Job 42:5 ‘I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.’

And Job answered Jehovah, and said, I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be restrained. Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not, things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Does this not turn our thoughts to John’s first epistle and the beautiful language of promise that is contained in the third chapter, and second verse, where the apostle has written to us in the exhilarating expression of our future with Christ; when this disciple whom Jesus loved, said:

Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is.

Here again are the Older and Newer Testaments drawn together in the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. What glorious parallels we may witness when prejudices are set aside through love of the truth; nothing but the truth. And is this reality not the very experience of every soul brought to faith in God through Jesus Christ? Can not every believer recall the time before the eye of faith beheld their Savior when they heard of [Him] by the hearing of the ear? The multiple occasions, perhaps, when we indeed were exposed to the Word of God through the Scriptures; hearing a sermon or hearing the reading of the Word, or even simply being reminded of only one verse that we had heard as a child? And then, according to God’s perfect plan, the day arrived when we were drawn to Jesus Christ as the only Way, Truth, and Life through God the Holy Spirit’s regenerating power. God called us through the Gospel of Christ, and through the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit made us willing to come in the day of His power (Psalm 110:3). All praise to God who knows the end from the beginning because He has designed the end from the beginning. So then we were brought to utter for ourselves, as it were, the very words that Job uttered and the Holy Spirit saw fit to have recorded for us in the Scriptures. Yea, we were brought to that place when we praised Jehovah and said also, I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. And were we not virtually, and simultaneously (at least in our thoughts) to utter the remainder of Job’s language as he continued, as he added, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. We may rightfully say that there is no seeing God through Jesus Christ without this repentance. God grants through regenerating grace a new heart that receives those gifts, both of faith and repentance. Faith sees; repentance abhors oneself in dust and ashes. It is here that we recognize the beautiful affinity between the Older and the Newer Testaments; they are both, and all, the very Word of God; and the Gospel. This is, of course, the affinity between the believers under the old economy, and the believers under the new economy. What those under the new economy; what we ourselves have experienced, is that which was also the experience of believers under the old economy; just like Job.

Because these things are so, we may anticipate Job, along with ourselves, receiving the promise penned, in his first epistle, by John, when he wrote to all the saints of God through the blood of His Lamb, Jesus, the Son of God;

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

We have a generational bridge displayed here between Job and John, do we not? Were they not both waiting for that blessed occasion when all believers will be found together at the marriage supper of the Lamb of God?

John’s testimony is conspicuous in his being led by the Holy Spirit to pen the book that bears his name (although it actually doesn’t, nor does his name appear any place in the content of the book). It is gathered that he is the one spoken of under the anonymity of the disciple whom Jesus loved…who also leaned back on his breast at supper. Being spoken of in that determinative manner should conspicuously demonstrate that he belongs to Jesus. And his true humility in not wishing to even name his name demonstrates the mind of a child of God. Surely, his place in the company of the apostles of our Lord confirms that he had received the Spirit of adoption. He wrote three beautiful epistles to various other disciples of our Lord in the church. And he wrote, according to his own language, to enable other saints that they were, as he was, in Christ. He explained himself in 1 John 5:13, saying;

These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.

He could not have written such unless he knew that he too had eternal life.

But what about Job; what about his testimony? May we have some confidence that he, like John, was a believer? I am convinced that the Holy Spirit has indeed left us more than sufficient testimony. God said he was a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and turneth away from evil. Job himself could say, But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, and at last he will stand upon the earth. He continues in fashion much like John, Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, and mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. Marvelous concurrence here between John and Job; the New Testament saint along with the Old Testament saint. How in the world can it be that there are multitudes in the churches today that continue to separate the one from the other; tearing asunder that which God has joined together? May it please the heavenly Father of both Job and John, as well as their common Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, to release many from the grip of such an unhappy teaching.

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church