Job 42:1-6

VI. THE CONFESSION OF JOB

CHAPTER 42:1-6

Critics claim that Job's answer is misplaced and that it really ought to be put in connection with chapter 41:3-5. This is another evidence of the lack of spiritual discernment of these “great” scholars. They treat the Word of God as literature only and criticise it as such. We have seen that the additional words of Jehovah were needed to bring Job completely into the dust and bring from his lips the confession which alone could satisfy Jehovah and be the great blessing for himself. This confession we have now before us.

Then Job answered the Lord and said:

I know that Thou canst do all things,

And that no purpose of Thine can be withstood.

Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge?

Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not.

Hear I beseech Thee and I will speak,

I will demand of Thee, and I will speak and declare Thou unto Me.

I heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;

But now mine eyes seeth Thee,

Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Here we have his full answer, his complete prostration before Jehovah. He acknowledgeth first Jehovah's supreme power. He is omnipotent and can do all things. Then he quotes Jehovah's own words (Job 38:2; Job 40:2). Thou hast asked me, “Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge?” It is strange that some expositors can misapply these words as if the Lord again rebuked Elihu. No, as we have shown before, He rebukes Job for his wild and audacious charges he had made against the Lord. And now Job acknowledgeth that Jehovah's rebuke is right. It is all true, he saith, I uttered things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, beyond my ken. Hear me now, Jehovah, I will speak. Once more he quotes Jehovah's word. Thou hast said (40:2), “I ask of thee, answer ME.” Here then is MY answer, he replies--”I heard of Thee by hearing of the ear; but now mine eyes hath seen Thee--this is my answer now--I abhor myself in dust and ashes I repent.”

Face to face with Jehovah, His power and His holiness prostrate Job in the dust. No creature can stand and boast in His presence. His plea of innocence, of righteousness, of philanthropy and all the boastings of his former greatness is gone. He seeth himself stripped of all; he stands in Jehovah's presence in nakedness and shame. Nor does he say that he abhors now what his mouth hath spoken, but it is himself, his wicked, proud self, which he abhors. He has taken the place of greatness. Now Jehovah can come forth and lift him up and raise him to blessing and glory. This great scene corresponds with the vision of Isaiah when he beheld the Lord and cried out “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). And Daniel also! (Daniel 10:1). Peter on the Lake of Galilee was face to face with Him, who hath spoken to Job, the same and not another, and when he seeth His power and realizeth this is Jehovah, Peter falls at His feet and like Isaiah, Daniel and Job, acknowledges his nothingness. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

The enigma of the book of Job is solved. God permitted the afflictions to come upon His servant Job, not only to manifest His power, but for Job's good, to draw him into the place of nearness and of blessing. And that place is the dust, “in dust and in ashes.”

This is the place which all God's saints must own. And blessed are we, beloved reader, if we follow the wooings of grace, if we let His Spirit put us daily into that place, so that the Lord's hand may be prevented from putting us there by suffering and affliction.