UBF Daily Bread

JOB REPENTS

Passage: Job 42:1~17

Key verse: 5,6

Job

42 Then Job replied to the Lord:

²“I know that you can do all things;^(A)
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.^(B)
³You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’^(C)
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.^(D)

⁴“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’^(E)
⁵My ears had heard of you^(F)
    but now my eyes have seen you.^(G)
⁶Therefore I despise myself^(H)
    and repent^(I) in dust and ashes.”^(J)

Epilogue

⁷After the Lord had said these things to Job^(K), he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends,^(L) because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.^(M) ⁸So now take seven bulls and seven rams^(N) and go to my servant Job^(O) and sacrifice a burnt offering^(P) for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer^(Q) and not deal with you according to your folly.^(R) You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.”^(S) ⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite^(T) did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.^(U)

¹⁰After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes^(V) and gave him twice as much as he had before.^(W) ¹¹All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before^(X) came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him,^(Y) and each one gave him a piece of silver^[a] and a gold ring.

¹²The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. ¹³And he also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

¹⁶After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. ¹⁷And so Job died, an old man and full of years.^(Z)

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Footnotes

Job 42:11 Hebrew him a kesitah; a kesitah was a unit of money of unknown weight and value.

1. Now my eyes have seen you (1-6)

Job was not satisfied by hearing about God; he wanted to meet God personally. God spoke to him. He stood before the living God. His carefully constructed case collapsed. He had no answers to God's questions. And he had no more questions to ask God. He no longer insisted on his own righteousness, for no one is righteous before God. Job could only repent in dust and ashes. This is the only way sinful man can come to the Holy Creator God.

2. My servant Job will pray for you (7-17)

God was angry with Job's three friends because they did not speak what was right. (He does not include Elihu.) Their words came from their own self-righteousness. They did not know God, so they could not be right. God told them to ask his servant Job to pray for them. Job prayed for them, and God heard his prayer. God restored Job's fortunes and blessed his life.

Prayer: Lord, give me a repentant heart, so that I may know you and walk in your ways.

One Word: God's servant repents