Job s Intercession for His Friends (Job 42.7-9) WestminsterReformedChurch.org Pastor Ostella June 15, 2014 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. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job's prayer. Introduction Today we have come to the epilogue of the book of Job. In the big picture, you will remember, the book has three main parts: prologue, dialogue, and epilogue. Most of the book records dialogue that was prompted by Job s complaint (3). The dialogue includes three cycles of debate between Job and his three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (4-26). Then, Job gives a triumphant speech (27-31) followed by the speech of Elihu who speaks to the three friends and mainly to Job (32-37). In 38.1-42.6, the dialogue is between God and Job in which there are two speeches of Yahweh from the whirlwind and two responses from the afflicted patriarch. The Lord s words from the unharmful storm to Job were firm, exposing, and sanctifying. It is after these two speeches that the epilogue begins: 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 (42.7a). The Lord now turns His attention to the three friends addressing Eliphaz as their representative and leading spokesperson. Recall that each of the three cycles of debate followed the pattern of Eliphaz then Job, Bildad then Job, and Zophar then Job with Eliphaz leading the way in each round. Now, Yahweh gives some firm words to the three sages that state His assessment. These firm words are connected to an action that He requires Job to perform for his friends who became his persecutors. He requires Job to intercede for them. Thus, in 42.7-9, we have two points regarding Job s intercession for his friends: the need for this intercession and the nature of this intercession. I. The need for Job s intercession Job needed to intercede for Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (not Elihu) because the three sages did not confess the truth about God. Therefore, God s wrath was kindled against them, which in turn required Job s intercession: 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. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves (42.7-8). From these words, let us consider the sin of the friends and the response of God to their sin. A. First, the sin of the friends The Lord says, you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. In the dialogue with Job, the three sages confessed the view that God is in a mechanical system distributing curses and blessings slavishly as one bound by His creation, bound by His own law. Thus, for so much sin there must be so much suffering, and for so much righteousness, there must be so much blessing (if one has great suffering, one must be a great sinner). Thus, notably, when God appeared in the whirlwind, they did not repent. They did not speak of the Lord as Job did. What they omitted from their confession reveals the depth of their sin. They did not confess the good confession of Job that God is all powerful, that His purposes are irresistible, and His ways incomprehensible (42.1-6): Job answered the LORD and said: 2 "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted...[i have thrown fog over your] counsel without knowledge...therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me,
2 which I did not know...but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:1-6 ESV) Speaking to the Lord, Job says, the heavens, the earth, the constellations, the weather, and the animals including the most fearsome and terrifying animals, Behemoth and Leviathan, exist because of your grand design and function according to your sovereign will. You O Lord are independent and therefore under no obligation to me or any creature; therefore, there is nothing that can thwart your purpose; no proud animal, no Prince of evils. So, no one can judge you, fault you, show you to be incompetent, and thus dictate to you regarding how you accomplish what you purpose. Yet, for my part, I have hidden, confused, blurred and darkened the vision of your grand purpose. I have done this by speaking of things I did not understand, which are too wonderful for me. Therefore, exposed by your gracious teaching with the created world as your canvas, I despise myself; I acknowledge my sinfulness and turn away from it (here in the ash dump; in the midst of affliction) and I cling to my redeemer-meditator who lives for my vindication. That is how Job confessed a good confession. That is what the three sages failed to do. That was their sin. B. Second, God s response to this sin What the three friends said about God and what they failed to say stirred up God s anger: 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 (42.7b). The fact that they did not proclaim His irresistible sovereignty and complete freedom to do His perfect will displeased the Lord. It stirred up His wrath when they put him in a box, handcuffed to His creation, and thus bound to a law of retribution of human origin. This in no way denies the reality that these men were saints with true faith in God. Nonetheless, His wrath was kindled against them because they did not confess the truth of His sovereignty and the efficacy of His grand designs. In their walk with God to this point in their lives they were great men, no doubt, like Job, men of esteem, wealth, and wisdom; great sages of the ancient near east. They trusted in God, but they bound Him hands and feet in their theology and made Him a slave of His creation. Their view of created things, their view of the wicked and righteous, of prosperity and affliction, and of the dependence of God became a meat grinder that they logically used to deny God s free sovereignty. Thus, by human reason used autonomously, they determined what God can and cannot be; what He can and cannot do. With this God was hardly pleased. Thus, these men stood in great need. The debate is over. The dust has settled. God appeared and spoke from the whirlwind. For their words in the debate, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar stand condemned. They are condemned for their confession. They incurred God s anger by not confessing what is true of God. So, they stand in need of a mediator and interestingly, the Lord designates Job to be that mediator. They must humble themselves to the one to whom they added affliction and he must not hold a grudge against them. II. With the need before us, we come now to the nature of Job s intercession In this context of human suffering and trying to find wisdom to cope with it, it is striking that emphasis is placed on the folly of the confession of these allegedly wise men. Thus, when He makes Job their intercessor, the Lord repeats the difference between what they said and what Job said: Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has (42.8). Job humbled himself in submission to God (as small and unworthy before God s greatness and glory
3 in his first reply) and acknowledged the efficacious grace of God s sovereign plan (in his second reply). For the failure to state this view of God, the Lord s anger was aroused and therefore Job, by God s grace, was appointed to be the intercessor of his friends: take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. What his intercession involves is threefold. A. First, it involves sacrifice This is the way appointed by the Lord to publicly express repentance through the symbolism and theology of sacrifice. Thus, the ground of intercessory mediation between man and God is sacrifice. The picture is very clear and concise. Sin incurs God s wrath; therefore, man is in desperate need. Unless God s anger is appeased, man will perish according to his folly, according to his foolish words. Ritual sacrifice is an act of repentance and thus repentance is the way of salvation, but the ground is the killing of bulls and rams. The ground of salvation is substitutionary death of a sacrifice in the place of a sinner. Therefore, repentance, the turning away from sin, acknowledging it, and being sorry for it does not remove God s wrath (not all my sighs and tears can make my spirit whole). God s wrath must be satisfied. His holiness and justice must be honored in full and it will certainly be honored in the accomplishment of God s purpose. Thus, the place of sacrifice becomes clear. The penalty of sin is death, a living death, existing under the wrath of God. His wrath is removed only through sacrifice; only through death and suffering. B. Second, his intercession involves righteousness So, the blameless Job who sinned in his trial, but who repented of his denial of God s sovereignty, goodness, and justice is the appointed intercessor. Job spoke what was right. He confessed a good confession. Now, he has the role of mediation to make intercession for his friends. It bears repeating that these are the friends that added to Job s afflictions by a betrayal of true friendship, by misunderstanding him and by totally misconstruing his relationship to God and God s relationship to him. Wonderfully, the innocent one intercedes for the guilty. C. Third, his intercession involves suffering This is truly a striking fact (perhaps as unexpected as striking) that from the midst of suffering Job intercedes for his sorry friends (friends become persecutors) to protect them from God s wrath. It would be easy to understand it if Job wanted to strike back at them by seeking God s wrath against them. For the friends, they had to seek help from the helpless, afflicted, suffering but righteous Job. In the end, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar obeyed the Lord in the ritual act of sacrifice by going to God s suffering servant to have him pray for them. The Lord promised that Job would intercede for their good: And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly (42.8). The prayer of Job is required and will be efficacious: it will be accepted and they will be spared from being dealt with according to their foolish counsel (spared from the consequences of folly, of being unwise, of unwisdom of being fools). In 42.9, we are told that they went to Job, he became their intercessor, and God accepted his prayer: So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job's prayer.therefore, they were delivered from God s wrath by the forgiving action of Job and the forgiving grace of God. Applications In this conclusion, do we have God s verdict on who won the debate? No, not really. It is Yahweh s verdict regarding humble repentance, first of Job and then of the friends. Can we not
4 also see here how God brings sinners to repentance, whether definitively to be saved or progressively in being sanctified? Otherwise, we say, some purpose of yours can be thwarted. To be sure, the Lord Himself has the strong arm and strong right hand of redemption. He deals with us in many mysterious ways but always with condescending and efficacious grace. These thoughts lead to some lessons from the need and nature of intercession. A. From the need of intercession 1. We learn the importance of our speech about God The text gives a high place to the confession of our faith. Of course, we are to acknowledge Christ before men, but the interaction of the friends with Job reveals just how important what we say about God is to Him. What these sages said of God incurred His wrath.this must be true of all saints; we may displease the Lord in our speaking of Him, even when we are trying to be helpful to others in need. 2. We also learn the importance of God s irresistible sovereignty It is not a little thing to confess properly that no purpose of God in the history of redemption can be thwarted. Job s example in contrast to his friends makes it clear that we are to grasp and confess the effectual nature of God s saving program. God allows doctrinal division to exist among His people. He is pleased with a good confession and displeased when He is spoken of wrongly. It must be our never ending goal to improve our understanding by having a true openness to test all things and hold fast to the good. No matter what the difficulties may be with the doctrines of God s sovereign grace, we should raise them high on a banner; we are not to hide them under a bushel. Granted, much is unknowable, but that does not take away what God has revealed. Much can be known; it is revealed for us to grow in knowledge that comes to expression on our lips in humble praise. We might fear men, but need to fear and honor God by making this confession of God s righteous and effectual plan from the midst of life, even from the midst of suffering. The goal is to please God. 3. Finally, we learn the importance of making a humble confession 1 Our prayer may well be: Lord, where might I be blind like Job s friends or like Job himself when he lost sight of your universal sovereignty? With the friends, for a time, Job was insistent on binding God in a system while embracing their retribution laws. Job went so far in defending his righteousness (which was the truth before his trial) that in the trial he faulted God and asserted himself to be able to judge God. What we say, what we confess about God is much more important than we might at first think. In one sense, this account underscores the importance of formulating and expressing good theology. It is not that some people do theology and other people restrict themselves to the Bible. We all do theology; we all interpret the Scriptures. No one comes to the Bible with his mind like a blank sheet to have Scripture written there. There are no special saints who only use the Bible and who are not involved in interpretation and theology. It is a matter of good or bad interpretation, of good or bad theology. Regardless of the amount of confusion out there among 1 Confession of your faith: that you do so is important to God. It has challenges. You need to approach it as your life long task and do so with openness, humbly, searching, reexamining all your days. In Christ, as His disciple, you are in a school of lifelong learning. So, you need to be earnest, determined, willing to wrestle with biblical issues and differences, willing to prayerfully study to show yourself approved of God as a worker in His word. You are to learn for obedience; you are to learn for confession of your faith. You are to speak of God and say what is true of Him. It is especially important to confess God s aseity, independence, incomprehensibility, and sovereignty because these truths ground a healthy understanding of His justice, that no one can complain regarding His will. What He does is by condescending grace and love in full freedom. No one has given to Him requiring Him to make repayment.
5 the denominations, it is our job to take our task to heart with deep concern (the task each disciple of Christ has) to do theology by engaging the challenging process of learning. 2 We must recognize that within the Lord s loving care of us and within the irresistible nature of His purposes, it is our responsibility to earnestly pursue good understanding of the grand themes of Scripture. It is our duty to confess a good confession (like our Lord did before Pilate); to do the work it takes and to approach it with the humble posture of Job. Notably, it is our responsibility to confess a good confession regarding the sovereignty of God and the irresistibility of His purposes. From Job s confession at the beginning of the book from which he sinfully departed, and to which he returned at the end in repentance, we are to acknowledge that God s purposes include the evil acts of men and angels, and not even the Prince of the proud on earth or behind the scenes of earth history can thwart the will of God. B. From the nature of Job s intercession 3 Here is a great picture of Christ our Savior who is our true wisdom. He is the mediator, the one who stands between God and man (God and us); He is the angel-mediator, the arbiter that Job needs. He has come. So, who can make any charge stick against God s elect? It is Christ who died and who was raised from the dead and who now intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. Therefore, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ, not suffering, not tribulation, famine, nakedness, peril or sword. In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Christ our risen Lord (Rom 8). So we have the gospel in the life of Job. God is sovereign. He has a sure and effectual saving purpose. He made Jesus the true wisdom of the ages. Embrace Him and live, live now in true wisdom and live forever with the Wisdom that is from above. May we fall down before the majesty of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, God blessed forever; may the Holy Spirit drive the truth of the Father s irresistible sovereignty and efficacious grace deep into our hearts, so that we have tender and humble hearts to worship Him in reverence and awe; to the glory of the triune God, forever, amen. 2 This underscores the importance of the church s confession of faith; it is why among the priorities of doctrine that the doctrines of grace ought to have a preeminent place over other things like the subjects of baptism and choices of music. Without knowing all that this fact entails, and without being harsh toward those who deny or compromise matters of God s sovereignty, it is critical to know that to fail to confess His sovereign and effectual grace, especially, the efficacious intercession of Christ s work on the cross truly displeases the Lord. That fact alone, without even getting into consequences, ought to drive us to our knees to speak what is right about God, particularly, regarding His aseity, independence, and freedom in saving sinners. 3 Forgiveness of your sins: Job was forgiven and Job forgives his sorry comforters regarding how they shredded him to pieces. He loved his enemies. We have the best of motives to love others because of the saving love of the work of Christ in His death and resurrection for our vindication to the glory of God. He is at God s right hand, the right hand of the Lord that is able to save. He saves out of the resources of His righteousness; He is the King of righteousness. From the midst of suffering, He said, Father save me from this hour but to this end I came, Father glorify your name by my death on the cross (Jn 17). He finished the work of love and sovereign grace; to Him be all glory, amen.