Job 42:7

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).