Readings:
Job 40-42
Psalm 63
Job 40-42
God demands that Job answer him, and for his part he was wise enough to say that he made a mistake when he demanded God answer to him, because he is but a man before the almighty creator.
With Job thoroughly put in his proper place, God goes into another speech about his ability to judge the wicked and how any judgment is his prerogative, and his alone.
He also takes Job to task for so insisting on his own righteousness that it caused his friends to think he was sullying or denying God’s righteousness. Even though this wasn’t Job’s intent at all, that’s how they understood his words, and we all need to be careful with our words so we don’t convey ideas we never meant to.
In asserting his righteousness, Job did not intend to disparage God’s justice, as his friends wrongly inferred. They indeed found it objectionable that he commended his righteousness in a way that seemed to criticize divine justice. Hence, God puts the question to Job: Do you so wish to justify yourself that I appear guilty in the eyes of others?
Saint Thomas Aquinas
God then gives two examples with creatures we believe to be a hippopotamus and a crocodile. These creatures are the behemoth and leviathan, and are described in fearsome and awe inspiring terms. God tells how people were unable to subdue these beasts, and then makes the point that if man can’t stand against these beasts, how does he expect to stand before the one who created them?
Job answers God and humbles himself completely before him. He’s come to realize a few things, one is that God is wise and knows all things and he orders them all for reasons that are far beyond us. Another thing he learns is that man is in no position to demand answers from God, the best thing we can do is to trust in his goodness and plan.
Be assured that whatever God ordains, even if its reason lies beyond us, is always the work of One who is wise. We should accept it, no matter how difficult it may be to endure, for God knows and appoints what is best for each of us.
Saint Basil
The attention then turns to his three friends, when God let’s them know how wrong they were in assuming Job’s guilt. Job is justified in the eyes of the people who know him in this way, so he eventually got the vindication he was seeking. God goes as far as to tell them to make a sacrifice and have Job intercede and pray for their forgiveness and he would honor Job’s prayer.
Job was blessed and restored more than twice as much as he lost. He had seven more sons and three more daughters, his relatives all came and ate with him, signifying a reconciliation with the man the had most likely shunned due to perceived wickedness because of the conventional wisdom that all his calamities were judgements from God. He lived a long and full life after this episode and was thoroughly blessed by God.
Job, who merits twice as much as he lost, shows by this reward that his words have been free of evil and said with virtue. Likewise, being designated an intercessor on behalf of his friends, he is shown to be clear of guilt, for no one involved in great sins can take care of another’s account.
Gregory the Great
Tomorrow’s Readings:
Numbers 19-20
Psalm 64
Mark 16
Now That I'm Catholic 