One of the lessons of Job is this: Everyone must increase in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:9, 10). Among the many affirmations made about God in the Second London Confession are these: “whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself; . . . who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the councel of his own immutable, and most righteous will.” His incomprehensibility is directly the result of his infinity. We are finite and will, therefore, never reach exhaustibility in the knowledge of God.
Job, his friends, Elihu, Job’s wife, and all their friends in the town were put through a process of increasing in the knowledge of God. The friends who had such absolute confidence in the level of their knowledge were reprimanded for such arrogant deductions derived from extremely partial knowledge. Many of the concepts they held about God were true, but they refused to examine their understanding with openness to expansion. Their single stringed lyre could not harmonize with the rich and complex chords being created at the joining point of Job’s suffering and God’s apparent silence. Even Job was too sure of himself in his ability to stand on a platform with God and engage in dialogue for explanation.
Elihu’s remonstrations called Job to account for his implication that God was somehow being unfair to him: “I have heard the sound of your words, saying, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me’” (33:8, 9). In this process of suffering and instruction, all involved, Job most intensely, were filled with the elevation of mystery without any suspicion cast on the goodness and justice of God. All of them were stretched beyond their present state of knowledge to an increase that necessarily altered their views of sin, righteousness, personal piety, and the mercy, grace, sovereignty, goodness, justice, patience, and lovingkindness of God. So, three brief observations about the knowledge of God.
Increase in the knowledge of God is connected without exception to his pleasure in revealing himself to us. In this process, God himself reveals truth through the struggles of Job, the observations of Elihu, and his own awesome appearance in chapters 38-42. We will never exhaust the richness of Scripture revelation of God in this life; we must, therefore, with unbroken consistency apply our minds to mastering its contents. By this revelation we grow in the knowledge, and thus love, of God.
Increase in the knowledge of God is painful but edifying. For Job, as well as for Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz the learning curve about the purpose, character, and wisdom of God caused pain. For Job, the pain was exquisitely physical as well as emotional. In the maturity of the revelation given to him, Paul yearned for the knowledge of God through Christ even when it meant suffering. “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10, 11).
But the three friends also had to learn the error of their ways. They were brought to repent, be instructed, change their perceptions, and train themselves to meditate, consider, and speak with more enlightened content and in a different tone. These intellectual changes can be painful. We must be ready with unwavering fidelity to undergo such pain regularly.
Increase in the knowledge of God is necessarily unending. Though growth often involves pain in this life, in heaven it will take the form of unending increase of joy and fulfilled capacity for delight. The redeemed will by rapid accumulation, layer upon layer, grasp the power of infinity and the richness of immutability. In the sphere of redemption, the simultaneous fulfillment of eternal love and forgiving purpose toward the elect while the eternal attributes of God exhibited in his justice are also manifested will remain a mystery to be explored. The worthiness of the slain Lamb to open the scroll of God’s unfolding purpose will never reach a point of exhaustion. The expansion of true experiential knowledge embedded in the forerunner’s proclamation, “Behold the Lamb of God,” will be unending. “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him” (Revelation 22:3).
The trinitarian expression of God’s attributes—sameness in all attributes yet coexisting in the distinctly personal properties of Father, Son and Holy Spirit—seen and experienced as one God yet eternally perceived in the distinctness of persons, will never cease to excite amazement, wonder, and intellectual fascination with the singularity and simplicity of this eternal threeness of God.
In the midst of this beautiful observation of trinitarian ontology, that which brings intended wholeness to our ever-expanding joy is the consideration of the redemptive purpose executed by the three persons of this glorious God. The Father’s election of us in Christ will eternally bring expressions of wonder and worship “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:3-6). The execution of this redemptive plan in the person and work of Christ will prompt equal, yet discreet, praise to the Son for in our very existence as redeemed sinners, for eternity we will be “to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:7-12). All that has been predestined in the Father’s purpose and executed in the redemptive work of the Son—all of it without exception—is sealed to them by the efficacious call and preserving grace of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13, 14).
The painful perplexity of Job finally gives way to clarity and unfiltered worship. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise him all creatures here below; praise him above ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”
Dr. Tom Nettles is widely regarded as one of the foremost Baptist historians in America. He joined the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary after teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he was professor of Church History and chairman of that department. Previously, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. He received a B.A. from Mississippi College and an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Southwestern. In addition to writing numerous journal articles and scholarly papers, Dr. Nettles has authored or edited nine books including By His Grace and For His Glory, Baptists and the Bible, and Why I Am a Baptist.
Courses taught: Historical Theology of the Baptists, Historical Theology Overview, Jonathan Edwards & Andrew Fuller.
