Job 42 "I SURRENDER ALL!" In the last line of the many descriptions the Lord made to Job of leviathan, an uncontrollable beast of the deep, He states, "He is king over all the children of pride." In his response to all the Lord said, Job is truly humbled. His friends had accused him of pride and insisted he had sinned. They repeatedly told him to admit he had sinned and to ask forgiveness for his secret sins. But after listening to what the Lord had said at the beginning, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" Job confesses, "I have uttered what I did not understand." He openly faced God and admitted his foolish accusations. When he became aware of his wrong attitude toward God, he humbled himself and honestly admitted his questioning of God's sovereignty and justice was wrong. He did not confess to having secret sins as his friends had insisted on, because that would have been wrong.
Job made a statement of deep conviction by saying, "I know that Thou canst do everything." God is the One who is in control of all creation, including what happens to us. To try to make God tell us why He does things or to let us understand everything, is very foolish on our part. We are very limited into our time and space at this moment, and we do not have the ability in ourselves to see beyond where we are, or to know the reason for everything that happens. In His grace, He has given us some prophetic messages that does let us see into the future at some of the plans He has for earth, for Israel and for His people. But even then, we see through "a glass darkly."
Job's awakening to who God is, not just what He does, led him to worship. In his awareness of the Person of God who was personally involved in his life, he acknowledged his ignorance, foolishness and presumption. He was ashamed of himself and asked for mercy and guidance to be able to please God. He had heard of God through what had been taught and by tradition, but now he had seen and heard his Redeemer. Now all his complaints had vanished and were forgotten. Now his longing for God had been satisfied.
He did truly repent, but not of made-up sins like his three friends had insisted on. His repentance was for making demands on God to justify why He had allowed Job to suffer. That kind of arrogance brings our conception of God down to where He is not much higher or important than we are. Job had learned a lot more about himself than he knew before his time of suffering and calamity. He also learned a lot more about God which made him "abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes." Now he knows God, has heard Him speak, has had his understanding opened in a way it never had been before. One has well said that in prosperity God is heard, in adversity God is seen.
When repentance is real, we are made very conscious of the holiness of God, and of our sinfulness and guilt. This very godly man, Job, had learned much more of himself and his Lord than he had ever known before. He had "feared God and eschewed evil." Now that he had been brought low until all was gone but his God, he learned that the Lord is still near unto all who call upon Him out of a pure heart.
If the Lord was still speaking out of the whirlwind when He spoke to Eliphaz, that old man and the other two friends must have been terrified. They learned also, that whatever we say, and how we say it, is known to God. There was no mention in the words of God to Job about specific sins as the three had charged Job with as the cause of his suffering." We have not spoken of Me, the thing that is right as My servant Job has." Those words left no room for argument. They were wrong in trying to make Job guilty of something he had not done.
How blind we can sometimes be! But how powerful are the words of the Lord, "My servant Job shall pray for you." Four times in one short conversation, the Lord refers to Job as, "My servant Job." Twice when speaking to Satan the Lord called him, "My servant Job." After the trials of suffering and adversity, and the confession of Job to the Lord of his wrong attitude toward God, the Lord doubles the affirmation of Job's position before Him.
The Lord does not allow for bitterness to continue even though one may be unfairly accused, or even condemned by others. It is His intention that we "do good to those who despitefully use you." The prayers of intercession the Lord's people make, benefit both those being prayed for and those who are praying intercessors. When we express the needs of others to our heavenly Father, we are reminded that we are often the answer to our own prayers. We are warned ourselves when expressing the needs of others, that we are vulnerable to the challenges of adversity when they come to us. The prayers of intercession for those who are against us, can bring about genuine forgiveness on our part that we may have been unwilling to give before speaking openly to God about the matter.
The costly burnt offering was given and Job's prayer was made. One wonders if the young man Elihu was standing by as an observer to all of this. Likely he was learning for himself what to avoid and what to do when adversity comes. Adversity will come on us in one way or another. Elihu was neither censured nor commended. Much of what he said to Job was a preparatory message that opened the way for the Lord to speak to Job. A faithful witness is not the final object of attention. In this case, his words opened the door for the Lord to speak. John the Baptist opened the door for the Lord Jesus to step into public view. In the case of witnesses today, it is our responsibility to give the needed information in the Gospel, so people will take heed to the word of God themselves and put their trust in Christ.
Whether Job had double restored to him of all his possession or not, and if his honor had never been restored to him, or even if he had no more children, the message of Job would not be different. Our sovereign God is always in control. Restoration of all that is lost of health, life, possessions or hopes may never come in this life. But we do know that "God is no man's debtor." He is just. Our faith in Him is in a strong secure Person who does not fail. What He chooses is His own right. How we respond to what He gives or withholds is up to us. Under no circumstances should we allow our faith in Him to waver.
Job got double of everything. He even had twenty sons and six daughters. But let us not think that is the only way blessing can be reckoned. How many godly people there have been, and are today, who will never get the kind of blessings Job did, but are blessed in their own souls and spirits, and are a blessing to many other people because they are strong in faith.
If we lose everything in this life because of the ungodly world in which we live, and the increasing antagonism against Christians, that does not mean God doesn't care about what is happening. Nor does it mean God is powerless or unfair. We live in a sinful world in which "evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse." The end times are upon us and "lovers of pleasures" who have a "form of godliness," without power are going to increasingly oppose believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Godliness and persecution which go together, has been the portion of many of God's people in various parts of the world. It is spreading constantly across the globe and is rampant now in North America as well. God allows evil for a time and can actually use it sometimes for our ultimate good. We do not know why that is, but in God's own time if He so chooses, He may let us know. We will turn to Him in our uncertainties, and we will trust Him to use them for His glory.
An important lesson for us to learn from the book of Job, among many other lessons, is that we can trust our God in pain, suffering of every kind, uncertainty and loneliness when we feel forsaken. In every situation in which we are found, God is for us. "And if God be for us, who can be against us." Satan tried with Job, and had to retreat without a word. His bitter attacks, all ultimately failed to make "My servant Job," to curse God. When our faith is solidly founded upon our God and upon His word which is personal to us, we will not be moved. We will never be separated from the love of God.