In Job, chapter forty, verse three, the servant of God decides whether to persist in believing God mistreated him. Given his years of faithful worship and obedience to His word, would Job maintain his trust in God despite circumstances suggesting that God was unjust and capricious, or would he hold on to the feeling that God had seemingly become his enemy?
Job, whose confusion had made him silent, answered with great humility.
This reaction from the servant of God comes after the Lord speaks in chapters thirty-eight through forty, verse two.
In the beginning, God informs him in chapter thirty-eight, verses one to two, “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Words proceeding from ignorance, mistake, and want of consideration. Who is this that disparages my counsels and darkens the wisdom of my dispensations with his ignorant discourses about them? It is very noticeable that God entirely ignores the reasonings of Elihu and addresses himself, in the first instance, wholly to Job, with whom he begins by objecting. Job has not been without fault. He has spoken many “words without knowledge” or with insufficient knowledge and has trenched on irreverence and given the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme.
Additionally, he has “darkened counsel.” Instead of making the ways of God precise to his friends and companions, he has doubts about God’s moral government as in chapter twenty-one, verses seven through twenty-six, upon his mercy and loving-kindness as in chapter sixteen, verses seven through fourteen, almost upon his justice as in chapters nineteen, verse seven, and chapter thirty-one, verses one through thirty-five. He is open to censure and receives censure.
The servant Job hearing all this from God realizes what his feedback in several areas has caused. The reaction of the Lord and Job’s friends saying things that lead them to sin. Believers must today understand how they react to a negative situation that may cause others to say wrong things and may affect their lives and displease the Lord.