23rd December 2025

23rd December 2025


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Job 42v1-6) 


Message (Scott Woodburn) 


Anyone who reads Job might be surprised to learn that the Lord doesn't give Job a comprehensive answer to his suffering. Nowhere does the Lord explain His interaction with Satan, nowhere does He tell Job why He brought his servant to Satan's attention and nowhere does the Lord send a fulsome email that runs from A to Z. Even so, Job's final words weren't ones of complaint. He didn't demand answers, he didn't fire back at the Lord's declaration and he didn't cry foul. What did he do? He repented.


Job did nothing to deserve his initial awful suffering and throughout his ordeal he did not sin or charge God with wrong (Job 1v22). But Job had fallen into sin - as he wrestled with his ordeal he had come to question the goodness of God. Was God silent? Was he on the side of the wicked? Did He care about the righteous? Job's crushing blow had brought him to a dangerous place of self-justification and God focused accusation.


Nevertheless, Job would not finish his story in the way of Jonah who stamped his feet over the fate of a plant. Instead, Job had come to realise again the glory of God. He understood God's omnipotence and that every plan of God would come to fruition (v2). He had spoken words without knowledge against the Lord (v3) but was now prepared to say "I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." (v4). It takes a humble person to admit they were wrong and even more to say "I didn't know what I was talking about." Unfortunately we live in an age that such an attitude is rare, instead we often prefer to double down on our positions and never admit our guilt.


Job had heard plenty about God but in the midst of the whirlwind Job had seen Him and the sight of Almighty God caused him to know his sin and repent in dust and ashes (v6). What is repentance? "Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience." Repentance hates sin but knows that God meets us with mercy in Christ. So repentance gives us a loathing of sin and causes us to flee to the Lord seeking to follow and obey Him anew. 


Job wasn't given all of the answers he once sought but something had changed in his soul. How do we explain it? God had spoken, the Spirit had worked and Job had run in repentance and faith to Jesus. Brothers and sisters, we may not get the answers we want in this life and I'm not sure we'll get them in heaven either. No matter, there is grace and peace to be found in Christ. It had been a long road for Job but as he sat in the dust and ashes of repentance he once more had found his rest in Christ. Perhaps that's what you need to find as well.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q52 What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment? The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to his own worship.
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