‘I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, “Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?” Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. ‘You said, “Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.’
Job 42:2-6 NIVUK
If ever there was a book that destroys the myth of Evangelicalism being a white, Western invention, it’s the book of Job.
Just by saying that sentence, I’m sure a whole bunch of people’s ears were pricked.
So allow me to explain.
Job is an ancient book. Some even believe it to date back to the time of Abraham. The story has its echoes throughout Middle Eastern cultures.
What that means is that this is the earliest mention, chronologically speaking, of the concept of repentance.
But what is repentance?
The Hebrew verb naham means to breathe deeply or to sigh – figuratively, to feel sorry for your actions, to rue or repent.
But here comes the big question:
What had Job done that would cause him to need to repent?
The Bible tells us he was righteous:
In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
Job 1:1 NIVUK
In fact, his righteousness extended to wanting to cover the sins of his children, if he could (Job 1:4-5).
He was also rich:
He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
Job 1:2-3 NIVUK
Job himself is aware that he was also respected (Job 29:7-17).
He seems to have everything going for him.
So why did he repent?
What happened during the book of Job is well known, but in summary, satan believes that Job is righteous only because of all the riches and respect God has given him (Job 1:8-11). And so Job passes through waves of severe suffering to show his faithfulness to God, even through the pain.
In a sense, there is an echo here of the rich young ruler in the New Testament (Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23), except the rich young ruler couldn’t sacrifice his wealth, and Job didn’t have the option. The purpose is the same: to prove whether God or His blessings are more significant.
Job passes the test. His faith is sorely tried – with the emphasis on 'sore' – and he doesn’t stop believing in God, even if his wife thought he should (Job 2:9).
So again, why does Job need to repent?
There are a few reasons:
Firstly, because of his complaints.
Yes, there is no doubt that they were provoked by intense suffering. However, ancient teaching (often copied by the ridiculous prosperity preachers of today) stated that of you were healthy and wealthy, then God was blessing you; if you were ill and poor, then He was not. Therefore, only one party could be said to be righteous and just in this situation: either God was just for making Job suffer and Job was a sinner, or Job was not a sinner and God was unjust.
That’s why his friends offer him no comfort and consistently accuse Job of wrongdoing, because why else would he be suffering?
There are several times where Job despairs, even cursing the day he was born (Job 3:1-10), and argues that God is not even showing up to answer his questions (Job 23:8-9).
So, while trusting that he will be vindicated by God in the end, he is accusing God of abandoning and mistreating him.
Of course, our suffering is not always in proportion to our sin (John 9:1-3). Righteous people do suffer sometimes. That is a fact.
And while Job is within his rights to mourn his suffering and even ask God ‘Why?’, he goes too far in this. As God says to Job:
The Lord said to Job: ‘Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!’
Job 40:1-2 NIVUK
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: ‘Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. ‘Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
Job 40:6-8 NIVUK
Job’s issue was that, in the midst of the maelstrom of suffering he faced, he reduces God to someone he wanted to contend with, to reason with, to argue with.
He lost his vision of exactly Who it was that he was dealing with. Hence God’s solution to Job's suffering is not to tell him the reasons why, but to tell him ‘Who’ – just Who it is that Job is trying to persuade.
Secondly, because of the comparison between him and God. As Job Himself says:
‘I am unworthy – how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer – twice, but I will say no more.’
Job 40:4-5 NIVUK
This is an area of repentance and conversion which is widely misunderstood.
The Hebrew word for ‘sin’ is ‘hatta’, which, as you might expect, has a moral aspect. That is: you have morally strayed and did what is not right.
But it also means ‘to miss the mark’, ‘to miss the goal’. If we think of it in manufacturing terms, it’s as if we have made something but it’s not good enough and need to be disposed of.
This is sin.
As Paul explains in the New Testament:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 3:23 NIVUK
While I was a student, I used surveys as an evangelistic tool. Many, many people that I interviewed were adamant that they could not be a sinner because they had never stolen, hurt anyone or killed anyone. They were ‘good people’.
Well, here is an ancient man whose righteousness far exceeds anyone living nowadays, yet even he becomes conscious of his own sin and shortcomings when he realises just who God is!
And this is the problem. The need to repent, the need to be converted, does not necessarily come from living a morally repugnant life. It comes from simply being unable to be like God – to be completely righteous and holy.
This is why we see this happening in the Bible:
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’
Luke 5:8 NIVUK
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’
Isaiah 6:1-5 NIVUK
What causes this disturbance in our self-awareness and the shattering realisation that we are not all we think we are is the awesome presence of God.
It is this factor that makes the difference for Job. Realising who God is shines like an x-ray into his heart, so much that he recants and retracts his many words about the injustice of the suffering he has past through.
The leader of my local house group often tells the tale of what happened when he first came to our church. After a particularly pointed sermon, that he was convinced didn’t apply to him, he was on his way out of the church when someone asked him, ‘Do you know you are a sinner?’
My friend was really annoyed by this. In fact, he was downright offended. He was a good man, from sound Presbyterian stock. How dare anyone accuse him of being a sinner!
Yet my friend soon came to the realisation that he was, and repented and was converted. Not because he was particularly wrong, but because he wasn’t right enough.
His first reaction is the same reaction very many people have to the idea of sin today. They get so offended that they try to legislate to silence it.
But silencing it will not work. The gnawing sense in your heart that something is not right will not go away.
The only solution is to repent.
Even Job had to. So why not you?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, search my heart. See if there is anything in me that is either completely wrong or not good enough. I want to change. I want to repent. I want to follow You. Amen.
Questions
1. What did Job have in his favour before he suffered? So why did he need to repent?
2. What is it about the presence of God that caused his repentance?
3. Do you need to repent of anything? Are you willing to repent?
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