Job 40
1 And the Lord said to Job: 2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” 3 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 4 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.” 6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 7 “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 8 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? 9 Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? 10 “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. 11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. 12 Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. 13 Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. 14 Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you. 15 “Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. 16 Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. 17 He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. 18 His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. 19 “He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword! 20 For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play. 21 Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh. 22 For his shade the lotus trees cover him; the willows of the brook surround him. 23 Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth. 24 Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare?
Job 41
1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? 2 Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3 Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? 4 Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever? 5 Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls? 6 Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? 7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? 8 Lay your hands on him; remember the battle—you will not do it again! 9 Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him. 10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? 11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. 12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame. 13 Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle? 14 Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. 15 His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal. 16 One is so near to another that no air can come between them. 17 They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated. 18 His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. 19 Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. 20 Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. 21 His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. 22 In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him. 23 The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable. 24 His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone. 25 When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves. 26 Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. 27 He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. 28 The arrow cannot make him flee; for him sling stones are turned to stubble. 29 Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins. 30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire. 31 He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired. 33 On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. 34 He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.”
Job 42
1 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” 7 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer. 10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. 12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
The contemporary Christian artist Michael Card has written a lengthy song about Job entitled, “The Job Suite.” As we approach the conclusion of the book, consider the conclusion to Card’s musical interpretation of the book.
If I’ve been untrue, if I’ve robbed the poor
If I’m without guilt, what am I suffering for?
God would not crush me for some secret sin
And though he slay me still I’ll trust in Him
I know now that my Redeemer’s alive
He’ll stand on the earth on the day he arrives
And though my body by then is no more
Yet in my flesh I know I’ll see the Lord
Who is it who darkens my council
Who speaks empty words without knowledge?
Brace yourself up like a man
And answer me now if you can
Can you put on glory and splendor?
What’s the way to the home of the light?
Does your voice sound like the thunder? Are you afraid?
Where were you when earth’s foundations were laid?
Who gave the heart it’s wisdom?
The mind it’s desire to know? Can you bind the stars?
Raise your voice to the clouds?
Did you make the eagle proud?
Will the ox spend the night by your manger?
Did you let the wild donkey go free?
Can you take leviathan home as a pet?
If you merely touched him, you’d never forget
Who is it that darkens my council?
Who speaks empty words without knowledge?
Brace yourself up like a man
And answer me now if you can
I am unworthy, how can I reply?
There’s nothing that you cannot do
You are the storm that calmed my soul
I place my hand over my mouth
I place my hand over my mouth[1]
Here we see the core elements of this great book: Job’s innocence, the faulty core of the idea of retributive justice, Job’s struggling faith, God’s rebuke and assertion of the distance between man and God, and Job’s repentance. These themes all come together here at the end of the book, along with the crucial theme of restoration, for God does not leave Job in ashes and dust but rather lifts him out of the mire and reestablishes his family and his name.
God reiterates the distance between God and man.
Before we consider Job’s repentance, let us note that we have another striking example of a powerful “list” of God’s attributes proving His sovereignty in Job 40 and 41. While Job 40:4-41:34 actually divides two repentance scenes, it is a continuation of the great list of Job 38-39.
6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 7 “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 8 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? 9 Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? 10 “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. 11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. 12 Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. 13 Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. 14 Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you. 15 “Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. 16 Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. 17 He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. 18 His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. 19 “He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword! 20 For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play. 21 Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh. 22 For his shade the lotus trees cover him; the willows of the brook surround him. 23 Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth. 24 Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare?
Job 41
1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? 2 Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3 Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? 4 Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever? 5 Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls? 6 Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? 7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? 8 Lay your hands on him; remember the battle—you will not do it again! 9 Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him. 10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? 11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. 12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame. 13 Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle? 14 Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. 15 His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal. 16 One is so near to another that no air can come between them. 17 They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated. 18 His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. 19 Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. 20 Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. 21 His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. 22 In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him. 23 The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable. 24 His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone. 25 When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves. 26 Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. 27 He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. 28 The arrow cannot make him flee; for him sling stones are turned to stubble. 29 Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins. 30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire. 31 He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired. 33 On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. 34 He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.”
Again, Job’s question, “Why?!” is met with the divine, “I AM!” The answer is God’s sovereign person. The interesting question is why God offered another speech after Job’s initial repentance in Job 40:1-5.
Steven Lawson explains this second speech by theorizing that “Job…was not yet fully broken.”[2] Perhaps. Or perhaps God was simply not done yet. Or perhaps Job’s utters his initial cry as God is speaking and there were not nice, neat pauses in the exchange. Or perhaps God intended this second speech to be for Job’s friends.
Regardless, the point is driven home yet again: God is almighty, power, majestic, sovereign, and Lord. He is also other, beyond, transcendent, and incomprehensible to the minds of man.
In Isaiah 55:8, we read, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD.” This is a much shorter statement than these long and majestic speeches, but the point is precisely the same.
Job and his friends repent before God.
Job’s repentance is either a two-phase reality, or it is one phase that was interrupted by the divine speech. Regardless, we see this repentance unfold in the beginning of Job 40 and in the beginning of Job 42.
1 And the Lord said to Job: 2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” 3 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 4 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”
Roy Zuck sees this initial act of repentance as incomplete. He argues that Job “was only admitting that he need not repeat himself, not that he had said too much” and that “Job did not admit to any sin.”[3] Perhaps. Again, we cannot know. Or perhaps the tone of Job’s repentance, had we been able to hear it, suggested insincerity. Or perhaps it was sincere. It is hard to say.
Regardless, Job’s statement repentance reveals his knowledge of distance between God and man (“I am of small account; what shall I answer you?”) and his knowledge that his words have been too many and too uninformed (“I lay my hand on my mouth.”). Job now does what he had implored his friends to do earlier: places his hand over his mouth.
God’s response is the second speech we saw above, then a second statement of repentance follows in the beginning of Job 42.
1 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
In favor of the idea that Job’s initial repentance was perhaps incomplete is the fact that this second statement is much more thorough and more intense. “I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” is a powerful statement of brokenness. “How else but through a broken heart may Lord Christ enter in?” Oscar Wilde asked in “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.” Indeed. That is so.
One cannot help but notice, however, that repentance is oftentimes more like a gradual awakening than sudden start. I know a man who once fell in a shocking manner morally and spiritually. He shared with me some time after that his repentance grew as his knowledge of exactly what it is he had done grew. His contrition increased as his awareness of his own sin increased. He shared with me that what he felt initially was sorrow and even repentance but it became deeper and more sincere as time went on and he could reflect on what had happened.
Perhaps this is what is happening with Job. Perhaps this is what happens with us all. Repentance is not always a lightning bolt. Sometimes it is an ever more powerful storm that eventually consumes us. However he reached the point, Job did indeed finally reach it. “I despise myself and repent in dust in ashes” is a statement of utter awareness and utter sorrow.
Next, God turns to Job’s friends.
7 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
Concerning God’s fascinating statement that Job had “spoken of me what is right,” David J.A. Clines argues that what God is talking about is not everything that Job said, but rather Job’s basic rejection of the theory of retributive justice.
…what Yahweh can and does accept is that he does not govern the world according to the dictates of retributive justice. That was never his plan…and he does not undertake to execute retribution for all the acts of humans. Though Job has not meant his remarks as a commendation for God, Yahweh recognizes in them Job’s perception of the underlying truth. The friends, by contrast, have everywhere been affirming the principle of retribution, which casts God a universal policeman, a role that Yahweh resists.[4]
In other words, Job was right even if he said many things that were wrong. He was right about the central theological dilemma of the book. He was right that it is not so simple as saying that the good are rewarded and the bad are punished. In fact, the good sometimes face tragedy and the bad sometimes prosper. The answers for this reside in the mysterious storehouses of the wisdom of God.
God pronounces that he will accept Job’s prayer on behalf of his friends and calls for his friends to offer sacrifice. We see in this a type of the mediatorial and atoning work of Christ: intercession and sacrifice. “Consequently,” writes the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 7:25, “[Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
As God accepts Job’s prayer for his friends, so God accepts Jesus’ prayer for the world. Interestingly, however, his friends must still act, must still offer sacrifice. They, too, must show repentance.
There is a beautiful and powerful truth here. Salvation comes through intercession and atonement. This scene points to a greater fulfillment to come, the fulfillment that Christ will offer on Calvary. The most beautiful words in this episode are, “and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.” That is, He truly receives the prayer of the mediator on behalf of those who had sinned.
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
The cross is here in types and shadows, here in Job’s prayer and in the sacrifice. The book of Job therefore approaches its final conclusion with a look toward Calvary.
God restores Job’s family and fortunes.
If the book of Job approaches its end with a look toward Calvary, that means its conclusion is actually a look toward Easter, toward new creation, toward the conquering of death. In Job 42, this is seen in Job’s restoration.
10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. 12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
Job is given back his animals two fold and ten children are restored to him. As to why God does not give Job twenty children in keeping with the two-fold restoration of the animals, we must remember that Job’s original children are in heaven and are therefore not ultimately lost to him.
Fascinatingly, the IVP Bible Background Commentary tells us that “daughters normally inherited in ancient Israel only when there was no son (see Num 26:33)” and that “the daughters inheriting along with sons is unique in the Old Testament, although there are parallels from the Aegean in the early first millennium B.C. and from Ugarit.”[5] So there is something powerful about Job’s daughters receiving an inheritance among their brothers. It speaks of the comprehensive and leveling power of redemption and restoration.
The day is coming when all shall be made new, when the wounds will all be dressed and healed, the tears wiped away, and the mourning transformed into shouts of joy. The day is coming when all who are in the family of God will receive a full inheritance together, none before the other and all alike, sons and daughters and slave and free and Jew and Gentile.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8)
A family and an inheritance: this is ever and always how God restores His suffering children.
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Yes, a family and an inheritance. For Christ has come, the Guarantor of our new family and our overwhelming inheritance. He has signed the paperwork in sinless blood, sealed it with His death, then secured it in resurrection power.
Christ, the God-man who suffered, the great Reconciler, the wiper of tears and the healer of wounds. Christ, He who removes our suffering by stepping into our suffering with us.
Throughout the book of Job we have so wanted to step into the pages of this difficult tale and speak the name of Jesus to Job, have we not? We have wanted to tell Job that One is coming who will redeem even human suffering, even the deep abyss of human pain.
But Job now knows and sees. He and His friends are now gathered together at the pierced feet of One who bears the wounds that heals all wounds, who bears the mark that redeems all marks.
Yes, Job now knows and Job now sees.
The answer to the central question of Job is Jesus. Jesus is the answer. God was preparing the world for this answer in the days of Job. God has now revealed the answer to the world in Christ.
The answer, then and now, is Jesus.
[1] https://www.songlyrics.com/michael-card/job-suite-lyrics/#F88dZmlE1XZRGkHw.99
[2] Steven J. Lawson, Job. Holman Old Testament Commentary. Vo.10 (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2004), p.349.
[3] Roy B. Zuck, Job. Everyman’s Bible Commentary. (Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1978), p.176.
[4] David J.A. Clines, Job 38-42. Word Biblical Commentary. Gen. Ed., Glenn W. Barker. Vol. 18B (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2011), p.1231.
[5] John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p.511