Dust and ashes! Were they evidence that God had abandoned Job? Or the perfect place to find Him!
Job isn’t quite finished. Having acknowledged that the Lord knows what He’s doing, and that he should not have spoken about things of which he was ignorant, he requests one more opportunity to speak. There were now some things he did know. “Listen, please, and let me speak.” Why is this appropriate? Because, Job continues, “You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me’” (v 4). Of course, this isn’t actually an answer to any of God’s questions. It’s a statement of four concluding facts. The first two describe Job’s changed perception of God. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You” (v 5). Had Job’s knowledge of God been second-hand, theoretical? Probably not, but he certainly feels his new experience of God has made a sublime difference. Something remarkable had happened through his losses. With nothing else to distract, he now saw the Lord in a new way. Not that he saw physically the One speaking out of a whirlwind—it was more intense, more intimate than that. The sight was inward, by what Paul calls “the eyes of your heart” (Eph 1:18, ERV). Up close and personal, we might say. Yes, there’s a great difference between discussing the Lord and discovering Him! Now Job concludes with two facts that express his changed perception of himself. “Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (v 6). Note that the word “myself” is added to the text. This is not a wastrel repenting of his wrong deeds. This is a righteous man repenting of his wrong thoughts. Hearing. Seeing. Abhorring. Repenting. I can see the sunrise coming and the end of Job’s long night of the soul! He didn’t get his answers. Instead he lost his questions in the blaze of the glory of God.