After the speech of Elihu, Job had to have personal dealings with God. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.” This is a serious matter, to have to do with God alone. Job had said his words were ended. Not so. What is his answer to God—to all the demands of God? What is your answer? What is mine? If we get before God in His majesty and glory, and hear His demands on us as creatures of His hand, how have we answered those demands? What then was Job’s answer?
“Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold I am vile: what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea twice; yet I will proceed no further.” Oh, what amazement of soul, the true sense of the vileness of sin puts a man into. You may have felt this amazement; you may have said with Job, I will proceed no further: he did go much farther, and so may you.
Before we look at God’s answer to Job, let us recall Elihu’s interpretation of the grace of God. When man is seen in self-judgment and deep distress (chap. 33:17-28), then God is gracious to him. Does the reader know what real soul distress is? Is it after weary years of seeking to attain to righteousness by the law, or still more earnest seeking to attain to a sinless state of perfection? and after all to be only able to say truthfully, “I am vile.” Yes, and that sense of vileness is overwhelming.
Do you notice Job is only occupied with himself, “I am vile?” Elihu had said that God was gracious; that God had said, “Deliver that poor wretched man from going down to the pit; I have found an atonement.” Elihu had brought out what God is. This was the glad tidings. But Job had not seen this yet. Have you?
Let us then fix our thoughts on this revelation of God—God, who knows all our vileness, and wretchedness, and all we have done. Here is a fact, God is gracious. How far has He shown that free favor? He has decided to deliver the poor sin-burdened soul from going down into the pit. Man deserves to go into the pit—you, I—ah, most truly—but God says, “Deliver him from going down to the pit.” Oh, what a fact What a God of grace! But how shall the sinner be delivered from going down to deserved darkness and everlasting despair? Blessed reply of God to that question, “I have found a ransom”—an atonement.
Mark, the righteousness of God is in this very thing. He has found an atonement. God has provided Himself a Lamb. He has sent the Lamb of God. All is of God. And the love of God, the free grace of God, is first. The very character of God shines out in this: as it is written, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “Christ died for the ungodly.” “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Yes, God’s judgment of our need and lost condition was shadowed forth in this most ancient book of Job. The only true interpretation of how man can be justified before God is this, the pure grace of God come down to deliver the hell-deserving sinner from going down into the pit; and He says, “I have found a ransom.”
Job does not yet understand: he is still occupied with vile Job—the vile Job that longs to be righteous. He says, “Behold, I am vile: what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.”
Dear old Job! The knowledge of what you are will never save you—never enable you to see you are justified from all things. Whilst we are occupied even with our vileness, we have not submitted to the judgment of God—the righteousness of God. As yet, Job’s eyes seem fast closed as to what God is to the ungodly sinner. Are your eyes open to what God is in grace to you? When your eyes are open to what God is, you will very likely see your deepest sin is in rejecting the grace of God, and the infinite provision He has found for you in the atoning death of Christ. As God says to Job, “Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?” (Job 40:8.) Can Job meet this demand of God? Can we meet it?
You may say, oh that I could be better by sacraments, and fastings; by prayers; by punishing my body; by holy days; by good works; by sinless purity; by vows and pledges; by sorrow for sin; by keeping the law of God: but after all, I am vile. Now, poor striving Job, if you could possibly be justified before God, by all these, would it not disannul the judgment of God? He judged far otherwise. He says to all such,” Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?” Oh, that the Romanist, the Ritualist, nay, that man in his blind pursuit of righteousness by works, might just see how he strives against God; how he condemns God, that he might by all these, or any other means, be righteous.
But, you say, Must we not say, “I am vile?” Surely; but you may say that, and all the while have a secret hope that you will be better and more fit for God. Self can never be really given up, until God is known in Christ, the Justifier of the ungodly. You say, Hold! that is dangerous doctrine. How can God do that, and maintain His own righteousness? Ah, Job, you must now learn that God can do everything. You ought to have learned this from Elihu, but you did not.
God now shows Job his utter helplessness, even by the things of creation. He brings before him a few of the works of His own hands. Light now breaks in upon Job. (Chap. 42) He turns to God; it is now what God is: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” He had said, a I know that thou canst do everything.” He now sees God. All is perfectly clear. He changes his mind, in dust and ashes. Now, Job, how can man be justified with God? God can do it. I see God: He has done it; He has found a ransom. Then your mind is entirely changed about God. Entirely changed; I repent.
Now, Job, further; what about Job? What is old Job now? Dust and ashes. What do you mean? I mean that old Job is dead. I abhor him; dust and ashes to him. I have no further hope or need in him. All is new. “And it was so.”
Elihu had said, “Then he [God] is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth; he shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him; and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.” “And it was so.” I see it now, says Job: “Now mine eye seeth thee.” God is seen first, then Job repents. This is the true order. Beautifully, now, is resurrection shadowed forth. Job has far more in the new place than he had lost in the old.
The revelation of God in grace and righteousness, produces true repentance. What deep self-judgment! “Now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” No longer the cry, “Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me,” &c. There was, then, the earnest desire that he might be righteous, so that God could shine upon him, because of his own righteousness. Every effort after such a thing is now gone, and seen to be rebellion against God. Man cannot look at himself and at God at the same time. Whilst Job looked at himself, he did not apprehend the favor of God in providing a ransom.
Must it not, be so with us? Whilst we are seeking to attain to righteousness by works, we neither know God nor the value of that atonement which He has found and provided.
How then can man be justified with God—with God in righteousness? Man is a sinner, guilty before God: how then can he be accounted righteous? The book of Job proves that by works this is impossible. As we have seen, Job was the most religious man on earth. There was none like him; upright and sincere before God and man: when he was tried he was found to maintain his own righteousness; yea, he made the most desperate efforts to maintain that he was righteous, exactly like Israel in an after day. He was completely ignorant of God’s righteousness; and when that righteousness was put before him by Elihu, he did not understand it. God revealed to him “a ransom,” but he did not understand God or the ransom God had provided, until light broke into his soul, and then he saw it all, and repented, entirely changed his mind, abhorring himself in dust and ashes.
How is it with the reader? You may not have sought to be justified by works, as Job did. Indeed, careless indifference rather marks this Laodicean period in which we live. Still, the question has forced itself on you, How then can man, can I, be justified with God? “It is quite true that you have failed to satisfy your conscience; yet, you have tried a little, a very little, to be religious, far behind Job in that race. You hope to be more in earnest yet; you do not think of going down to hell; you never intend to lift up your eyes there in torment; you intend to turn over a fresh leaf; you hope to be truly religious. But if Job’s race was striving against God, what is yours, or what will it be? Job had never seen or understood “the gift of righteousness.” (Rom. 5:17.) No, as we have said, he was just like Israel when they were put under law. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (Rom. 10:8.) Read that verse again. Does it not exactly describe Job of old? Do you know any other Jobs? Is it not an exact picture of Christendom? It may be of your very self.
At all events it is a striking fact, that man, as Job, before the law was given, to convince man of his sin—yes, even back to the first man born of a woman—then Israel under the law—and now, Christendom for centuries—the universal state of man is described in this, the oldest of books. Yes, it is the universal ignorance of the righteousness of God, and man striving against God to maintain his own righteousness, and condemn God; and also, we may say, how wonderfully in those early days, how clearly the glad tidings were announced, how God has met the question, How then can man be justified with God? Has this question been fully revealed? Let us turn to the New Testament and see.