Have you considered my servant Job? is a memorable question found in the first chapter of the book bearing his name. There is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil (Job 1:8). He, too, would meet the Holy God.

The story is familiar, but I want you to see something fascinating. God gives his suffering servant what he asks for… an answer. More than that, a revelation.

God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniquity? Does not he see my ways and number all my steps? Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! (30:19-20, 31:3-4, 35)

First, God puts things in their proper order.

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind (38:1). It is not what others say but what God says about Himself that matters: Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding (38:2-4).

The moral of the story comes next. In the midst of his misery and heartache, God desires to and does draw near to Job.

He got his wish. God answered him. What is his reaction? Reminiscent of Isaiah’s man of unclean lips comment, Job says, I lay my hand on my mouth (Job 40:4). More than that, like Isaiah, he comes undone: I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes (42:5-6).

Don’t miss the key idea: “I had heard, but now I see.”

His encounter with the Holy was an illuminating experience; his spiritual eyes were opened. He saw God for who he is. In this light, his response makes sense. Like Isaiah and Habakkuk, Job comes in contact with the holiness of the Most High: I am unworthy (40:4), he says. The Hebrew word translated as ‘unworthy’ can also mean ‘small’ or ‘insignificant’. When you measure your stature by the Holy One of Israel, you are indeed a microscopic speck. You fade from view. You are small and unworthy, ignoble and insignificant.

The encounter leads to his confession: I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted (42:2). Job’s response was to repent and start over: “You are God, and you alone are holy. I turn from my presumptuousness in challenging you. I acknowledge and accept your sovereignty in my life, even if it includes the calamities and hardships I have gone through.” How many of us are willing to make that statement?

In the lives of Isaiah, Habakkuk, and Job, we see a pattern emerge. Their transformative encounters lead to a fuller, more Hebraic understanding of faith. In a word, they became more faithful. His holiness did not separate them from him, but set them apart for him. Their coming undone led to being empowered for greater service. Because He is faithful, they will be faithful even amidst trials and trouble. They may be insignificant to the world around them, but they are significant to him.

Faithfulness in adversity is a message for every disciple and one that the church desperately needs to hear.

“But that is the Old Testament,” I hear some say. If by that you mean the Bible of Jesus and his earliest disciples, yes. If by that you mean God has changed, no! Turn with me to Luke, chapter 5.

On this particular occasion, the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God (5:1). Being on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat (5:3). Imagine that, the wonder of hearing the Son teach his Father’s Word.

Then the carpenter from Nazareth does something unexpected. He tells the seasoned fisherman Simon, who had recently finished cleaning the nets from a laborious, unsuccessful night of fishing, to “go back out.” You know the story: Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink (5-7)

All who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. To witness the power of God is astonishing.

Yet something else is going on here.

It is something we have seen consistently throughout this study: But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” In an instant, Peter had his spiritual eyes opened to the identity of this itinerant rabbi, the one he already appropriately and deferentially called Master. In this man, he encountered the Holy One of Israel.

Peter was overcome and undone. And his life would never be the same: Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”