120. Now My Eyes Seeth Thee (3)

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120. Now My Eyes Seeth Thee (3)

Hymns: RHC 561 Come with Contrite Hearts 559 In the Cross 321 He Hideth My Soul

Job 42:6-9

6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. 7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. 8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.

Now My Eyes Seeth Thee (3)

OUTLINE

  • Experiential Knowledge of God Through Trials (v1-6)
    • Humility and Submission to God (v6)
  • Expressions of Forgiveness (v7-9)
    • Offering for Sins 
  • Exaltation for God’s Glory (v10-17)

Continue… 

6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. 

Job had an eye to himself in his repentance, thought hardly of himself, and thereby expressed his sorrow for his sins (v6): Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

It concerns us to be deeply humbled for the sins we are convinced of, and not to rest in a slight superficial displeasure against ourselves for them. 

Even good people, that have no gross enormities to repent of, must be greatly afflicted in soul for the workings and breakings out of pride, passion, peevishness, and discontent, and all their hasty unadvised speeches; for these we must be pricked to the heart and be in bitterness. Till the enemy be effectually humbled, the peace will be insecure. 

Indeed, Jesus delinated the first principles for His kingdom framed in dust and ashes when he said in Matthew 5:3-4 (KJV) Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Outward expressions of godly sorrow well become penitents; Job repented in dust and ashes. These, without an inward change, do but mock God; but, where they come from sincere contrition of soul, the sinner by them gives glory to God, takes shame to himself, and may be instrumental to bring others to repentance. 

Job’s afflictions had brought him to the ashes (Job 2:8, he sat down among the ashes), but now his sins brought him thither. 

True penitents mourn for their sins as heartily as ever they did for any outward afflictions, and are in bitterness as for an only son of a first-born, for they are brought to see more evils in their sins than in their troubles. [Matthew Henry]

Self-loathing is evermore the companion of true repentance. They shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed. (Ezekiel 6:9)

Ezekiel 6:9 (KJV) And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

We must not only angry at ourselves for the wrong and damage we have by sin done to our own souls, but must abhor ourselves, as having by sin made ourselves odious to the pure and holy God, who cannot endure to look upon iniquity. 

If sin be truly an abomination to us, sin in ourselves will especially be so; the nearer it is to us the more loathsome it will be. 

The more we see of the glory and majesty of God, and the more we see of the vileness and odiousness of sin and of ourselves because of sin, the more we shall abase and abhor ourselves for it. 

“Now my eye sees what a God He is whom I have offended, the brightness of that majesty which by wilful sin I have spit in the face of, the tenderness of that mercy which I have spurned at the bowels of; now I see what a just and holy God he is whose wrath I have incurred; wherefore I abhor myself. Woe is me, for I am undone,” (Isaiah 6:5). 

God had challenged Job to look upon proud men and abase them. “I cannot,”
says Job, “pretend to do it; I have enough to do to get my own proud heart humbled, to abase that and bring that low.” 

Let us leave it to God to govern the world, and make it our care, in the strength of His grace, to govern ourselves and our own hearts well. [Matthew Henry]

  • Expressions of Forgiveness (v7-9)
    • Offering for Sins 

7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. 8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job. 

Matthew Henry observed well, “Job, in his discourses, had complained very much of the censures of his friends and their hard usage of him, and had appealed to God as Judge between him and them, and thought it hard that judgment was not immediately given upon the appeal. While God was catechising Job out of the whirlwind one would have thought that he only was in the wrong, and that the cause would certainly go against him; but here, to our great surprise, we find it quite otherwise, and the definitive sentence given in Job’s favour.” 

Wherefore judge nothing before the time. Those who are truly righteous before God may have their righteousness clouded and eclipsed by great and uncommon afflictions, by the severe censures of men, by their own frailties and foolish passions, by the sharp reproofs of the word and conscience, and the deep humiliation of their own spirits under the sense of God’s terrors; and yet, in due time, these clouds shall all blow over, and God will bring forth their righteousness as the light and their judgment as the noon-day (Psalm 37:6). 

Psalm 37:6 (KJV) And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

He cleared Job’s righteousness here, because he, like an honest man, held it fast and would not let it go. 

We have here, judgment given against Job’s three friends, upon the controversy between them and Job. 

Notice that Elihu is not censured here, for he distinguished himself from the rest in the management of the dispute, and acted, not as a party, but as a moderator; and moderation will have its praise with God, whether it have with men or no. 

In the judgment here given Job is magnified and his three friends are mortified.

While we were examining the discourses on both sides we could not discern, and therefore durst not determine, who was in the right; something of truth we thought they both had on their side, but we could not cleave the hair between them; nor would we, for all the world, have had to give the decisive sentence upon the case, lest we should have determined wrong.

But it is well that the judgment is the Lord’s, and we are sure that his judgment is according to truth; to it we will refer ourselves, and by it we will abide. 

Now, in the judgment here given, Job is greatly magnified and comes off with honour. He was but one against three, a beggar now against three princes, and yet, having God on his side, he needed not fear the result, though thousands set themselves against him. [Matthew Henry]

Just as Mordecai was at the mercy of Haman who plotted to kill him and all the Jew throughout the 127 provinces of the Persian Empire. A massive evil plot that God thwarted by a sequence of events including causing the king to recount Morcedai’s unrewarded effort in saving the king from a coup by two of his subjects. And the gallow that Haman made for Mordecai’s execution was used for himself. What a turn of events!

Proverbs 26:27 (KJV) Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

When God appeared for him: After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job (v7). After he had convinced and humbled him, and brought him to repentance for what he had said amiss, then He owned him in what he had said well, comforted him, and put honour upon him; not till then: for we are not ready for God’s approbation till we judge and condemn ourselves; but then He thus pleaded his cause, for He that has torn will heal us, He that has smitten will bind us.

The Comforter shall convince – John 16:8 (KJV) And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

See in what method we are to expect divine acceptance; we must first be humbled under divine rebukes. After God, by speaking these words, had caused grief, He returned and had compassion, according to the multitude of His mercies; for He will not contend for ever, but will debate in measure, and stay His rough wind in the day of His east wind. 

Now that Job had humbled himself God exalted him. 

1 Peter 5:5b-6 … for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

True penitents shall find favour with God, and what they have said and done amiss shall no more be mentioned against them. Then God is well pleased with us when we are brought to abhor ourselves. 

How He appeared for him. It is taken for granted that all his offences are forgiven; for if he be dignified, as we find he is here, no doubt he is justified. Job had sometimes intimated, with great assurance, that God would clear him at last, and he was not made ashamed of the hope. 

God calls him again and again his servant Job, four times in v7-8, and he seems to take a pleasure in calling him so, as before his troubles (v8), “Hast thou considered my servant Job? Though he is poor and despised, he is my servant notwithstanding, and as dear to me as when he was in prosperity. 

Though he has his faults, and has appeared to be a man subject to like passions as others, though he has contended with me, has gone about to disannul my judgment, and has darkened counsel by words without knowledge, yet he sees his error and retracts it, and therefore he is my servant Job still.” 

If we still hold fast the integrity and fidelity of servants to God, as Job did, though we may for a time be deprived of the credit and comfort of the relation, we shall be restored to it at last, as he was. 

The devil had undertaken to prove Job a hypocrite, and his three friends had condemned him as a wicked man; but God will acknowledge those whom he accepts, and will not suffer them to be run down by the malice of hell or earth.

If God says, Well done, good and faithful servant, it is of little consequence who says otherwise. [Matthew Henry]

He owns that he had spoken of Him the thing that was right, beyond what his antagonists had done. He had given a much better and truer account of the divine Providence than they had done. They had wronged God by making prosperity a mark of the true church and affliction a certain indication of God’s wrath; but Job had done him right by maintaining that God’s love and hatred are to be judged of by what is in men, not by what is before them – Ecclesiastes 9:1 (KJV) For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

Those do the most justice to God and His providence who have an eye to the rewards and punishments of another world more than to those of this, and with the prospect of those solve the difficulties of the present administration. Job had referred things to the future judgment, and the future state, more than his friends had done, and therefore he spoke of God that which was right, better than his friends had done. 

Secondly, Though Job had spoken some things amiss, even concerning God, whom he made too bold with, yet he is commended for what he spoke that was right. We must not only not reject that which is true and good, but must not deny it its due praise, though there appear in it a mixture of human frailty and infirmity. 

Thirdly, Job was in the right, and his friends were in the wrong, and yet he was in pain and they were at ease – a plain evidence that we cannot judge of men and their sentiments by looking in their faces or purses. He only can do it infallibly who sees men’s hearts. [Matthew Henry]

He will pass His word for Job that, notwithstanding all the wrong his friends had done him, he is so good a man, and of such a humble, tender, forgiving spirit, that he will very readily pray for them, and use his interest in heaven on their behalf: “My servant Job will pray for you. I know he will. I have pardoned him, and he has the comfort of pardon, and therefore he will pardon you.” 

He appoints him to be the priest of this congregation, and promises to accept him and his mediation for his friends. “Take your sacrifices to my servant Job, for him will I accept.“

Those whom God washes from their sins he makes to himself kings and priests. True penitents shall not only find favour as petitioners for themselves, but be accepted as intercessors for others also. It was a great honour that God hereby put upon Job, in appointing him to offer sacrifice for his friends, as formerly he used to do for his own children – Job 1:5 (KJV) And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

And a happy presage it was of his restoration to his prosperity again, and indeed a good step towards it, that he was thus restored to the priesthood. Thus, he became a type of Christ, through whom alone we and our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God – 1 Peter 2:5 (KJV) Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

“Go to my servant Job, to my servant Jesus” (from whom for a time He hid His face), “put your sacrifices into his hand, make use of him as your Advocate, for him will I accept, but, out of him, you must expect to be dealt with according to your folly.” 

Jesus is our Great High Priest and He is also the Offering. Most worthy to be our Meditator that through Him we may be accepted of God.

And, as Job prayed and offered sacrifice for those that had grieved and wounded his spirit, so Christ prayed and died for his persecutors, and ever lives making intercession for the transgressors.

Job’s friends are greatly mortified, and come off with disgrace. They were good men and belonged to God, and therefore he would not let them lie still in their mistake any more than Job, but, having humbled him by a discourse out of the whirlwind, he takes another course to humble them. 

Job, who was dearest to him, was first chidden, but the rest in their turn. When they heard Job talked to, it is probable, they flattered themselves with a conceit that they were in the right and Job was in all the fault, but God soon took them to task, and made them know the contrary. In most disputes and controversies there is something amiss on both sides, either in the merits of the cause or in the management, if not in both; and it is fit that both sides should be told of it, and made to see their errors. 

God addresses this to Eliphaz, not only as the senior, but as the ringleader in the attack made upon Job. 

God tells them plainly that they had not spoken of him the thing that was right, like Job, that is, they had censured and condemned Job upon a false hypothesis, had represented God fighting against Job as an enemy when really he was only trying him as a friend, and this was not right. 

Those do not say well of God who represent His fatherly chastisements of His own children as judicial punishments and who cut them off from His favour upon the account of them. It is a dangerous thing to judge uncharitably of the spiritual and eternal state of others, for in so doing we may perhaps condemn those whom God has accepted, which is a great provocation to Him; it is offending His little ones, and He takes Himself to be wronged in all the wrongs that are done to them. 

He assures them He was angry with them: My wrath is kindled against thee and thy two friends. God is very angry with those who despise and reproach their brethren, who triumph over them, and judge hardly of them, either for their calamities or for their infirmities. Though they were wise and good men, yet, when they spoke amiss, God was angry with them and let them know that He was. 

He requires from them a sacrifice, to make atonement for what they had said amiss. They must bring each of them seven bullocks, and each of them seven rams, to be offered up to God for a burnt-offering; for it should seem that, before the law of Moses, all sacrifices, even those of atonement, were wholly burnt, and therefore were so called. 

They thought they had spoken wonderfully well, and that God was beholden to them for pleading His cause and owed them a good reward for it; but they are told that, on the contrary, He is displeased with them, requires from them a sacrifice, and threatens that, otherwise, He will deal with them after their folly. God is often angry at that in us which we are ourselves proud of and sees much amiss in that which we think was done well. 

He orders them to go to Job, and beg of him to offer their sacrifices, and pray for them, otherwise they should not be accepted. By this God designed, to humble them and lay them low. They thought that they only were the favourites of Heaven, and that Job had no interest there; but God gives them to understand that he had a better interest there than they had, and stood fairer for God’s acceptance than they did. 

The day may come when those who despise and censure God’s people will court their favour, and be made to know that God has loved them – Revelation 3:9 (KJV) Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

The foolish virgins will beg oil of the wise. To oblige them to make their peace with Job, as the condition of their making their peace with God. 

If thy brother has aught against thee (as Job had a great deal against them), first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. Satisfaction must first be made for wrong done, according as the nature of the thing requires, before we can hope to obtain from God the forgiveness of sin. See how thoroughly God espoused the cause of his servant Job and engaged in it. 

God will not be reconciled to those that have offended Job till they have first begged his pardon and he be reconciled to them. Job and his friends had differed in their opinion about many things, and had been too keen in their reflections one upon another, but now they were to be made friends; in order to that, they are not to argue the matter over again and try to give it a new turn (that might be endless), but they must agree in a sacrifice and a prayer, and that must reconcile them: they must unite in affection and devotion when they could not concur in the same sentiments. [Mattthew Henry]

Job had to forgive his friends then prayed for them before God will pardon them!

When God was angry with Job’s friends, He did Himself put them in a way to make their peace with him. Our quarrels with God always begin on our part, but the reconciliation begins on His.

The acquiescence of Job’s friends in this judgment given (v9). They were good men, and, as soon as they understood what the mind of the Lord was, they did as he commanded them, and that speedily and without gainsaying, though it was against the grain to flesh and blood to court him thus whom they had condemned. 

To be continued…