This is my favorite part of Job. It dawned on me today that when God gives His words to Job, all four friends are included in the conversation. That means God is addressing Job’s friends as He responds to Job. Interesting…
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Job 40:11-12
“Pour out the overflowings of your anger, And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low.
“Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him, And tread down the wicked where they stand.”
The contrast of the proud and the humble is not unique to the book of Job. James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 are good on this.
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Job 41:11, 33-34
“Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine – – “Nothing on earth is like him, One made without fear. “He looks on everything that is high; He is king over all the sons of pride.”
The ownership conversation is not unique to the book of Job. Psalm 24 is helpful here.
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Job 42:1-3
Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
Isaiah 40:21-26 is reminiscent of Job’s conclusion here. Cool.
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Job 42:4-6
‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”
This is huge. How would you interpret Job’s words here into your own life? Repentance not only means to turn “from” something – implicit in the word repent is the idea that as we turn away – we turn toward. Check out Revelation 3:19-21. We think you will like it!
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Job 42:7-8
It came about after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.
“Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”
When it comes to our Father, there is right – and there is wrong. We either live by Truth or by our folly. Deuteronomy 13:17-18
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Job 42:10-12, 16-17
The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys.
That’s a lot of sheep, camels, and donkeys. Check out Jesus’ words in Mark 10:28-31. What are you shooting for?
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James 5:9-11
“Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.”
This is James’ conclusion about Job’s example. What do you conclude? What are the main points of God-engagement from Job? Hebrews 12:1-11 is REALLY awesome here!