Job 42:3 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Job 42:3

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‘Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?’ – who is it that doesn’t know what he’s talking about? Job is quoting the Lord, who has just put this question to him (Job 38:2). He admits God has put his finger on Job’s problem. ‘Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.’ He is convicted by the word. He prays and repents of his sin. Job in effect addresses God’s rebuke to himself all over again. He takes God’s side against himself which is the essence of repentance. He feels a deep shame for what he had been and allows that shame to be publicly seen for this whole series of events has been in public and since his criticisms of God were spoken before all present, so now this confession of foolishness must be equally broadcast. The repenting man must not spare himself; nothing now matters more than the vindication of God, which will be at the expense of his own reputation. Job becomes the counsel against himself, taxing himself with hard questions that God had put to him and which exposed his ignorance. Yes, he had spoken in ignorance and yet he was not a fool; he was not in the habit of speaking rashly or without thinking; indeed he had a reputation for wisdom, and others turned to him for advice. How had he reached his present state of complaining? This trial had taken him to a new point to which no previous trial had brought him, and it exposed the limits of his knowledge and caused it to fail. This experience gave him new understanding but in the course of it, the old limits of his knowledge were exposed. Job had uttered words based too much on his own subjective evaluation and not enough on what God had revealed, and therefore human wisdom had displaced the wisdom of God. The result was that true counsel, true wisdom, had been hidden under something vastly inferior, making it inaccessible. Job had to his shame dared to utter a verdict on matters which were beyond him. His proper response should have been to close his mouth and ask God for understanding, realising that he was out of his depth, but instead he had dared to see his own wisdom as superior to God’s. Our silence is at times our greatest wisdom, but Job had uttered his opinion on things too wonderful for him to grasp. Like a brute animal incapable of appreciating a work of fine art, so he had not appreciated what lay behind his trials and God’s permitting them, or what marvellous good God was able to bring out of them both for Job and for the people of God in all ages.

Application

When we are convicted, we must admit our role in our sin and repent. First he confirms God’s purpose and message. Job had failed to stop and read what had happened. He had fallen into a fit of self-pity and so obscured the message. We are always being sanctified, rescued from folly, or trained in advance. Job admits God is at work, but he says, ‘It is too hard for me to understand what the Lord is doing at my limited stage of understanding.’ We have to be careful of that. We come to the Lord and realise we can build a life on principles that are firm and enduring. You witness and sometimes your new delight in God is thought to be dogmatism, but this confidence is a good thing. However there is a less happy side-effect. We can go on and become too dogmatic about other things. Don’t get too dogmatic, too fast, and think that you instantly know the answer to a whole host of questions: ‘Should wives go out to work? Should the church sing psalms only? Should children be home schooled?’ What strong terms you hear! These are complicated questions. Give yourself time to develop understanding in the secondary matters.

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Introduction

Job 42:3 Commentary and Bible Study