VI.  Significance of the Speeches of Jehovah.  To many Western readers the concluding speeches of Jehovah are unsatisfying.  They lack the emphasis on Jehovah’s love and that divine tenderness in addressing the heroic sufferer which to us would seem to have been a satisfactory conclusion to the great drama.  This element is furnished in characteristically concrete form by the epilogue of the book, in which Job’s prosperity is restored in double measure and he is personally assured of Jehovah’s favor.  The severe and realistic author of the great poem, however, knew that in ordinary life such solutions are rare.  In the speeches of Jehovah he does not introduce an altogether new element, but emphasizes motifs already developed in the earlier dialogues.  The effect of these speeches upon Job are threefold:  (1) They rebuke his over-accentuated individualism. (2) They reveal the fundamental contrast between the infinite God and finite man.  In the light of this revelation Job plainly recognizes his presumption and folly in attempting, with his limited outlook, to comprehend, much less to criticise, the mighty ruler of all the universe. (3) After Job had thus been led out of himself into personal companionship with God he was content to trust his all-wise guide, even though he recognized his own inability to fathom the mysteries of the universe or to solve the problem of innocent suffering.  Thus the great contributions of the book of Job to the problem of suffering are:  (1) A clear and scientific presentation of the problem; (2) a bold sweeping aside of the insufficient current theological explanations; (3) a vastly enlarged conception of Jehovah’s character and rule; and (4) that attitude of faith which comes from a personal experience of God and which trusts unreservedly, even though it cannot see or divine the reason why, and in that trust finds peace and joy.

Although the thought of the book of Job is profound, and it deals in a masterly manner with a fundamental human problem, it is more than a mere philosophical discussion.  Its primary aim is to set forth the vital truth that God is not to be found through current theological dogmas or intellectual discussions, but through personal experience.  This is the dominant note throughout the book.  The greatest calamity that overtakes Job in his hour of deepest distress is the sense of being shut away from God’s presence.

Oh! that I knew where I might find him,
That I might come even to his throne!

As he looks back fondly to the happy days of old the fact that stands forth above all others is that

The Almighty was yet with me.

Looking forward to a possible vindication after death his hope centres in the belief that

Thou wouldst call and I myself would answer thee;
Thou wouldst long for the work of thy hands.

When at last Jehovah answered Job out of the storm, it was not so much the thought expressed as the fact that God had spoken directly to him that brought penitence and peace: