Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.35 – September 1966
Job’s Repentance Brought About By God’s Sovereignty
Sermon by Rev. P. Berghouse on Job 42:5,6
Scripture Reading: Job 1:6-12; Job 2:1-10; Job 33:12-24.
Psalter Hymnal: 48:2,5; 100:3,4; 151:1,2,5; 131:5,6; 148:1,2; 211:9
Congregation, Beloved of the Lord, and Young People,
Job’s patience is proverbial! As a matter of fact, many people know very little else about him. And yet, it was not because of his patience that the story of Job is recorded in the Bible. Much more important is his REPENTANCE. And this is where God’s message comes to us today as we see how:
Job’s Repentance is brought about by God’s Sovereignty.
1) Job’s Sin as the need for repentance.
2) God’s Sovereignty as the cause for repentance.
I. Job’s Sin as the need for repentance.
Job was an “exemplary Christian”. That is one of the first things the Bible tells us about him. In Chapter 1:1 we read that he was “perfect and upright and one that feared God, and turned away from evil”. Yes, even God Himself described Job in very honouring terms; Chapter 1:8 “My servant, there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man,” etc.
And Job’s own life bears testimony to the truth of these words. For instance, his whole attitude to life (levenshouding) bears out the fact that God means everything to him!
Can you imagine what it must mean to a man, if he is stripped of all his possessions in one day? Even all his children are taken from him through death. Oh, what sorrow do we suffer if one of our children is taken away…. but Job’s seven sons and his three daughters were all killed in the one tragic disaster! Job indeed was bent down low with the burden of grief. But while on his knees, he worshipped the Lord, the Giver of Life, who now had seen fit to take it away.
Yes, Job knew what it means “to possess as not possessing.” and he never charged God with foolishness”. Even when his health left him, and his own wife had given up hope, Job was able to surrender to God’s Wisdom and he said: “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not evil?” Whatever his inner thoughts may have been at that time, we read that: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”
The fact that Job was an exemplary Christian was also borne out by the attitude towards God. Even when the one who was nearest and dearest to him, yes even when his own wife found it all too much, and had lost her trust in God; even then Job did not listen to her advice “to renounce God and die” but rather he called upon God. Whatsoever would be taken away from him, he would not turn his back to God.
Job’s attitude towards God was even further tested when his three friends came with their accusations. They brought Job to a point where it seemed that God was so far away that all feeling of fellowship had disappeared. But Job never “let go” of God! He never said farewell to God.
Congregation, young people, wouldn’t this make you jealous? Would it not be wonderful if we had a faith like that! Just imagine that God would say of you; that you are “perfect” and upright, one that fears God and turns from evil”. But how did Job become like that? In our text Job gives that answer to the question, when he says: “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear.”
You see, Job was brought up in “the fear of the Lord”. He had the privilege of having believing parents. He had been to “the school with the Bible,” in the best sense of the word. He had been taught about God, and about Jesus the Messiah. AND he had taken his lessons to heart!, and was prepared to put them into practice.
We find therefore these two things which we must learn from the first part of our text:
One: We must make sure that we hear about God!
Two: We must make sure that we put what we have heard into practice.
This means that we want to be right there where the Word of God can indeed be heard. It means that we want to read our Bible carefully, and go to Church prayerfully. So that we are ready to take to heart whatsoever God has to say to us. AND, that we want to give expression to these things in our daily way of life.
In that way the Grace of God will also work in our hearts, so that we too may become such exemplary Christians like Job.
But now, our text shows us that Job, the Exemplary Christian, had a problem. This man, of whom God and angels spake so highly, this man had a lesson to learn. The X-rays of God’s penetrating Love showed a weak spot in Job’s faith.
And in the book of Job we are shown how God goes about healing this “bad sore” in Job’s faith, while at the same time Satan does his utmost to use this same weakness for the total destruction of Job’s faith.
And is not this the experience of every child of God? That while God is busy guiding us through a valley of difficulties in order to bring us to the hill-tops of closer fellowship with Him, that exactly during such difficulties Satan comes to tempt us. Aiming immediately at the destruction of our faith!
Job’s “bad sore” was that “he justified himself rather than God” – so we read in Ch. 3:2. THAT was Job’s SIN! “He was righteous in his own eyes!” He thought that “having heard about God” was all that is required to be a child of God.
Oh, it all started so good…. he praised God even when disaster had struck. And when Satan used Job’s wife to tempt him, he did not sin with his lips. Indeed, he never turned his back to God. But when his friends came with the then generally accepted theory: “Punishment proves sin”…. then Job said NO! NO! NO! “I have not sinned:”
“I did not deserve this!”
“It isn’t fair!” And he even confirmed it with an oath when he said: “I KNOW that my Redeemer lives” (19:25) but later he added: “If only I could find Him, surely He would tell you that I am right and you are wrong!” In other words, Job wanted to be redeemed from his friends, who were so horrible towards him.
People of God, how often do we not use these words in the same sinful sense: when, for example, we feel that we are unjustly asked to repent from our sins? When we feel that, surely everybody is against us, simply because they try to explain our actions, or our attitudes are not what God requires of us, e.g. when we justify ourselves rather than God and thus blame God. And then it quite often happens that God is called upon to be our Judge, Who knows so much better than all these other people. And so we too want to be saved from our friends, rather than from our sins!
Now, the fact that Job maintained his own righteousness, was in itself not even the worst part of his sin! The tragedy was that he justified himself RATHER than God. His sin was that he thought it to be right if he questioned God’s Justice. And THERE lay the need for his repentance, He, who had heard about God, thought that therefore he KNEW all about God, And so Job went as far as to call God to explain Himself and he said: “I will speak, let God now hear!” Why? Why? Why? That is the question Job keeps firing at God’s throne, In Chapter 31 we can read how Job defends himself.
“I have always done Good,”
“I do not deserve all this.”
“It is not fair…!!!
And this is what happened to Job the exemplary Christian… The one whom God described as unique: “there is none like him,”
Who among us would dare to claim this uniqueness? Does not sin dwell in us even at our best moments?
We, who have “heard by the hearing of our ear”, trained and instructed in the faith…. would WE say: “I am righteous”? Or shall we not rather learn from our text that it is not enough to have heard “about” God! But, instead, we must come to SEE God! For only if we see Him as He really is, only then will we repent of our sins and thus come into an even closer fellowship with God. Brothers and sisters, Young people, Where lies the need of our repentance? Perhaps we do not even realise it ourselves! After all, it did take Job a long time… before he realised what was wrong with him. But God, in His boundless Grace, brought Job to the point where his eyes were opened… and Job asked for, and received forgiveness for his sin.
II. God’s Sovereignty as the cause of repentance.
Often it is said that the book of Job is about human suffering. But that is not the main point. God does not need to tell us about our sufferings… we know them! What God does want us to know is what HE is like! The book of Job is a revelation of God. It is written so that we may find Him as the source of all Comfort! The main thrust of the book is put forward in the passages which we read in Chapter 1 + 2. The dispute between God and Satan! Satan’s aim is to bring man so far that he will take the step that leads to eternal destruction. For then God’s Name will be blasphemed. But God will forever uphold His Own honour and Name. Even though He may allow man to come right to the edge of the cliff, He will never permit His children to go over the cliff!
In the book of Job God reveals to us that He, and not Satan is the Sovereign King. This is the point which is brought forward so much by Elihu, in the other verses which we read together. There we see how God uses His servant Elihu to prepare the way of God’s own Majestic Revelation of His Sovereignty.
In vs.12 Elihu told Job: “Job, you are wrong, man, and God is right.”
And then: God does not destroy a man,…
But Man destroys himself…!
Yes, indeed God is the One Who delivers man from his destruction! (vs.24) God is the One Who Saves. God even is the One Who finds a ransom (losprijs).
Sure, Job was right when he said, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” But he was wrong in his application. God does save a believer from his enemies. But above all… and first of all…. God saves us from ourselves, from our own sin and destruction. Job had to come to the understanding that the Redeemer for which he asked, is the same as the Ransom which God provides. And the Ransom which God finds for man is no-one else but our Lord Jesus Christ!
Now, if Job would retain his own righteousness, then he would not need a ransom to take away his guilt. But Job, the exemplary Christian, must first learn his need for a ransom. He must first learn that God, in His great Mercy, already had found a ransom for Job.
That is how Elihu preaches Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; to Job in the Old Testament, and to us. Yes, while we were yet sinners, God already found a ransom for us: On the Cross… OUR price was paid.
While Elihu spoke, God came Himself. In a whirlwind God continued the conversation. In the Chapters 38-41 we are told what God said. One impressive display of God’s Great Majesty! In Chapter 38:4 He reveals Himself as the Sovereign King in Creation. And in vs.41 etc. as the Merciful Father Who provides man and beast according to their daily needs.
First Job had heard ABOUT God; and that had been sufficient to make an exemplary Christian out of him. But NOW he says: “But now mine eye seeth Thee! Wherefore I abhor myself and repent!”
To make vs.5+6 possible Job had to see God’s greatness. For only then he also saw himself, his own folly, and his own unrighteousness. And to see himself in that light; that made him come to the point where Paul cried out: “Oh miserable man that I am…!” That is what is meant by the word “to abhor oneself.” Job hated what he had said. He became disgusted with himself. He who had said in Ch.31:37 “As a prince would I go near to God”…. now comes before the King of Kings, humbled to the dust.
This is the effect of God’s Sovereignty upon Job, the exemplary Christian.
Now Job can indeed Praise God’s Glory! But this time his praise has obtained a depth that cannot be fathomed. Now Job can sing indeed, “I know that my Redeemer liveth”, for he has seen Him as the answer to his need. Job now recognised that his Redeemer is the Ransom which God provides.
Congregation, Young people, we have heard about God: The question is: “Have we seen Him with our eyes?”
Sometimes God has to bring us to sit among the ashes of our life; scraping as it were, our sores with the potsherds of our life’s work! But God does that in order that there we may come to sec Jesus Christ, hanging among the ashes of humanity. Proclaiming that “It is finished.” THIS is the great proclamation of God’s Sovereign Majesty! A Majesty that extends even across the grave as it points us to the Resurrection.
“Whom have I, Lord but Thee on high?
None else on earth can satisfy!”
“I have heard about Thee,
But now mine eye seeth Thee
Wherefore I abhor myself and Repent.”
Amen.