I Yield

Readings:
Job 42
II Corinthians 7:2-16

Focus:
Job 42:6: "Therefore I yield, repenting in dust and ashes."

Throughout most of the long book of Job, Job has spent chapters maintaining his innocence and righteousness. His friends, on the other hand, have made long speeches telling him that Job's misfortunes, which are many, have come about because Job is evil and has done bad things. Job replies that he has done nothing wrong and that he is spotlessly good.

In some ways he is right and his friends are wrong, because Job's disasters have befallen him for other reasons. Yet Job is wrong too. Job maintains that he is perfectly pure, but no human is utterly righteous or innocent. Job maintains that God is unfair, but God is perfectly fair. At last God loses patience with Job's talk, and speaks to him directly, revealing some of his character to Job. At this, Job has only one response, and when we contemplate God, it should be our response as well:

"I yield, repenting in dust and ashes."