Job 42

After having gone through the book of Job, chapter by chapter, with a fine-tooth comb, I find that I love this final chapter now more than ever before. I used to love it for the fact that God exonerated Job and put Job’s friends in their place when He said, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has” (vs 7), but I see so much more in this chapter now than I did previously. I guess that’s because God is always wanting to show us more! And that’s the picture of Him I saw here.

In this chapter, Job talks about seeing God: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (vs 5-6) Before we get to the “my eyes have seen you” part, let’s clear up any possible misunderstandings about the word despise. This is connected with the word vile back in chapter 40.

If you read the blog for that day, you’ll remember that the original Hebrew word translated vile meant “insignificant” or “to be of small account.” Job carries that concept one step further here. He is not saying that he despises himself (as in hates). Once again, it has nothing to do with sin or wickedness. The original Hebrew word—mawas—literally means “to disappear.” So, Job is saying, I realize that I’m not just of small account. I’m cancelling myself altogether. I disappear, I retract my statements, I’ll shut up now. Forget everything I just said.

Job realizes that many of the things he spoke so confidently about were things he didn’t understand or see clearly. And that brings us to the “my eyes have seen you” part. Job’s reaction to being in God’s presence might make us question how well he really knew God in the first place. It almost sounds like he didn’t know that much about Him, or that everything he knew was wrong. But we shouldn’t assume that. Rather, it has been my experience that the more I come to know and understand about God, the more I feel like I never knew Him before.

Bible commentator Dave Guzik put it this way: “Each fresh and deeper revelation of God has a brightness that makes previous experience of God seem rather pale. What [Job] had just experienced was so real it made his previous experiences seem unreal.” God always wants to show us more about who He is, because He wants us to know Him as He knows us. And the more we come to know Him, the better it gets. As Job said, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” (vs 3)

As an author and songwriter, I have experienced this all too frequently. When I look back at some of the things I wrote even just a few years ago, I marvel at my limited perspective and understanding. Not that I feel like anything I wrote about God back then was necessarily wrong, but just too small or not enough. It seems like the things I know about Him now far eclipse the words I committed to paper back then. And in five years, I’m sure I’ll feel the same way again—perhaps even about this very blog.

That’s just what happens as God shows us more.

The other thing that delighted me about this chapter was the ironic twist with Job’s friends at the end. And, no, I’m not talking about how they were wrong and Job was right. But, all the while, Job’s friends were—I believe—earnestly trying to bring Job back to God. Even though they were wrong about God and had misunderstood Him greatly, I believe their intentions were good. They were trying to help their friend in the only way they knew how. Job endured their “help,” and in the end, he became the means by which they were brought back to God—and brought with a new understanding! Instead of convincing Job to “return to God” in order to get out of his predicament, his predicament became the occasion for them to see God more clearly.

Job, who had cried out for a mediator, was elected by God to mediate on behalf of his friends. This is often the way God “shows” us more about Himself. As Paul wrote, “[God] comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.” (2 Cor 1:4)

God shows us more about what it’s like to be Him by giving us opportunities to act on His behalf. In this case, He asked Job to extend the hand of grace to his friends. And Job did it splendidly, without one word of complaint or resentment for all his friends had said to him. That is just like God. No wonder He declared that Job had said what was right!