12-26-14. Job 42:1-17. Look To Jesus…Repent and Pray For Others –my devotional

Job 42:1-17                                                                                                  Kevin E. Jesmer

Key Verse: 42:5,6                                                                                         12-26-14

“5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (NIV)

Part 1: Job Repents After Beholding God In His Glory (1-6)

In this passage we learn about what it means to be convicted of our sins and a little of what it means to repent before the Lord. Look at Job 42:1-6, “42 Then Job replied to the Lord: 2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. 4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ 5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job was not satisfied about hearing about God, he wanted to meet God personally and bring his case before him. Now the opportunity had come. God spoke to him and Job openly and honestly faced God, conceding that he was the one who have been foolish all along. Throughout the book, Job’s friends had asked him to admit his sins to God and ask for forgiveness. Finally in this passage, Job did indeed repent.

From Job’s experience we can see what happens when we take a good look at who the holy God truly is? First, one realizes, the character of God and they see themselves as sinners in need of forgiveness. And second, the spirit of repentance stirs in our hearts and we fall to our knees in humble submission. Job’s reaction is consistent with the experience of many found throughout the Bible. Let’s see.

First, realizing the character of God and responding to our own sinfulness. Look at verses 1-4, “Then Job replied to the Lord: 2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. 4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’”

Job comes to know that character of God through personal experience. Job’s repentance was not the kind expected and even asked for by his friends. Job did not ask for forgiveness for committing secret sins, as the three friends implied he made, but he repented for questioning God’s sovereignty and justice. Job knows that God is omnipotent and omniscient, that is, all powerful and all knowing. Basically, Job repented of his wrong attitude and acknowledged God’s awesome power and perfect justice expressed in the world and in his life, even in the midst of great, personal suffering. Instead of shaking his fists and saying to God, “Why have you done this too me?” he yielded to the Lord in full submission. There is a time when we all must submit to God, confessing that God is good and he can do whatever he wills in this world and in my life. And for all he does, I am truly thankful.

     Second, Job fell to his knees in repentance and found a new life direction. Job had felt well about his condition and held fast top his own moral excellence. But now he stood before the holy God. His carefully constructed case that he planned to present, collapsed. He had no answers to God’s questions. He no longer insisted on his own righteousness, realizing that no one is righteous before God. Job fell silent, repenting in dust and ashes. The Lord then provided the means to receive forgiveness and also a mission for Job in verse 8, “. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.”  Job now had a mission to pray for his friends and he would embrace that mission. This is a healthy response to meeting the holy God.

The discovery of the deep corruption of the heart is one of the most painful and humbling, and yet life giving and liberating thing that a person can do. Let’s take a few examples of other people in the Bible. We will look at Isaiah, and Apostle Paul.

When Isaiah saw God in his holiness, in Isaiah 6, how did he respond? Look at Isaiah 6:1-5, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;    the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”  Isaiah saw his sinfulness. He thought  he was going to die right then and there and so he cried out, “Woe to me…I am ruined.” He also saw that his people, Israel bogged down by sin also. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…”  He was stunned by his experience with the King, the Lord Almighty.

Though Isaiah was stunned by his experience with God, he did not remain in his stunned condition. He experienced the grace of God. The Lord forgave all of his sins and called him to a mission. Isaiah 6:6-8 reads,” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” God accepted Isaiah as his servant, despite his sinfulness, and presented him with a great mission. And now, strengthened by his personal experience with the Lord and the grace of God, Isaiah accepts the calling, saying, “Send me.”

What was Saul’s reaction when he met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus? Look at Acts 9:1-19, “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.”  Paul fell to the ground, stunned. He was humbled, calling the Risen Jesus “Lord”.

Later on, as Paul grew in his relationship with Jesus and in his experience with the Gospel. He knew the truth about his sinful nature.  Romans 723-25a, “23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!…” He was appalled by his own sinfulness. But he didn’t remain appalled. His experience led him to a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ, his Savior.

The grace of God spurred Paul onto a mission to serve the Lord Jesus. Look at 1 Corinthians 15:7-10, “7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” Paul knew, that because of his sin, he was like an abnormally born child. He knew that he was the least of all the apostles. This was not just some cliché. He really meant it. He knew that he did not deserve to be included as one of the apostles and in the birthing of the Christian church. He was standing only by the grace of God and that grace spurred him on to serve the mission of God in his life.

Becoming convicted of our sins is a normal part of the Christian experience. There is a point when we realize that all of our own righteousness is nothing but filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” God accomplishes this through the Holy Spirit. Let’s think about the convicting work of God. The Holy Spirit is God in us. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteous and judgment. John 16:7-11 reads, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” The important part is that we not stifle the convicting work that God is doing in our hearts. Allow it’s work to go to completion, which is leading us to the Gospel.

Conviction of our sin occurs when we look intently into the word of God. When we come before the Bible we need to prayerful and focused, making it a regular practice. We must face it, practice it, and allow the word to work, for it is living and active. It says in James 1:22-24, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”  If we remain focused on the word of God, then we will see ourselves as we are. We will experience conviction of sin and be drawn to Jesus, the subject of the whole Bible.

When we come to Jesus and receive his complete forgiveness of sins, then Jesus becomes our righteousness. (1 Cor 1:30-31) Listen to what Paul’s writes when he realizes that his righteousness is nothing but filthy rags. In Philippians 3:7-8, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”  In verse 8, the King James Version the word “garbage” is translated as “dung”. Paul does not mince his words when he despises his self righteous attempts to be right before God.

Does this mean that anyone who meets comes to Jesus will faint and fall to the ground in awe of the holy God? They might. But not always. It didn’t happen to me. I think it means that a person stops arguing with Jesus. They stop questioning Jesus about the things going in their lives. They stop resisting and doubting Jesus. When they behold the holy God with the eyes of their hearts, they accept God for who he is in their life, the Lord. They accept what God is doing. They are content and thankful for God accepting them. They will also turn away from sin and accept a new hope and a new life direction, to live for the glory of the one who loved them and forgave them.

There is a great promise for those who allow the convicting work of God in their lives. They will meet Jesus very personally. They will be forgiven completely as Jesus becomes their righteousness. They will stand in awe of God and accept the mission of God, the Gospel mission that God has for them in their lives.  They will experience times of refreshing. Acts 3:19 reads, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,” It all starts with beholding the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

Part 2: Job Received Grace And Mission To Reveal Grace (7-17)

Verses 7-17, “7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer. 10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.”

In the chapter of Job, (42), Job received vindication by the Lord. God made it clear that Job’s friends were wrong in verses 7, “After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.”  God was angry with Job’s three friends because they did not speak the truth about God. They were judging Job without knowing what God was doing. They assumed that Job’s suffering was caused by some great sin. Their words came from their own self-righteousness and their imperfect theology. They did not know God, so how could they rightly represent the Lord? In this chapter God did not mention any specific sins that Job was reported to have committed. This shows that God vindicated Job. He confirmed Job’s claim that he was not suffering because of some secret sins. Oh how good it feels to be vindicated by God.

Job was not totally right either, (for all have sinned <Rom 3:23>) but he was not what his friends were claiming him to be. On a practical note, we must no make judgments about a person. God is working in ways that we know nothing about. Who knows…we may be the ones who are wrong. Take the plank out of own eyes before we try to take the speck out of brothers’ eye. (Matt 7:4)

God gave Job a new mission, to minister and pray for his friends. They were to go to Job and make sacrifices and be prayed over. Look at verses 8-9, “ So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.” The three friends would have to confess their sins and repent and offer up the sacrifices that God prescribed. This is the equivalent of our coming to Jesus for his mercy and his grace. Job, like a good minister, helped them offer up the right sacrifices and he prayed for them. God accepted their sacrifices, heard Jobs prayer and the three friends were forgiven and were well on the road to restoration.

How hard it was for Job to pray for them. How could he still pray for those who oppressed and criticized him when he was down? This took a lot of faith and grace on his part. It is difficult to forgive someone, minister to them and pray for them when they have accused us of wrong doing. But this is what Job did. How can we forgive people? Job received the strength to do this when he experiences the love of God first? The ability to forgive requires a personal encounter with the grace of God. When we know the grace of God personally then we can minister to those whom we have an incredibly difficult time embracing. We love because Jesus first loved us. (1 John 4:19) Romans 5:8 reads, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Think about your own personal experience with Christ. While we were still sinners, means that we were not very lovely. Some of us were simply unapproachable. Some were like porcupines, cute but full of painful barbs. But Jesus came and loved us. He dwelt among sinners. He loved and served and ministered to those who were lost in darkness. He suffered and died on the cross. He faced death and overcame for our sakes. He led the way to the Kingdom of God through his death and resurrection. It was all for his glory but it was also because of his great love for us. He is forgiving us and loving us and blessing us everyday as we live in Christ. We love because he first loved us. Maybe there is someone in your life, whom you can not even talk to, that God has called you to forgive and to minister to. Answer the call of God to love that person.

After receiving Christ’s love and grace, now what? 1 John 4:11 reads, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Part of loving one another is doing what Job was called to do. Look at verse 8 again, “8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.”  The bulls and rams were animal sacrifices given at the time to procure the Lord’s forgiveness. They were a means provided by God. Job would facilitate and guide the three friends as they approached God humbly asking to be forgiven. Then Job, the servant of God, would pray for them.

Jesus is now our perfect sacrifice. (John 1:29). We don’t need to sacrifice bulls and rams anymore. But we do need to come to Jesus, the Lamb of God and receive his grace personally. God brings people into our lives to minister the Gospel to us. They help us to understand the basics of Gospel faith. They disciple us and mentor us. They pray for us faithfully. They can do this because they themselves have been blessed by the Lord. It is faith in Jesus and the love of Christ that propels them as mentors in others’ lives. But they must always remember that they are simply pointing to the Lamb of God, Jesus. The true shepherd of all people is only Jesus Christ. He will shepherd each and everyone of his people through his Holy Spirit.

Job’s role in helping them to offer the sacrifice and praying for them is a reflection of Jesus. Jesus is our high priest. He is the only mediator between God and mankind. (1 Tim 2:5) What a comfort to know that Jesus offered up the perfect sacrifice, his own body and he prays for us before the throne of God day and night, continually. What peace and comfort it is to know that Jesus is doing all of this for us. We can rest assured that he will bring to completion the good work that he has started within us. He will bring us home to the eternal kingdom of God to be with him forever.

God restored Job’s fortunes and blessed the remainder of his life. He experienced, not only forgiveness and grace, but restoration of life. Recall what Job’s original situation was in Job 1:2-3, “He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.”  And now look what his situation was in chapter 42. Verses 10-17 reads, “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.” Wow! How could one man become so blessed? He had twice as much material riches than he had before. All of his friendships were restored. The respect and honor of all his extended family and community were granted. All of those who had previously spoken so harshly of him will change their minds now. God gave Job and his wife, ten more children and all of the girls were very beautiful. The sons were probably handsome too. He also recovered completely from his illness and lived another 140 years. Job was exactly 70 years old when the calamities came upon him. Adding another 140 years meant that Job lived to be 210! Not only that, he was accepted by God. He knew that God was pleased with his faith. When he died, he would be taken up by the Lord to dwell in the Kingdom of God forever and ever. What wonderful grace from God.

One thing that was not restored in this world, were his original children that died during the calamities. Nor did he receive the faithful servants that died either. They were not resurrected from the dead while Job lived. God gave him new kids and new servants. But these could not take the place of those he lost. This must have broken his heart. But he would have found solace knowing that he would see them again one day in the kingdom of heaven. So in a sense he would be reunited with his original kids, but not during the remainder of his life on earth.

There are wonderful promises of healing, vindication, restoration and blessing for those who have held onto Jesus in the midst of all kinds of trials. Check out some of these verses. James 5:11; “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” James 1:12: “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”  And Jeremiah 9:23-24 reads; “23 This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, 24 but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.”

Our God is into healing and restoration. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come. (2 Cor 5:17)  The Bible is full of people whom Jesus has forgiven and restored in this life. I always think about the disciples in John 21. Think about their situation. They had just witnessed the suffering and death of their leader, Jesus. They had left jobs and careers and dedicated 3 ½ years of their lives to follow Jesus. But at that time they were being hunted down as criminals. They didn’t know what to do and so they went back to their old lives, trying to fish. But even then they caught nothing. Jesus came to them forgiving them and calling them “friends”. He helped them to have a great success in fishing. He helped restore Peter spiritually, by allowing him to confess his love to Jesus three times. Then he gave them a mission to feed God’s sheep. They came out of their despair and condemnation and were raised up by Jesus to be the Apostles. They became spiritual leaders for the known world. God worked through them to establish the Christian church. They were history makers by the grace of God. Not only that, they had a rich reward in the Kingdom of God. Talk about restoration.

Jesus says that someone gives up something for the kingdom of God will be repaid. (Luke 18:29-30, “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” Our restoration may or may not be the same type as Job. Our complete restoration may not even be in this life. But it will happen. I remember a “chick tract” that I read when I was a child. There was a homeless child, living in a cardboard box, is suffering greatly. She is near the end of her life and gives her heart to Jesus. Then she dies in the cold, wet, cardboard box. It is what happens after her death that amazed me. She was resurrected from the dead and met Jesus in the Kingdom of God. Her life was totally restored and abundantly blessed in heaven. God loves us and he is just. He will keep his promise to restore whatever we have lost. He will give us more than we can imagine. Cling tightly to your faith through all of your trials and you too will be rewarded by God, if not now in this life, definitely in the life to come. It will happen.

I know personally how Jesus restores peoples’ lives. I was one who was in desperate need of restoration. Before I met Jesus at the age of 22, I was far from what God intended me to be. I was a hedonistic person who lived to have a good time. I couldn’t study and failed my first year of University with 1.0 GPA. My relationships with others were not healthy. I was in deep despair with no hope. But Jesus came into my life. He forgave me. He showed me the Gospel truth and showed me to the way. He healed me and restored my life in a myriad of ways. He is leading me all the way to eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Even if I got sick and died immediately after meeting Jesus, that would be O.K. because my restoration would be made complete in the Kingdom of God. Praise God for his redeeming and restoring grace.  I also know that if he did this in my life he can do this to anyone.

Prayer: “Holy and Awesome Jesus, I behold your glory and stand in awe and repent. Thank you for our grace. Help me to pray for others.”

One Word: Jesus restores and blesses so we can minister the Gospel.