Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job 42 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

42 Then Job answered the Lord and said,

² “I know that You can do all things,
And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
³ ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
⁴ ‘Hear, now, and I will speak;
I will ask You, and You instruct me.’
⁵ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You;
⁶ Therefore I retract,
And I repent in dust and ashes.”

⁷ It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because 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, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do 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 told them; and the Lord accepted Job.

God Restores Job’s Fortunes

¹⁰ The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. ¹¹ Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. ¹² The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. ¹³ He had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. ¹⁵ In all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. ¹⁶ After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. ¹⁷ And Job died, an old man and full of days.

Many people look at the account of Job and see the difficulties he faced. They come away with a view of God as an oppressive, punishing God. In truth, the story of Job is a story of restoration. While there are more chapters and verses dealing with Job’s suffering, the account of Job ends saying:   The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold… The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning… After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. And Job died, an old man and full of days.  There is an important truth early in the account of Job. In Job 1:21, after losing all that he had, Job said:  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”    It is important that we too would praise God, not just because of what He has done for us, that our praise and blessing of Him is conditional upon His blessing us, but rather we should praise Him and bless His name because He is God and no matter what our circumstance, He is worthy of praise.

It was not sin that caused the difficulties and trials which Job faced. In Job 1:8, God said of Job:  “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”   God also did not cause all of Job’s hardship. It was Satan, who was given some power on earth through the curse of sin, who caused Job’s trouble. It wasn’t Job’s sin which brought about his difficulties, but it was his repentance which brought about his restoration. In today’s text, seeing God, hearing Him, Job said:  “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; I repent in dust and ashes.”    For us, our restoration comes not in seeing God the Father, but in seeing Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus says: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (John 14:9-11)   Like Job, we may have difficulties and trials in this world. In John 16:33 Jesus says: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”   Through Christ we too can overcome the difficulties, the trials and tribulation we face in the world.

Like Job, our difficulties are not caused by God. Jesus says:   “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)  Our difficulties, Like Job’s, are caused by the effects of the curse of sin. The devil wants to steal, kill and destroy, but in and through Jesus we have abundant life. Romans 6:28-29 says:  We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.  That’s the thing about the restoration of God; Job was restored twofold. He had twice as much as He had before. The restoration of God does not just give us what we had. It doesn’t just return us to what we were. The restoration of God makes us better, gives us more. We are restored to the image of Christ, restored to who and what God created us to be, when He said:  “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

Again, Job was restored two fold, he had twice as much as he had before. In Matthew 19:29 Jesus says: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”   This promise though is not for those who have had things taken from them. God will indeed restore us and restore things to us through Christ. But the promise of Jesus in Matthew 19:29 is for those who choose to follow Him and give up what they have in this world. To those who choose Christ, there is abundance and blessing. We become His brethren. We become children of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. All that God has is our through Christ our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, the One who restores us.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit for restoration. Blessed be the name of the Lord.    Amen.