I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42.5, 6

Job’s trials
When, in the sovereign wisdom and grace of God, Job began to enter into his trials, he seemed to be on top of things, though things were very bad, indeed.

He seemed to have recognized the situation as the work of God, and he trusted God implicitly to do what was right (Job 1.21; 2.10). But for Job, the situation went south from there. We see him, sitting on that ash heap in silence for more than a week (2.13), and we hope he’s facing down his negative affections and looking to the Lord and His glory and might, so that he might rejoice, grow in patience, and gain the blessing God intends for him.

Instead, when Job finally begins to speak, we can feel our hearts sink. The first words out of his mouth are a combination of woe, anger, and despair. He even seems to deny that rejoicing about him or his situation is anywhere near a proper response (3.6). Job is wallowing in all kinds of negative affections, and we can understand why this is so. We’ve all felt this way before, and we don’t condemn Job any more than we condemn ourselves.

But while we might be content to wallow in negative affections, God has other things in mind. If Job would not turn his mind and heart to God, then God would turn his mind and heart for him, which is precisely what we see God doing in chapters 38-41. God takes Job’s face in His own hands, and escorts him on a tour de force of the cosmos, all the while asking or implying, “Who did this, Job? Who? And if I can do this, do you suppose I might be able to care for you as well?”

Wrong turn to rest
In our text, Job has come to the place where he is able to rest in the Lord. Resting in the Lord is where the Lord wants us at all times. But sometimes we need to go through a season of unrest before we can grow in the deeper rest God has in store for us.

In our text, Job’s situation has not changed; but he is at peace, and we get the sense that his faith has grown, especially after his confrontation with the Lord. Through all of chapters 3-37, Job became increasingly angry about his trials, first at his knuckle-headed “friends” and their pop theology of suffering, and then at God. Job became angry at God because he felt God owed him an explanation for all this suffering. But God is not in the business of explaining things when what He’s trying to do is increase our trust in Him.

We see no indication that Job went from recognizing his situation to rejoicing in it, since, as we’ve seen, rejoicing is the provisional discipline that normally leads to rest. But it’s not always necessary to employ every provisional discipline in order to gain the benefit God intends for us. Sometimes we will get to rest and the blessing that comes through trials by another path, as we shall see.

However, we should point out that Job’s situation, which was bad enough already, became even worse when God showed up and accused him of pouring out empty words and making brazen demands of His Maker and Lord (Job 38.1-3; cf. 42.1-5).

Rejoicing in the midst of trials is a proper path to rest, and might have worked in Job’s case, if he had not failed to recognize that his demanding God come down and give an explanation for his sufferings was a temptation he should have resisted. Instead of choosing the path of rejoicing, Job descended from innocence into sin, compounding his suffering even more.

Only after God’s exhilarating but humiliating rebuke was Job able to get to the place of rest. But since he did not choose to go via the path of rejoicing, and thus fell through temptation into sin, he could only come to rest by first coming to repentance. We’ll have more to say about repentance in a future segment.

Rest in the Lord
The endgame of suffering is always rest in the Lord, being content in Him, with Him, and because of Him. God is always working to strip away anything that gets between us and Him and prevents us from finding all our peace and joy in Him.

As God confronted Job with his sin, Job’s other trials paled into relative insignificance. Job came to recognize his sin and to repent of it, and in doing so, his soul was suddenly and truly at peace. Nothing in Job’s outward circumstances had changed; he was still sitting on that ash heap, covered with boils, abandoned by his wife and friends, and bereft of his children and wealth. But he was at rest! And rest is a condition of complete, unwavering, peaceable, and, yes, even joyful dependence on and participation in God.

Rest like this – true and perfect rest in God – is the prize to be gained through trial, and the right use of provisional disciplines can help to get us there.

Next steps: What is it like to know true and perfect rest in God? Ask a pastor or church leader to talk with you about this question.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Provisional Disciplines, is part 7 of a 7-part series on The Disciplined Life, and is available as a free download by clicking here. We have prepared a special worksheet to help you begin getting your disciplines in proper shape for seeking the Kingdom. Write to T. M. at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for your free PDF of the “Disciplined Life Worksheet.”

A rightly-disciplined life requires a Kingdom vision, and that vision is centered on Jesus Christ exalted. T. M. has prepared a series of meditations on the glorious vision of Christ, based on Scripture and insights from the Celtic Christian tradition. Order your copy of Be Thou My Vision by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.