Passage Read: Job 41 - Psalm 2
Meditation Verses: Job 42:6-7
Thought
Job retracts his complaint and repents in dust and ashes, yet God testifies twice that Job has spoken correctly of the Lord, unlike Job's three friends. They all misunderstood God and how He operates. Job thought God was misjudging him and wanted to plead his case. His friends assumed God was rightly punishing Job for some hidden evil. God doesn't say that they spoke wrongly of Job, but of God! Their words actually misrepresented God, both His mercy and His justice. And after all that, He commanded them to offer sacrifice through Job, exalting him above them. God overwhelms Job and never answers or explains what happened, but ends up justifying Job before all.
Application
There is no questioning God. What He does will always be right. He is good and all He does is to glorify His name. Yet He is also compassionate: He repays Job with twice what he originally had and justifies him before his friends who condemned him. That doesn't take away the scars in his heart over the losses sustained at the beginning, but neither is Job completely broken by them. He trusts the Lord more, and submits to His will and His wisdom all the more, so as to be comforted. He has learned, which was all he wanted to begin with, to understand. I have no right to ask what God is doing with my life. It is not mine but His to do with for His own glory. But if I trust Him, then even the most difficult things are not causes for bitterness. In fact, it's trust in the Lord and His goodness that guards me from bitterness and allows me to receive comfort.