Job 38:1-42:6 represents a dramatic turning point in the Book of Job, as the narrative shifts from the argument among Job and his friends to a tribunal between God and Job. From Job 3:1 through Job 31, Job argues with Eliphaz and his two friends who came to console Job. They sat for seven days without speaking, then engaged in a vigorous debate after Job broke the silence with a lament.

During these twenty—nine chapters of dialogue, Eliphaz and his two friends basically argue that Job’s problems stem from inappropriate behavior, inferring that God is transactional and can be manipulated by human actions. In Job 42:7, God asserts to Eliphaz and his two friends “you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.” Job refused to repent, asserting that confessing to something he did not do in order to appease God would be a breach of integrity.

Although Job was righteous, as God Himself testified to in Job 1:8, 2:3, he lacked a proper perspective of God; his perspective was much too small. In Job 23:3-7, Job asserted that if he could present his case before God, God will gain perspective and, having learned what He had not known, relent concerning Job. Of course God hears and sees all, and heard Job’s plea. Now in Job 38, God answers Job’s request, but turns the tables on Job and demonstrates to him that rather than God needing a greater perspective about Job, it is Job who needs a greater perspective about God.

This tribunal will culminate in Job saying, “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3). This seems to be God’s primary objective; then, with that objective being met, God proceeds to double Job’s blessing, likely to make a point to the observing world that God’s ways are above our ways.

It will be paradoxical that after making abundantly clear that Job needs more of God’s perspective, rather than the other way around, when this episode concludes, God will tell Eliphaz and his two friends that their judgment is in Job’s hands. God tells the friends that if Job will pray for them, then God will forgive them for speaking wrongly about Him (Job 42:8).

This makes clear that God’s lofty view of Job did not change between Job 1:8 and Job 42:8. It also tells us that God’s best for Job included Job coming to know God during this life, while he could still walk by faith. James 1:2-3, 12 asserts the same lesson, that God uses the trials of life to hone our faith, which allows us to gain the greatest benefit from life. Ephesians 3:10 tells us that the angels study the church (believers on earth) to understand the “manifold wisdom of God.”

In addition to Job’s declaration in Job 42:3, that he now realizes God is beyond knowing, he says in Job 40:4, “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You?” Through this interaction in Job 38-42, Job shifts from “If I could present my case to God He would side with me” in Job 23:3-7 to “I should not say anything because You are so much higher than I.” We can recall that Job 1:3 told us that Job was “the greatest of all the men of the east.” In comparison to men, Job was the greatest. But in comparison to God, he saw himself as “insignificant.” After this episode of self—discovery, the fact that God blesses Job and puts into his hands the fate of Eliphaz and his two friends shows that while God desires His people to see reality as it is, He also loves them and desires for them to be an integral part of executing His plan and doing His work in this world (see commentary on Hebrews 2:9 and 2:10-13).