Job 40-42 - Job Repents in Dust and Ashes

Job Places His Hand over His Mouth

Job 40:1-2 LSB - [1] Then Yahweh answered Job and said, [2] "Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it."

Job 40:3-4 LSB - [3] Then Job answered Yahweh and said, [4] "Behold, I am insignificant; what can I respond to You? I place my hand over my mouth.

We must all be caused to see our “lightness” next to God. “Surely, if any man had a right to say I am not vile, it was Job; for, according to the testimony of God himself, he was ‘a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil.’ Yet we find even this eminent saint when by his nearness to God he had received light enough to discover his own condition, exclaiming, ‘Behold I am vile.’” (Spurgeon)

“Job said, ‘Behold, I am vile.’ That word ‘behold’ implies that he was astonished. The discovery was unexpected. There are special times with the Lord’s people, when they learn by experience that they are vile.” (Spurgeon)

Yahweh Will Ask Job

Job 40:8 LSB - [8] "Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?

Behold the Behemoth

Job 40:15 LSB - [15] "Behold now, Behemoth, which I made along with you; It eats grass like an ox.

Job 40:19 LSB - [19] "It is the first of the ways of God; Let its Maker bring near its sword.

Can You Draw Out Leviathan?

Job 41:1 LSB - [1] "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? Or press down its tongue with a cord?

Job 41:10-11 LSB - [10] "No one is so fierce that he dares to arouse it; Who then is he that can stand before Me? [11] "Who has given to Me that I should repay [him]? [Whatever] is under the whole heaven is Mine.

Job 41:28-29 LSB - [28] "The arrow cannot make it flee; Slingstones are turned into stubble for it. [29] "Clubs are regarded as stubble; It laughs at the rattling of the javelin.

Job Repents in Dust and Ashes

Job 42:3 LSB - [3] 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too marvelous for me, which I did not know.

“Job felt that what he had spoken concerning the Lord was in the main true; and the Lord himself said to Job’s three friends, ‘Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath’; but under a sense of the divine presence Job felt that even when he had spoken aright, he had spoken beyond his own proper knowledge, uttering speech whose depths of meaning he could not himself fathom.” (Spurgeon)

Job 42:4-6 LSB - [4] 'Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You make me know.' [5] "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; [6] Therefore I reject [myself], And I repent in dust and ashes."

What did Job have to repent of? In his sermon, Job Among the Ashes, Charles Spurgeon suggested several things:

• Job repented of the terrible curse he had pronounced upon the day of his birth.
• Job repented of his desire to die.
• Job repented of his complaints against and challenges to God.
• Job repented of his despair.
• Job repented that his statements had been a “darkening of wisdom by words without knowledge”; that he spoke beyond his knowledge and ability to know.

Yahweh’s Anger Towards Job’s Friends

Job 42:7 LSB - [7] Now it happened after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, that Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My anger burns against you and against your two friends because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.

Yahweh Restores Job’s Fortunes

Job 42:17 LSB - [17] Then Job died, an old man and full of days.

“We are not all like Job, but we all have Job’s God. Though we have neither risen to Job’s wealth, nor will, probably, ever sink to Job’s poverty, yet there is the same God above us if we be high, and the same God with his everlasting arms beneath us if we be brought low; and what the Lord did for Job he will do for us, not precisely in the same form, but in the same spirit, and with like design.” (Spurgeon)

Job 37-39 - Yahweh Answers Job

Elihu Speaks of God’s Voice

Job 37:7 LSB - [7] "He seals the hand of every man, That all men may know His work.

i. “When the Lord seals up a man’s hand, he is unable to perform his labor. The Lord has an object in this, namely, ‘that, all men may know his work.’ When they cannot do their own work, they are intended to observe the works of God.” (Spurgeon)

 

Yahweh Answers Job

Job 38:1 LSB - [1] Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,

Job 38:4 LSB - [4] "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell [Me], if you know understanding,

Job 38:36 LSB - [36] "Who has given wisdom in the innermost being Or given understanding to the mind?

Yahweh Answers Job, “Have You?”

Job 38:12-13 LSB - [12] "Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, [And] caused the dawn to know its place, [13] That it might seize the ends of the earth, And the wicked be shaken out of it?

Job 38:16-17 LSB - [16] "Have you entered into the springs of the sea Or walked in the recesses of the deep? [17] "Have the gates of death been revealed to you, Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Job 38:22 LSB - [22] "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

Yahweh Answers Job, “Where Were You?”

Job 38:24 LSB - [24] "Where is the way that the light is divided, [Or] the east wind scattered on the earth?

Job 38:31 LSB - [31] "Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, Or loose the cords of Orion?

Job 39:1 LSB - [1] "Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth? Do you keep watch over the calving of the deer?

Job 39:17 LSB - [17] Because God has made her forget wisdom, And has not given her a share of understanding.

Job 39:26-27 LSB - [26] "Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, Stretching his wings toward the south? [27] "Is it at your command that the eagle goes on high And raises his nest high?

Job 34-36 - Elihu

Elihu Answers That God Will Be Just

Elihu Answers Job

Elihu Says God Gives the Afflicted Justice

Job 36:2 LSB - [2] "Wait for me a little, and I will show you That there is yet more to be said in God's behalf.

iii. “I admire Elihu’s attempt at brevity; I call it an attempt, for I am not quite sure that he succeeded, for he filled two chapters more. Yet he said, ‘Suffer me a little’; and thereby promised to make his oration as short as he could. Some lengthy divines, with their many divisions, their ‘Finallies,’ and ‘Lastlies,’ and concluding observations, spin and spin, and cause their congregations to suffer, and that not a little, but exceeding much. It is well when we have anything good to say to use as few words as possible, for if brevity be not the garment of grace it is the soul of wit, and all our wits should be set to work to put gospel teaching into such a form that it will be the better received. Assuredly, short and pointed addresses are more likely to reach the heart than long and dreary sermons.” (Spurgeon)

Job 36:5 LSB - [5] "Behold, God is mighty but does not reject; [He is] mighty in the power of [His] heart.

ii. “If God were little, he might despise the little; if he were weak he would disdain the weak; if he were untrue he would be supercilious to those about him; but, seeing he is none of these, but is God over all blessed for ever, the only wise God, we have to deal with one who, though he be high, hath respect unto the lowly; who, though he humbleth himself even to observe the things which are done in heaven, yet despiseth not the cry of the humble. The magnanimity of God is the reason why he despiseth not any.” (Spurgeon)

Job 31-33 - Covenant with My Eyes

Job Proclaims His Purity and Innocence

Job 31:1 LSB - [1] "I have cut a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?

Psa 119:37 LSB - [37] Cause my eyes to turn away from looking at worthlessness, And revive me in Your ways.

Mat 5:28 LSB - [28] but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Job 31:15 LSB - [15] "Did not He who made me in the womb make him, And the same one fashion us in the womb?

Elihu Answers in Anger

Job 32:1-3 LSB - [1] Then these three men ceased answering Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. [2] But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned; against Job his anger burned because he was proving himself righteous before God. [3] And his anger burned against his three friends because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.

Job 32:8 LSB - [8] "But it is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.

Elihu Asks Job to Hear and Respond

Job 33:19 LSB - [19] "Man is also reproved with pain on his bed, And with unceasing contention in his bones,

i. “The chastisement of sickness and the flagellation of pain whip the sinner back to him who alone can save him. These are the black dogs of the Great Shepherd wherewith he brings back wandering sheep till they come again under his crook, and he leads them into green pastures.”

(Spurgeon)

Job 33:26-28 LSB -
[26] Then he will entreat God, and He will accept him,
And he will see His face with joyful shouts,
And He may restore His righteousness to man.
[27] "He will sing to men and say, 'I have sinned and perverted what is right,
But He has not done what is due to me.
[28] 'He has redeemed my soul from passing into the pit,
And my life shall see the light.'

Job 28-30 - Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

Job 28:20 LSB - 

[20] "Where then does wisdom come from? 

And where is the place of understanding?

Job 28:21 LSB - 

[21] "Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living 

And concealed from the birds of the sky.

ii. “He seems to say that, though men should explore the deep places of the earth with all the diligence of miners seeking gold and silver, though they should exert all their mental force, as miners use all their muscular vigor, and though they should employ all the machinery within their reach, as men do who pierce through the rocks in search of precious treasure yet it is not within the range of human labor and skill to attain unto wisdom. That can only be found by another and a higher method; it must come to us by revelation from God, for we cannot find it by our own efforts.” (Spurgeon)

Job 28:23 LSB - 

[23] "God understands its way, 

And He knows its place.

Job 28:28 LSB - 

[28] "So He said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; 

And to turn away from evil is understanding.'"

Job Continues His Discourse

Job 29:2-5 LSB - [2] "Oh that I were as in months gone by, As in the days when God kept me, [3] When His lamp shone over my head, [And] by His light I walked through darkness, [4] As I was in the prime of my days, When the [intimate] counsel with God [was] over my tent, [5] When the Almighty was yet with me, [And] my children were around me,

Job 30:23 LSB - [23] "For I know that You will bring me to death And to the house of meeting for all living.

“Under depression of spirit he felt sure that he must very soon die; he feared that God would not relax the blows of his hand until his body became a ruin, and then he would have rest. But he did not die at that time. He was fully recovered, and God gave him twice as much as he had before. A life of usefulness, and happiness, and honor lay before him; and yet he had set up his own tombstone, and reckoned himself a dead man.” (Spurgeon)

Job 30:25 LSB - [25] "Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

ii. The sensitive soul of Job was another demonstration of his godliness, and appropriate for any servant of God. “I know that a man in the ministry who cannot feel had much better resign his office. We have heard some hold forth the doctrines of grace, as if they were a nauseous medicine, and men were to be forced to drink thereof by hard words and violent abuse. We have always thought that such men did more hurt than good, for while seeking to vindicate the letter, they evidently missed the spirit of the faith once delivered unto the saints. Cold and impassive are some of our divines; they utter truth as though it were no concern of theirs whether men received it or not. To such men heaven and hell, death and eternity, are mere themes for oratory, but not subjects for emotion.” (Spurgeon)

 

 

Job 25-27 - I Hold Fast My Righteousness

Bildad Asks, Can Man Be Right with God?

Job 25:4-6 LSB - [4] "How then can mortal man be right with God? Or how can he be pure who is born of woman? [5] "Behold even the moon has no brightness, And the stars are not pure in His sight; [6] How much less mortal man, [that] maggot, And the son of man, [that] worm!"

Original and actual Sin confessed

Author: Isaac Watts

1 Lord, we are vile, and full of sin,

We're born unholy and unclean;

Spring from the man whose guilty fall

Corrupts his race, and taints us all.

2 Soon as we draw our infant breath

The seeds of sin grow up for death;

Thy law demands a perfect heart,

But we're defiled in every part.

3 Behold, we fall before thy face;

Our only refuge is thy grace:

No outward forms can make us clean;

The leprosy lies deep within.

4 Nor bleeding bird, nor bleeding beast,

Nor hyssop branch, nor earthly priest,

Nor running brook, nor flood, nor sea,

Can wash the dismal stain away.

5 Jesus, thy blood, thy blood alone,

Hath power sufficient to atone;

Thy blood can make us white as snow;

No other tide can cleanse us so.

Who Can Understand God?

Job 26:2-3 LSB - [2] "What a help you are to the one without power! How you have saved the arm without strength! [3] "What counsel you have given to [one] without wisdom! What sound wisdom you have abundantly made known!

Job 26:7 LSB - [7] "He stretches out the north over what is formless And hangs the earth on nothing.

Job 26:14 LSB - [14] "Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; And how [only with] a whisper of a word do we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?"

Psa 139:1-5 LSB - [1] For the choir director. Of David. A Psalm. O Yahweh, You have searched me and known [me]. [2] You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. [3] You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. [4] Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Yahweh, You know it all. [5] You have enclosed me behind and before, And You have put Your hand upon me.

Psa 139:6 LSB - [6] [Such] knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is [too] high, I cannot attain to it.

 

I Hold Fast My Righteousness

Job 27:2-4 LSB - [2] "As God lives, who has removed my justice, And the Almighty, who has embittered my soul, [3] For as long as breath is in me, And the spirit from God is in my nostrils, [4] My lips certainly will not speak unrighteousness, Nor will my tongue utter deceit.

Job 27:6 LSB - [6] "I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go. My heart does not reproach any of my days.

Job 22-24 - Delight in the Almighty

Eliphaz Says Job Must Repent

Job 22:26 LSB - [26] "For then you will delight in the Almighty And lift up your face to God.

Psa 37:4 LSB - [4] Delight yourself in Yahweh; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

In a sermon titled Delight in the Almighty, Charles Spurgeon explained what this means.

• It means to have joy in God. “When a man hangs his head down he is unhappy: it is the attitude of misery; but oh, when our thoughts of God are changed, and our relationship to God is different, we lift up our faces and sun our countenances in the light of God’s favor.”
• It means to have guilt put away. “Guilt makes a man hang his head. “Conscience doth make cowards of us all”; but oh, my brothers, when the atoning sacrifice has come with all its power to us, when we are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and we are clean every whit, then we lift up our face unto God.”
• It means to be free from fear. “Fear covers her face, and would fain hide herself altogether, even though to accomplish concealment the rocks must fall upon her.”
• It means to have expectation. “Oh, to lift one’s face toward God, looking for deliverance, safety, and rest, and expecting both grace and glory from his right hand!”

Where Is God?

Job 23:3 LSB - [3] "Oh that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat!

ii. This not only tells us of Job’s sense of the loss of the presence of God, but of his longing to have it back. “Good men are washed towards God even by the rough waves of their grief; and when their sorrows are deepest, their highest desire is not to escape from them, but to get at their God.” (Spurgeon)

iii. “In Job’s uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father’s face. His first prayer is not, ‘Oh that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!’ nor even, ‘Oh that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!’ but the first and uppermost cry is, ‘Oh that I knew where I might find HIM — who is my God! that I might come even to his seat!’” (Spurgeon)

Job 23:10 LSB - [10] "But He knows the way I take; [When] He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

iii. “It looks very hard to believe that a child of God should be tried by the loss of his Father’s presence, and yet should come forth uninjured by the trial. Yet no gold is ever injured in the fire. Stoke the furnace as much as you may, let the blast be as strong as you will, thrust the ingot into the very center of the white heat, let it lie in the very heart of the flame; pile on more fuel, let another blast torment the coals till they become most vehement with heat, yet the gold is losing nothing, it may even be gaining.” (Spurgeon)

v. “I shall ask four questions of every man within reach of my voice. God knoweth the way that you take. I will ask you first: Do you know your own way? Secondly: Is it a comfort to you that God knows your way? Thirdly: Are you tried in the way? And, if so, fourthly: Have you confidence in God as to the result of that trial? Can you say with Job, ‘When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold?’” (Spurgeon)

Who Can Prove Me a Liar?

Job 19-21 - I Know That My Redeemer Lives

My Redeemer Lives

Job 19:2 LSB - [2] "How long will you torment my soul And crush me with words?

Job 19:25-27 LSB - [25] "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will rise up over the dust [of this world]. [26] "Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall behold God, [27] Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Author: Samuel Medley (1775)

1 I know that my Redeemer lives;

what comfort this sweet sentence gives!

He lives, He lives, who once was dead;

He lives, my everlasting Head.

2 He lives triumphant from the grave,

He lives eternally to save,

He lives all-glorious in the sky,

He lives exalted there on high.

3 He lives to bless me with His love,

He lives to plead for me above,

He lives my hungry soul to feed,

He lives to help in time of need.

4 He lives to grant me rich supply,

He lives to guide me with His eye,

He lives to comfort me when faint,

He live to hear my soul's complaint.

5 He lives to silence all my fears,

He lives to wipe away my tears,

He lives to calm my troubled heart,

He lives all blessings to impart.

6 He lives, my kind, wise, heav'nly Friend,

He lives and loves me to the end;

He lives, and while He lives, I'll sing;

He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.

7 He lives and grants me daily breath;

He lives and I shall conquer death;

He lives my mansion to prepare;

He lives to bring me safely there.

8 He lives, all glory to His name!

He lives, my Jesus, still the same.

Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,

"I know that my Redeemer lives!"

Zophar Says the Joy of the Wicked Is Short

God Does Not Punish the Wicked

Job 16-18 - Troublesome Comforters

Troublesome Comforters

Job 16:2 LSB - [2] "I have heard many such things; Troublesome comforters are you all.

Job 16:19-20 LSB - [19] "Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate is on high. [20] "My friends are my scoffers; My eye weeps to God.

Job Seeks Hope

Job 17:1 LSB - [1] "My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; The grave is [ready] for me.

Job 17:6 LSB - [6] "But He has made me a byword of the people, And I am one at whom men spit.

Bildad Speaks of the Downfall of the Wicked