Job is Conquered
"It was too painful for me till I entered the sanctuary of God,
then my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered.
I was stupid and ignorant, I was a brute beast before you"
—Ps 73:16-22
The Lord saw that He had to deal a little more personally with Job to make him understand the depth of his error. He had just finished reminding Job of His overwhelming power in creation, and Job just simply stood silent in front of the greatness of his God. Now Job has to be reminded that none of the power and influence that he used to have over other people had been his own, and he needed to learn, in an even deeper measure, his own helplessness.
"Job, do you have an arm like God's? Can your voice thunder like His? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor and clothe yourself in honor and majesty . . . Look at everyone that is proud . . . and humble him; and crush the wicked . . . into the dust . . .
"If you can do any of these things Job, then I will admit that you are able to save yourself."
Job had said that in the "good ole days," he had sat as "chief in the midst of the people, clothed with righteousness and crowned with justice." He talked about his power to pluck the prey of the wicked from their teeth, and of the way in which others had been silenced by his words.
So the Lord's question hit close to home because Job knew all too well that all his authority and power had been stripped from him. He was painfully aware that he could not re-clothe himself with it, any more than he could array himself in the majesty of God. The fact that he couldn't humble any man was made obvious by his failure to convince even his friends of his integrity, and his inability to save himself was manifested in the complete uselessness of his self-vindication.
Job didn't have an answer to this last round of questions any more than he did to the first round, but this last sword thrust hits him hard and touches him in the vital point of his despair. The Lord finally hit him in the most sensitive area and is slowly bringing him down to the place of emptiness and blessing.
The Lord's Picture Lesson
Just to press the point home a little further and to put it to final rest, the Lord once more uses His creation to illustrate the lesson. The Lord refers to two huge animals, one called "behemoth," which some think was either an elephant or a hippopotamus, and "leviathan," which could possibly be a whale or a crocodile, depending on which commentary you read.
The Lord calls behemoth the "chief ways of God," describing in very minute detail all of this creature's strength and might. He points out that "only his Maker can approach him with his sword," which is the object lesson for Job to consider.
Only the Creator can deal with the creature, and only the Lord can humble the proud and break down his arrogance. The Lord was Job's only hope for deliverance from his need.
The other thing that Job should consider about the huge behemoth is that even when the river was overflowing or violent, this animal was not alarmed. He simply remained secure and confident. He knew that he was not going to sink, the very instinct of its life told him that the waters would simply carry him wherever they flowed.
The same should have been true with Job during the raging of the deep waters of his trial. God had breathed life into him, and He was not going to let him drown. The waters would simply draw him closer to the Lord.
The Second Lesson
The Lord's second picture is another huge creature called a leviathan. Then, He gives an even more detailed description of him to prove the impossibility of his being tamed by man.
You could never put him on a fishhook. You could never play with him, or tame him like a pet. No one would dare to lay his hand on him or have the courage to rouse him. "If you lay your hands on him, you will long remember the battle that ensues, and you will never try it again! No, it is useless to try to capture him. It is frightening even to think about it! . . . His limbs, his mighty strength, his terrible teeth, his scales, his eyes, his mouth, his nostrils, his breath like kindled coals, make him so terrible that the strongest men fear him . . . No sword can stop him, no spear or dart or pointed shaft. Iron is nothing but straw to him and brass is rotten wood . . . He makes the water boil with his commotion. He churns up the depths. He leaves a shining wake of froth behind him . . . There is nothing on earth his equal -- a creature without fear. He is king over all that are proud!" If men are cast down at the sight of this creature, what about God? He created him! Who can stand against Him?
"Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me!" That is the conclusion of the whole matter! Job had said that the Lord took away his rights, but the Lord declares that Job has no "rights!" As Sovereign Lord of Heaven and earth, He is not under any obligation to any creature. No one can demand anything of Him as a "right." On the contrary, they must acknowledge His claim! Everything, whether animate or inanimate, wears a placard that He wrote which says "MINE!"
"Job, take a look at behemoth, which I made along with you. Behemoth is Mine, and you are Mine. I have the sovereign right to do whatever I will with Mine own."
Job is conquered!
The first time Job answered the Lord he admitted that he felt worthless and inferior. I am going to use one of those "ten dollar" phrases: He felt "contemptibly mean." I do not think you can find a better description of Job's heart than that as he remembered the words that he used against the Lord during his complaints.
Job simply submits to the claims of his God and King and cries, "I know you can do all things!" In the complete surrender and adoration of his whole being, he proclaims with a fresh renewal of his faith, the sovereign power of God in his life and allows the Lord to take His rightful place of authority.
Job confesses that he finally accepts the Lord can do anything and no one can stop him, "no plan of yours can be thwarted." He had always believed it, and even said it to his friends in one of his moments of tenacious trust in God, but now he knows it with a "full assurance of understanding" that he never had before. All his crying, kicking, screaming and carrying on, had never hindered the Lord from revealing Himself to Job when the time was right.
The Lord just waited until the trial had fulfilled His purpose and proved that Job would remain true to Him to the very end.
Job looks back on his past months of suffering and in the light of the Lord's presence sees the purpose of love behind it all. However, did Job learn his lesson? Oh, sure, he acknowledged the Lord's sovereignty and claim on his life. Yes, he understood the Lord's wisdom and compassion during his trial. But did Job confess his ignorance, and admit that he had veiled the counsel of God by his "words without knowledge?"
Job's Confession
Without hesitation, Job admitted that he had uttered words he did not understand. Just like the psalmist said, "Lord, you hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain" (Ps. 139:5-6; Job 42:3).
Job told Zophar that he was not inferior to him, he knew just as much as Zophar. Now he sees that he was not willing to be thought ignorant by his friends, much less to be taught by them what they considered they knew about God.
Job remembers how he had actually been tempted to show his would-be teachers that he knew as much as they did! Now he realizes that he could accept whatever came and worship Him, regardless of the pain, but he could not take the low place before his friends and accept their assessments of his condition. He could not let them treat him like an ignorant, presumptuous man, much less like a hypocrite that was hiding his secret sins.
In his heart, I really believe that Job honestly wanted to be humble, and not to "Lord" his position over his servants, or his friends. It was one thing to be humble like that, and another to be willing to be considered ignorant of the things of God by those whose knowledge of Him was less than his own.
That was my greatest struggle when we first moved to
Now Job and I could understand Elihu's words about the Lord withdrawing His children from their work, to "hide pride" from them, and to save them from greater sorrow in the world to come.
In shame, Job (and I) looked up to the Lord. Is the Lord going to let him speak one more time?
Job's Verdict on his Past
It is fascinating how we can see right into the Lord's heart as he is dealing with Job. It is so important to the Lord that His people walk with Him in integrity of heart and that they have a complete understanding of all His dealings with them.
Just before the Lord had sent His judgment on
I think the Lord is trying to do the same thing with Job. He simply wants Job to acknowledge that the Lord was just in His dealings with him. The Lord opens His heart to Job, and then waits for Job to pass judgment on himself and the way he behaved during his trial.
"Job, answer Me now," the Lord said, and Job looks up. "Lord, I thought I knew You, because You were with me before. Your Spirit was on me. I called on You and You answered me, I was blessed on every side, but now that my eyes see You, I realize that my past knowledge of You was nothing more than a 'hearing of the ear.' My inner ears were opened to Your instruction, but the eyes of my heart have never seen You until now."
Let's think about that a moment. It seems that the entire story of Job contains the first, and primary revelation of God to His fallen creatures. Through each year and each generation, the Lord was gradually unveiling Himself as He drew closer and closer to His people until in the "fullness of time" He was manifested in His son, Christ Jesus. Through Christ, all those who were once alienated and banished from God could return and through a rebirth become the very sons of God.
Job saw the Lord as the great First Cause, the central spring or pivot of all creation, the One who directs and moves everything from His throne.
Elijah understood the same aspect of the Lord so that he was able, in unshaken faith, to ask that it would not rain for three years. He knew the God on the throne of the universe, the One who declared to Job that He had treasures of snow and hail reserved for the day of battle.
To us, God has redeemed people, this same God is revealed in His Son Jesus Christ. Paul said that Christ was the expressed image of the invisible God and that it was "in Him that all things were created . . . and it was in Him that all things hold together" (Col. 1:16-17). That makes Him equal with God, our Creator as well as our Redeemer.
Jesus' greatest joy is to reveal the Father to His redeemed. As we stand in union with Him, and walk with Him, beholding with unveiled faces the glory of the Lord, we are led by the Holy Spirit from glory to glory, closer and closer to Him who sits on the throne, until we, too, know God as He was revealed to Job. From the inner sanctuary of His presence we can look out on the universe, and like the Psalmist, see how His voice moves the waters; breaks the cedars; hews out flames of fire; shakes the wilderness, and strips the forest bare (Psalm 29). In the sanctuary of His immediate presence the Seraphim cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isa. 6:3).
The story of Job teaches us that this innermost knowledge of God is only given when you have been stripped of everything that may, even without your knowing it, dim your vision and keep you preoccupied even with its blessings instead of with God; or with the work rather than the will of God.
Many times the very gifts that God has given us, as well as our present knowledge and understanding of the Lord, can keep us from receiving the deepest knowledge of God Himself.
Also in this story we can see the difference between the possession of gifts, which tend to build us up in ourselves and make us think we know more than others, and the stripping of everything we thought we possessed, so that when we are left with absolutely nothing we can truly "possess all things in Him" who is the source and possessor of everything.
"I had learned of you, but now my eyes have seen you," cries Job as he looks back on the past that he thought was "the ripeness of his days!"
"I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know" is his verdict on the knowledge that he thought was so great!
Job finally knows himself and his place in the economy of God. He is becoming the little child Elihu had described that is content to lay down on its Father's heart, to know everything that the Father wishes to teach and content to be whatever the Father wants it to be while it rejoices with excitement in the gifts and graces given to others in his Father's house.
Job's Self-Loathing
Job also sees another aspect of the Lord's cleansing because just as when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and cried, "I am a man of unclean lips," Job cries, "I abhor myself" and "loathe my words."
Job had said to Eliphaz that the speeches of one who was desperate were only for the wind, they should not be taken seriously. Now however, Job sees that superfluity of speech must be renounced if he is to walk in fellowship with God. The "precious" must be taken from the "vile," that which is "true (gold) must be separated from the dross" (Jer.
James places "stumbling not in word" as the supreme mark of a man that is fully under the control of God. This same man, according to James, is able to bridle his whole body.
The Lord has done His work. When it really sinks in to Job that he should have endured in silence and left his vindication to his God, he cries, "I despise my words." I think he realizes now that he was making matters worse by complaining. By constantly meditating on and talking about his problems and sorrows he was actually only magnifying them in his own eyes and wasting the little strength he may have had to endure.
His tongue had, as James says, "set on fire the whole course of his life . . . Set on fire by the powers of darkness" (James 3:6). Jesus said to let our " 'yes' be 'yes' and our 'no' be 'no'; anything beyond this comes for the evil one" (Matt.
I think Job begins to remember his words of despair and longing for death; his sarcastic contempt toward Zophar; his bitter reasoning with Bildad; his petulant crying and pleading with God to leave him alone. (What if the Lord had taken Him at his word?) I am sure he remembered how he had described to others how God had used him to bless and strengthen others. How could he have spoken about himself that way?
Job remembers how he was offended with his God and had reproached Him with cruelty after he had walked with Him so loyally in the past. When his wife told him to curse God and die, he called her a foolish woman. "Shouldn't we endure hardship as well as enjoy blessings?" He then compounds that with his miserable collapse on the ash heap and his pitiful attempt to clear his own character to his misjudging friends.
"I abhor myself," and "loathe my words," is the only thing he can say in the light of all that God has shown him. He is not going to say another word about his past integrity. He will not even ask again for his blessings to be restored because now he realizes that he never really knew himself or understood how deep his needs really were.
