Scripture Reading: Job 42
In this message we will consider chapter forty-two of the book of Job. This chapter reveals the final outcome, under God's consummation, of the progressive divine revelation in the narration of the story of Job.
"I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear,/But now my eye has seen You;/Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent /In dust and ashes" (vv. 5-6). This indicates that Job gained God in his personal experience (in addition to knowing God in his vain knowledge by tradition) and that he abhorred himself.
Seeing God equals gaining God (Matt. 5:8). To gain God is to receive God in His element, in His life, and in His nature. Eventually, this not only makes us one with God — it even makes us a part of God. I prefer not to use the phrase "one with" in describing our relationship with God because to be made a part of God, to be constituted with God in His life and nature, is more than being one with God. We see God that we may be constituted with God, yet we do not have any share in the Godhead.
All God's redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified people will see God's face (Rev. 22:4). Seeing God transforms us (2 Cor. 3:18), because in seeing God we receive His element into us. As we receive God, a new element comes into us, and the old element is discharged. This metabolic process is transformation. To see God is to be transformed into the glorious image of God. This makes us a part of God that we may express God in His life and represent Him in His authority.
Job said not only that He saw God but also that he abhorred himself. According to our experience, the more we see God and love God, the more we abhor ourselves. The more we know God, the more we deny ourselves.
Job 42:7 tells us that God condemned Job's three friends for not speaking concerning Him that which was right, as His servant Job had. Job was right in saying that his sufferings were not a matter of God's judgment. Job felt that, according to his conscience, he had not done anything that required God to come in to judge him or to punish him. Nevertheless, he was suffering and he wanted to investigate his situation with God. Job's three friends, however, insisted that Job's sufferings were a proof that he had done something wrong and was being judged by God. Thus, God came in to condemn the three friends and to vindicate Job to a certain extent.
Job's three friends were not right concerning God's purpose in dealing with His people, because their concept was based on the principle of good and evil, on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the side line alongside the tree of life as the main line.
Job was right because his concept in general was not based on the principle of good and evil. However, he was groping in relation to the purpose for which God deals with His people. On the negative side, he was right; on the positive side, he was devoid of the divine revelation, not knowing that God's purpose in dealing with His people is that He wants His people to gain Him, to partake of Him, to possess Him, and to enjoy Him more and more, rather than all things, until their enjoyment reaches the fullest extent, as the divine revelation ultimately unveils in the New Testament, that His people may ultimately become the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the enlargement of God. We all will become parts of the New Jerusalem.
God, in His progressive revelation, did not make His purpose in dealing with His people clear to Job at his time. However, God did make this clear in the New Testament to the believers.
In His reply to Job, God paid no attention to Elihu because his concept had not come up to the level of God's ultimate standard, though it was not wrong. Elihu, a young man, thought that he was somebody, but he actually was nobody.
God charged Job's three friends to go to Job and offer a burnt offering for themselves that God's servant Job might pray for them (vv. 8-9). This charge was according to the level and standard of that time. The three friends did as Jehovah had told them, and Jehovah accepted Job.
Job prayed for his friends, and God turned the captivity of Job and gave Job twice as much as he had before (vv. 10-17). All his relatives and acquaintances came to him, ate bread with him in his house, and consoled and comforted him for all the misfortune that had been brought upon him, and gave to him some gifts. Job had been in captivity, having been captured by Satan away from his common situation. God turned Job's captivity and blessed Job with physical blessings.
All the physical blessings with which God blessed Job were to show Job God's lovingkindness and faithfulness in his latter days. This indicates that God is perfect and kind in dealing with those who love Him. Even today, after God deals with us by stripping us and consuming us, and after His purpose is accomplished, God gives us His physical blessings. However, God's purpose in dealing with His people is not to give physical blessings to them but to give Himself to them as their eternal portion, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21—22).
"As an example, brothers, of suffering evil and of long-suffering, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we call those who endured blessed. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen his end from the Lord, that the Lord is very tenderhearted and compassionate" (James 5:10-11). Here we see that James considered Job as an example of suffering and of endurance.
