JOB AMONG THE ASHES – Charles Spurgeon
JOB AMONG THE ASHES
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees You. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5, 6.
INTRODUCTION
JEHOVAH had spoken, and Job had trembled. The Lord had revealed Himself, and Job had seen Him. Truly, God did but display the skirts of His robe and unveil a part of His ways. But therein was so much of ineffable glory that Job laid his hand upon his mouth in token of his silent consent to the claims of the Everlasting One. God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind concerning the greatness of His power, the wonders of His workings, the splendor of His skill, and the infinity of His wisdom. Carefully read that wonderful speech of the Most High to the trembling Patriarch. I dare not call it poetry. For it rises as much above human poetry as the most sublime poetry stands above the poorest prose. It is simply a statement of facts, and these are mentioned in the simplest language. But the overpowering glory of the utterance lies in the facts themselves. These sublime stanzas are spoken in the idiom of God. Those only know the peculiar style of the living God who have become familiar with the sacred Word in Spirit and in Truth, and such persons can at once distinguish the speech of Jehovah from that of men. Read the Divine address, that you may see how Jehovah caused the afflicted Patriarch to feel Him near.
Job’s Acknowledgment of God’s Power
In the confession which now lies before us, Job acknowledges God’s boundless power. For he exclaims, “I know that You can do everything, and that no thought can be withheld from You.” He felt that whatever the Lord chose to think or desire, He could at once accomplish. Job had a glimpse of that omnipotence of which the height and depth no mind can ever measure. Job sees his own folly. He speaks like a man in a maze or a muse, and he says, “Who is He that hides counsel without knowledge?” Look at the second verse of chapter thirty-eight, and you will see that he is quoting what God had said to him. The Lord’s words are ringing in his ears, and in his anguish, he repeats them, accepting them as justly applicable to himself. It is not far from being right with us when the Words of God can fitly become our words. “The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” And now Job replies, “I am that foolish one—I uttered what I understood not—things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.” Job felt that what he had spoken concerning the Lord was, in the main, true. And the Lord Himself said to Job’s three friends, “You have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job has.” But under a sense of the Divine Presence, Job felt that even when he had spoken aright, he had spoken beyond his own proper knowledge, uttering speech whose depths of meaning he could not himself fathom.
The Mystery of Inspired Words
Many a holy Prophet has done this, for inspired men are described as those who “enquired and searched diligently; searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.” It is not the thoughts of the Prophet which have been inspired of God so much as their words. For frequently they were moved to speak prophecies which were quite beyond their own understanding—in fact, my Brethren, are not all the great mysteries of the faith above human thought? And may we not fearlessly assert that no inspired man has ever known all the depth of God’s meaning treasured up in the words which he himself has been led by the Spirit of God to write? Hence I assert that there is a verbal inspiration, or no inspiration at all worthy of the name.
Job, as he comes before us in the text, is impressed with his own folly. He had, to a large degree, spoken what he felt sure was true but he now feels that he did not understand what he said. And he at the same time tacitly confesses that he may have said in his bitterness many an unwise and unseemly thing, and therefore he bows his head before the Lord his God and confesses that he has darkened counsel by words without knowledge and uttered things that he understood not.
Job’s Humility and Approach to God
Notwithstanding, the man of God proceeds to draw near unto the Lord, before whom he bows himself. Foolish as he confesses himself to be, he does not, therefore, fly from the supreme wisdom. Although he knows that he has babbled ignorantly, he does not seek to hide from the Lord as Adam did when he sought the shade of the trees of the garden. No, he takes up the Lord’s Words again and is emboldened by them to approach. Read the thirty-eighth chapter, third verse. The Lord there says, “GIrd up now your loins like a man—for I will demand of you and you shall answer Me.” Like a man in a dream, Job accepts the invitation and answers, “Behold I am vile, what shall I answer You? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken. But I will not answer—yes, twice. But I will proceed no further.” This was brave and wise action. Whatever Job might be or might not be, he was a firm believer in his God and in every Word which the Lord was pleased to speak. He held even to discouraging words with desperate tenacity and even learned to find honey in Words which roared like lions upon him.
Hence, when he is humbled in the dust, he recollects that God had bid him draw near to Him. And albeit to his fears that bidding may have sounded like a challenge, yet to his faith, it becomes an encouragement and he, in effect, replies, “My God, I will venture to take You at Your Word. You bid me come and come I will. Dust and ashes though I am, I will do as You allow me and make my humble appeal to You.”
Drawing Near Despite Humiliation
Dear Friends, it is altogether wrong to allow our sense of folly or of sin to drive us away from God. But it is altogether right when our humiliation draws us to the Lord and our conscious need drives us to the Throne of Grace. The more foolish and sinful we are, the more urgent is our need to come to God, who alone can make us clean and instruct us in the way of heavenly wisdom. I commend to you, therefore, God’s servant Job, of whom we may say, whatever fault we may perceive in him, none of us could have behaved so gloriously as he did—unless, indeed, the Lord should give us like Divine Grace. The Lord led Job to find fault with Him, yet God does not complain but even commends him. The three carping friends are commanded to bring a costly sacrifice but this was not demanded from Job. And even when they brought their seven bullocks the Lord did not accept them till Job, whom they had condemned, had made intercession for them. Job bore away the palm from the conflict. So let us do as Job did and make our approach unto the Lord in childlike confidence even when He seems to frown. Let us get where Job was when he said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” When we bow lowest before His Throne, let not our humble bending have anything of distance in it.
THREE OBSERVATIONS FROM JOB’S CONFESSION
On the text, I make three observations—first, we have sometimes very vivid impressions of God. Job said, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees You.” In the second place, when we are favored with these clearer views of God, we have lower thoughts of ourselves—“wherefore I abhor myself.” And thirdly, whenever we are thus made low, our heart is filled with repentance—“I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” May the Holy Spirit aid us in this experimental meditation!
I. Vivid Impressions of God
Job had long before heard of God, and that is a great matter. I do not think he meant merely that he had heard men speak of God but that he had really, for himself, heard God’s voice. He had been a reverent Believer in the teachings of God and an obedient servant to His commands—thus he had really heard God. The man who can say this can say a great deal. If God has ever been on speaking terms with you, you have much cause for gratitude. It is clear that you are not dead in sin, or if you were so when the Lord spoke to you, you are now alive. For His voice causes the dead to live. If you have heard God in the secret of your soul, you are a spiritual man—only a spirit can hear the Spirit of God—none can discern the Lord but the man to whom He has given spiritual life. Job had heard God, but now he has a more vivid apprehension of Him.
It is sometimes said that one eyewitness is better than ten ear-witnesses, and there is much truth in the saying—certainly, facts perceived by the eye make a far more vivid impression upon the mind than the same facts heard by the ear. If we witness a sad scene of poverty, it has far more effect upon our heart than the most graphic description. Word paintings can never bring out the reality of a thing so well as the actual sight of it. Of course, Job could not literally see God—he does not mean to assert that he did. For “no man has seen God at any time.” But Job means that he now had a view of God very much more clearly than any which he had obtained before. In fact, as much clearer as eyesight is more clear than hearing.
II. Lower Views of Ourselves
Why are the wicked so proud? It is because they forget God. Why did Pharaoh dare to say, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?” It was because he did not know Jehovah. But after those ten plagues, he altered his tone and cried out, “Entreat the Lord” (for it is enough). Even his great pride was forced to bow before Jehovah when judgments were let loose upon him. If men knew God, how it would change their thoughts and talk! If they could have even an indistinct idea, “by the hearing of the ear,” many of them would never be so irreverent as they now are, nor so lofty in their ideas of their own wisdom. If they could “see” Him as Job did and behold His inexpressible glory, they would become far more meek and lowly.
Here let me observe that God Himself is the measure of rectitude, and hence, when we come to think of God, we soon discover our own shortcomings and transgressions. Too often we compare ourselves among ourselves and are not wise. A man says, “I am not so bad as many and I am quite as good as such a one, who is in high repute.” What if it is so? Do you judge yourself by other erring ones? Your measuring line is false. It is not the standard of the sanctuary. If you would be right, you must measure yourself with the holiness of God—God Himself is the standard of perfect holiness, Truth, love, and justice. And if you fall short of His glory, you have fallen short of what you ought to be.
III. True Repentance
Job says, “I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” The word “myself” has been added by the translators. And they could hardly have done otherwise. Job’s expression, however, refers to all that had come out of himself or had lurked within himself. He abhorred all that he had been doing and saying. He says, “I abhor and repent in dust and ashes.”
What did he repent of? I think Job repented, first, of that tremendous curse which he had pronounced upon the day of his birth. It was terrible. See the third chapter. “Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night in which it was said, There is a man-child conceived. Let that day be darkness. Let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.” He wished he had perished from the womb, that his birth cry had been his first and his last. “For now should I have lain still and been quiet.” Before God, Job has to eat his bitter words. It is always a pity to say too much in moments of agony, because we may have to unsay that which escapes us. He would not curse God but he did curse the day of his birth, and it was unseemly. Of this, he unfeignedly repents.
Next, Job heartily repented of his desire to die. In the sixth chapter, he expresses it as he did several times—he says, “Oh, that I might have my request. And that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that it would please God to destroy me. That He would let loose His hand and cut me off!” Do you wonder that he said this? Was ever man so tried? I do not wonder at all, even at his cursing the day of his birth considering all the bodily pain and mental irritation which he was enduring at the time. I wonder that he played the man as well as he did. But still, he must have looked back with deep regret upon his impatience.
The last verses of the book run thus—“After this lived Job a hundred and forty years and saw his sons and his sons’ sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and full of days.” This is the same man who begged to die. Elijah also said, “Let me die, I am not better than my fathers,” and yet he never died at all. What poor creatures we are! What haste impatience breeds! Job had to repent, next, of all his complaints against God. These had been very many. In the seventh chapter, he turns to God and says, “I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me? When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint. Then You scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions—so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my life. I loathe it. I would not live always—let me alone. For my days are vanity. How long will You not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?” Ah! poor Job had to swallow his murmuring as well as his spittle, for he repents of every rebellious thought. He complains of his having complained, and with self-abhorrence, he repents in dust and ashes.
I do not doubt but what Job repented of his despair. The ninth and tenth chapters and many other passages wherein Job speaks are tinged with hopelessness. He felt as if God had left him a prey to the enemy. But this was not true. The Lord has never deserted any of His people. There is not on record in all the history of the ages a case in which God has failed them that trust Him. Has He not said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you”? And He never has left nor forsaken any Believer. Yet Job evidently thought that He had done so, and he was greatly troubled. Job had uttered rash challenges of God—in the ninth chapter, at the thirty-third verse, he says that there is no mediator between him and God, or else he would plead his cause—“Let Him take His rod away from me and let not His fear terrify me—then would I speak and not fear Him—but it is not so with me.”
This was wrong, and Job abhorred himself for having fallen into so ill a temper and so little becoming in a man of God. His critics goaded him by cruelly charging him with hypocrisy and wickedness, and Job vindicated himself with great earnestness, appealing to God and saying, “You know that I am not wicked.” This was true. The indignation of an honest heart cannot be blamed for speaking thus to men. But Job felt that he could not speak thus before the Lord. He could plead his innocence in the common courts of men, and there he could well enough defend himself. But when the matter came into the King’s own court, he could not answer in the same strain but felt compelled to plead guilty. Job has to retract all his pleadings and challenges. If the case is to be heard as “Jehovah versus Job,” then Job yields the point unreservedly. Who is he that can contend with his Maker over a matter of holiness? We are wrong, God must be right! Job had also to confess that his statements had been a darkening of wisdom by words without knowledge. Sometimes we say, “I perfectly understand that. I could clear up that mystery.” We define this and define that to our Brethren. But when we get into the Presence of God, we find that our definitions are the proofs of our ignorance. “Vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.” Job drops his wisdom as well as his righteousness, although he was one of the wisest and holiest of men. While we see not God, we fancy that we can read all the riddles of His Word. But when we behold Him more clearly, we say with David, “So foolish was I and ignorant—I was as a beast before You.” We are apt to judge the Lord by feeble sense instead of trusting Him for His Divine Grace. This comes of evil. In the Presence of God, Job bowed his head and repented of all his suspicions and mistrusts. And this is what we must do if, in the day of our sorrow, we have been petulant and unbelieving.
The Nature of True Repentance
Let me pass on. According to our text, repentance puts man into the lowest place. He says, “I repent in dust and ashes.” “Dust and ashes”—that signifies the dust heap, or what in Scotland they call the “midden.”
Job had made dust and ashes his headquarters. The dunghill, the refuse place, was now the spot which he felt to be fitted for him. Repentance puts us in a lowly seat. You have heard sometimes, I dare say, among the beautiful nothings of the modern school, the mention of, “the dignity of human nature.” Behold a throne for the “dignity of human nature.” Yonder dust and ashes are for this proud royalty. The dust heap is for human nature in its glory, when it has on its richest robes. When it takes its worst place, where is it? The lowest pit of Hell, prepared for the devil and his angels, is the fit place for man when he has at last come to his true estate. I say that when man wears his best Sunday righteousness he is even then only fit for the midden. And every man of God that has been brought to true repentance, owns that it is so. Alas, says the man that sees his sinfulness, I should be a disgrace to any dust shoot. If I were cast away with the rotten refuse of the house, it might creep away from me because my sin is a worse corruption than physical nature knows—an insult even to the worm of decay— since in common putridity there is not the foul offense of moral evil. Repentance, you see, makes a man take the lowest place.
The Joy of True Repentance
Next, note that all real repentance is joined with holy sorrow and self-loathing. I have read in the sermons of certain teachers that, “Repentance is only a change of mind.” That may be true. But what a change of mind it is! It is not such a change of mind as some of you underwent this morning when you said, “It is really too cold to go out,” but afterwards you braved the snow and came to the Tabernacle. Oh, no! Repentance is a thorough and radical change of mind, and it is accompanied with real sorrow for sin, and self-loathing. A repentance in which there is no sorrow for sin will ruin the soul. Repentance without sorrow for sin is not the repentance of God’s elect. If you can look upon sin without sorrow, then you have never looked on Christ. A faith-look at Jesus breaks the heart, both for sin and from sin. Try yourself by this test.
But, next, repentance has comfort in it. It is to my mind rather extraordinary that the Hebrew word which is justly translated “repent,” is also used in two or three places, at least in the Old Testament, to express comfort. Isaac, it is said, took Rebekah to his mother’s tent and was “comforted after his mother’s death.” Here the word is the same as that which is here rendered “repent.” Isaac’s mind was changed as to the death of his mother. As, then, there is in the Hebrew word just a tinge of comfort. So in repentance itself, with all its sorrow, there are traces of joy. Repentance is a bitter-sweet or a sweet-bitter. After you have tasted it in your mouth as gall, it will go down into your belly and be sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. The door of repentance opens into the halls of joy. Job’s repentance in dust and ashes was the sign of his deliverance. God turned His wrath upon the three critics but justified Job and gave him the honorable office of intercessor on their behalf. Then “the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” “The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning,” and the turning point was that sitting down in the dust and ashes. When you are brought as low as you can be, the next turn must be upward. Down with you, then! Off with the feathers of your pride and the finery of your self-righteousness!
CONCLUSION
Down with you among the useless and worthless things! From that point you will ascend. The more crushed, humbled, exhausted, and near to death you are, the more prepared you are for God to raise you up. Job was an unrivalled saint—none of us can compare with him. And if that perfect and upright man had to say, “I abhor myself,” what will you and I say when we see God? We shall by-and-by behold Him on the Judgment Seat—how shall we endure it? If you have no righteousness but your own, you will stand naked to your shame in the day when the Lord appears. You self-righteous men—dare you go before God in your own righteousness? If you dare, I marvel at your presumption. Job dared not. He could stand up boldly before his accusers but when before God he was in another attitude. When it comes to dying and appearing before the Most High, you that have no righteousness but one of your own spinning, what will you do? If God should take away your soul at once, could you dare to go before Him in that fine character of yours, that wonderful morality, that large generosity? If you have any sense left, you dare not attempt such a thing. What shall you and I do? Brethren, we are not afraid. For there is a righteousness of God which is given to us by faith through Jesus Christ. God Himself cannot find any fault with His own righteousness. And if He gives me His own righteousness, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ—which is to all and upon all them that believe—then I may hope to sit at last, not on the midden but on the Throne! Then I will find myself rejoicing in Christ Jesus, crowned with a crown which I shall delight to cast at His feet. How happy are we if we can sing— “Jesus, Your blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress; Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head”!