The story of Job is the story of undeserved suffering with a believer’s reaction to the extreme pain and torture of it all.  “Yet, will I trust Him” was the testimony of Job to his friends who tried to fix him with advice to repent of sins that Job didn’t know he had.  Probably the most pain Job endured was from his friends who tried to teach him what they themselves did not know. Therefore, they spoke words of judgement over Job and human explanations about God.  Neither were completely true.  Although I must say, I have seen the friends’ catchy phrases posted out of context as “encouraging words” in print!  Memorize God’s Words not man’s opinions.

Job’s friends’ words were delivered with pride and prejudice. They were proud of their own self-righteous lives and showed prejudice for others who did not.  People do that when they themselves are not suffering at the moment so they think they can tell others how to remove their suffering.  The friends’ thinking and behaviors reminds me of the story of The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector which is found in Luke 18:9-14. Jesus’ story features a self-righteous Pharisee boasting of his works and a humble tax collector pleading for mercy. Jesus declared the tax collector went home justified because “all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted”.   Mm, doesn’t this parallel our Job story?

The Story of Job will finish with God speaking specifically to Job and then to his friends. God will remind Job of their relationship between God and man with restoration. Then God will turn to Job’s friends and tell them what we surmised all along— “you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 

“Have Job pray for you!” Don’t you love it? We can always count of God to turn it all around for His glory and our good.

Job 40

The Lord said to Job:

² “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
    Let him who accuses God answer him!”

³ Then Job answered the Lord:

⁴ “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
    I put my hand over my mouth.
⁵ I spoke once, but I have no answer—
    twice, but I will say no more.”

⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:

⁷ “Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.

⁸ “Would you discredit my justice?
    Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
⁹ Do you have an arm like God’s,
    and can your voice thunder like his?
¹⁰ Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
    and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.
¹¹ Unleash the fury of your wrath,
    look at all who are proud and bring them low,
¹² look at all who are proud and humble them,
    crush the wicked where they stand.
¹³ Bury them all in the dust together;
    shroud their faces in the grave.
¹⁴ Then I myself will admit to you
    that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵ “Look at Behemoth,
    which I made along with you
    and which feeds on grass like an ox.
¹⁶ What strength it has in its loins,
    what power in the muscles of its belly!
¹⁷ Its tail sways like a cedar;
    the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.
¹⁸ Its bones are tubes of bronze,
    its limbs like rods of iron.
¹⁹ It ranks first among the works of God,
    yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.
²⁰ The hills bring it their produce,
    and all the wild animals play nearby.
²¹ Under the lotus plants it lies,
    hidden among the reeds in the marsh.
²² The lotuses conceal it in their shadow;
    the poplars by the stream surround it.
²³ A raging river does not alarm it;
    it is secure, though the Jordan should surge against its mouth.
²⁴ Can anyone capture it by the eyes,
    or trap it and pierce its nose?

Job 41

“Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
    or tie down its tongue with a rope?
² Can you put a cord through its nose
    or pierce its jaw with a hook?
³ Will it keep begging you for mercy?
    Will it speak to you with gentle words?
⁴ Will it make an agreement with you
    for you to take it as your slave for life?
⁵ Can you make a pet of it like a bird
    or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
⁶ Will traders barter for it?
    Will they divide it up among the merchants?
⁷ Can you fill its hide with harpoons
    or its head with fishing spears?
⁸ If you lay a hand on it,
    you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
⁹ Any hope of subduing it is false;
    the mere sight of it is overpowering.
¹⁰ No one is fierce enough to rouse it.
    Who then is able to stand against me?
¹¹ Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
    Everything under heaven belongs to me.

¹² “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
    its strength and its graceful form.
¹³ Who can strip off its outer coat?
    Who can penetrate its double coat of armor?
¹⁴ Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
    ringed about with fearsome teeth?
¹⁵ Its back has rows of shields
    tightly sealed together;
¹⁶ each is so close to the next
    that no air can pass between.
¹⁷ They are joined fast to one another;
    they cling together and cannot be parted.
¹⁸ Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
    its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
¹⁹ Flames stream from its mouth;
    sparks of fire shoot out.
²⁰ Smoke pours from its nostrils
    as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
²¹ Its breath sets coals ablaze,
    and flames dart from its mouth.
²² Strength resides in its neck;
    dismay goes before it.
²³ The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
    they are firm and immovable.
²⁴ Its chest is hard as rock,
    hard as a lower millstone.
²⁵ When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
    they retreat before its thrashing.
²⁶ The sword that reaches it has no effect,
    nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
²⁷ Iron it treats like straw
    and bronze like rotten wood.
²⁸ Arrows do not make it flee;
    sling stones are like chaff to it.
²⁹ A club seems to it but a piece of straw;
    it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
³⁰ Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
    leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
³¹ It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
    and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
³² It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
    one would think the deep had white hair.
³³ Nothing on earth is its equal—
    a creature without fear.
³⁴ It looks down on all that are haughty;
    it is king over all that are proud.”

Job 42

Then Job replied to the Lord:

² “I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
³ You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴ “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
⁵ My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
⁶ Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

Epilogue

⁷ After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. ⁸ So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” ⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

¹⁰ After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. ¹¹ All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

¹² The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. ¹³ And he also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

¹⁶ After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. ¹⁷ And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God speaks specifically to us!  We must listen!  When God is silent, we need to be still before God, let go of self and stuff, and trust that He is still at work. In the waiting, we continue to serve and love God by obeying what He says.  In doing what He says, we get to know God more so we can be more like Him in His character.  (See Romans 12 for specific ways to be and do.)

We will close our study with Eugene Peterson’s comments;

“But sometimes it’s hard to know just how to follow Job’s lead when we feel so alone in our suffering, unsure of what God wants us to do.  What we must realize during those times of darkness is that the God who appeared to Job in whirlwind is calling out to all of us.  Although God may not appear to us in a vision, he makes himself known to us in all the many ways that he describes to Job—from the macro to the micro, from the wonders of the galaxies to the little things we take for granted.  He is the Creator of the unfathomable universe all around us—and he is also the Creator of the universe inside of us. And so, we gain hope—not from the darkness of our suffering, not from pat answer in books, but from the God who sees our suffering and shares our pain.

Reading Job prayerfully and meditatively leads us to face the questions that arrive when our lives don’t turn out the way we expect them to.  First, we hear all the stock answers.  Then we ask the question again, with variations—and hear the answers again, with variations.  Over and over and over.  Every time we let Job give voice to our own question, our suffering gains in dignity and we are brought a step closer to the threshold of the Voice and mystery of God.  Every time we persist with Job in rejecting the quick-fix counsel of people who see us and hear us but do not understand us, we deepen our availability and openness to the revelation that comes only out of the tempest.

The mystery of God eclipses the darkness and the struggle.  We realize that suffering calls our lives into question, not God’s. The tables are turned:  God-Alive is present to us.  God is speaking to us.  And so, Job’s experience is confirmed and repeated once again in our suffering and our vulnerable humanity.”

—Peterson, Intro to Job, The Message Bible

Lord God of All,

Yet will I trust You with all that is in me. You are God. I am not.

In Jesus Name, Amen