Intro
The Lord answered Job, pulling Job from an inward focus on his suffering to what is beyond: God. By stating who He is and what that means, God inductively taught Job: If I am all-powerful, then I am taking care of you in my way and time. I am even more powerful than the behemoth and leviathan; I make a covenant with you, they don’t. So, walk by faith in that Covenant, resting in that truth.
Job Responds to God
Read Job 42:1-3
- What does Job now realize and admit about what he had spoken to God?
Read Job 42:4-6
- What does Job now do?
- If Job’s misfortunes were not a direct result of any sin he did, what does his repentance tell us about the role of repentance in the life of God’s people?
Read Revelation 3:17-22
- What does our Lord grant to those in His Church (not just those in Laodicea) who repent?
- What does our Lord standing at the door and knocking represent?
- What does opening the door represent?
- What does eating with Him represent? (Tie it all together now)
Augsburg Confession, Article 12:
Repentance consists of two parts: One is contrition, that is, terror striking the conscience when sin is recognized; the other is faith, which is brought to life by the Gospel or absolution. Such faith believes that, because of Christ, sins are forgiven, which comforts the conscience and delivers it from terror. Then good works, which are the fruit of repentance, are bound to follow. [AC, XII, 3-6]
God speaks to Job’s friends
Read Job 42:7
“you have not spoken of me what is right, as… Job has”: Pastor’s translation is: “spoken about [el] me of what is right [kun].” The ESV can be unclear: God is chastising Job’s friends because they did not accurately speak about [el] Him to Job of what is right [kun].
Second, the form of this verb kun in this verse is nekonah. When nekonah is used with the verb “speak” and preposition “about,” it refers to what was spoken when that someone is present. So, nekonah refers to what Job just said to God in his previous speech, not to everything he said in the book of Job. God is praising Job for his recognition of who He is (42:1-3) and Job’s repentance (42:4-6).
- How does God contrast what Job said versus what his friends said?
Read Job 42:8-9
- What does God tell Job’s three friends to do?
- Who’s missing? Why?
- If we were to apply what God told Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar to ourselves, what would be the New-Covenant equivalent for us?
God restores Job
Read Job 42:10-17
- How did God restore Job?
- If we understand Job as more than history (which it is because it is a carefully constructed story in poetic format), what does Job’s restoration mean for us from an eternal perspective?
Romans 6:4: Therefore, through baptism we were buried with Him into his death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too we too may walk in a new way of life.
2 Corinthians 5:17: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old is gone, the new is here!
Revelation 21:1: Then I [the Apostle John] saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.
1 Corinthians 2:9: As it is written: “What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the imagination of the mind”—God prepared for those who love him.
New-Testament Tie-In
Read 1 Peter 5:6-11
- Discuss.
Prayer: Psalm 30:4-12
P Sing to the Lord, O saints of His; give thanks to His holy name.
C For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor, a lifetime.
P Weeping may lodge for the night, but by the morning, joy!
C In my security I said, “I will never be upended.”
P O Lord, in Your good favor You made me secure,
C but when You hid Your face from me, I was terrified.
P To You, O Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy:
C “What profit is there in my death if I go down to the Pit?
P Will the dust praise You? Will it proclaim Your faithfulness?
C Hear me, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, deliver me!”
P You turned my wailing into dancing;
C You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
P so that I may sing to You and not be silent.
C O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
