Repentance is greater than righteousness. (Job 1-3; 12-14; 19; 21-24; 38-40; 42)

1:1

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” Obviously, Job was a good man. He wasn’t perfect but he was perfectly striving to be a good man. A healthy ‘fear’ of God is a good thing - it keeps us obedient. He avoided evil. It sounds like he didn’t have favorite sins that he hung on to.

There wasn’t anything wrong with Job. But, he might not have been progressing much. It is possible that our growth can plateau. It could be that our progression slows as we live good lives. It looks something like this.

Can ‘perfection’ be damning? In a way. If we are living good lives and are satisfied with our good lives, our growth isn’t so urgent. As that urgency wanes, our actual growth can slow or stop. Someone who doesn’t think he needs to repent…doesn’t change. I think there are many in the church in this category.

It’s hard because we compare ourselves to our past selves and to each other. As we approach old age, we may see that we have more wisdom than others - certainly we perceive that we are very wise compared to our young selves. We stop viewing ourselves as ‘children’ with a lot to learn. The oldest among us are 80-90 years. That isn’t a lot of years! We are still spiritual babies and should view ourselves that way. When we start to view ourselves as wise, old sages - our progression naturally slows.

Job perhaps needed a jolt to change his progression trajectory. I’ve often said that this life is about learning to be teachable and selfless. From how Job responded to his new, severe trials, it’s possible - even likely - that he needed help with each.

1:9-10

“Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.” Satan is suggesting that Job loves God because God is good to him. If his blessings were taken away, Job wouldn’t be so loyal to God.

It is easy to love God when he blesses us. How often do we say, ‘I’m grateful for my blessings?’ We are right and good for being grateful.

It’s much harder to say, ‘I’m grateful for all that is hard in my life.’ It’s human nature to be loyal to someone who blesses you. We live in a worldly environment and it’s easy to be grateful when we are blessed with:

• Health.

• Friends and family.

• Possessions.

How much harder is it to be grateful when we aren’t given those things? I think it’s much harder. But, if the name of this mortal game is progression, we should be grateful for our trials and what we lack…

I think Satan is right about most of us. Take away all of our blessings and we might have hard feelings towards God.

1:20-21

After Job loses all that he possesses and his children are dead, he naturally suffers. “Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” I have so much respect for Job. Stripping him of his worldly possessions and family doesn’t alter how he feels about God.

His perspective is good and healthy. He acknowledges that God is in control and has the power and right to bless and remove those blessings. He loses everything and still praises God. I can’t say that I would be as strong. I may not express feelings of gratitude in the middle of this hardship.

Job “sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” Most of us would. We would blame God and then, in some twisted cause of fairness, would leave the covenant path. ‘If God removes my blessings, then I will remove my obedience.’ It’s a sinful, foolish way of reacting - but it’s our nature to do exactly that.

2:3-4

This thought is continued in this verse. God says that Job “holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.” For many of us, if our blessings are stripped, we will lower our standards to get it back. ‘Desperate times lead to desperate measures’ is the credo of the struggling. Again, it’s our natural man who will lose our integrity when we are desperate. Desperation leads to lying, stealing and cheating.

For many of us, if it comes to losing our lives, anything goes. How many movies are based on the protagonist lowering morals if his or her life is on the line? People will preemptively murder to save their lives. Our life is the most we can lose.

Not really. Our eternal salvation is the most we can lose. No sane person would give up eternity for a few more decades of mortality. But, we can’t see that. So, mortality becomes all there is. The key to enduring life’s sorrows is having an eternal perspective. It sounds like, so far, Job has that.

2:9

It’s hard when your spouse doesn’t strengthen and uplift you. It sounds like Job wasn’t getting that from his wife. “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.”

Life can be difficult when you’re yoked equally with your wife. It is much harder if you’re not. If you both have the same goals and same perspective on the purpose of life, you’re much more likely to succeed at this. When you’re weak, your spouse can strengthen you and vice versa.

If one of you is faithless and critical, that advantage goes away. Enduring the trials of life becomes exponentially harder. We spoke with a friend last night who is dating a woman who doesn’t appear to be equally yoked in her faith and maturity. We encouraged him to look elsewhere - life is hard enough when you’re in lockstep with your spouse.

2:10

Thankfully, Job calls her out on it. “But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” What a great attitude! What a healthy perspective! He’s exactly right, we should receive what God gives us gratefully.

If we view our blessings as wonderful and our trials as opportunities to grow - we can be grateful for both. EVEN when we’re in the middle of the trial! It’s easy to be grateful AFTER the trial is over. It’s a much harder thing to be grateful for the trial DURING. It requires more faith and strength.

Job is a perfect example of this…so far.

2:11, 13

His friends start out strong. They “made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.” I love the phrase “mourn with.” They weren’t there to attempt only to comfort him. They weren’t there just to have pity. They were there to suffer with him. They were attempting to feel what he felt - probably knowing that they never could.

The attempts at comforting didn’t come until later. “So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.” I usually think I need to say something great when I’m with someone who has suffered loss. I believe that my words can fix things to some degree. I usually say exactly what I shouldn’t. It can be awkward.

They just sat with him. I think it’s a good example of how to begin supporting someone suffering. Just be present and listen. I should shut my mouth. It’s not my role, nor in my power, to fix things. My only goal should be to understand as much as I can. If I’m a listening ear and demonstrating that I care, that’ll likely strengthen them more than anything I could say.

3:11

Job’s attitude turns. He begins to feel sorry for himself. “Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?” This is natural. He doesn’t curse God - he just questions why he was even born.

He’s not blaming God for his trials. He is, however, questioning God’s purposes. He’s not seeing the purpose to his suffering.

I’m not judging him and I would likely do the same thing. But, if his eternal perspective remained intact, he wouldn’t be going down this path. He would view his struggle as having value.

If we believe that our purpose in life is to ‘pass through sorrow,’ we are better equipped to handle sorrowful events. I believe that there wasn’t much sorrow in the premortal realm. We were with God and were protected by his presence.

We had to leave that place to experience sorrow. We had to experience sorrow to ‘know good from evil.’ It’s all in an effort to gain empathy. We would have been lousy eternal parents without empathy. So here we are. Welcome to the world of sorrow.

3:17-20

Instead of benefitting from his trials, he ‘covets’ the next life. “There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul.”

We shouldn’t covet other people’s houses or wives or careers. It doesn’t do us any good and focuses our attention on futility. Certainly, to covet the blessings of being dead is not healthy. It doesn’t empower us. It is distracting and makes us feel worse about our condition.

It’s good that he has faith in his worldly cares eventually ending. That’s a hope that can be empowering. Knowing that our chronic illness will someday leave us gives us hope for the future and strength to endure. But, it shouldn’t be something that we are yearning for.

12:6

Job appears to compare his lot with others. This is another form of coveting and doesn’t help. Job says, “The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.” Job sees those who are NOT living righteous lives being ‘successful.’ He’s questioning how God operates.

He didn’t start this way. He had a healthy view on it. But he’s mortal and imperfect. Suffering wears on us. It grinds us down. It can, over time, change our perspective. I’m definitely not judging Job. But we can learn from him and it may give us inspiration to endure to the end.

12:7-10

It isn’t obvious to everyone how God is in control of every. thing. We don’t have to look hard to see how God provides for so many. “But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.”

We get so caught up in the illusion that we are in complete control of our lives. What we have, we earned. We aren’t dependent on anything for the:

• Food I bought.

• Job I applied for.

• Clothes I ordered.

• House I am making payments on.

We may have to look at nature often to realize how an abundance of life is provided for daily by God. Why are humans any different?

12:23

Job is still learning. At this stage, he is very aware that God is in control. “He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again.” He realizes fully that he was never in control of his condition.

As I just wrote, there is a strong cause-and-effect with our station. We get an education and apply for jobs and work hard and are successful. It’s easy to connect that we are the reason for our blessings - and we are. But God is the ultimate source. All that we have was given to us.

God gives and takes away. The most successful of us can lose it all. Our income can disappear in a week. Our health can turn on a dime. We may think we are in control of our lives but we aren’t. Of course we have our agency and always will - but we don’t choose our condition independent of God.

God allows us to build and earn. If we view it that way, we’ll be better able to handle life when it turns.

13:15

The most quoted verse from Job: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” It says so much about how Job trusts God (at this point).” It’s one thing to trust God if he gives you 90% blessings and an occasional trial. Many of us still trust God when:

• We lose our job.

• Our house burns down.

• A loved one dies.

• We get sick.

We still see the hand of the Lord in our lives and the overwhelming blessings we enjoy. But what if ALL of the blessings are removed? Not only that, what if God kills you? Would you still trust him that he has your best interest?

It’s the ultimate ‘trust God’ scenario. Part of having trust in God is believing he has our best interest in mind. Do we still think that if he kills us?

Again, this comes down to perspective. We see this life as a temporary stage that we’re running around on. The next life is equally, if not more, important to our eternal development. If we see life in this way, it’s easier to give it up - trusting God. Abinadi knew this. As he died in flames, his trust in God didn’t wane.

13:23

“How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.” How many of us do this? How often? Instead, do we see ourselves as ‘fine.’ We pay tithing and go to church each week. We attend the temple regularly. We don’t break any commandments. We serve in a calling. We sustain our local church leaders.

So we’re good. Not a lot of repentance there.

But there is. We just may not be able to see it. We all are a long way from perfect. There is a huge gulf between us and the Savior. In every way. Part of eternal progression is eternal repentance. There is no progression without repentance.

If you’re 75 and think you’re refined enough, you’re not. Ask God to show you how you can repent. Ask yourself the exact question that Job asked. Elder Bednar taught in a symposium: “As we are coming unto Christ, we repent. We continue in the process of coming unto Christ. Our repentance is changing. The spiritual requirements and expectations are elevated, and we continue to come unto Christ. We continue to repent, but the focus of our repentance is changing; and we see it escalate and spiral in exactly the same way. I suspect at the low end of the helix that we are repenting of many sins of commission. The farther up the helix we go, the more we are repenting of sins of omission. So repentance is repentance, but it changes as we are engaged in the process of coming unto Christ.”

14:1

I’ve really been gaining a testimony of life is full of sorrow. Job also knew this. “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.“ Yes there is also joy. But this life is not meant to be easy. We are meant to struggle. It is usually one trial after another. If we can accept that, we can be more satisfied (and be more content) with our trouble-filled lives.

14:14-15; 19:25-26

Job had faith in a resurrection. “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” The resurrection provides hope to those with chronic or terminal illness.

If there was no resurrection, our story ends badly for all of us. In 2nd Nephi, we read, “O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself.”

But, because of the resurrection, even the most sick among us can raise their head and have hope in the future. Job continued, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

21:7

As Job continues to suffer, it appears that he starts to fixate on the unfairness of life. He recognizes that the wicked, often, enjoy success. He asks God, “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?”

Yes. Sometimes the wicked are rewarded. Bad people are sometimes blessed with material wealth. Righteous people will suffer poverty. If it wasn’t this way, who would sin. If righteousness was like a vending machine, we would all be righteous. Elder Christofferson explained, “Some misunderstand the promises of God to mean that obedience to Him yields specific outcomes on a fixed schedule. They might think, “If I diligently serve a full-time mission, God will bless me with a happy marriage and children” or “If I refrain from doing schoolwork on the Sabbath, God will bless me with good grades” or “If I pay tithing, God will bless me with that job I’ve been wanting.” If life doesn’t fall out precisely this way or according to an expected timetable, they may feel betrayed by God. But things are not so mechanical in the divine economy. We ought not to think of God’s plan as a cosmic vending machine where we (1) select a desired blessing, (2) insert the required sum of good works, and (3) the order is promptly delivered.” This isn’t how it works!

Spencer W. Kimball said, “Is there not wisdom in [God’s] giving us trials that we might rise above them, responsibilities that we might achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try our souls? Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified? If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil—all would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, only satanic controls.”

21:14-15

Those who enjoy an abundance of worldly blessings face an insurmountable eternal challenge. If their ‘life is successful,’ why would they need God? Those who depend on God to survive, turn to God. Those who live well without involving God, may not see the value. “Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?”

How does one overcome this? As I said, without a foundation of faith, wealth appears to be an almost-impossible trial to overcome. Read that sentence again.

So, if you’re wealthy, consider how much you see your dependence on God. Evaluate your humility before the Lord. You may be caught in a trap where you don’t depend on Him day to day. It’s hard to escape a trap that you’re not aware of…

21:21, 23-26

Job consoles himself with pondering how none of us take our wealth with us. “For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?” Not one of us take any possessions with us to the next life.

Whether you die with billions or in debt, it is the same. “One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.” Not one person has bought immortality. Everyone dies. Regardless of the ease or difficulty of our lives, it (physically) ends the same.

22:5-7, 21

Job’s friends don’t think highly of him. “Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite? For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing. Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.”

Remember how the book of Job began, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” How can God say this about Job but his friends have such a different opinion. I see two possibilities:

1. God is right and they are wrong. In this case, this is a great example of how we judge each other incorrectly. We see each other through a warped lens and cannot know the heart of another person.

2. God was not referring to Job’s kindness and charity for others. Is it possible to be “perfect and upright” and not have charity? Not really but kind of. I can obey the Ten Commandments perfectly and not give to the poor.

I actually think that many of us are in this boat. We don’t commit sin but do omit acts of selflessness. I can not break a commandment or covenant and still not volunteer. I can be obedient and not serve. How many of us do this? I dare say a lot.

23:3-6

Job appears to be considering what he would do if he met God. “Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.” If we choose to argue, he isn’t going to argue but will look for ways to strengthen us.

How often do we argue? How often do we REACT to someone being confrontational with confrontation? If someone is being a jerk to me on the street, I often respond as a jerk. If someone is criticizing me, my tendency is to look for weaknesses in their argument. It’s defensive and it’s human nature.

God is a perfect example of how to handle conflict. Instead of being critical or attempting to criticize or persuade us, he looks for opportunities to strengthen us. How would the confrontations in our lives change if we did the same?

If we did have the selfless love and maturity to respond this way, the people around us would be made better. We would be viewed as a blessing. We would have great impact on others. If we can simply change our view and see others as God sees them, we will handle confrontation differently. We will see the beginning of arguments as opportunities to strengthen the other person.

23:10

Job knew the refining power of trials. “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” This life is a refining fire. For it to refine, there has to be heat. There must be struggle. We cannot be purified by simply laying on a comfortable couch without a care in the world.

The best of us are still impure. If we think we’ve already passed through our refinement, we don’t get the concept.

23:16

“For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me.” Our troubles often make our hearts soft. Struggle can help us stay humble and teachable. There isn’t an ex-missionary reading this that will say those who live in poor circumstances are more open to the gospel. We didn’t have much luck in gated communities. In affordable housing, lots of people will invite you in.

If we aren’t humble or regularly humbled, our heart can get hard. It’s easier to get set in your ways if your way is easy street. If your ways seem to benefit you, why wouldn’t you become set in your ways? No wonder it’s easier for wealthy people to be set in their ways!

24:15, 17

“The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face.” Of course sinners don’t want others to discover their sin. People want to remain respected even when despicable. They don’t want to get caught.

The thought of their sins being exposed fills them with terror. “For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.” Everyone knows that morning will eventually come - when our sins will be obvious.

I personally don’t think that there is going to be a video of our lives where our sins will be highlighted. I don’t think there is going to be a balance sheet that we review with an eternal proctor. I think it will be ourselves with our character that is the sum of all of our good and bad decisions. It will be plain as day who has chose the right - over and over again.

24:19

“Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.“ When water evaporates, it often doesn’t leave a trace. It’s as if it was never there. It just kinda disappears.

I think that’s how it will be when a sinful person dies. How lasting an impact does a sinful man have? Who attends a selfish person’s funeral? If we have spent our lives with ourselves as the center of our lives, our death affects only ourselves. When we die, it will be like heat evaporating water - we’ll just disappear.

24:24

Sinful folks who are successful in this life have already enjoyed their reward. “They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low.” When the time comes to die, every possession they have enjoyed in their lives will be taken. Imagine that moment when jobs, houses, positions, clothing doesn’t matter. The only thing that will matter is our intelligence, character and relationships. For the wicked, it will be a sobering time. They will be starting over with nothing - truly they will be “brought low.”

38:2, 4, 36; 40:2

This verse really hit me. It is the Lord speaking to Job. “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” To me, this is a person who takes the plain words of the Lord and clouds it with his ‘blinding’ mortal intelligence. This mortal man or woman attempts, using mortal logic and multi-syllable words, to figure out God.

Many of are that person or know that person. They use their intellects to make arguments that invent doctrine or contradicts what has been revealed through prophets. This is very dangerous territory. If we consider ourselves wise enough to figure out God’s motives and thinking, we need to step back and step down off of the pedestal we’ve climbed up on.

In this chapter, God is making the point that his wisdom is on a different plane than Job’s. “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” God reviews the creation process - asking where Job was in all of that. It’s definitely putting Job in his place.

Finally, God asks Job where his wisdom came from in the first place. “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?” As I’ve written, if we think we’ve earned our wisdom, we haven’t. It was given to us.

“Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?” It sounds so ridiculous to imagine instructing God. It sounds ridiculous but we do it sometimes. We aren’t going to be able to instruct God. Having said that, there are examples in the scriptures of prophets convincing God to do or not do something. So, I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask… :)

42:6

“Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” We have to look at ourselves as needing improvement. We need to repent everyday. We need to have our eyes opened as to the myriad of ways that we can repent.

Job was righteous. Perhaps he considered himself so. Perhaps his weaknesses weren’t visible to him. Maybe it took this terrible experience to see it. The good news is, at this point, he sees it.

His ability to repent is more important than his righteousness. Our current righteousness represents a point in time. Our ability to repent represents our potential. When the story of Job began, the first verse talks about his righteousness. It doesn’t mention his repentance. Can we now see the possible problem?

If we are aware of our need to repent and are willing to do it, our potential is limitless. It is our desire to repent that will lead us to being like our Heavenly Father.

I don’t think we need to ‘abhor ourselves.’ We just need to see ourselves clearly and be willing to improve. Understand that, sometimes, seeing our weaknesses is the hard part. I believe that it’s actually a gift of the Spirit that we must pray for to receive this clarity of vision.

None of us want to have to go through what Job did to recognize where we can repent. It is a more pleasant path to remind ourselves daily that we must repent. We must desire to improve. We should constantly be straining against our weaknesses. The phrase, ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ might be one of the most damning sentences ever constructed…. Job learned, the hard way, that he can always repent.

42:17

Job lived a very long time. The Lord blessed him with twice what he had before and ten children. He lived to see his children, his grandchildren, his great grandchildren and his great, great grandchildren.

“So Job died, being old and full of days.” We should all understand that we can die old without being ‘full of days.’ It is his repentance that made his days full. Many of us are living the same year over and over again. What makes our days full is repentance. Remember, repentance = progress.

Job was never perfect but he is an amazing example of how to approach trials. I am grateful for him and will remember him the next trial that is certainly coming.