Lessons From Job: I Retract

"Then Job answered the LORD and said,
"I know that You can do all things,
And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?'
"Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know."
'Hear, now, and I will speak;
I will ask You, and You instruct me.'
"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You;
Therefore I retract,
And I repent in dust and ashes." Job 42:1-6

We are officially done with our Bible Study in Job on Wednesday nights, and I have been learning a great many things.

I can't say I have learned them because I think I am just at the tip of the great iceberg of Trial Lessons 101. I do not believe, at 29 years of age, that I can write what there is to write about right responses to trials in a great pompous volume to hand out and instruct others. No. Sadly I, unlike Job, seem to only have briefly glimmering, transient moments of clarity where I can truly say what he said in Job 42:1-6. Those moments are usually bookended by days and weeks of "Why, Lord?" and "But it's not fair!" and my ever-popular pity parties behind a pretend smile.

Oh, to be able to settle it once and for all, without ever falling again into doubtful questioning of the Lord's character! I hate to mention where I was in November or even in February, but the truth of the matter is, that's where I have been. I would love to just be done with all of this and put it behind me permanently. Do you think Job did? Do you think Job settled it at the end of verse 6 and was never again tempted to doubt the Lord's sovereign goodness in his life? Maybe. But I think more realistically he probably did have times later in his 140 years after this account where he was tempted. And probably he was able to remember the time that the Lord spoke to him out of the whirlwind and reminded him of his place in the whole big scheme of God's world.

Because I have to remind myself that the Lord does have the right to do what He wills in my life, and I have to believe that it's the best thing possible. I have to trust that He knows best. I have to repent of my arrogance. And I have to retract my statements which double as accusations that God is not good.

Want to hear something really comforting?

The same God that I have "taken to court" so to speak, will still love me, forgive me, and dry my tears as they fall. He will restore me!

He's just that kind of a God. Kind.

That's what I'm learning from Job.

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