Lesson 42 The Broken Man Restored

God challenged Job with his creation. Ch 38: the earth and the heavens; in Ch 39: wild animals; in 40-41 the behemoth and leviathan.

The LORD told Job Twice to gird up his loins. To do that Job had to stand up out of the ashes. Obviously Job did not obey the LORD nor did he give Him an acceptable answer in 40:3-5.

The LORD used the fact that only He could control the behemoth and the leviathan to prove to Job that He is the omnipotent one, the omniscient one and the omnipresent one.

“V41:8 Job, why do you believe you have the right to question my judgment and what I do?”  (About not allowed to die, and gird up his loins)

·       Ps 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

·       Isa 66:1-2 (2)For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

·       Webster 1828: CONTRITE, to break or bruise; to rub or wear.  Literally, worn or bruised. Hence, broken-hearted for sin; deeply affected with grief and sorrow for having offended God; humble; penitent; as a contrite sinner.

What Job Saw;

In 42:1-6 Job’s answer the LORD accepted:

V42:2 Job confessed the LORD is the omnipotent one.

V42:3 in Job answered the LORD’s question 38:2 by admitting he I spoke when I should have been silent. Job confesses what Isaiah wrote many years later.

·       Isa 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In V42:4 Job complies with to the demand and gave the LORD the answer He wanted to hear.

·       V6 Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Repentance and a broken spirit go together.

·       Job had to be realize his righteousness was not good enough to save himself. His righteousness was nothing compared to the righteousness of the LORD. His knowledge, his power and his authority was nothing compared of that of the LORD.

·       Job came to detest the man he had become and turned from his spiritually hardened heart toward God and back to the man who would worship God and declare His omnipotence and bless the name of the LORD in every circumstance no matter how horrible. (Ch 1:20-21)

·       In Job 15:4 Eliphaz stated Job had lost his fear he had in Job 1:21.  In 41: 6 Job turned back to the fear of the LORD

What Job saw that moved him to repentance.

V5 Job had heard the LORD speak with his ears (V26:14 the thunder of his power out of the whirlwind 38:1) 

·       What did he see with his eyes?

·       When the LORD spoke about the earth in 38:4 Job had to raise his head and look out to see earth, In 38:31 The LORD spoke of heaven which made Job raise his head and look up. But when the LORD spoke of behemoth and leviathan, two great beast only HE could control, Job had to look down and humble his spirit before The LORD.

·       Could it be that Job realized that for all the many years of his life he witnessed God’s creation and probably taught others about nature? But now, maybe for the first time, Job saw the invisible God in His creation.  See Rom 1:20

42:7-9 The three friend of Job had to submit to the LORD and submit to Job. Remember Isa 66:2. They had to accept just how special Job was in the eyes of God.

But the LORD was not through: He taught something else to Job.

There was one final thing Job had to do: 42:10a It was not until Job prayed for his friends that God fully restores Job.

Once they submitted, Job had to forgive. He hardened spirit toward his friends had to be broken.

·       Levi 19:17a; 1John 2:9,11

·       turned the captivity of Job: Brought out of the state of bondage to a hardened heart and back to the man who lived the fear of the LORD

The Old Testament proof of Job’s spiritual repentance and God’s full spiritual restoration is seen in the full restoration of Job’s physical substance and his family.

His last 140 years were the best years of his life. “After this” (V16) when Job looked up, when Job looked out, when Job looked down Job saw the LORD in everything he saw.

Rom 15:4; 2Cor 12:9