Job 42 Job Responds to the Lord
“Then Job replied to the Lord: “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. You said, ‘Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’ I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”
Conclusion: The Lord Blesses Job
After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has. So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did as the Lord commanded them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before! Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends came and feasted with him in his home. And they consoled him and comforted him because of all the trials the Lord had brought against him. And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.
So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters. He named his first daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land no women were as lovely as the daughters of Job. And their father put them into his will along with their brothers. Job lived 140 years after that, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.
“I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” As soon as Job repents of having accused God and complained about Him, God forgives him. If parts of the Book of Job are tedious, this chapter is absolutely satisfying! It’s kind of like the old cartoons where the hero knocks out the bad guys. WHAM! God deals with Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad! “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has. So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did as the Lord commanded them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
ZAP!!! Next, once Job prays for these self-styled friends who have made his life so miserable, God restores Job’s fortunes. “In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before! Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends came and feasted with him in his home. And they consoled him and comforted him because of all the trials the Lord had brought against him. And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.” Where were all these relatives when Job was suffering? Were they remaining at a distance for fear that Job’s misfortune would rub off on them? It’s certainly suspicious that these people only showed up once Job was healed and wealthy again. And why the gifts now? Have these people decided that God must be favoring Job and therefore they too want to enjoy God’s favor? Watching all this, God must be snickering.
It’s significant that God totally ignores Elihu, the Johnny-come-lately adviser, despite all Elihu’s protestations of wisdom and insight. Obviously, God doesn’t even consider Elihu worthy of consideration, a fact that would concern Elihu if he weren’t already fixated on himself as the center of his own intellectual universe.
Eventually, Job has seven sons, three gorgeous daughters, and lives 140 years, long enough to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. One can’t ask more a more satisfactory conclusion to the story.
Not all stories of suffering end as positively as does Job’s. Live long enough and you will suffer yourself or have friends and family members who suffer. But there are many enduring lessons from the Book of Job:
- Patience in physical suffering-In a single day, Job loses his wealth, his children, his animals, and most of his servants. As a caring master, learning of the deaths of his servants would have been devastating enough without any of these other losses. But to top it all off, Job develops some kind of septic rash compounded by neuralgia, leaving him feeling as if his entire body is being consumed by fire ants.
- Patience in emotional suffering-When all these losses hit, Job might turn to his wife for comfort; however, his wife urges him to “curse God and die!” Clearly, Job’s wife is hoping that he will simply go ahead and die, leaving her free to marry someone else with better prospects. This statement is the only mention we have of Job’s wife, and we don’t know whether she remains with Job throughout his trials. We do know that Job eventually fathers 10 more children, but we don’t know the identity of their mother.
- Patience while losing support from family-when all Job’s calamities hit, Job’s family pull back, perhaps believing that bad luck is catching and that anyone remaining close to Job will suffer a fate similar to his. Not until God restores Job’s fortunes does his family belatedly show up.
- Patience with self-styled comforters more interested in promoting themselves than in actually assuaging Job’s sufferings-The Book of Job devotes most of its time to the lectures, arguments, and accusations of those “friends” who flock to Job. Despite grieving silently with Job for seven days and nights, these men feel eminently qualified to lecture Job about a God whom he knows better than they do. Although Job bends all his efforts at refuting their arguments and accusations, he never orders these men to leave, nor does he resort to violence. In the end, God appears in a whirlwind, speaking with a voice of thunder, to justify Job and condemn three of the men for failing to represent Him honestly. God ignores a fourth man who appears late and confines himself to worthless meandering speeches about God’s greatness.
Throughout all Job’s trials, he remains patient, and that patience is the lesson we should learn from Job. We have no control over our circumstances, and natural disasters such as floods, fires, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and land slides may hit at any moment. We can wake up one morning to find ourselves besieged by physical problems such as rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, cancer, etc. We cannot control any of these things; however, we can remain true to God and what we know of Him. We can continue to praise God in the midst of our trials. And we can continue to hope that the same God who restored Job will comfort us, strengthen us, and give us “songs in the night.”
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to follow hard after You, even when things are difficult, knowing that You are the Source of our hope and our joy. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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