Transcript
A Brief Story of Job and How He Sees God in Job 42
To understand Job 42, we must go back to Job 1 which tells us of Job’s godly character (1. 1-5), acknowledged by God (1. 8). Then, God permitted Satan to test Job who takes away his wealth, his children (1. 13-21), and his health (2. 1-10). In one day, Job lost everything! His friends criticized him. And his marriage was strained with his wife telling him to curse God and die.
In the intervening chapters, 2. 11 – 37. 24, are conversations between Job and his friends attempting to make sense and answer questions on Job’s sufferings. Job refused to accept their take that Job was suffering because he was sinful. In Job 38 – 41, God speaks to answer Job’s questions by posting a series of about 50 questions simply stating that, it is He, God, who is sovereign and knows and controls all.
And now in Job 42, Job responds to God’s speech as a transformed and humbled man. No longer does he demand an answer from God. No longer does he insist that he did not deserve suffering because of his righteousness. Then, Job states in Job 42. 5, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.” The most powerful aspect of Job’s encounter with God was not primarily what God said; but God’s actual presence with Job that changed him.
My brothers and sisters, it is possible to know OF God and still not know Him. You can know one aspect of God and not the other aspect; You may know God through someone else's eye. But they may have misinterpreted or misquoted God! So, you may know a lot about God, you may rattle off scriptures, and yet not really know Him!
“Seeing God” is not with the literal eye, but a strong sensing of God’s presence that humbled Job. The experience was so real for Job that it prevailed over his previous experiences. When God spoke to make himself known to Job, his eyes were opened and he saw God. Job experienced what David states in Psalm 34. 10, “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Job now got to know God for himself and not depend on hearing how other people reason to define God.
We all know that, seeing is a more superior experience than hearing. Earlier on in Job 23. 3-5, Job wanted to speakpersonally with God. And now God has granted his wish. By seeing God, Job has a new sense of who God is. It is more than intellectual knowledge of the mind; it is the knowledge of the heart. Job has seen and tasted God. And the result is a broken and transformed man!
Transformation from seeing God is not unique to Job: It happened to Isaiah: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips . . . for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" (Isaiah 6. 5). It happened to Peter when Jesus showed his power: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5. 8).
If you don’t feel grieved of sin and deeply unworthy of God's goodness, then you need to pray for God to show up. Pray that, God is not just a mere doctrine that you hear with your ear; but be like Job and David, and be transformed by seeing in your heart the holy, awesome, and sovereign God!
Areas That Get Transformed When We See God
Let me outline three areas we find in Job 42 that you can expect to be transformed by seeing God:
Seeing God Transforms Your View of God!
In Job 42. 1–6, Job confesses two great truths about God – (1) God is Sovereign: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted" (v.2); and (2) God is Wise: "I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know" (v.3).
Throughout the history of mankind and in our day-to-day living, we try to diminish God and put God in a cage. Reformer John Calvin once told humanist Erasmus, “Your God is too small.” Indeed, Man makes every effort to downsize God.
When God spoke to Job in Job 38 – 41 with many questions, God was simply making a case of ‘Who God Is’ that both Job and his friends needed to know or be reminded – That, God is great! (Deut. 7. 21; Neh. 4. 14; Ps. 34. 3; 86. 10; 95. 3; 145. 3; Dan. 9. 4). God is greater than we can grasp and understand. God has enormous creative and controlling power over the wind, wave, seas, snow, ice, etc., and cares and nurtures wild creatures (38. 4-38), like, lion, raven, mountain goat, deer, wild ox, ostrich, wild horse, hawk, and eagle (38. 39 – 39. 30).
Let the wise words of Charles Spurgeon help us grasp the greatness of God: “There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings . . . as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men allow God to be everywhere except on His throne.”
One reason people, including Christians, have wrong or misplaced understanding of God is because they either have never seen the Sovereign God, or they have lost sight of His Greatness. When you see God on His throne, it changes your perspective of God and that changes you, over and over again! Today, I pray that you will be like Job and See God on His throne and it will transform your view of Who God Is!
Seeing God Transforms How You See Yourself!
In Job 42. 6, Job responded to God's revelation by humbling himself and repenting in dust and ashes. Job acknowledged his limited knowledge and limited power leading him to submit to God's sovereignty and wisdom. Whenever we see God in His proper place, it always leads us to see ourselves in our proper place. The sovereignty of God exposes the sinfulness of our hearts. It makes us remember who we are and who God is. We then confess our ignorance.
But accepting we are imperfect is not easy for us. Your ego likes to cling to its self-importance and will rationalize and resist any reality that wants to take its sense of power, control, and autonomy. Many of us want to think and live as if it is all about us. Such thinking cuts us off not only from God, but from others. And that is where we are deluded by human pride! Job’s response in Job 42 invites us to recognize our human limits and trust that God will take care of what Job and others cannot know or do!
We also need to be clear that Job was not repenting the sin of lamenting. After all, earlier in Job 1. 8, God declared Job “a blameless and an upright man, … and turns away from evil”, and in 42. 7, that, Job had spoken of God “that is right.” The sin that Job confesses in Job 42. 6 is his pride in demanding that God comes down to his level of understanding. These were sins Job committed after suffering hit him, not sins that caused his suffering. Job committed the sin that every one of us commits when we cry in the face of suffering - “How could a loving and merciful God cause so much pain and suffering in the world?”
Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon, “Job Among the Ashes,” suggests several things Job repented of: the terrible curse he pronounced upon the day of his birth; his desire to die; his complaints against and challenges to God; his despair; and speaking beyond his knowledge to know. One reason people, including Christians, have wrong or misplaced understanding of Oneself is because they either have never seen God, or else they have lost sight of God. When you see God, it transforms how you see yourself!
Seeing God Transforms You to Full Restoration
In Job 42. 10-17, we read powerful words of restoration of Job. This restoration fulfilled Job’s deep desire to be lifted up from suffering and to see God in Job 19. 25-27, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last He will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” After Job’s repentance, God restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. Job's later life was blessed more than his beginning Job 42. 10-12.
But God chose to restore Job through suffering. Job’s earlier knowledge of God was like only hearing. Now Job sees God through the lens of suffering. There is something about suffering that allows you and me to see God in a unique way! Yet, ‘How often have we prayed for God to release us from financial, physical, or emotional suffering, when God may want to use that to teach us something about Himself?’ I invite you to take a moment and ponder on this fact: It is through suffering that Job gets to this point of dialogue with God which leads to him seeing God. Job had to lose everything in order to gain even more. Many times, “things” blind us to God’s presence. We desire wealth and comfort, yet they often prevent us from seeing and knowing God as we should do!
The greatest gift of restoration of Job from suffering is the fact that, Job becomes a much better person than he ever was before. The Story of Job invites every one of us to enter into the hope of spiritual and physical restoration by seeking to see God and to be transformed in that presence. One reason people have no hope of a better future of full restoration is because you either have never seen God, or you have lost sight of him. When you see God, it changes your future with hope of full restoration into abundant life in God!
Conclusion
- The story of Job and King David have taught us to know that when we see God we get spiritually and physically transformed. But Job 42 and Psalm 34 also teaches us that, God uses sufferings in our lives to let us See God and Be Transformed in – Our views of God; Our understanding of the Self, and Our hope and desire for full restoration.
- Today, like Job, you and I can See God by letting go of your sins through repenting and acknowledging Christ Jesus as Lord to control your life.
- I pray that this message inspires and challenges you and me to journey with Job and David in experiencing the joy and blessing of seeing God to taste His goodness and being transformed and restored by His presence.
- Welcome to this exciting and refreshing Christian journey of seeing God and experiencing restoration in Christ Jesus, Amen.
