He had a high self esteem, self importance or self righteousness. It is true that he did not sin against God (since he refused his wife's advice to curse God), but his self was highly charged. He wondered why God had "denied him justice" (Job 27:2). He still believed that he was somebody important. He knew he was good, but forgot that the true goodness is that which is instilled in us by God through his Spirit. Job's self righteousness is seen in his speech. Sample this: in just 5 verses (Job 27:2-6) he uses fifteen times the pronouns I, my and me, and over forty times in the 29th chapter. Job speech portrays how unjustly he has been afflicted (Job 19:5-11), how innocent he is, and therefore how unjust the heavenly Master has become. Here is something to learn: unless one realizes how insignificant he or she is in the universe, compared to the great and marvelous works of the Almighty, and unless one discovers how dependent he or she is to that mighty Creator, no step can be made towards sanctity.
When God starts speaking, Job realizes how insignificant he was compared to the great works he had done. Chapters 38 to 41 show God deflating not only Job's but actually all human self righteousness. In this chapters God describes a few of his works, and soon man realizes how ignorant he is about the greatness of the works of God. This is exactly what Job does in chapter 42. He acknowledges his insignificance- he is just dust and ashes. That became his surrender to the almighty God, a surrender that all human beings must achieve if true conversion has to take place and if God's purpose in their lives is to be revealed and realized. In other words, unless the self has died to allow the almighty to rule, sanctity is not possible, though salvation may be possible due to God's mercy and love. It is only through self humbling that one can accept all that happens to him as coming from the loving Father, who has a great plan for everything that takes place.
Man is created to need God! He cannot live his full life, fulfill his mission or be happy unless he keeps himself in his right relationship with God. He has to realize how helpless and hopeless he is without the Creator. Man has to realize how dependent he is on God, for this is the first step to accepting God to be all in all. This is the first lesson that man needs to learn and keep in mind, if he has to be fruitful in his existence.
In the experience of suffering, Job was humbled, his ego deflated and his self pride removed. It hurt to have these things torn out of his character, but the suffering brought repentance, surrender to God, dependence upon God and the filling with the Spirit of God. This gave him the security of faith in God and, hence, the happiness which comes from an indubitable reliance in the supreme abundance. This is the lesson we are called to learn from Job: that we are very insignificant beings in the relation to the created universe, only that God has decided to uplift us. This fact is also repeated by the psalmist when he says:
"…what is man that you should care for him… You have made him almost as a god,… crowned him with glory and honour…" (Psalm 8).
Job therefore reminds us a centuries' old lesson: that we are called to live every day for God. To realize that without the Creator, we vanish, and therefore we have a responsibility to conform our lives to his will. Like Job we have to put our self-righteous away, if God is to exalt. In addition, as Christians and missionaries who know their duty to continue propagating the mission of Christ, we also have a duty to do whatever is in our capacity to reduce the agony of the many people who are suffering innocently due to various social injustices. That is the only way we can give meaning to the whole mission of Christ: service and compassion, and in deed the only way we can manifest our discipleship to Christ (Cf. Jn. 13:35)
