Glad all of you could make it today on this holiday weekend when we seem abandoned by so many. It’s good to have Becca back with us from college, and we’ll take advantage of every opportunity that we can. Turn in your Bibles, if you would, one more time to the Book of Job. Book of Job. I appreciate so much your shared interest in this series that we have had. I can’t say that a series of messages on suffering is an exciting theme, but it is something that we all have in common in one degree or another at one time or another. It’s something that seems always relevant to us, and I’ve appreciated your interest.
And now, hopefully today, unless something unforeseen happens, we plan to finish up the series. Today, let’s look at the Book of Job, chapter 42. Chapter 42. We will spend our time today, Lord willing, finishing up what we began before, and that is looking at the subject of a well-informed faith—what must we know about God in order to trust him in suffering—and then we will spend our time after that looking at the epilogue to the Book of Job here in chapter 42.
Beginning with verse one, God has spoken from chapter 38 now through chapter 41, and Job now responds.
Job answered the Lord and said, “I know that you can do all things, that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know. Hear and I will speak, I will question you and make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.”
So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer. The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house, and they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter, Jemima, the name of the second, Keziah, the name of the third… how would you like to pronounce this? Keren-happuch. And in the land there was no woman so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons, his sons’ sons, four generations. And Job died an old man and full of days.
Let’s bow together in prayer.
Father, what a rich and instructive portion of your Word this is. We have profited from our time in it, and now one more time as we look to it this morning, we ask that you would open it to us. We ask that you would send your Spirit who inspired this Word to open our hearts, to understand it, to grasp it, to be shaped by it for your glory. We pray that you would use this, your Word, to fulfill its intended goal: to reshape our thinking with regard to you in light of our situations here. For your glory we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I want to emphasize one more time that the purpose of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament is to instruct us and teach us how to live successfully and rightly before God. In wisdom literature, the goal of that is to live rightly, but the goal after that is twofold. If we live rightly before God, if we live successfully before God as he has ordered: number one, of course, we honor the Lord as we ought; but also there’s a second benefit to it, and that is in honoring the Lord, living rightly as he has ordered our lives, we find for ourselves the greatest joy and satisfaction that can be found. That, you remember, is the conclusion of the Book of Ecclesiastes, more of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament.
But the point of the Book of Job is to give us wisdom literature, but to deal with, in particular, the subject of suffering. And as I’ve tried to emphasize, the point of it is not, first of all, to administer comfort to us, although in the end it does that in amazingly wonderful ways. But its first point is to reset our thinking, to reorient our thinking toward God, specifically in reference to our sufferings. So when we come to suffer, what is it to live rightly and successfully before God? How do we honor him in our suffering? That’s the point of the Book of Job that we’ve been trying to work through.
And that has taught us, of course, through the experience of this man Job. You remember he’s introduced to us as a righteous man who then comes to suffer—excuse me—he comes to suffer not because he is a sinful man, but because he’s a righteous man. He suffers because Satan has taken after him. And because of his faithfulness to God, he has drawn enemy fire. And so Satan challenges God. And he says to him, “If you take away what he has, you’ll find out what he’s really made of. He doesn’t serve you because he loves you. He doesn’t serve you because of your greatness. He serves you because of what he can get out of you temporally. Take away those things and he’ll curse you to your face.”
God takes up the challenge. Satan goes after Job. He loses his family. He loses all of his wealth. And Job’s instinctive response, we find, is to worship God. And he says, “The Lord has given. The Lord has taken away.” That is to say, the Lord has his right and his purpose, and I acknowledge it. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In a second round, Satan comes against Job, of course, and strikes him physically, and he’s afflicted with this horrible disease, painful sores all over his body. Still—and this time even against the suggestion of his wife—he remains faithful and blesses the Lord and worships.
What follows then is this series of speeches. Job begins with his lament. Why does all of this have to happen? And we have his counselors coming and giving him their opinion of it all. And they are saying, “Well, you must have sinned greatly, and that’s why you suffer greatly.” And Job is in this struggle of faith, trying to understand that. “That does not make sense of the situation. I can’t really identify what’s going on in my own experience. I agree with your theology generally, but it just doesn’t fit my situation.” The problem was Job couldn’t find another explanation for his suffering, and so we see Job in all of his answers to his friends throughout these speeches back and forth. Job has a real struggle of faith.
And as I’ve said, it’s never a contemptuous kind of unbelief, but it is a real struggle of faith. And there are times when he seems to cast doubt on God: “God hasn’t been fair. God hasn’t been caring. God doesn’t have any feelings for me. He’s being arbitrary and capricious. I can’t make sense of this, and if I can’t make sense of it, there must be no sense of it.” And he just edges that line of criticizing God as though God were in the wrong. But then he’ll have these bursts of faith as well: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. My witness is in heaven. God will show you that I’m right.” And yet he has this ongoing struggle of faith.
That carries us through to late in the book when finally Elihu comes on the scene and criticizes both Job’s friends and Job himself and says, “You’re all wrong. I’ve waited all this time for this gray hair to speak some wisdom and I haven’t heard it yet. So here I am, the young guy, and I’ll tell you the score of things.” And he might be a little impetuous, he might be a little youthful zeal there and whatnot, but he does speak what is right. And he says to Job’s friends, “You have spoken wrongly about God. And you’ve spoken wrongly about Job.” And he says to Job, “You have spoken wrongly about God.”
And then now chapter 38 and following, God comes on the scene and he talks. Job had asked for God to speak. He wanted his day in court. And God comes on the scene and he speaks. And it’s not what Job expected. He spoke of his greatness. He spoke of his power. He spoke of his wisdom. And in response to that, chapter 40, and then again here in chapter 42, Job melts. He says, “I’ve said too much, I won’t say anymore. I repent.”
And the point of it all when God speaks is that you cannot explain your suffering by condemning me. You will never vindicate yourself by criticizing me. And Job repents of it all. And the bottom line, of course, is Job, you are left to trust him. And it’s an interesting observation in the book, and it’s a very necessary one, that God never stops to explain to Job why the suffering came. The mystery of his suffering remains. And even after God’s long speech to Job, he does not give explanation of it all. He speaks of himself, and his greatness, and his power, and his wisdom. And the bottom line of it all is, “Job, you must trust me.”
And that, I say, is the point of the book, drawn out in a dramatic kind of a way. Job’s suffering is never explained, but he is brought to the point where he is face-to-face with God and must recognize that this is a God who must be trusted.
Well, then we started the question: what must we know about God in order to trust him like this? The Book of Job calls for a robust kind of faith. What must I know about God in order to trust him so implicitly? So as to say, like Job in chapter 13, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” And we began the answers.
1. Innocent yet Purposeful Suffering
Number one, we must know that there is such a thing as innocent suffering. Innocent yet purposeful. There is such a thing as innocent suffering, yet purposeful suffering. And that of course lies on the surface of Job. He was an innocent man and precisely because of his faithfulness he suffered, even though he didn’t know all of that that lay behind it.
2. God is Sovereign
Number two, we must know that God is sovereign. That God is in firm control of all things, directing them to his own purpose. And God is free to do as he sees fit with all of the circumstances and all the people of this world. We are his for the purpose of serving his will. And so he orders life accordingly. God is sovereign.
3. God is Just
But we must be quick to say something more than that. Number three, not only is God sovereign, we must know that God is just. It may frighten you to think that God is free to do whatever he wants to with your life and your health and your family. But keep in mind that God is not only sovereign, he is just, always does what is right, and never steps outside in any way inconsistent with his own righteousness.
4. God’s Timetable is Not the Same as Ours
And then last time, I think we ended up with number four: we must know that God’s timetable is not the same as ours. And it doesn’t need to be. Job felt like if God did not intervene now, that it was denial altogether. And what he didn’t give due consideration to was that God does not have to work on our timetable. God has a greater theater in which to display his glory and to accomplish his purpose than the short span of our lifetime. And a robust faith will recognize that.
5. God is Wise
All right, now then, number five. What must we know about God in order to trust him so well? We must know that he is sovereign. We must know that he is just. Number five now, we must know that God is wise. We must know that God is wise.
Now again, this is presupposed all throughout God’s speech to Job in chapters 38, 39, 40, and 41. He speaks of the created order when he speaks of what he has done, and he starts out in chapter 38 when he answers Job out of a whirlwind: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? You speak ignorantly. Dress for action like a man, I will question you and you make known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements, surely you know.” And he comes at Job: “Now you’ve spoken as though you know so much. So now you tell me, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”
Verse 4, where were you at creation? Verse 5, where were you when I determined the measurements of the universe? Verse six, God founded it, he laid its cornerstone, he put it securely in place, and he did that without Job’s help. Verse seven, where were you when I created the world in such a way, in such beauty, in such order, with such power and such wisdom, that the angels sang for joy and praise? Verses 8 and following, I put the seas in place. I determined their shorelines, their borders. Verses 12 and following, God says I created the day and night cycle, turning the earth on its axes and the orderly solar system. I did that. Verses 12 and following again, God makes reference to the waters above the earth, the waters below the earth, the rain, the snow, the seasons, the water cycle. I put that in place. And the implication again: I did it without you.
Verses 38 and following, at the end of the chapter, he speaks of the birth and life of the land animals and then of the birds as well, with all their varieties of strength and functions and their roles, their varying degrees of majesty and power. I made all of them. And all of that is to say, chapter 40 in the opening verses, “Do you think really that I need you to instruct me?”
And you see how presupposed in all of that is the wisdom of God in putting together this whole world order and putting it in place without the help of anyone. Presupposed throughout is the wisdom of God in ordering all of the affairs of the entire world. The natural world with all of its intricacies and all of its careful balance—it didn’t just happen. What, are you so foolish as to think it was just natural selection? To borrow a phrase. Do you think it just happened? Unguided? Somehow it just got there? I did that. The days, the seasons, the food chain, the varying abilities of all of the animals, the various functions of the animals, the various power of all of the animals—all of this is according to the Creator’s design. And all of that to say, “Job, it may have slipped your notice, but I know what I’m doing, and I really don’t need your counsel.”
Now, it’s an odd kind of response, isn’t it? That’s not what Job was expecting. He was expecting explanation. Maybe he was expecting apology. I don’t know. This doesn’t add up. Instead, God comes and speaks of his greatness and his power and his wisdom in creating this whole world order with all of its intricacies and balance and all that involves the food chain and the seasons and the water cycle and all. It seems to me it’s exactly the reminder that we need in suffering, because when we are caught in the moment of suffering, the emotions run—they run high. Please don’t be offended, but it’s going to mess with your head. When the emotions get such in the grip of some awful kind of suffering, it’s going to mess with our head. And we’re going to start thinking things about God that just are not worthy of him.
And we need this anchor point in our mind: God knows what he’s doing. He’s the wise Creator who has put this whole order into its place. We must know, and have this as our reference point, that God’s purpose is always just, and God knows how best to accomplish that purpose. He is wise. It belongs to the very creator-creature relationship to acknowledge that God knows best. He even knows better than me. He even knows better than me how to order my life. And therefore, when we suffer, we trust him. Would we really presume to suppose that we know better than God? And yet somehow behind every complaint that we have about his ordering of our lives is that presupposition: “I know better.”
And Job, hit up now with this reminder of the wisdom of God in creating this world and putting it all in order, is reminded that God knows what he’s doing. To put it bluntly, God is too wise ever to make a mistake. Now whether or not you can see what that purpose is—I’ve mentioned this all along through this series—whether or not we can see what God’s purpose is and see his wisdom in a given circumstance of life is entirely irrelevant. In fact, the point here is that we must recognize his wisdom and so trust him. We must know that God is sovereign. We must know that God is just. We must know that God is wise.
6. God is Good
Next, I think this is number six in our list of things we must know. We must know that God is good. In order to trust him as we are called to from the Book of Job, we must know that God is good.
Now this is a point I think that does not lie on the surface of the text, but it is emphasized at certain points in some important ways in the book. It’s of course presupposed in the opening chapter of Job’s story with God’s generosity to Job. It’s emphasized throughout the book in God’s patience with Job through all of his faltering faith. God’s goodness is presupposed again, even in Job’s own thinking, in his frustration and his lapses of faith. What brings the confusion to Job in the first place is that he, underlying all of his frustrations, is this nagging conviction that God is good. It doesn’t seem like it here. But what’s frustrating to him is he really believes that God is good, even though this doesn’t seem like it. And it seems that this is inconsistent with it. But the frustration itself is due to that underlying conviction that God is good.
And then I think most importantly, God’s goodness is emphasized in this epilogue that we have read this morning, in God’s restoration of Job’s fortunes. And this is an emphasis on God’s goodness for the simple reason that it was not necessary for God to restore Job. We’ll have more to say about that in a few minutes, but it is important that we recognize it was not necessary for God to restore Job. This is not a function of justice. God is still sovereign. He is still free. There’s no necessity in terms of justice for God to bring back what Job had lost. It was an exercise of his grace, an exercise of his goodness.
Well, let’s consider some things about this happy ending in Job chapter 42. In verses 1 to 6, we have Job’s repentance and his mental reset. Reoriented now, thinking of God more correctly after God’s speech about his greatness and his wisdom and his justice and his goodness. Job has a mental reset and he repents of what he has said about God. And he again positions himself now as a creature who owes trust to the Creator.
Verses 7 and following now, God vindicates Job. This is a fascinating section, a wonderful section. I heard you chuckling while I was reading through it. It’s just a great section. God vindicates Job. He orders a burnt offering from Job’s friends. And now how the tables are turned. God is not displeased with Job, as they have been saying. God is displeased with Job’s friends. And in fact, now they are spared precisely because of Job’s intercession for them. How the tables have turned.
And then we come to verses 10 and following that we have read, where the Lord restored Job’s fortunes. And as we find in verses 12 and following, it is exactly twice as much. He says that in verse 10, and we have it itemized for us in verse 12, that Job’s fortunes are doubled from what they were before. Well, Job had said all along that he is innocent. He had argued all along and insisted that God himself will say so. “God will vindicate me.” I think that’s the intent of chapter 23 where Job says, “When I am tried, I will come forth as gold.” I don’t think he’s speaking of a purifying process there. He’s speaking of God’s vindication. “God will show you that I am right.” And that’s what he means elsewhere when he says, “My witness is in heaven, God will be my vindicator.”
So Job’s suffering was brought about by Satan. There’s a specific attack against Job, Satan attacking Job’s motives. And for all of the struggle that Job has, for all of his lapses of faith, for all the stupid things that Job says throughout his lapses of faith, at no point did Job do what Satan said he would do: curse God. At no point did he do what his wife suggested he do: curse God. He had weak faith at times, faltering faith, but at no point does he turn against God. Even at his lowest points, Job is able to come out with bursts of faith and expressions of trust in God.
His friends advised him to repent so that God would restore him. “You’re suffering because you have sinned. If you repent of your sin, God will restore you.” Job had too much integrity for that. He will not repent in order to be restored because that would be wrong. “That does not give us the explanation of my suffering.” And now God comes and says so himself. And Job now is restored and he is blessed.
Now everyone loves a happy ending. But I want us to think about this for a little while. We’re not quite done with it. Some observations about this happy ending.
Number one, as I’ve already mentioned, although God vindicated Job, no explanation is given as to what gave rise to his suffering. We still have to keep that in mind. Although Job is vindicated by God himself, no explanation is given to him as to what gave rise to his suffering. The mystery remained, and Job is left simply to trust God. Again, that’s the point.
Second observation: there is some sense in which Job’s suffering continued. There’s a very real sense in which Job’s suffering continued. He had lost his family. Now God had given him more children, and in a sense, they’re replaced. But you’ve got to know that in no way, really, were the lost children replaced. I’m sure that with the birth of every next child, it was a happy moment. It was a joyful event. There was happiness and rejoicing. But I can tell you that every expression of happiness is tinged because those expressions of happiness you want to share with those whom you love the most, and you’re reminded again they’re not there.
Several in our church—it’s not just us—several in our church have lost children. I’m sure they would all tell you the same thing. Nicholas Wolterstorff, he’s a professor at Yale University. He’s a philosopher, philosopher-theologian. He is the one who worked with Alvin Plantinga developing what’s called reformed epistemology. He lost his son in a climbing accident. He wrote a book afterwards reflecting on it all. The book’s entitled Lament for a Son. And he reflects on how the loss of his son affected him and how it even came to shape his identity. He makes a statement in the book: “Now, if anyone wants to know who I am, he must know that I am a man who lost his son.” That’s who I am. And I’m sure Job felt the very same thing. Job’s fortunes were restored, yes. But never in this life was that loss truly regained. And that is to say, Job was still left to trust God with his pain. And that’s the point of the book.
Third observation here about this happy ending: we ought to consider again why. Why did God restore Job’s fortunes? I’ve already mentioned it was not a function of justice. It was not something God was obliged to do. And in fact, there have been some critics who have read the story of Job and have criticized it at just this point, that the story of Job ought to have ended with chapter 42 and verse 6. Job has repented. That’s it. It makes perfect sense now. Job’s thinking has been reoriented. He’s thinking of God as he ought to think of him in his suffering. Now we’ve got the answer. That’s the point of the whole book. And all of this from verses 7 onward really doesn’t contribute to that.
So why do we have this happy ending as we do? Why did God do it? And I think the point is very obvious, and that is to stress that God is not only sovereign, and God is not only just, and God is not only wise—God is good. And in this case, at least, the suffering was finally alleviated considerably, and Job is restored. Satan has been proven wrong, and God determined that there’s no more need for the suffering to continue. And Job is restored. And as I say, it’s important for us to notice that Job’s later blessings here in chapter 42 are not cast as rewards for Job’s faithfulness. That’s not the point. God is still free. God is still sovereign. God is still unobliged. He does not have to restore Job’s fortunes. It is not a matter of justice, much less does God feel obliged to double Job’s prosperity. Simply put, Job’s restoration is a free gift of God’s mercy. God is good.
And in a way then—and I believe this is right—in a way then, the epilogue in Job serves as an Old Testament equivalent to the New Testament anticipation of the new heaven and new earth. We are never promised exemption from suffering in this life of any kind or in any degree. But we are promised that for the faithfulness that we render to God in our suffering, God will reward us. Isn’t that a curious thing? For the faithfulness in suffering that we render to God in this life, God has promised to reward us. Why? Is it a matter of justice? At the end of the day, when we have been faithful to God, it is only what he has given, and it is only what we ought to have done in the first place. We are still unprofitable servants. And yet, God promises that for every faithfulness rendered to him in our sufferings, he will reward us. Not out of obligation, but out of mercy, and out of his goodness.
We are given every assurance that God will intervene, that the sufferings that mark this life will not last forever. And in fact, we are assured that the sufferings of this present time are not worth even comparing to the glory that shall then be revealed in us. There’ll never be a time in that day when we look back and say, “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know if it was worth it.” But the glory of that day will so far surpass anything we had imagined. The suffering of this day is just like a blip on the screen, and it’s not worth drawing the contrast. And so the Apostle John tells us twice, in fact, in the Book of Revelation: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Marvelous expression, isn’t it? And we are not to think at that point of God out there with a big handkerchief, wiping my eyes and then wiping your eyes. That’s not the point. I think the point is something like that we will have been brought by that point so to understand God’s purposes, so to enter into him, so to empathize with his purpose and his ways, that we will rejoice in the way he has ordered our lives and even praise him for it. I have no doubt that the hymn writer got it right when he said, “When we to that bright world shall rise and join the anthem in the skies, above the rest this note shall swell: My Jesus has done all things well.”
And this reminds us of something very important, and I think this is part of the function of these last verses of Job’s story. This reminds us of something important for us to recognize when we suffer, and that is that this world is not our home. We’re pilgrims passing through. We are not looking ultimately for blessing in this life or for things and for relationships in this life. What we are looking for, the object of our anticipation, is a new heaven and a new earth when this age gives way to that age, when this present evil world gives way to the world to come in Christ, when all things have been restored in him. And when we can see this world is passing away, what matters to us most is not things in this world. What matters to us most is that age to come when in Christ we share in his glory.
The Apostle John tells us of that coming age with a series of “no mores.” You remember them in the Book of Revelation? They’re marvelous. No more sickness. No more crying. No more death. And let’s just fill it in: no more cancer. No more Lyme disease. No more canes. No more walkers. No more funeral homes. No more funerals. Because there’ll be no more sin and no more curse. The former things have passed away and all things have become new, and this world has been restored to its original intent.
And we can be assured that we will get there because God has said so, and because God is sovereign, and because he is just, and because he is wise, and because he is good. He is sovereign; he will never allow anything outside of his control. Nothing will ever thwart his purpose. He is just, always to keep his word and his promise. He is wise, always to direct everything infallibly to his own ordained ends. And he is good, and in his goodness, working all things together for that good, for us, for his glory. God is too wise to make a mistake. God is too good to do us wrong. And so we trust him.
7. God Has Given Us All the Answers We Need
Well, one more, and I have wrestled with this this week. I’ve been tempted to just wait and expand on this further next time, but let’s just look at it quickly. One more thing I must know in order to trust God like this, and that is that God has given us all the answers we need. God has already given us all the answers we need.
Now that may seem like a kind of odd point to make when we have already placed so much stress on the mystery of suffering. Job’s suffering was never explained. But it was—a big part of the book was to emphasize to Job that he should have known better than to question God. And the point of God’s speech is, “Am I not a God that you can trust? A God who is sovereign, a God who is just, a God who is wise, a God who is good.”
And this is what I want to stress, and this is what I would love to expand for the next several weeks. It is at this point, brothers and sisters, that we read the Book of Job with a great advantage over Job. Because the questions that plagued Job screamed to us with gospel hope. Think through them: “I wish I had a mediator. Who in the world could bring me to God? How could I ever, ever make my case with him? Who is there qualified to stand between us and talk for him and talk for me?” And that, of course, is the whole point of New Testament Christology, New Testament soteriology: that we have the Lord from heaven himself who has come as one of us to be the mediator between God and men.
And Job is frustrated: “How could I ever be just before God?” Chapter nine. “How could I ever, given who I am, how could I ever be just with God?” And of course, it just screams with gospel truth that this mediator has stood in our place. He has himself become the righteousness that God requires of us, and he has stood in our place, and he has taken the punishment of our sin. And I am just before God—just before God—because of the mediator who stands in my place.
Job tells us in one burst of faith, “My witness is in heaven. God will argue that I am right.” And it just screams to us of the high priestly intercession of Christ, standing in heaven for us, pleading the merits of his blood and arguing, “This one is mine, he is righteous because I stood in his place.”
Job argues at certain points such as to say, “God is unfeeling. He doesn’t care.” And we can’t read that without thinking: we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points like as we are, tested like we are, successfully. And therefore he stands ready to give us just the grace that we need, and he invites us to come to the throne of grace, and there find a man in heaven—a man in heaven—who knows exactly the grace that we need at every given point of our testing, not because he read it in a book, but because he himself has been there and has experienced it himself successfully, and is able then to give us just the grace we need at every point.
In another burst of faith, Job says, “My Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” And that’s just—it just screams with the blessed hope. He says, “Though my skin be destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” Yeah, of course, because this mediator who has taken our place has done all that is required. He himself has gone ahead of us as our forerunner and gone through death and come out the other side. Having conquered the curse and exhausted it, he has been raised from the dead and because he has joined himself to us, we surely will be raised with him as well and stand with him in glory in the acceptance of God the Father.
Job argued that when he has tried me, I’ll come forth as gold. “You will see that I am righteous. God himself will tell you so.” And that, of course, is the great hope of every one of us. In fact, we can say that day of judgment has already passed. There’s now, now, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We have already passed that final judgment. And in that day, we’ll see it and experience that God himself will be our justifier through Jesus Christ.
And that’s why I say that we read Job’s story with a tremendous advantage over Job. If Job can instinctively respond to his suffering in worship—”The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord”—if Job can worship God like that in suffering, surely we can. Even with a broken heart, even in the grips of some awful suffering, to say: God is sovereign, God is just, God is wise, and God is good.
The purpose of Job then is to reorient our thinking Godward. There may be reasons for our suffering that we do not know, but there is a God whom we do know:
* whose rule is unchangeably firm over all of the circumstances of life,
* whose character is unchangeably just,
* whose purpose is unfailingly wise,
* and whose heart toward us is always unchangeably good in his love to us through his Son, the Lord Jesus.
And a God like that—I’ll say it one more time—a God like that we can trust implicitly. And that, it seems, is the point of the Book of Job.
Amen. We acknowledge that we are your creatures and there is so much that we do not know, but how we glory in what we can know and do know as you have revealed yourself to us in your Word. I pray, Father, that you will give us such a clear grasp of you—who you are, what you are, and how you’ve revealed yourself in your Word—that our reflex always in every circumstance is to look to you in a humble trust. We praise you for your ordering of our lives. We confess that there’s no place we would rather be than in your care. In Jesus’ name, amen.