V.1-4 Job is a humbled man! Gone are all thoughts of himself.
V.5-6 Just 27 words. But they are the most important words he ever uttered. When we believers are brought down so low that we utter them, we are on the way to a full, and rich and happy Christian life. Just read those words again. We hear of the Lord when we get saved, but our lives are only given to Him when we get our eyes opened to see His beauty and all-sufficiency. Job’s new thoughts of God are quickly connected to new thoughts about himself. What a contrast to the views of Job we get in Job 29:1111When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: (Job 29:11). Job took a long time to get to this position — we too. God loves us too much to let us go on in our old careless way. Seldom is a believer brought down as low as Job, to see how vile he or she really is. This can only be experienced by coming into God’s presence. Can we say “wherefore I abhor myself?” Our humbled spirit will show it in our life, if we have experienced some of it. Supposing God had stopped at the end, what would be the use of the Book? Job might have said, “Well, when everything was prospering I was eyes to the blind (Job 29:1515I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. (Job 29:15)) and when things were rough I was patient.” That would have been the worst situation. But it wasn’t what happened. Even though his friends were entirely wrong by thinking that this world was an example of the just government of God, Job suddenly realizes what he really is, and so we have verse 6.
V.7-17 Job’s thoughts turn to his friends. He even prays for them! And when he did this, God acted for him, and gave him double of everything he had before! Happy Job. Happy we, if we have been humbled to see ourselves as God sees us. Then our eyes will be opened and we shall be able to say, “thank God that He ever put me through the trials.” Has the Book of Job been a help?