But now my eye has seen you and I disown what I have said. How we wish all stories will have an ending like Job’s! How we wish that our protests at our innocence end up being vindicated the way Job’s was! But there is only one thing Job did that we are not quick to do: he acknowledged that he had irresponsibly questioned God’s justice. Upon hearing what God had to say, Job swallowed the bitter pill that humility is and repented of the words that he had uttered. 
In his answer, Job confessed that he had only heard of God by word of mouth but had never beheld God. He must have heard about God from the Scriptures, but had never encountered God. Although not necessarily the norm, it took him living through a storm for his eyes to be opened. As he dealt with misfortune after misfortune that befell him, as he listened to his friends taunt him and call him a liar, and as he searched the depths of his being for answers, Job came face to face with God. And it was an encounter that opened his eyes to who God is, and his ears to what God had to say. 
While God does speak to us from without (Scripture, prophets and teachers), it is not until we retreat to the depths of our beings that we can clearly hear and understand what God says. There are so many distractions out there that make it difficult to discern God’s voice from other distractive voices. Even though God was not speaking to Job through his three friends, their voices distracted Job to the point of Job buying into their school of thought and questioning God’s justice. May we learn to always walk away from the voices that distract us so that we can listen to the life-giving words of God.