But Now My Eye Sees You

Opening Note (DO NOT RECORD)

I selected this reading to preach on before we found out this past week that the pregnancy Claire and I had prayed about for over three years was coming to an unexpected and early end. So I approach this passage with a heart like Job's: confused, tossed about, seeking answers, wanting God to explain himself to me as if that will somehow assuage the pain and anger I feel. Studying this passage and asking God to open Job's words up to me has helped me to mourn better, rather than lashing out in anger or falling totally back into self destructive habits that I would have turned to in times past. I am still working through this, I am still raw, but I find comfort in Job's confession: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted." God is in control, and he will see each one of us through whatever calamity, injury, illness, or heartbreak we may be facing.

(BEGIN RECORDING)

Introduction

Job 42:1–6 ESV

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 uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Psalm 19:14 BCP1928:P

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in your sight, * O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Consider a time someone told you about a trip they went on

You decide you would like to have a similar experience

You listened to their stories of the trip

You did your own research about the destination

You read some travel brochures, city guides, blog posts, or social media content

Now you actually go on the trip

Do you get to where you are going, look around and go

“...Man, I just really prefer the way this looked on Instagram!”

Maybe this does actually happen — I have certainly been to some overhyped vacation spots

For the most part, the lived experience is superior to the vicarious experience of looking at someone else’s pictures or listening to other people’s stories

In a way, this is what Job experiences in our reading today.

A Quick Background on the Book of Job

Since we don’t often hear preaching on Job, let me give you a 10,000 ft view of the book

Job is a righteous man who has great wealth and a large family

God holds him up as an example to Satan of someone who is upright and blameless

Satan challenges God and says that if Job loses what he has then he will stop living upright

God gives Satan permission to do what he will to try to make Job sin

Calamity falls on Job and he loses his wealth, his family, even his own wellbeing

He mourns the situation, but even so we are told that he did not sin

Hearing of his troubles, his friends come and try to give him counsel

but it is bad advice, and not good insight into the character of God

Job rightfully pushes back and rejects their words

In the course of the discussion, Job speaks rashly and challenges God to come and explain to him why evil prospers and good suffers

God appears to Job and his friends

He rebukes Job’s challenge, asking him what great works Job has done compared to all the wonders of creation

He challenges Job to show God how he would overcome the wicked, saying that only then would God acknowledge that Job could save himself

Our reading comes after this response from God, and is the total of Job’s response to God’s rebuke and challenge.

Job’s Confession

Job starts off his response by confessing that first and foremost, God is omnipotent, he is all powerful, and his will cannot be overcome

When we experience hardship and pain, it is often the case that we ask “where is God?”

How does suffering and evil fit in with God’s will?

This is the core of what is often called “the problem of evil”

We certainly won’t solve this in one sermon, or five, or ten, or even if I preached on nothing else for the rest of my ministry

What we can be assured of is that, if God’s will cannot be overcome:

evil that happens to us will not thwart God’s purposes for our lives

God has some way of turning the evil that happens in this life to the good of his people and his church

the pains we experience because of the fallen nature of this world have no bearing on our eternal state as long as we rest in God by faith

Job goes on to address the rebukes and challenges God makes against him

He repeats a charge from God’s response to him - “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge” - effectively saying that he was guilty in his ignorance and has no defense

This is a common issue we face as human beings

We try to talk about God to others, but often we rely on our knowledge and reason

Because of this, all to often human beings talk about God without understanding

We “utter what we do not understand”

We miss the “things too wonderful” for us

In doing so, we harm both ourselves and the one we try to teach about God

Again, he repeats a challenge from God - “I will question you, and you make it known to me” - this time he does not say anything else, admitting that he is unable to respond

Throughout his speeches to his three friends, Job has used language reminiscent of a court scene regarding how he would like to interact with God - ultimately accusing him of injustice

Again, this is common in humans

When we think God has done something against us undeservedly, we want him to explain

So often humans want to approach God as an equal in the dispute, as a party with comparable grievances that God must address

Many of those who have left the faith or who rejected the Gospel from the start do so because they are unsatisfied with the relational dynamics between God and humanity

This attitude leads to further trouble and judgment — trouble that fell upon us not because of sin becomes punishment when we do sin by calling God unjust and rejecting his sovereignty over creation.

Finally, Job reveals that he has only known God “by the hearing of the ear” — i.e. by what others related to him

His ignorant speech that he confessed to earlier was because he was utterly ignorant of the truth of God’s character

Now that God has revealed himself truly to Job, he rejects his earlier rash speech and error-filled ideas about God and embraces the truth that he has seen

He repents of his earlier false ideas, adopting a stance of humility before God

The Hebrew in verse 6 is a little tough to translate literally

The translational tradition from the KJV through to the ESV uses the language “repent in dust and ashes”

Another way of rendering the Hebrew could be “repent on account of dust and ashes” i.e. “I repent because I am but dust and ashes” referring back to humans being created out of the dust of the ground

This is the right stance for how humans should respond when God is gracious to reveal the truth of his character to his creation

Gospel Connection

Now that we have walked through this Old Testament passage… so what?

Why am I preaching on this? Why are we even reading this in Eastertide?

In Job’s day — traditionally understood to be in the pre-Patriarchal period, the time even before God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans — this type of revelation to specific human beings was pretty rare

This revelation to a man not descended from Abraham, not part of the covenant community of Israel, gives valuable insight into God’s character

Even this revelation is incomplete

because of the breach between humanity and God in the Fall, the most humans are allowed to know about God is his omnipotence and our state before him “in dust and ashes”

Can you think of a more perfect revelation, where human beings were allowed to see God standing before them, face to face?

In our lectionary, this Old Testament reading is of course paired with the Gospel reading from John where we get the story of “doubting Thomas”

In a sense, Thomas is a fulfillment of Job

both witness calamitous events that leave them shaken and questioning God’s plan

both “hear by the hearing of the ear” about God’s acts

Job, God’s creative might

Thomas, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead

both have incomplete or ineffectual faith and understanding based on what they have heard

Job misunderstands God’s character and speaks rashly

Thomas simply disbelieves that Jesus has been raised from the dead

both see the truth of God revealed to them which leads to deeper faith and repentance

Job: “but now my eye sees you”

Thomas: “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas receives the greater revelation, because while Job beholds the presence of the Almighty, Thomas sees the Lord face to face in the risen Christ

If we are Christians, then we have this same revelation

the indwelling Spirit of God helps us to know God beyond the “hearing of the ear”

this Spirit makes Christians today among those whom Jesus blesses as those who “have not seen and yet have believed”

We can readily turn to God in prayer and contemplation and ask to know him more

following Job’s humble example and Our Lord’s teaching, what we ask in faithful humility will be given to us in accordance with God’s will

Application

How does this revelation of God change your life?

For me, it helps me to face the difficulties and anxieties of life

God is in control

all wounds will heal in time

all evil will be avenged

all needs will be satisfied

even death will be defeated

It should make us careful to correctly tell of God to those around us who do not know him

not careful as in hesitant

careful as in relying on the Spirit to work with us and through us rather than turning to our own knowledge

many unbelievers remain unbelievers because they know only “by the hearing of the ear” from imperfect witnesses

some from other unbelievers who distort the words of Scripture

some from people claiming Christ but using his words as a cudgel

some from well-meaning Christians who experience a failure in communication

If you are witnessing to a friend, a family member, a coworker, or a complete stranger stop and ask yourself if you are letting the Spirit lead the conversation, or if you are relying on your own reason to share “things to wonderful for us which we do not know.”

Finally, we remember that God can do all things, and no purpose of his can be thwarted

If he calls us to witness the Gospel to neighbors, family, and friends, then no scheme of the devil or social awkwardness will stop the Gospel from going out

All we have to do is rest in faithful humility and proclaim the God we have seen with the eyes of faith

Conclusion

The truth we have received about God is superior to anything humans can arrive at by reason

All of our attempts to fill in the gaps of things “which we do not know” serve only to “darken counsel without knowledge”

Christians are blessed to know him as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ

who walked as a human being among human beings

who suffered a death like ours

who has been raised to new life as a promise of our own redemption

Because of Christ’s life and ministry we can say with Job - “Now my eye sees you”

Because of Christ’s resurrection we can cry out with St. Thomas - “My Lord and my God!”

May we always rest in the God who can do all things, whose purposes can never be thwarted. Amen.