Can’t see the forest for the Tree? The forest of hurts and slights and lies, for the Tree stained with blood!
It has been a long time in coming, but Job finally speaks to the Lord. The last time he spoke (Job 40:3-5), he expressed his shock at—himself! “Behold, I am vile” (v 4). What had he been thinking, to question God? How vile must he be to imagine he could debate the Creator and Sustainer of the universe? The only appropriate thing for him to say? Nothing! “What shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth.” But as eloquently stated in a sermon on Psalm 51 by Scottish preacher Robert Murray M’Cheyne, “For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace…Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in His beams. Feel His all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in His almighty arms…Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in Him.” So Job has had his eyes turned away from himself to behold the glory and grandeur and grace of God. “I know that You can do everything,” he begins, “and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You” (42:2). Job is captivated by God’s power and purpose. Obviously the tragedies in Job’s life couldn’t be the result of God’s inability or insensibility. The Lord had allowed it all to happen for a purpose, though the reason hadn’t been shared with him. Job confesses, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (v 3). This is where Job at last finds peace. Hymnwriter Mary Brainard describes it well: “So on I go, not knowing, I would not if I might; I’d rather walk in the dark with God Than walk alone in the light; I’d rather walk with Him by faith Than go alone by sight.”