"Ye... have seen the end of the Lord” (James 5:1111Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. (James 5:11)). The Lord always has an “end” or object in view in all that befalls His people, particularly when sicknesses and similar troubles come upon them. It is exceedingly important that we have that fact firmly established in our hearts, for if we know “the end of the Lord,” it will enable us to pass even more thankfully through the period of trial. And the more firmly we are convinced of the fact, the lighter the trial will seem and the shorter its duration.
There is a great difference between looking for the end of the trial and looking for “the end of the Lord.” It is natural to be looking for the former, and if the trial is a sickness, then the usual thing is to send for a doctor and take remedies in order to escape it. However, we are expected to take care of these bodies we now have. But it takes faith to look for “the end of the Lord,” for that is one of the things that are “not seen.” “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:11Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)).
The reference in James 5:1111Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. (James 5:11) is the only allusion to the book of Job in the whole Bible, although Job’s name is twice mentioned in Ezekiel 14. Job, in all his explanations of his afflictions, attributed them to God’s actions, but he did not recognize that God had any beneficent purpose in them. The only prospect of escape from them that Job could see was by death. The difference between Job’s view and that of His three friends was that Job maintained that God sent evil upon men, just as He sent good, and that being God He had the right to do as He pleased with His own creatures. Therefore men must accept evil uncomplainingly just as they accept good at God’s hands. Job’s words to his wife state his views: “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:1010But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. (Job 2:10)). Job maintained this until he had silenced his three friends.
Job’s Three Friends
His friends maintained the contrary. They said that afflictions were punishments for sins and were always in exact proportion to the nature of the sins. By this argument it was made plain that Job, being the most afflicted of all men, must be the most wicked of all men. The great discussion came to an end without any of the four men indicating that he had the faintest idea of the purpose of God, in spite of the many excellent things they said about God.
God’s purpose in permitting afflictions is to bring the afflicted one into blessing through self-judgment, confession, and correcting of their ways. None of them had the faintest thought of “the end of the Lord” or that “the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.” In all that those four men said about God, the words love, mercy, kindness, goodness, compassion, pity and the like did not once occur. Notwithstanding all their great thoughts about God, they did not know Him well. “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord” (Jer. 9:23-2423Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23‑24)).
Elihu
Elihu sums up Job’s contention in chapter 33:9-11: “I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me. Behold, He findeth occasions against me, He counteth me for His enemy; He putteth my feet in the stocks, He marketh all my paths.” That is, God did all these things arbitrarily, though Job was, in his own eyes, clean without transgression and innocent.
Elihu dismisses that view of the matter by saying briefly, “Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man.” Then he proceeds to show that in all God’s dealings with men, His purpose is to save them from going down to the pit and to bring them into the light of the living.
We often act as if we did not have any inspired “Interpreter” to tell us plainly the meanings of these things in our lives, One who will tell us that “the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.” There is One to reveal the fact that He Himself “has found a ransom” in the Person of His own beloved Son. He will freely open the storehouse of His rich mercies to every man like Job who will say, “I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not” (Job 33:2727He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; (Job 33:27)).
Elihu concludes his lesson with the words in Job 37:23: “Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out: He is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: He will not afflict.” In regard to affliction, it is also written, “Though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men” (Lam. 3:32-3332But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. (Lamentations 3:32‑33)).
How often God’s children, like Job, have to learn the hard way. The old German saying is sure: “Who will not hear must feel.” The gracious pleadings of the Lord pass by unheeded till each time it must be more plainly spoken. It may be first by a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon the bed. If not heard, it may be next by instruction: “Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.” Finally, it may be by chastening as “He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain.” Finally in his pain Job learned his lesson.
Adapted from Christian Treasury, Vol. 4