A Vision of God

By Words of Hope, Sunday, July 15, 2007

By Read: Job 42:1-6

"But now my eye sees you." (v. 5)

The divine voice finally stops, and Job, weak-kneed, again responds, this time in repentance. Job acknowledges that God can do all things and that no purpose of God's can be thwarted. And Job confesses, "I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." Having expressed his desire to see God (19:26-27), Job has that desire fulfilled. He has heard God with his own ears and now sees God with his own eyes. He receives not an explanation but an experience, not answers to his questions but a vision—a vision of God. And with this vision comes a transformation of how he understands himself, the world, and his place within it.

The narrator ends his story with a version of "They all lived happily ever after." But that is not really the point. To conclude that faithfulness always results in earthly rewards flies in the face of experience and goes against the grain of what the book of Job is all about. It's not about the goodies. It's about God, and God alone. "Does Job fear God for nothing?" It turns out that he does.

Prayer: Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; nought be all else to me, save that thou art. Thou my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

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