REPENTANCE

A. E. Dunne

Job 40: 3, 4 (to “nought”); 42: 6

If I were to give you a title of my word to you, I would say it is repentance. It is a grant of God; it does not originate in your heart; it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.

Our dire need may do that, but I think, as I will show you in the book of Job, it was the greatness and goodness of God that made Job repentant. It was not all the talking of the three fancy-wise men that did it. Their line was to tell him how bad he was; God’s line was to tell him how good God was, and that made Job repentant. I admit that our sinfulness and badness enter into it—“I perish with hunger”, the prodigal said (Luke 15: 17 A.V.)—foolish man! But it was what was in his father’s house that led him to his father’s house; he knew there was something there; there was good there.

I remember in my earlier days how this word repentance was spoken about. Some thought they knew a little about Greek, or perhaps a lot, and explained the meaning of it to be a change of mind. The theory was propounded in a cold kind of light—you just change your mind. If those of us who so derived our thinking from the Greek had gone to the Hebrew we might have got a bit more help and have seen that in the Hebrew the word repent means grief. There must be grief for our sins. I am grieved for my sins, one said—Are you? The Godhead has been grieved about my sins; the Father has been grieved; the Son has been grieved; the Spirit has been grieved.

Reconciliation has been to the Godhead; each Person, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit has been satisfied over the question of sin by the blood of Jesus, but each Person had His own grief about the sin of man.

So repentance is a matter of grief, a grief caused by my sins, not only before my conversion but since; but, thank God, the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin. You say, At what point of time? It is an eternally present absolution.

I want to use these two passages in Job to show how he repented. You will remember Elihu came in with his remarkable survey of creation and its elements, especially of the atmospheric heavens, but he did not make Job yield; and then God begins to speak, and after God speaks we get Job saying, “I am nought”; and then God speaks again, and then Job says,

“I abhor myself”. It is interesting the different features of creation that God referred to in this first chapter (to speak of it that way) of His dealing with Job, and I think myself that if we entered into what is said we would learn different features about salvation. It was to help Job to be saved. God speaks of what happens in the atmosphere; He speaks of clouds, rain, thunder and lightning, hail, frost; and then He speaks about twelve creatures that had living souls, both land animals and those that fly. And it is very remarkable that it is the creation as we know it, not the unfallen creation, but the creation which we might speak of as being affected by sin. For instance,

you get predatory animals referred to and birds of prey, lions hunting; it is a remarkable thing that God should refer to His creation in that way. It may have some connection that Paul says that sin is not to reign in our mortal body (Romans 6: 12). Why the mortal body? It is the body that bears the marks of sin; in that body, not changed as to the effects of sin upon it, sin is not to reign—“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body”. It has caused enough trouble there physically; let not sin reign in it whilst it still remains subject to death.

I want to bring out that God can manage His great creation, even after sin has come into it.

Now that is what God told Job. He says, Look, Job, I am managing a vast creation all on My own with no help, and to think of you, a little man, questioning Me, your Creator. Of course, there could be other things said about a human being; a human being is of infinite value to God. One lost sinner calls out the Shepherd’s searching and seeking; only one, because that is a human being. God loves the human being, and, as I said, if you were to go through these different things said about the elements of creation and the creatures of creation, you would get some ideas about salvation. I would love to have time, if I could, to go over them all. I cannot, but I will take one or two.

For instance, God said to Job, “Doth the hawk fly by thine intelligence, and stretch his wings toward the south?” (Job 39: 26). I love that scripture. What is the hawk doing? It is getting as fast as it can away from the place where the winter is coming to the place where the summer is at hand—it stretches its wings toward the south; it has the intelligence to do that. Has the sinner the intelligence to do that? Flee from the wrath to come! Flee! Flee youthful lusts! Flee fornication! the word of God says. So this interesting bird teaches a lesson of salvation, that if I stay where I am, wrath will get me. If I flee from where I am, I get into the eternal grace of God, the favour of God wherein we stand. We are able to say when we have stretched our wings towards the south, “this favour in which we stand”, Romans 5: 2. Paul did that too, you know, in another way; he tells us in Philippians, “forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal” (Philippians 3: 13). Paul was stretching his wings towards the south, the infinite favour of God, which he would for ever have on reaching the goal. This is before us, dear brethren; let us stretch our wings towards the south. Let the future glory that we are going to come into be our whole desire, and may all our efforts be to promote our spirituality. So this wise hawk has been given intelligence of God as an animal, as a bird, to get out of the place where the winter was coming to get into the place where the summer was certain.

Then it also says in the next verse, “Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make his nest on high? He inhabiteth the rock and maketh his dwelling on the point of the cliff, and the fastness”; and so you see a Christian household, a saved household. The eagle puts its nest up high. Why? and Where? He puts it in a place where no enemy can get it. He is going to have young birds in the nest; the young people must be preserved, and the only way that they can be preserved is by elevating them in divine thoughts. The nurture and admonition of the Lord is what is found in this dwelling—on the point of the cliff, mind you; that would make it difficult for a land animal to get at it. So a Christian household should be inaccessible to all enemies—“Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved”, it was said to the jailor, “thou and thy house”, Acts 16: 31. That was the nest set on high beyond the reach of the enemy.

So Job would learn from those two things (that is, speaking of them typically) something about salvation; something that would convey to him that he must repent in order to have it; that he had something to grieve over. He did not think he had anything to grieve over, and he wrestled with those three men to try to prove that he was not a sinner; and whilst they could not bring just details forward, they felt he must be, because of what he was suffering. That does not count, what you are suffering; what you are suffering outwardly does not count; it is an inward matter that calls for spiritual discernment. If a saint of God is suffering in his body, it is not necessarily for his sins. It might be, because it says if he be one who has committed sins—that is, the sick man—they shall be forgiven (James 5: 15); it is quite possible, but it does not necessarily follow. These men said, ‘It does follow; though we cannot bring evidence forward, it is bound to be, Job, that you are a wicked man, because of what you are suffering’. It was not the truth, but still, of course, Job was a self-righteous man, a self-opinionated man; he loved to think that he was respected. We all do; I do; and that is what God wanted to get him out of.

I was very interested not so long ago when reading this and noting that the first question God asked Job really should have ended matters—“Where wast thou when I founded the earth?” (Job 38: 4). Well, no more questions needed to be asked; he was not there. And you know the founding of the earth points to the very great matter of the establishing in our souls of the rights of God, which is a very stabilizing matter. I understand that the founding of the earth was the putting in the earth the principle of stability. When you think of it, how wonderful it is. How unstable I am. But take this earth on which we are now; it turns on its axis; we do not feel it turning; we are not conscious of it; it is smooth and perfectly free from aberrations. Then not only that, it goes round the sun at about sixty-eight thousand miles an hour, but we do not feel it; it has been founded; it is stable. How wonderful all that is! God could have spoken to Job, in saying that, to indicate to him the need for being established in the faith. It speaks frequently in the New Testament about being established, and God in speaking about the founding of the earth was thinking of far more than that; He was thinking of our being founded in the faith, firm and secure, and having an anchor for the soul too, using another figure, secure and firm.

Now God said all that to Job and far more, as I have said, and then Job answered Jehovah and said, “Behold, I am nought”. Now you would have thought that was great—“I am nought”—but it did not satisfy God, for He went on speaking; He opened another chapter (see verse 6)—“And Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind and said ...” He speaks again. Whilst it might seem fine to say “I am nought”, I would like to suggest another rendering of that, not that I am qualified to speak of it, but it could be, ‘Behold, I am of little consequence’. God presents Himself as supreme in His creation, as managing His affairs, causing consequence after consequence, effect after effect, and Job says, Well, I am of little consequence, I effect very little. But still there was a bit left of Job, I suggest. And so God speaks again, and He only refers this time to two of His great creatures, the hippopotamus and the crocodile, and in speaking of the parts of those two great creatures you would think that God was Himself enjoying the marvels of what He had made. The second of the two, the crocodile, is a fearful beast; the hippopotamus is not so; it says “he eateth grass as an ox”; he is not carnivorous.

God says, ‘I made him when I made you’. I could speak of these details, but I am not going to do so as my point is simply to show that God can bring before us what is devastating of ourselves. After this second chapter is closed Job says, “I abhor myself”; now that is the finish, because that meant, ‘I have disappeared’; that is what it means; ‘I am extinguished’, ‘I am liquidated’. God accepted that. I think it is very vital that, as you have it in the case of the cleansing of the defiled person in Numbers 19, there should be a “third day” and a “seventh day”. The “third day” did not finish it; it is like Job saying, “I am nought”, I am of little consequence; but on the “seventh day” repentance is completed; you say, “I abhor myself”, and God accepts it.

And that is true as to myself morally as a member of Adam’s race responsible to God; I am extinguished. A comfort this is, because I am no longer held by God responsible for being the man I have been, or for having done the things I have done.

Romans 6 is I think one of the most wonderful chapters in the Bible dealing with these things, dealing with freedom from sin; and it is very like what I am speaking about. Our old man has been crucified with Him; Paul says, “our” because he is speaking to a company, but I can say, ‘My old man has been crucified’. Now my old man is all that I am as an entity for evil as a member of the human race, all the faculties I have which can be employed in sin; the whole being as an evil thing is gone, but at what a cost to Christ!—no cost to me. The Man who was crucified was not just a man who happened to die as other men might die. But God dealt with Christ judicially to end me, and that is what Job came to: I have been liquidated, extinguished; I am no more. But, of course, if we have died with Him we shall be raised with Him; so that we come forward in a new light, and our responsibility begins with our sins gone, with our sins forgiven. I am not responsible as a man of Adam’s race to do good; that is finished; that is impossible, God says. I too know it is impossible; I have repented of my sins, and I have a new life with Christ; Christ is my life. I have a new personality, as Paul said, “and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”. Galatians 2: 20.

And so Job finished with far more than he ever had before, and if we go on this line, the line of the repenting sinner, where will we be? At the feast in the father’s house in Luke 15! It has often been remarked that “they began to make merry”, and there is no stopping. And that happened in type here; Job had more than he had before, and he had a joyous time after he had gone through all this and come to repentance. It is very blessed to think therefore of the goodness of God leading to repentance.

I referred to the prodigal. I just mention it now at the end of my word. He was in desperation; sin had reduced him to penury; sin never pays, you know; it is a temporary pleasure; but what is that compared with the pleasures for evermore? He went back a repenting sinner and that brought him straight into the father’s house where there was music and dancing, and the feasting on the fatted calf. Did he not say, In my father’s house there is bread enough and to spare? (Luke 15: 17 A.V.); he knew that much; that is what led him back, more than would meet his need. Christ can more than meet your need; He meets your sins that is your need—but He supplies your pleasure for evermore. It is a great mercy, therefore, to have part in these wonderful things. I was speaking just the other day in connection with bread enough and to spare, of the times of Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt and secured corn for the coming days of famine. There were seven years of plenty and in each year a fifth was stored, so that after seven years there were seven fifths, two more than a year’s supply—there was enough and to spare. That is God’s way. It is also set out in the feeding of the multitude, there was something left over of quite a large size, and it required containers, for nothing of God is ever to be lost. If I cannot appropriate it, it will not be lost; it will come out in a future administration. So we even in our day are enjoying what rightly belongs to the Jew, in the new covenant, for instance; that is to be made with the Jew, but we enjoy it. It is wonderful how these things overflow into our own time, and no doubt when Israel come into their blessing they will get something from our great dispensation; they will wonder what we have had in our day, our time.

So you see there are these two sides. Job at first says, ‘I am of little consequence’; it might have been better if he had said, ‘I am of no consequence’. I know you may get the impression by his saying, “I am nought” that he had said it all, but I think he had not. He would not then have continued speaking, and God would not have continued speaking, but when Job said, ‘I am extinct’, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”, he was on the ground and he could not go lower. When you repent in dust and ashes you cannot go lower. And it is one of the greatest blessings, I believe, to accept the lowest place possible, and you get the highest place in God’s esteem. The Lord Jesus was meek and lowly in heart, and He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”, Matthew 11: 29. ‘See how I do it; draw in the same yoke with Me’. You know, in the Old Testament two different animals were not to be yoked together; an ass and an ox were not to be yoked together, because their tread was not the same; they would not have pulled evenly, and the results would have been poor. But to think that we, in a lowly way, can move alongside the meek and lowly One and find rest to our souls—in type Job did; so may we.

Preaching at Londonderry
1 July 1984