II. GOD CONDEMNING
JOB’S THREE FRIENDS FOR NOT SPEAKING
CONCERNING HIM THAT WHICH WAS RIGHT,
AS HIS SERVANT JOB HAD
Job 42:7 tells us that God condemned Job’s three friends for not speaking concerning Him that which was right, as His servant Job had. Job was right in saying that his sufferings were not a matter of God’s judgment. Job felt that, according to his conscience, he had not done anything that required God to come in to judge him or to punish him. Nevertheless, he was suffering and he wanted to investigate his situation with God. Job’s three friends, however, insisted that Job’s sufferings were a proof that he had done something wrong and was being judged by God. Thus, God came in to condemn the three friends and to vindicate Job to a certain extent.
A. Job’s Three Friends Not Being Right
concerning God’s Purpose
in Dealing with His People
Job’s three friends were not right concerning God’s purpose in dealing with His people, because their concept was based on the principle of good and evil, on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the side line alongside the tree of life as the main line.
B. Job Being Right
Because His Concept in General
Was Not Based on the Principle of Good and Evil
Job was right because his concept in general was not based on the principle of good and evil. However, he was groping in relation to the purpose for which God deals with His people. On the negative side, he was right; on the positive side, he was devoid of the divine revelation, not knowing that God’s purpose in dealing with His people is that He wants His people to gain Him, to partake of Him, to possess Him, and to enjoy Him more and more, rather than all things, until their enjoyment reaches the fullest extent, as the divine revelation ultimately unveils in the New Testament, that His people may ultimately become the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the enlargement of God. We all will become parts of the New Jerusalem.
C. God Not Making His Purpose
in Dealing with His People Clear to Job
God, in His progressive revelation, did not make His purpose in dealing with His people clear to Job at his time. However, God did make this clear in the New Testament to the believers.
(Life-Study of Job, Chapter 30, by Witness Lee)
