Page 22 - Reading Job to Know God

Do you see what he is saying? If my enemy would just come out in the open,
but He is hiding up there in heaven someplace. If He would come out, I
would walk right up to Him, I would put my forehead against His and I
would say: “Why is this going on in my life? What have I done? I do not
deserve this”. He is my enemy. Those are his conclusions. Job thought it
all through, reasoned with his philosopher friends, and concluded, I do not
deserve this; God is my enemy.

The shell of Job was very hard, and God had to crack that impenetrable crust
of self-righteousness. God had to go deep. He needed a stripping. Job needed
to see his depravity. He needed to see his self- righteousness, but if the book
ended there we might as well not have it in the Bible! God was going to
show him much more than that. What he needed was to see God! He needed
a vision of the Lord.
KEY TO THE WHOLE BOOK

Do you see what God is doing? The whole book of Job is about seeing
God. It is about a vision of God, and anything in my life that hinders that
vision of God, God will blast! God will remove. Look at chapter 42. This
is your key to the whole book. Verse 5
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees
You.”
Did Job’s physical eye see God? No, his physical eye did not see God. He
is talking about the eye of faith. “I have heard of You by the hearing of
the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in
dust and ashes.” It took the whole book to get him to say that. I have
heard of Thee God, now I see Thee, therefore I repent.
How is a man going to repent? First he has to see God, then, he repents.
All of the beating, and stripping, and breaking happened so that he would
get a view of El Shaddai, the God who is more than enough. That he
would see Him, and by seeing Him have a corresponding view of himself.
See himself in the pure light of God and see his own self-righteousness.
He was not ready to say “I am vile, I am dirty, I am self-righteous”, until
he saw God.

BIBLE DOESN’T TEACH INTROSPECTION
Now this is the exact opposite of the psychologists today who talk about
self-examination. This idea of introspection. Look into your heart. Look
22