Job Was Right All Along

Job Was Right All Along
Job 42:7

The Book of Job is lengthy. We have found ourselves dulled to inattention at times with the long speeches made by the friends of Job and his replies. Perhaps you, like Bible Bits, finds it hard to distinguish between the substance of one speaker from another, and from substance of one round of speeches from the next.

In any event, our verse for this Bible Bits holds something you might miss, and it is pretty important.

Let’s remind ourselves that throughout the Book of Job, our hero Job maintains his claims of personal Godliness and righteousness, and laments that God is not giving him a fair trial and ability to defend himself.

In the mean time, Job’s four friends declare that Job is obviously guilty of something, based on the plain evidence of his punishment by God. These accusations, and Job’s appeals to God, go on for 37 chapters.

Finally, in chapter 38, God himself steps in. But God doesn’t assert that Job is wrong, or that Job is right. Instead, God declares that God is big and Job is small. He does not address the merits of either the friends’ arguments or Job’s. God argues that he is mighty.

From the beginning of chapter 38, and up to our verse of interest in 42:7, the Lord God has blasted Job with a long litany of illustrations demonstrating that God is of almighty size, power, time, and authority. God hurls Job into his place as a small, small man with no position to question God’s decisions or justice. Job doesn’t get a voice and gets no trial and gets no defender. God does not address Job’s consistent claims throughout the book that Job has suffered unjustly and that God has, unfairly, been absent in his role of defender of the unjustly suffering victim.

See Job 40:6-14 for a brief take-away from chapters 38 through 41. God ridicules Job. The cruel sarcasm drips from his words. God is mighty and Job is not. The implication here is that Job should shut up and understand that God’s might makes right:

Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm and said,
“Now gird up your loins like a man;
I will ask you, and you instruct Me.
“Will you really annul My judgment?
Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?
“Or do you have an arm like God,
And can you thunder with a voice like His?
“Adorn yourself with eminence and dignity,
And clothe yourself with honor and majesty.
“Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low.
“Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him,
And tread down the wicked where they stand.
“Hide them in the dust together;
Bind them in the hidden place.
“Then I will also confess to you,
That your own right hand can save you. (NASB, Job 40:6-14)

Perhaps the cruelest aspect of this is that Job himself has consistently claimed that God is all-powerful and God is just and God is empowered to rule and God does so justly. God tells Job nothing  Job doesn’t know already and agree with.

But then we reach verse 42:7. The Contemporary English Version is a bit more clear than other translations:

“The LORD said to Eliphaz: What my servant Job has said about me is true, but I am angry at you and your two friends for not telling the truth.” (CEV)

Whoa!

Do not miss this acquittal of Job.

Now, in a brief clause of one sentence that might escape unnoticed, God declares that Job has been right all along.

The CEV makes this easier to see than other translations. Here are some examples:

After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has. (NET)

It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. (NASB)

After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. (ESV)

And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. (KJV)

And again:

“The LORD said to Eliphaz: What my servant Job has said about me is true, but I am angry at you and your two friends for not telling the truth.” (CEV)

Only two verses later, the Lord Judge God restores all of Job’s family and wealth and doubles everything.

Thirty seven chapters of God ignoring Job while friends accuse him. Four chapters of God belittling Job. And then one small verse of Lord Judge God saying that Job was right all along, his accusers were wrong all along, then Job winning an acquittal, return of his losses, and additional award.

Job was right all along.

Read the Actual Bible for Yourself. God’s blessings to you!