Job 42:7–8

The plan or structure is very distinct. There is a prologue in Job 1, 2 with a corresponding conclusion or epilogue in the last chapter (Job 42:7-17). The question is raised in heaven between God and Satan, the man on earth most concerned being wholly ignorant of it until grace prevailed and the word revealed all.

He singles out the oldest of them. Of the three, this man had spoken with the least bitterness — but he was still guilty, for as the wisest he ought to have known best.

But God does not accept honour at the expense of truth. It is His glory that all His attributes blend in one harmonious light. Can He then accept a defence of His character and ways that is built on a false charge? Such a charge stamps wickedness and hypocrisy on a man of whom He Himself had said, "There is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil." Can He let so monstrous a theory of suffering pass — the theory these men worked out, that suffering is always the unerring finger pointing to wickedness? That it is all in wrath? What then becomes of His testing of His own? What becomes of the sanctifying effect of chastening?

No doubt they had spoken of God. But what they said about Him was cloudy, distorted, and false… They completely failed to bring God before the soul of their friend. So they also failed to produce the self-judgment he needed.

But God felt seriously about men who claimed to speak properly, while underneath that calm surface they failed to apply the truth of God to the case… Abstract truth is altogether useless for the saints of God. Things that are true, but misunderstood and misapplied, may do more harm than many a thing that is false. Misapplied truth gives the apparent authority of God to an error, and that error carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth… So if someone uses the truth of God wrongly — if he applies it to crush a man who is an object of intense interest to God at the time — how foreign and offensive to His mind!

Where then was the thing that was right? There is this much we can easily see. He certainly said what was right when he humbled himself completely before God… Job justified God at his own expense. He no longer claimed his own righteousness. He claimed his own nothingness and vileness in dust and ashes before God, whom he acknowledges without reserve to be perfectly right.

Here is a beautiful lesson. Job has confessed and Jehovah has forgiven. He forgets all Job's sinful words; He remembers them no more. But in infinite grace He takes the few sentences scattered through Job's speeches where he honoured the Lord and showed his trust in Him. With these He is well pleased… And so He acknowledges Job as His servant.

He observed that none of these three men said a word. They did not profit by it like Job. If they had truly profited by it, they would have joined Job and said, "O Lord, forgive our folly. We have sinned not only against You, but against our dear friend Job." But no. They held their tongues, as so many people do when they are very wrong.

What a great favour God gave His servant! He enabled him to intercede for those who had so greatly abused him, and He accepted his intercession on their behalf… And how good for us to see how God connects Job's intercession with his return to prosperity. We read, "And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends" (Job 42:10).

God felt gravely about men who claimed to speak properly but completely failed to apply the truth of God to the case… Things that are true, yet misunderstood and misapplied, may do more harm than many a thing that is false. Misapplied truth gives the apparent authority of God to an error, and that error carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth… If someone uses the truth of God wrongly — if he applies it to crush a person God is deeply concerned about at that time — how foreign and offensive to His mind!

Why did God speak to Eliphaz? He noticed that none of these three men said a word. They did not profit by it as Job did. If they had, they would have joined Job and said, "O Lord, forgive our folly; we have sinned not only against You, but against our dear friend Job." But no, they held their tongues, as so many people do when they are very wrong.

Job's mistakes are obvious enough. Where then was the thing that was right? … He said the right thing when he humbled himself completely before God… Job said what was right in his last words, when he answered the Lord's appeal to him. There God brought him into His own presence… Job justified God at his own expense. He no longer asserted his own righteousness. He owned his own nothingness and vileness in dust and ashes before God, whom he admits without reserve to be perfectly right.

All of them, Job included, had erred in the interpretation of God's dealings, if that were all; and on that account, first Elihu becomes interpreter for Him, and then God Himself speaks. But Job had spoken rightly of God; and his friends had not.

They had sinned, so they needed a sacrifice. Otherwise the Lord must have dealt with them according to their folly. Only the burnt offering He prescribed here could spare them from such dealing… He commanded them to bring seven bulls and seven rams, and the whole formed only one burnt offering. One sacrifice was enough in God's eyes; it was not to be repeated.

At this time it does not appear that there were sin offerings. This is a strong sign of the very early date of the book, or rather of the events recorded in it. It must have been before the law. Under the law of Moses a sin offering would of course have been offered. But before the law set out its careful and detailed rules for what sin required, people regularly brought the burnt offering.

They were to act in a way that did two things. First, it bore witness to sacrifice as the only ground on which sinful men may deal with God. Second, it humbled them, because they had to ask for the prayers of the very man they had been accusing and slandering. They were to be the humble applicants, and Job was to act as a priest of God!

If the sin is not a sin to death, and the brother has not repented of it, it may still lead to his being cut off, taken away with a stroke. Then prayer is to be made, and his life will be spared… So, in Job 42:8, Job's intercession turns aside the effect of God's displeasure.

He did not only turn their punishment away when Job prayed. He turned Job's own captivity when his heart went out on their behalf… His heart was active in grace. He had seen grace, and now he showed grace — and this for the very people who had wounded him most. No one in the world had wounded Job as his three friends had.