how much more would men truly live if they
could gain a vision of the living God, who is the author of wonders innumerable,
the greatest being, that wonder of wonders, that He loves us as dull as
we are. This is what happened to Job. He had an encounter with
God, and no longer did he think of God as a subject to fight about.
He thought of Him as a sovereign Lord to fall before and worship.
Samuel Terrien says, "Worship is not a power-tapping technique for
feeling better. It is looking at the only marvel, God the creator of
the world, and the re-creator who dwells in a broken and contrite
heart. Job saw God as He really is, and as a result, he saw himself
as he really was.
Verse 6. Job says, as result of seeing God, he abhors himself. The idea
here is that he blames himself for being so foolish. It is equivalent to
our English expression, "I'm so mad at myself for saying that." One
of the clearest signs with a real encounter with God is when a person
looks back and wonders how he could be so blind. At any stage
along the path of sanctification the believer can still have radical
changes in his life, and sense a greater nearness to God. Some call
this a second experience, but it is better not to stereotype it, but
recognize that it can be a third, or fourth, or any number of times.
God is infinite, and we are finite. We can never think we have
exhausted His capacity to give greater vision.
We must also recognize that the more we know of God the more
we marvel at His grace, for we become more sinful in the light of His
holiness. Job repents when he sees God. Isaiah felt unclean when he
saw the Lord. This is a common reaction all through the Bible. Job
repents of all his boasting. He recognizes, in the presence of God,
that he is not worthy of consideration. He justified himself before
men, and he was right. God even says so in the next verse. He says
Job was right, and his friends were wrong. But the point is, when
Job really caught a vision of the reality of God he could no longer
justify himself. He could only repent for his presumption in speaking
out on things beyond him.
We have not yet come to the happy ending, but even in this
beginning of the end we have learned some basic truths. The
greatest is that of our need to consistently grow in our knowledge of
God. As He becomes greater to us, we become greater and more
useful to the world. Encounter with the Living God helps us avoid
the folly of much theological debate. It thrusts us into practical
service and evangelism. Without this, God is not dead, but we are,
and dead branches can bear no fruit. Only as we truly see the
Living God can we bear witness to His glory and grace. Our
constant prayer ought to be, "Lord increase our vision, and enlarge
our concept of You." When this is achieved life will always have a
happy ending.
