Job 40: The Joy of Repentance
HARDLY ANYONE WOULD speak of repentance as desirable. But it is! Repentance is not joyless self-hatred but blessed God-discovery. Repentance is the experience of coming home. In this climactic chapter Job finally repents. But of what? That surely is one of the burning questions evoked by the book, the answer to which will provide a profound clue for our own spiritual journeys. Job is an exemplary saint (1:8) and has thus far rightly resisted caving into his friends' insistence that he repent of a long list of moral failures. But Job is not exempt from the need to repent.
Warming Up to God
How do you feel when someone tells you, "You must repent"?
Read Job 40. »
Discovering the Word
- What three words does God use to describe what Job has been doing up until now (v. 2)?
- Describe Job's first response to God's self-revelation (vv. 3-5).
- What indication is there in verses 6-14 that Job has not fully repented even though he is in a more subdued frame of mind?
- How has Job discredited God in his attempt to justify himself (v. 8)?
- Through what means does God expand Job's grasp of his personal dilemma (vv. 15-24)?
Applying the Word
- What have you learned from this passage about true repentance?
- In what area of your life do you need to come to full repentance?
Responding in Prayer
St. Teresa said, "As I see it, we shall never succeed in knowing ourselves unless we seek to know God." Reflect on this thought as you come before God in repentance.
For Further Study
Extreme Forgiver by Bill Donahue & Keri Wyatt Kent