Why did Job repent?

[Lysimachus]

Psalm 17 is a prayer by David who is using very similar language used by Job himself.

"Hear a just cause, O Lord, attend to my cry. Give ear to my prayer that is not from deceitful lips... You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me, and have found nothing. I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress." Psalm 17:1-3.

Certainly this prayer did not come out of the lips of a self-righteous man.

Both Job and David were converted men and clothed with the righteousness of the Lord. They were not talking about their own righteousness but about the righteousness which they had from God through faith. Phil.3:9.

"Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the land, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord." Ezekiel 14:14.

"And their righteousness is from me, says the Lord." Isaiah 54:17."

"The Lord our righteousness." Jeremiah 33:16.

sky

Amen. This is also proof that the Lord "investigates" (tests) hearts.

The critics may argue, "but God doesn't have to investigate or test or try anyone! He already knows everything!".

That may be true, but should we not just take these verses as they read? Forget about whether God knows your heart even before investigating. That's not your concern. Your concern and worry is the fact that He IS investigating you. So this language in the Bible is written for our benefit, and we need to take it just as it reads and quit trying to philosophize.

Every detail of your life is being CLOSELY analyzed. We should evaluate our lives with SCRUTINY, and FEAR and TREMBLING.

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with FEAR and TREMBLING." (Philippians 2:12)

[LifeHiscost]

"Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault."Jude 1:24 NLT

God blesses!

[Robert]

"Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the land, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord. Ezekiel 14:14.

"And their righteousness is from me, says the Lord

." Isaiah 54:17."

But all of us who are resting in Christ's finished works experience His righteousness. That doesn't mean we are righteous, however. Job considered himself blameless. This is wrong. What does John say? "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves." And Paul states that we've all sinned and are, present tense, failing to live Christ's life of only agape love.

[Robert]

..falling away ....

Falling away here refers to apostasy. Abandoning Christ.

[Robert]

Here's the context: Ez 14:12 The word of the LORD came to me: 13 "Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, 14 even if these three men--Noah, Daniel and Job--were in it (i.e., in this country), they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD.

In other words righteousness (right doing) can't be transferred!

Ez 18:20 The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him. 21 "But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.

So the context is saying that Noah, Daniel and Job couldn't save any country from destruction because their right doing can't be transferred to the country.

Context guys, context!

BTW, I'm sure Ezekiel was referring to Job after he repented.....So this does not make void my view.

[Felix Florimon]

That doesn't mean we are righteous, however. Job considered himself blameless. This is wrong. What does John say? "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves." And Paul states that we've all sinned and are, present tense, failing to live Christ's life of only agape love.

Regarding the real importance of “righteousness” or trying to keep the law, we need to learn from Jesus and try to take off the focus of our attention on ourselves and put such focus on God. This is what we learn from Jesus on Mark 10:18.

We need to be reminded that God’s law was given to us because we have freedom of choice; we could chose to do things one way or the other. Moreover, since we are His children by creation, God’s plan is to reproduce His character in us in order to share a loving relationship with Him throughout an endless eternity. However, since God has given us freedom to chose what actions we will take, He has given us His laws so each of our actions should be consistent with His character. Therefore, “our righteousness” consists in keeping Jesus’ example in our consciousness regarding how we are going to keep God’s laws while inviting Him in prayer to come to our minds so He could guide us in our thinking, planning and behavior. Now, since we have an individuality that is an entity different from God, His laws in our hearts and minds in coordination with the assistance of God’s Holy Spirit helps us to avoid to establish habits of behavior that deviate from His character. Anything that deviates from God’s character is sinful.

We have several choices. We have the choice to openly disregard His laws. We also have the choice to obey His laws because we truly love Him and wish to establish a good example to others who are also learning to love and obey God or we could obey His laws in order to make ourselves the center of everybody’s attention and use such attention in order to try to guide the lives of others while blocking God’s Spirit to be their real guide. This is what happened to the Pharisees during Jesus’ time. They were very proud to have God’s law in their midst. Moreover, they also created many restrictions in order to make sure that, technically speaking, God’s law would always be kept. However, by blocking God’s Spirit to work in their lives, they opened the door to Satan who guided them to crucify Jesus Christ because Satan guided them to believe that Jesus was a living blasphemy since He was committing usurpation by teaching about His pre-existence and being one with God before the creation of this world. According to Moses’ law if Jesus lied about His Divine nature, he needed to be put to death. However, in God’s economy Jesus’ death was the price to be paid in

order to bring back God’s character into the descendants of Adam and Eve that were born as natural enemies of God.

FF

[Robert]

We need to be reminded that God’s law was given to us because we have freedom of choice; we could chose to do things one way or the other.

No, that's not why God gave the law! You and I were born bent to self. That simply means everything we do are for self-centered & selfish motives. Hence we are born slaves to sin.

The giving of the law actually made matters worse. Before you didn't realize you were a sinner. Now comes the law and it becomes apparent:

Gal 3:19 Well then, why was the law given? It was given to show people how guilty they are....

And what does the law say?

Romans 3:10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;...19 Now we know (after reading the law) that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held guilty before God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

[Felix Florimon]

The giving of the law actually made matters worse. Before you didn't realize you were a sinner. Now comes the law and it becomes apparent:

Gal 3:19 Well then, why was the law given? It was given to show people how guilty they are....