Job 42

Job 42:1

D. Job’s Humble Response (42:1-6)Job is overwhelmed. He has had enough! He acknowledes the sovereignty of God. He confesses that he has spoken unadvisedly with his lips. Now that he has not only heard the Lord but his eye has seen Him, he hates himself and repents in dust and ashes. He did not see God visually, of course, but he had such a vivid revelation of His wisdom, power, providence, and sovereignty that it was tantamount to a sight of the great God. In Job_1:1 Job is called “blameless.” Here at the end of the book he abhors himself. This has been the experience of the choicest of God’s saints through the ages. The more one grows in grace, writes D. L. Moody, “the meaner he is in his own eyes.”

Job 42:7

V. EPILOGUE: THE TRIUMPH OF JOB (42:7-17)A. Job’s Friends Rebuked and Restored (42:7-9)The LORD then reprimands Eliphaz and his two friends for misrepresenting Him. They had insisted that all suffering is punishment for sin. That was not true in Job’s case. In obedience to the divine command, they then offered a huge burnt offering (seven bulls and seven rams). Job served as mediator by praying for his friends, and as a result judgment on them was averted and Job was accepted.

Job 42:10

B. Job’s Prosperity Restored (42:10-17)42:10-12 As soon as Job prayed for them, the Lord restored in inverse order twice as much as Job had before: twice as many sheep, camels, oxen, and female donkeys. 42:13-17 He also received seven sons and three daughters, which doubled his family, since he presumably still had the first ones in heaven. Job lived an additional one hundred and forty years. The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. So Job died, old and full of days. And in all this, Job had not cursed God as Satan said he would. It is a lovely touch of God’s grace that Job, who had been so hideously disfigured by his disease, after his restoration had daughters who were exceptionally beautiful (fathers love to boast of their lovely daughters!). The meanings of their names are instructive: Jemimah (dove); Keziah (cassia, a fragrant cinnamon bark); and Keren-Happuch (horn of eye-makeup). Job also gave them an inheritance with their brothers, probably not a common practice in the patriarchal era. VI. CONCLUSION: LESSONS FROM THE BOOK OF JOBActually, the mystery of human suffering is not fully explained. As Wesley Baker puts it: When the end of the Book of Job comes, there is no answer written out. There is nothing there that would satisfy the logical mind! However, we can be sure of these two facts: First of all, Job’s suffering was not a direct result of his personal sin. God testified that he was a perfect and an upright man (Job_1:8). Also, God said that the reasoning of Job’s three friendsthat God was punishing him because of his sinswas not right (Job_42:8). Secondly, although Job was not suffering because he had sinned, yet his trials did reveal pride, self-justification, and animosity in his heart. He was not delivered until he had a vision of his own nothingness and of God’s greatness (Job_42:1-6), and until he prayed for his friends (42:10). Some of the lessons we learn about suffering from the Book of Job are:

1. The righteous are not exempt from suffering.
2. Suffering is not necessarily a result of sin.
3. God has set a protective hedge around the righteous.
4. God does not send sickness or suffering. It comes from Satan (Luk_13:16; 2Co_12:7).
5. Satan has some control in the realm of wicked men (the Sabeans and Chaldeans), supernatural disasters (fire from heaven), weather (a great wind), sickness (the boils on Job), and death.
6. Satan can bring these things on a believer only by God’s permission.
7. What God permits, He often is said to do. “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”
8. We should view things as coming from the Lord, by His permission, and not from Satan. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.”
9. God does not always explain the reason for our suffering.
10. Suffering develops endurance.
11. In visiting suffering saints, we should not be judgmental.
12. We should make our visits brief.
13. Human reasonings aren’t helpful. Only God can comfort perfectly.
14. At the end of the Book of Job we see that “the Lord is very compassionate and merciful” (Jam_5:11). We also learn that sometimes, at least, wrongs are made right in this life.
15. Job’s patience in suffering vindicated God.
16. Job’s patience proved Satan to be a false accuser and liar.
17. “A man is greater than the things that surround him and, whatever may befall his possessions or his family, God is just as truly to be praised and trusted as before.”
18. We should be careful about making blanket statements that do not allow for exceptions.
19. Satan is neither omnipresent, omnipotent, nor omniscient.
20. In spite of God’s allowing unmerited suffering, He is still just and good. From other parts of the Bible, we get further light on some of the reasons why God allows His saints to suffer:
21. Sometimes it is a result of unjudged sin in the life (1Co_11:32).
22. It is a means by which God develops spiritual graces, such as patience, longsuffering, humility (Rom_5:3-4; Joh_15:2).
23. It purges dross or impurities from the believer’s life so that the Lord can see His image reflected more perfectly (Isa_1:25).
24. It enables the child of God to comfort others with the same type of comfort with which God comforted him or her (2Co_1:4).
25. It enables the saint to share in the non-atoning sufferings of the Savior and thus to be more grateful to Him (Phi_3:10).
26. It is an object lesson to beings in heaven and on earth (2Th_1:4-6). It shows them that God can be loved for Himself alone, and not just because of the favors He bestows.
27. It is an assurance of sonship since God only chastens those whom He loves (Heb_12:7-11).
28. It causes saints to trust in God alone and not in their own strength (2Co_1:9).
29. It keeps God’s people close to Himself (Psa_119:67).
30. It is a pledge of future glory (Rom_8:17-18).
31. God never allows us to be tempted above what we are able to bear (1Co_10:13). “You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lordthat the Lord is very compassionate and merciful” (Jam_5:11 b).