Job

Overview – July/August 2015 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Job

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” —Job 42:5-6 NKJV

Job, meaning “the cry of woe,” is poetic and has long been honored for its superb language. Job evidently lived about the time of Abraham. Though the most righteous man on earth, he was allowed by God to suffer intensely under the hand of Satan.

Job’s three friends assumed that to merit such suffering he must have been guilty of flagrant, hidden sin. Thus in their speeches they seek, gently at first and cruelly later, to extort some confession from him. Job protests his innocence and feels that God’s dealings with him are without reason. This very feeling indicates the reason, however; for it was necessary for God to bring down Job’s proud self-righteousness.

After his three friends are silenced, Elihu, a younger man, speaks truly for God, using words which affect Job’s conscience so greatly that he has no answer. Elihu is a type of the Lord Jesus, the Interpreter of God’s ways.

Then God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind. He points to many marvels of creation which demonstrate that the Creator’s wisdom must be infinitely higher than man’s conception of it, and that in comparison, man’s wisdom is pathetic ignorance. Job takes to heart the lessons involved in this and says, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” This is the grand turning point. Job was afterward blessed more greatly than ever before. Job is a most valuable book – teaching us true self-judgment and submission to the hand of God.

By Leslie M. Grant

This column is taken from the book: “The Bible, Its 66 Books In Brief.”
It is available for purchase from Believers Bookshelf USA.