Job 42:1

JOB 42

JOB'S REPENTANCE AND THE EPILOGUE

"Then Job answered Jehovah, and said, I know that thou canst do all things,

And that no purpose of thine can be restrained.

Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge?

Therefore have I uttered things which I understood not,

Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak;

I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear;

But now mine eye seeth thee.

Wherefore I abhor myself,

And repent in dust and ashes."

"I know that thou canst do all things ... etc." (Job 42:2). "Job acknowledges that God can achieve all that he plans, and that He plans, knowing that he can do all things."[1] Van Selms elaborated this somewhat, writing, "I sense, from the examples you have cited, the behemoth and the leviathan, that you are able to realize all your plans for your creation, however far these may go beyond human conception. You have reasons for what you do, of which we are totally ignorant"[2]

"Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge" (Job 42:3). "In this Job repeats the question which God had asked in Job 38:2, admitting that he spoke out of limited knowledge, too confidently of things too wonderful for him to understand."[3] In our interpretation of Job 38:2, we applied the words to the speech of Elihu; but we do not believe that Job's accepting the application of the words to himself in this verse is a contradiction of that which we alleged earlier. As a matter of fact, all of the speakers in the Book of Job fall under the same blanket indictment, but Job is to be blamed far less than any of the others. Job's knowledge of God has been greatly expanded; and he has a new appreciation of the extent, complexity and marvelous wonder of God's creation.

"Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak" (Job 42:4). Earlier, Job had been unwilling to speak (Job 40:4-5); but now, in the light of his greater understanding, he is willing to respond to God's invitation. "He can now accept the fact that God and his government of man's life, and even his distribution of rewards and retributions, are ultimately beyond man's power to comprehend."[4] Job's willingness to speak should not be interpreted as evidence that he then understand all about God. He didn't; nor, in this life, would he ever do so.

"I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee" (Job 42:5). This must not be understood as a contradiction of the great truth that "No man may see God." What Job referred to here was God's revelation to him in the form of a voice out of the whirlwind. Van Selms' comment on this was, "(My knowledge) was based on hear-say; but now I have been confronted by yourself, although you wrapped yourself in a thunder-cloud as in a garment; and in that form of concealment you did appear to me."[5]

"But now mine eye seeth thee" (Job 42:5). This cannot mean that Job then knew more about God. Perhaps, he knew even less; but he had found an utterly new conception of God, not as some kind of an impersonal law, but God as a Person, a Person infinitely concerned with human affairs, a Person who would even speak to Job! that being the most wonderful and most incredible thing in the whole book. It revealed a love of God for man as nothing else could possibly have done.

"Now that thou hast revealed thyself unto me, my spiritual eyes are opened; and I begin to see thee in thy true might, thy true greatness, and thy true inscrutableness. I now recognize the distance that separates us."[6] The same realization came to Job in this marvelous experience that was expressed by the Psalmist: "He (God) remembereth that we are dust" (Psalms 103:14). God, of course, holds this remembrance of men continually; and happy indeed is the man who himself finds the grace also to remember it. This grace was given to Job, as revealed in the following verse.

"Wherefore, I abhor myself" (Job 42:6a). The underlined word here is not in the text, having been supplied by the translators; and, as indicated in the margin, "I loathe my words" is also a legitimate rendition. "Godly hatred of one's own defilement is the natural accompaniment of a believer's confrontation with the Holy God."[7]

"And repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6b). Of what did Job repent? "Certainly, he did not repent of such sins as his friends had alleged against him; and neither is it enough to say that Job repented of his pride. Repentance here is the mood of a man who realizes his creaturehood and that God is eternally God."[8]

Here in Job 42:5,6, we have, "The supreme lesson of the book. No new theoretical knowledge of God and his ways has been given to Job; but he has come face to face with God, and that is enough"![9]

As we come to the end of Job, we are amazed that no answer whatever has been provided for the overriding question regarding the reason behind human suffering. "God is not so much concerned with strengthening man's faith by giving him answers to his questions, as he is with encouraging the kind of faith that does not demand answers."[10] As the great Apostle to the Gentiles stated it, "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." (2 Corinthians 3:19). The person who waits till he knows the answers to all his questions will never even begin to serve God.

"Job is a titanic figure of sinful man, standing at midpoint between the Garden of Eden and the New Testament."[11] God's manifesting such concern for Job, his unworthy creature, is a pledge of God's love for all men, and a symbol of that eventual revelation to all mankind in Jesus Christ. He ranks along with Moses, Abraham, Melchizedek, and Jethro the priest of Midian as one of the great monotheists of the Old Testament.