12-26-14. Job 42:7-9. Job received grace and mission to reveal grace 

Job 42:7-17                                                                                          Kevin E. Jesmer

Key verse 42:8                                                                                     12-26-14

“ 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.” (NIV)

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. “

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.