What does it mean that Job repented in dust and ashes?

The lost sheep is one who has come to an end of himself, and is debtor wholly to the grace that comes after him, to seek and to save him where he is. To put it again — take as an illustration, beloved friends, what the Lord has given us elsewhere about this very thing — repentance. Who was Job? The very best man upon the earth. When God wishes to teach us the lesson of repentance He does not go to the jails. People do that. God takes up the very best man on earth. He says deliberately of Job, "There is no one like him on earth." But what does He do? He passes that man through unexampled sorrows which have made his name a proverb, and, beloved friends, for what? What are the last words of Job? "I repent in dust and ashes" — "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Was he turning over a new leaf? was he repenting of his sins? Why, beloved friends, he was the best man upon the earth at any rate; so if he had to repent and turn over a new leaf, it would be pretty hard for any body else. Was he a drunkard delivered from his cups? was he a criminal just let out of prison? He was the very best man on earth. What did he repent of? Himself, abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes. What was Job's repentance? Turning over a new leaf and cleaving faster to his righteousness and all that? No, beloved: his repentance was giving up all pretension to righteousness, and taking his place in self-abhorrence before God. Job was a child of God, — a saint. — That makes it so solemn. "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified."

By the words of the Almighty to him, Job's conscience was struck as with a thunderbolt, and he was convicted of his sin. In self-accusation, he said, "I have distrusted Him, the omnipotent One, the omniscient One. I have been arguing with God Who searches the heart, and filling my mouth with idle words in His presence." Job felt his sinfulness in justifying himself and discrediting God. He confessed his sin, saying, "Behold, I am vile." He repented in dust and ashes (Job 42:6). Of what did he repent? His outward failure, and his inward distrust of God.

Still applying Jehovah's words to himself, Job himself asks, "Who is this"? "Hear, and I will speak." It is as though he would abjectly bow to these questions by repeating them, and give his answer to his divine Questioner. And what an answer it is! The only answer human pride can give to God: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear," — Job had in a general way been correctly instructed, but he had only learned about God, — "but now mine eye seeth Thee" — he had been brought face to face with God, not indeed visually, though there was the awful glory in the sky, but he had had a soul-perception of God by his enlightened reason, and chiefly by conscience. God had drawn near, personally near, and Job was conscious of that ineffable holiness, as well as power, that belong to Him. Previously he had been in the presence of man, and could more than hold his own with the best of them. In God's presence no creature can boast, and Job was at last in that glorious, holy Presence. All the "filthy rags" of an imagined personal righteousness dropped from him, and he stood in all the naked horror of pride and rebellion against God. "Wherefore I abhor" — what? The whole past, every unjust suspicion, every hot accusation, every despairing, restless lament? Yea, more, the author and source of these — "I abhor myself." For who can doubt that Job's penitence goes beyond the mere judging of his words; he judged himself. Thus the very absence of the pronoun emphasizes the thought: "I abhor;" I stand out before all men, described by one word — "abhor."

After all the sifting, Job is brought into God's presence, and then "Jehovah accepted Job." In God's presence his mouth is stopped; then he said, "I am vile"; "I will lay my hand on my mouth." But Job must be brought farther, because God is to bring him to Himself; he must be brought to confess not only that there is no good in him, but that there is a great deal of evil. And this he does, as in verse 3, "I have uttered that I understood not." For now it is not a question of condemnation but of sin. When the sinner has judged himself, the fear of condemnation has passed away. "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." Thus Job takes God's side against himself. He laid himself before God, and abhorred himself; and then he repents in dust and ashes; for it is only in the presence of God that we learn repentance. In its fullest sense true repentance is, when our sin is so thoroughly brought out that we are taking God's side of the question in judging ourselves, and in justifying Him. Then it is that He justifies us, and makes us accepted in the Beloved. Then it was that "Jehovah accepted Job." And blessed is the man whom the Lord accepteth. May we indeed feel the need of Him, and not rest in the hypocritical quiet of keeping out of His presence!

The "penitent" presents Job in a most important character when we remember that he is certified by God Himself as the best man of his time on earth. And yet this repentance of his at an after-time is not simply his judgment of himself for wild words uttered or thoughts indulged under the pressure of calamities which have overtaken him. His own words show that it was a true turning-point in his life. Up to that time he had heard of God by the hearing of the ear only now his eye saw Him. He was brought for the first time really into the light of His presence, which now for the first time therefore revealed him to himself. Hence the spotlessness of his conduct which he once had built upon could not now satisfy him: the depths of his heart had been revealed: he abhors — not his sins, but — himself, and repents in dust and ashes.

In God's presence, as it were under God's eye, Job learned experimentally that He was Almighty, and the Searcher of every thought of the heart. "I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee." (Job 42:2.) He seems to quote the first words the Lord uttered when He spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, "Who is he that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" and then makes the solemn confession of his own guiltiness, "Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not." This is indeed renouncing his own wisdom. But further, he goes on to say, "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."

This is enough. The lessons, though so costly, have been learnt. He lays hands, as it were, on his own righteousness, and strength, and fancied goodness, and condemns all; yea, more than this, he sets self completely aside as vile and worthless, "I abhor myself;" and in this self-loathing frame he confesses a change of mind, "I repent." His sorrow has wrought in him a repentance not to be repented of. He lies down in self-abhorrence in dust, because he acknowledges self only fit to be laid low in the dust, and buried out of God's sight, a sinner by birth as one of Adam's fallen race, concerning whom it was said, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Gen. 3:19); and he takes the place of ashes, as withered up under the trial of the searching fire of an infinitely holy God. Thus the patriarch comes to the end of self, when under divine teaching in God's holy presence. It is enough; he judges himself, and needs no longer to be judged and chastened.

Let us now briefly turn to the account of the final result. "Then Job answered Jehovah, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not." He takes up the humbling words that God addressed to him in order to apply them to himself. This was right; he owns they were "things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou to me.'' So had God before said, and he repeats them to his own humiliation. "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye sees thee." It was nothing external now; no mere distant rumour. "Now mine eye sees thee. Wherefore I abhor myself." Do you think that searching into the structure or habits of behemoth and leviathan would have led to anything of the sort? Assuredly not. He had to do with God Himself, who used them for the express purpose, and had thereby turned Job from all to Himself. "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." So in the New Testament the Lord used the crowing of a cock to convict the great apostle of the circumcision.

Now Job speaks because the Lord had told him to answer what the Lord said (v.4). His answer was, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (vv.5-6). Though Job had heard something about the Lord, it was not enough to meet Job's actual need. Now he was brought face to face with the greatness and glory of the Lord, with the result, "I abhor myself." It was not simply a matter of what he had done that he abhorred, but himself. This was the root of what he may have done, and it was this root that God was dealing with, that is, the pride of Job's very character. Every believer needs to be brought down to this very point.

Now it is that he arrives at the end, desired of God, in all the discipline to which He has been subjecting him. Job now seeing God, forms a true estimate of himself, and repents in dust and ashes. The blameless man, in nature good, and as a man upright, when brought into the presence of God abhors himself. As a man, he has whereof he may boast; he may justify himself to his fellows, but not before God. Before, and in the presence of God, he can claim nothing, expect nothing, and feel himself entitled to nothing. In the sight of God's holy eye, his only consciousness of self is to abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes.

Job 42. Jehovah's voice out of the whirlwind ceased, and Job humbled himself in full measure. He confessed the wrongness of his former utterances. He had to abhor himself and repent in the place of death — dust and ashes. These moments in the presence of God had produced a result which all the talk of the three friends, and even of Elihu, had not achieved. The man, who was so excellent among men, and had a testimonial from even God Himself, had discovered his own utter sinfulness in the deepest springs of his being. A discovery we all in our turn have to make!