Job 42: 1 – 17
You’ll Love The Ending
1 Then Job answered the LORD and said: 2 “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’ 5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” 7 And so it was, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD commanded them; for the LORD had accepted Job. 10 And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold. 12 Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. 15 In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. 17 So Job died, old and full of days.
How many times have you talked with someone about a movie you might be interested in seeing. I think we have all experienced this where the person who we are talking with tells us that they do not want to spoil it for us by telling us about the film. Yet, in addition, to this remark, on some occasions, they have commented that ‘You will love the ending.’ In the book of Ecclesiastes 7:8 we read this, “The end of a thing is better than its beginning; the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit”.
Our Bibles reveal a similar story. Our Holy and Great God created the heavens, the earth, and all that is in them in six days. In reviewing His Creation He said that what He saw was ‘Good’, and ‘Very Good’. Then in His Awesome Grace and Kindness He went up to Adam and said, ‘My son, all this I give to you.” All this good stuff was covered in just two chapters. So, as you know he disobeyed our Holy Maker. In His Love for us our Master then set out to right the wrongs that were done so that we could again have a fellowship and relationship with Him. We learn through 40 selected individuals writing through His guidance how all this came about. The significance for us was the realization that in order for this to happen there must be a blood sacrifice. There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. Since we could not do it on our own, our Lord designated an innocent substitute which was lamb. However, this only served as a temporary forgiveness. To complete this requirement once and for all our Loving and Holy God came to earth and paid the price of our sins by volunteering to give His life for us at the cross. So, when we now get to the final chapters of the book of Revelation, because of His shed blood and death on the cross and resurrection we can rejoice that the end is Great!
The words of Job justifying himself ended in chapter 31. We then read in chapter 40 where Job began judging and condemning himself. Though his patience did not have its perfect work, his repentance for his impatience had. He thoroughly was humbled for his foolishness and unadvised speaking, and it was forgiven him.
When God had said all that to Job concerning His own greatness and power appearing in His creatures, Job answered the Lord. Then, not by way of contradiction (he had promised not so to answer again in chapter 40, but by way of submission.
1 Then Job answered the LORD and said: 2 “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’ 5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Our sinful passions and practices arise either from some corrupt ingrained beliefs or from the neglect and disbelief of the principles of God’s truth; and therefore true repentance begins in the acknowledgement of the truth. Through the loving patience of our Precious Holy Spirit He inspires People to see and own their faults at last, though it may be through some difficulty to bring us all to do this.
Job here owns his wrong views regarding his thoughts, judgment and his foolishness in speaking irreverently about God. He is totally now convinced of the greatness, glory, and perfection of God. He totally accepts the fact that God can do everything. He knew this before, and he spoke very well upon this fact, but now he knew it with application. God had spoken it once, and then he heard it twice, that power belongs to God; and therefore it is the greatest madness and stupidity imaginable to contend with him.
There is no thought of ours that He does not know about. If the thought is sinful or contrary to His purposes he will cause something to stop us in our tracks.
There is no thought of His that he can be hindered from happening, for whatever the Lord desires that He will do and accomplish. Job now sees in his mind with pleasure and satisfaction that God's counsels shall stand. If God's thoughts concerning us be thoughts of good, to give us an unexpected end, He cannot be withheld from accomplishing His gracious purposes, whatever difficulties may seem to lie in the way.
We read in verse 3 that Job now totally acknowledges himself to be guilty of that which God had charged him with
"Lord, You do not need to say anything more. Your truthful words convince me of what is true. I am the man that has been so foolish. Your word reached my conscience, and set my sin in order before me. It is too plain to be denied, too bad to be excused. I have hidden counsel without knowledge. I have ignorantly overlooked the counsels and designs of You my Holy God in my afflictions, and therefore I have quarreled with You my most Holy Supreme God, and insisted too much upon my own justification: Therefore I uttered that which I understood not,' that is, "I have passed a judgment upon the dispensations of Providence, though I was utterly ignorant to the reasons of them.'
Job recognizes how ignorant he is of the divine ways of our Holy God. In truth so are we. God's judgments are a great deep, which we cannot fathom where they sprang from or where they lead to. We see what God does, but we do not know why He does it, what He Is aiming at, or what He will bring about. These are things too wonderful for us, out of our sight to discover, out of our reach to alter, and out of our jurisdiction to judge. So, since these are things which we do not know; wouldn’t you agree that it is quite above our capacity to pass a verdict upon them? The reason why we quarrel with the things that occur in our lives is because we do not understand them; and we must be content to be in the dark about them, until the work of God sees it finish.
In verse 4 we see that Job puts himself into the posture of a penitent. In the book of 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verses 9 and 10 says this, “Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death”.
In true repentance there must be not only conviction of sin, but contrition and godly sorrow for it, sorrow according to God. Such was Job's sorrow for his sins.
Our Great and Holy Father God does not have any grandchildren – only children. I say this because I have observed over many years a lot of families. I have witnessed men and women whose eyes and minds were opened to the knowledge of what a Awesome Real and Living God we have. As a result of their transformation from spiritual death to life, I often see that they want their children also to be Christians. I do not blame them that they do not want to children to follow in their footsteps prior to their salvation. This however does not just happen by sending them to Sunday school every week or even enrolling them in a Christian school. Each child must face and receive personally their own personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In a way Job explains that he also had a mind awareness of God but did not know Him personally. He says, “I have known something of Your greatness, and power, and sovereign dominion; and yet was not brought, by what I heard, to submit myself to You as I should have. The notions I had of these things served me only to talk of you without knowing You personally. But now You have by immediate revelation showed Yourself to me in Your glorious majesty; now my eyes actually see You; now I feel the power of those truths which before I had only the teachings of. I therefore now repent, and plead to correct what I have foolishly said.'
I heard a statement that I know now is true. As a believer in The Lord Jesus Christ we ‘sin less but repent more’. Even if I am not aware of committing any sin, I still feel awful that I hurt my Precious and Loving Lord in my past thoughts, words, and actions. Even though I know that I am forgiven I just feel like a creep for hurting my Wonderful God Who loves me. In reading the Scriptures I find out that I am not alone in these feelings. True penitents mourn for their sins as heartily as ever they did for any outward afflictions, and are in bitterness as for an only son of a first-born, for they are brought to see more evils in their sins than in their troubles.
Self-loathing is evermore the companion of true repentance. The prophet Ezekiel in chapter 6 verse 9 of his book reports, “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.” We must not only be angry at ourselves for the wrong and damage we have by sin done to our own souls, but must abhor ourselves, as having by sin made ourselves odious to the pure and holy God, who cannot endure to look upon iniquity.
7 And so it was, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD commanded them; for the LORD had accepted Job.
We need to take our own inventory not others. Here are some key truths from our Lord in Judging others;
Psalm 82: 2, “How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked? SELAH
Proverbs 31: 9, “Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
Matthew 7: 1 – 2, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged;
Luke 6: 37,” Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
John 7: 24, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
Romans 14: 10, “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ
1 Corinthian 4: 5, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God.
If you were choosing up sides and you got one pick I would say –‘pick God’ because with Him you have won.’ Job had these visitors against him while in fact He had our Holy God on his side. After The Lord had convinced and humbled Job, and brought him to repentance for what he had said amiss, then he owned him in what he had said well, comforted him, and put honor upon him; not till then: for we are not ready for God's approval until we judge and condemn ourselves; but then He that has torn will heal us and He that has smitten will bind us.
Now that Job had humbled himself God exalted him. True penitents shall find favor with God and what they have said and done amiss shall no more be mentioned against them. Then God is well pleased with us when we are brought to abhor ourselves.
Back in chapters 1 we read how our Holy God was bragging about Job. He had said before all the angels, ‘Have you seen my good and righteous servant Job.’ Please take note that He calls him again and again his servant Job, four times in two verses, and he seems to take a pleasure in calling him so,
The devil had undertaken to prove Job a hypocrite, and his friends had condemned him as a wicked man; but God will acknowledge those whom he accepts. Job was in the right, and his friends were in the wrong. Our Holy Father God tells them plainly that they had not spoken of him the thing that was right, like Job, that is, they had censured and condemned Job upon a false hypothesis, had represented God fighting against Job as an enemy when really he was only trying him as a friend.
With the mercy we receive from the Lord we must pass this mercy onto others. He will pass his word for Job that, notwithstanding all the wrong his friends had done him, he is so good a man, and of such a humble, tender, forgiving spirit, that he will very readily pray for them, and use his interest in heaven on their behalf: "My servant Job will pray for you. I know he will. I have pardoned him, and he has the comfort of pardon, and therefore he will pardon you.'
It is not a good thing to find out that our Awesome and Powerful Majestic Holy God Is angry at you. Please notice that He assures them He was angry with them: My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. God Is very angry with those who despise and reproach their brethren, who triumph over them, and judge harshly of them, either for their calamities or for their infirmities. When they spoke amiss, God was angry with them and let them know that he was.
Our Holy Adoni Yahweh orders them to go to Job, and beg of him to offer their sacrifices, and pray for them, otherwise they should not be accepted. By this God designed, to humble them. They thought that they only were the favorites of Heaven and that Job had no interest there; but God gives them to understand that Job had a better interest there than they had, and stood on better soil for God's acceptance than they did.
Another lesson on Holy Lord does here to the men who sinned against Job was to oblige them to make their peace with him, as the condition of their making their peace with God. Scripture teaches us that If a brother in Christ has anything against you (as Job had a great deal against them), first be reconciled to the brother and then come and offer their gift. Satisfaction must first be made for wrong done, before we can hope to obtain from God the forgiveness of sin. Our quarrels with God always begin on our part, but the reconciliation begins on His.
10 And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold. 12 Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. 15 In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. 17 So Job died, old and full of days.
When I was in the army I had this guy in charge of the squad I was in. To be blunt we hated each other. He gave me every crummy assignment possible. Then, I realize now, our Holy Lord arranged for me to change from being the ‘tail’ to being the ‘head’. Our positions were switched. Can you think what I thought to do? I had been dreaming of getting my revenge on this guy. But even though I did not know the Lord at this time I could sense His work in my life. I let the guy off the hook and did not do to him any of the evil he did to me.
Please note our Lord’s action in verse 10. Can you see what our Lord did? The Lord restored Job’s losses ‘when’ he prayed for these three antagonists. We know the end of the story but Job surely didn’t. He forgave these guys who our Holy Lord knew from the heart and words of Job being offered up to Him.
Job’s troubles began with Satan's malice, which God restrained; his restoration began in God's mercy, which Satan could not oppose. Job's sorest complaint, and indeed the sorrowful ache of all his complaints, on which he laid the greatest emphasis, was that God appeared against him. But now God plainly appeared for him, and watched over him
His old acquaintance, neighbors, and relations came back into his life. There are many possibilities why people withdraw from us. I was watching a comedy movie called ‘Dave’. Perhaps you have seen it. Dave looked exactly like an evil American President. This man had a stroke so an evil head advisor encouraged Dave [the look alike] to take his place. It turns out that Dave enjoys being President and doing right so he fires this advisor. This advisor uses the media to accuse Dave of Impeachment offenses. All his friends are out his house watching Dave confess his actions before congress. After admitting guilt Dave pulls out a whole briefcase of documents proving that this advisor was the one behind all the crimes. The scene then flips back to the advisors house where everyone left him alone on his chair totally defeated.
Instead of just words these people put their sincerity into action. They visited Job with all possible expressions of affection and respect. They put honor upon him, in coming to dine with him. They sympathized with him, and showed a tender concern for him, such as become brethren. They wept for his grief, and rejoiced in his joys, and proved not such miserable comforters as his three friends. They put their money where their mouths were, they made a collection among themselves for the repair of his losses and the setting of him up financially again. They did not think it enough to say,’Be warmed, Be filled,’ but gave him such things as would be of use to him
The last days of a good man sometimes prove his best days, his last works his best works, his last comforts his best comforts; for his path, like that of the morning-light, shines more and more to the perfect day. Of a wicked man it is said, His last state is worse than his first, but of the upright man, His end is peace; and sometimes the nearer it is the clearer are the views of it. In respect of outward prosperity God Is pleased sometimes to make the latter end of a good man's life more comfortable than the former part of it has been, and strangely to outdo the expectations of his afflicted people, who thought they should never live to see better days, that we may not despair even in the depths of adversity. We know not what good times we may yet be reserved for in our latter end.
It may yet be well with us, though now it is otherwise. Job, in his affliction, had wished to be as in months past, as rich as he had been before, and quite despaired of that; but God is often better to us than our own fears, even than our own wishes, for Job's possessions were doubled to him; the number of his cattle, his sheep and camels, his oxen and she-asses, is just double here to what it was
His family was built up again, and he had great comfort in his children. The last of his afflictions that are recorded in chapter 1, and the most grievous, was the death of all his children at once. His friends mocked him with it, but God repaired even that breach in process of time.
The number of his children was the same as before, seven sons and three daughters. Some give this reason why they were not doubled as his cattle were, because his children that were dead were not lost, but gone before to a better world; and therefore, if he have but the same number of them, they may be reckoned doubled, for he has two fleeces of children (as we see in the Hebrew word ‘mahanaim’-two hosts, one in heaven, the other on earth.
The names of his daughters are here listed because, in the significations of them, they seemed designed to perpetuate the remembrance of God's great goodness to him in the surprising change of his condition. He called the first Jemima-The day because of the shining forth of his prosperity after a dark night of affliction. The next Kezia means a spice of a very fragrant smell, because God had healed his physical sickness, the smell of which was offensive. The third Keren-happuch (that is Plenty restored, or A horn of paint), because (says he) God had wiped away the tears which fouled his face.
Job’s life was long. What age he was when his troubles came we are nowhere told, but here we are told he lived 140 years, whence some conjecture that he was 70 when he was in his troubles, and that so his age was doubled, as his other possessions.
If you have been studying this book of the bible since chapter 1 then you are quite aware of the many times Job wished to die. The book ends with Job living a full amount of the years our Holy God had written in His book for Job. He was satisfied, for he died full of days, satisfied with living in this world, and willing to leave it; not in desperation, as in the days of his affliction, but longingly waiting to be able to go and be with the Lord forever.
