Job’s Confession and Repentance
1 Job submitted himself unto God. 7 God, preferring Job’s cause, makeS his friends submit themselves, and accepted him. 10 He magnified and blessed Job. 16 Job’s age and death.
Job 42:1 Then Job replied to the LORD:
Job has been steadily climbing the long ladder from despair to faith. He has received a revelation of God such as few men have ever experienced. God has spoken to him in parables taken from nature. Job has listened to the voice of Him whom he now knows he can love and and trust. It is Job’s turn to talk. What he says is recorded in vs. 2–6.
Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Job acknowledges God’s omnipotence. Job acknowledges God’s omniscience (see Ps. 44:21; 139:2).
Job 42:3 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.
This question repeats in almost identical words the query of God in ch. 38:2. Whether that query referred to Elihu or to Job cannot be established (see on ch. 38:2). Job now applies it to himself. His first acknowledgment is of the limits of his knowledge.
His conclusions were based on ignorance; hence, though he may have been sincere, he was wrong.
Things I did not understand. How inadequate partial knowledge appears when the light of greater truth shines upon it! When Job made his complaints, his reasoning seemed to him unassailable. He felt that his attitude was amply justified.
But when he came to understand God more fully, his former reasoning lost its cogency. Human reason has so often proved itself fallible. Ideas that seem like great wisdom today, may turn out to be sheer nonsense tomorrow.
Job’s willingness to admit his ignorance is commendable. He does not try to excuse himself or to defend his position. He is as honest in confession as he was in argument. This trait is part of the integrity with which the record credits Job from the start (ch. 1:1).
Job 42:4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’
As in v. 3 Job referred to the question of ch. 38:2, so he now repeats the question of ch. 38:3. He is ready to meet God’s challenge. He is prepared to speak. He knows, at last, what he wishes to say.
Job 42:5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
Job admits that his previous knowledge of God was based on hearsay. Now he has achieved a firsthand knowledge. The most important lesson of the book of Job is found in this text.
In this statement Job reveals the transition from a religious experience shaped by tradition to an experience based on personal communion with God. According to the tradition in which he had been reared, the righteous were not supposed to suffer. From his youth up Job had heard that God would deliver the righteous from all evil in this present life.
But when he met suffering, he was thrown into confusion, because it was contrary to what he had heard about God. His confusion was augmented by the attitude of his friends. Now Job has seen God. He knows that God possesses infinite power and graciousness, and he also knows that, even though he may suffer, he is God’s child.
God has made no attempt to explain to him why he suffers, but he is convinced that, whatever the reason, he need have no misgivings. Job’s experience has taught him the meaning of faith. His vision of God has enabled him to surrender to the divine will. His commitment to God is now unaffected by his circumstances. He no longer expects temporal blessings as evidence of Heaven’s favor. His relationship to God is now on a firmer, more dependable basis than before.
Job finds a solution to his problems when he discovers that God is not limited by the traditions men have developed concerning Him. This broader understanding that Job reveals when he says, “Now mine eye seeth thee,” is akin to the experience of faith that is emphasized so strongly throughout the Scriptures, especially in the Gospel of John and the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians (John 1:12–17; Rom. 8:1–8; Gal. 4:3–7).
Job 42:6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job was presumably still sitting on the ash heap on which he had thrown himself when his disease first smote him (ch. 2:8). His friends had urged him to repent, but their appeal assumed that he had committed sins of which he was not guilty. His eventual repentance was for his mistaken attitude toward God. Compare Job’s repentance with that of Peter (Luke 5:8), and of Isaiah (Isa. 6:5).
In each case the manifestation of God achieved what no argument based on human tradition could accomplish.
The Lord Rebukes Job’s Friends
Job 42:7 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.
This verse begins the closing prose portion of the book. God turns His attention to the three friends of Job, addressing Eliphaz apparently as the leader of the trio. God had rebuked Job for his lack of understanding, but He indicates anger at the friends for their failure to speak that which was “right.”
This raises the interesting question of the difference between the errors of Job and the errors of his friends. An analysis discloses that Job erred because of suffering, pressure, discouragement, and despair. He was the victim of a distressing situation that he could not understand. His statements were sometimes petulant, sometimes almost sacrilegious. However, all the way through he maintained a basic trust in God.
The friends were not suffering as Job was. Their wrong words were the expression of a false philosophy. They allowed tradition to overshadow sympathy. They felt that they were justified in harshness because their conception of God seemed to demand such an attitude.
Eliphaz and his friends have many counterparts in modern times—good men, yes, but with wrong ideas that they feel conscience-bound to defend. Job made mistakes, but compared with his friends, he spoke “the thing that is right.” His pitiable cries of despair were more pleasing to God than the cold logic of his friends.
Job 42:8 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.”
Job will pray for you.
An example of intercessory prayer (see James 5:16; 1 John 5:16). God sometimes sees fit to bestow His forgiveness and His blessings in response to intercessory prayer. In this case the significance of such prayer is enhanced by the fact that Job is praying for those who have not treated him fairly or kindly.
Folly. God thus characterizes the speeches of the friends. What foolish man’s traditions and pet ideas appear to God. How surprised Eliphaz and his companions must have been in view of having made such a point of vindicating God!
Men must learn that they best vindicate God by representing Him as He is, a God of love and mercy.
Job 42:9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.
The man whom they had endeavored to set right became their intercessor for salvation and repentance. This is a dramatic contrast. God accepted Job’s prayer in their behalf. It would be interesting, if it could be known, whether these three men revised their philosophy of life in harmony with what God was endeavoring to teach them.
The Lord Restores Job’s Fortunes
Job 42:10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.
The NT teaches that the forgiveness of God is granted in proportion to the extent to which men forgive each other (Matt. 6:12, 14, 15; 18:32–35). This principle seems to have been anticipated in Job’s experience. It is when he prays for his friends that his fortunes change.
This is not to be interpreted as meaning that intercessory prayer, however sincere, will guarantee material prosperity. The book of Job disproves this assumption. This experience does show God’s approval of the man who will pray for those who have despitefully used him.
Job 42:11 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.
Job’s kindred had forgotten, forsaken, and turned against him (ch. 19:13, 14, 19). Now that his fortunes have been reversed, they come to help him celebrate. They seemed unwilling to risk their sympathy until they had evidence that things were coming out all right. In this trait they reflect a common human failing.
Job 42:12 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.
All three their friends had predicted that if Job would repent, he would be blessed (chs. 5:18–26; 8:20, 21; 11:13–19). Their predictions came true; but Job’s repentance was of a very different nature from what they envisioned; and it is certain they never anticipated that they themselves would be called upon to repent of their mistaken opinions and conduct.
Job 42:13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters.
Job 42:14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch.
Job 42:15 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.
Job 42:16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
The man who was so sure that the grave was just ahead of him continued to live for nearly another century and a half! The life that had seemed blasted, bloomed again in greater brilliance than before. The blessings that had seemed to be gone forever, returned, more wonderful than ever.
Property, family, friends, reputation, were his again. But even greater than these blessings was the memory of an experience in which he had come face to face with God and had learned lessons more valuable than material possessions. These lessons, God in His providence saw fit to share with all humanity, and so the book of Job was preserved as one of the great spiritual heritages from a far-distant past. It is our privilege today to learn from the experience of Job lessons of trust and confidence in God.
Job 42:17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.