Now My Eyes See

"Now My Eyes See" – Job 42:5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You.” Job knew God before the trial — Job 1 presents him as blameless and God-fearing — but he knew Him by hearsay, from what he had learned and heard. After losing everything, after the questions and the suffering, and after finally meeting the greatness of God, his knowledge becomes deep and personal. This study walks through Job's answer in chapter 42: he acknowledges God's power (vv. 1-2), acknowledges his own limitation (v. 3), asks to be taught instead of demanding explanations (v. 4), confesses that now his eyes see (v. 5), and repents in dust and ashes (v. 6). Job entered the trial asking “why?” and came out knowing better “who”: the trial did not merely change his circumstances, it deepened his knowledge of God.

I. I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear.

A. Job was a great and righteous man; the young came to him for counsel.

1. At the end of the great trial he confesses: “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear”.

2. For by hearsay everyone hears.

B. The human being is very stubborn: “no one meddles in my life”.

1. To do what Christ says one must pray, read the Word and set aside time with God.

2. Everything material is passing.

C. The heart must be filled with love, and also with pain.

1. Pain centered there makes you pray, makes you love and makes you give yourself.

2. In life we are not self-sufficient.

II. But now my eye sees You.

A. It is not that Job saw God physically: he had a deep and personal encounter with Him.

1. That is how we must seek God: deep and personal, God and I.

B. Before, he knew God by what he had learned and heard.

1. After the suffering and the questions he could say: now my eyes see.

2. Eyes that see lead me to reconsider and to do what is right.

C. “Before I knew about You; now I know You by experience.”

1. It changes how we laugh, how we look, how we give affection and how we give ourselves.

2. Some trials take us from hearing about God to knowing God.

3. No one can climb for another the trial that belongs to each one.

III. I know that You can do all things (Job 42:1-2).

A. After God speaks to him in chapters 38 through 41, Job answers.

1. God is omnipotent: no circumstance lies outside His authority.

2. “No purpose of Yours can be thwarted”: God knows what we cannot grasp.

B. Job had lost goods, children, health and peace, and was devastated.

1. He discovers that his suffering never meant God had lost control.

IV. I have declared that which I did not understand (Job 42:3).

A. Job acknowledges his limits; we must honestly know our limits.

1. We are not superheroes: things hurt us and we grow distressed.

2. He does not confess that all he said was false: he spoke of what was beyond his knowledge.

B. Job saw only his pain; God saw the whole picture.

1. We may ask God why, remembering that our vision is limited.

2. Let the day come and you will see things clearly.

3. Neither circumstances nor problems kill: we harm ourselves.

V. You instruct me (Job 42:4).

A. Before, Job wanted answers; now he wants to be taught by God.

1. It is the difference between “explain what You are doing” and “teach me what I must learn”.

B. The trial has produced humility.

1. He was a man of standing; he lost everything and was covered with sores.

2. Every trial produces humility in our lives.

VI. Now my eye sees You (Job 42:5).

A. Job already knew God before the trial: Job 1 calls him blameless and God-fearing.

1. “By hearsay” does not mean ignorance: it means his knowledge is now experiential.

B. God never explained to him the heavenly conversation of Job 1 and 2.

1. Instead He showed him who He was, and that was enough to transform his perspective.

2. When you complain, God has it written; humble yourself and ask Him to help you.

VII. I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:6).

A. Job did not defend himself, nor gossip, nor turn against humanity.

1. When we are angry we want to destroy everyone, and there the Holy Spirit departs.

2. We all have to face ourselves.

B. He abandons the claim to judge God's ways from his own limited knowledge.

C. “In dust and ashes”: humility and frailty before God.

1. Being proud, we never want to say that we are dust and ashes.

2. He is not admitting a hidden sin: that was his friends' mistaken accusation.

3. Shortly afterward God rebukes the friends.

VIII. The great message of Job 42:1-6.

A. “You can do all things”: he acknowledges God's power.

B. “I declared what I did not understand”: he acknowledges his limitation.

C. “You instruct me”: he acknowledges his need to learn.

D. “Now my eye sees You”: he comes to know Him more deeply.

E. “I repent”: he answers with humility.

1. Job entered the trial asking why, and came out knowing better who.

2. The trial did not merely change his circumstances: it deepened his knowledge of God.

3. Pride kills; service blesses.