Job 42

Job 42:5-6 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. (6) Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes."

I said it earlier this week and I will say it again, I think Job did pretty good. He never did what Satan set out for him, he never cursed God. In fact, he openly proclaimed, in the face of his friends and wife, that he will not curse the nae of the Lord but rather bless it. You look at everything he has been through and you start to thinks, "Pats on back Job. Y0u are a pretty good guy."

Well, Job would disagree with you. See, Job did not curse God's name, but he did question God's plan. He could not understand why God would do this to him. This may sound like a minor offense, however, when faced before the righteousness of God, Job felt like dust. In fact, he says, "Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." I have never repented in dust and ashes. How powerful that experience with God must have been! Compared to God's righteousness, Job could not bare to look at himself.

We may have "good" weeks. We may have times when we feel we have followed all of God's commands possible. We may also have times when we feel we have done this in the face of tribulation. Consider the righteousness of God. Remember, He is on a different level of righteousness we could ever conjure up. He is God, and we are man. I beleieve we need to be like Job. We need to repent for what we ave done and continue to bless the name of the Lord and the name of Jesus for allowing us access into this righteousness.

Next time you want to give yourself a pat on the back, consider Job, consider his testimony, and consider his final action. Rather than pat himself on the back, he repented in dust and ashes.