Humility

Job 42
Then Job answered the LORD and said:
 "I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. 
You asked, "Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?"
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
Listen, please, and let me speak;
You said, "I will question you, and you shall answer Me."
I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eyes see You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

The images Job held both of God in His relationship with Job and of himself in relationship with God and fellow man are shattered. Job now knows that God owes him only what He determines. God is not beholden to mankind for anything.

Will we claim that God owes us anything because of our good works? God does not owe us a thing, even if we obey Him perfectly. Our covenant with Him is not made on that basis. The covenant is made knowing that we owe Him everything. Do we receive salvation because we trade keeping the Sabbath or paying tithes for it?

Job is truly humbled. Humility is an internal matter, one of the heart, not one of outside appearance. Moses was a humble man, but he also had a commanding presence. However, a person's humility greatly affects what those watching him see and hear emanate from him.

Adopted from article by John Ritenbaugh

http://www.theberean.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Home.showBerean/BereanID/8551/bblver/NKJV/Job-42-1-6.htm