Scripture Reading: Job 42:1-6.

Sermon text: Job 42:7-17.

“For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” When Alexander Pope wrote this line in his Essay on Criticism, he described a lot of the theology you’ll find regarding the purposes of God. I’ve noticed over the years that many people confidently assert their knowledge of God and His ways, fully confident they had deciphered even the hidden ways of our Creator. I’m reminded of a line I found years ago about cosmologists: “Cosmologists are often in error but never in doubt” (Lev Landau, Russian physicist). Unfortunately, we often find ourselves in error about the ways of God, even if we refuse to doubt our errors.

Job’s encounter with God reminds us that God’s ways transcend our own. In the passages today, we learn more about the proper response to God’s work in His creation and in our lives specifically. God’s gracious appearance to Job probably left Job with as many questions as before, but it also reassured Job that His God had never forsaken him.

Following God’s majestic answer to Job regarding the tests he had endured, Job replied to God in humility and repentance. “I know that you can do all things,” Job admitted. We refer to this characteristic of God as His “omnipotence.” Some people misunderstand God’s omnipotence and ask questions such as “Can God make a rock too big for Him to lift?” I like C.S. Lewis’ response to questions such as these: “Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain). God can do everything in His will; “no purpose of yours can be thwarted,” Job continued.

Job then admitted that he had questioned God and His ways. Job quoted God’s opening statement in chapter 38: “‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’” Job admitted, “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” Job’s admission revealed his repentance to God for questioning His work in his life. God had continued by saying, “‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’” Job had wisely refused to answer God’s questions, understanding that no answer he could offer could even begin to justify himself. Job said, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job’s response to God aptly describes the only response anyone can make when confronted with the reality of God’s existence and our own inability to understand His ways. God’s reaction to Job’s friends reveal the danger of asserting our own interpretations of God’s work when we fail to possess all the facts.

God told Eliphaz, “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. 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.” Note that God would not accept an offering from Eliphaz, Bildad, or Zophar. He” required them to ask for Job’s intercession. These men had accused Job of wrongdoing because they believed that nothing else explained the calamities that had befallen Job. God required them to make their offerings with Job as their intercessor.

God’s work in Job’s life continued with Job’s restoration. “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.” Job had remained righteous throughout his ordeal; he had refused to curse God, and he had remained faithful. God used Job’s family and friends to restore him financially (v. 11). God then gave him 10 children, the number he and his wife had enjoyed before his trials. Everyone witnessed Job’s blessings especially throughout his daughters: “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.” Job then lived 140 years, long enough to witness his grandchildren in his old age. “And Job died, an old man, and full of days.”

We have so many lessons in Job’s life and in his response to God’s testing, but I see several in this passage that apply to us today.

For one thing, we cannot ignore the primary lesson of this book: God is God, and we are not. We do not always understand the work of God because we cannot understand the ways of God. Job proclaimed God’s omnipotence and omniscience and admitted his own limited existence in comparison to the transcendent God.

Our limited understanding of God does not prevent us from knowing what He expects of us. God’s ultimate revelation of His will came from Jesus, His divine Son. Jesus called everyone to repent, promising that everyone who believed in Him “will not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Jesus also told us what God expected of us and how it should work in our lives. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). When we question the will of God or His work in our lives, we must always remember to love Him and love those around us.

Our love for others will lead us to forgive them and intercede for them, even when they persecute us or offend us. Job received restoration, but notice that God did not restore him until he had interceded for his friends. Jesus told His disciples, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45). If we must love our enemies and forgive them, we must certainly forgive our friends and family in Christ within the Church.

Lastly, we see God’s great blessing to Job extended throughout his life. In the Old Testament, believers knew something about the afterlife, but they lacked the knowledge revealed to us in the New Testament. Every blessing Job received in this life, as great as they revealed God’s love for him, serve as mere pointers to God’s infinite blessings we will receive in a new heaven and new earth. St. John wrote of the new creation, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).

When will we enjoy this new creation? When will God make things right? Jesus’ death and resurrection began the process. Jesus’ death paid the penalty for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). With His resurrection, Jesus proclaimed His rule over all creation. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection reveal that God cares, about your sins, about your trials, and about your eternal life. If you wonder whether God cares, look to the cross of Christ. If you wonder whether God will right everything wrong, look to the empty tomb and the promise of a new creation.