Job 42:1-17
Epilogue of Job
1 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.
John 16:33
In This World We Will Have Troubles
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
God is Provident over the world...God is the One in control...God can intervene in the universe and world at anytime, but He seems not to want intervene (or at least to intervene in the lives of others very often...At least that is the way it seems to me about pain and suffering...And in the Book of Job, we see God actually intervening and allowing the evil one to cause Job much, much, pain and hardship...God allows the evil one to come into Job’s life and make a mess of it, and cause Job much grief and trouble...And when trouble happens we sometimes draw this straight line to God and to something we have done...Did we sin and do something wrong and is God disciplining me?...Job’s friends certainly thought this, but God tells us in the end that Job’s friends are wrong it is Job who was right and spoke the truth...God said Eliphaz and his two friends did not speak the truth about linking sin with one who is good and has done good...
Belief and faith gets tested, when our troubles are at their peak in our lives...Life can become chaotic and unraveled in these times, yet Job endured...When we can only see the troubles we can become self-absorbed and find it difficult to see that God is in control...In the end, and as we read the end of Job maybe God is telling us that yes, He is in control and things do happen in our lives, yet God is there controlling all things both good and evil...In this life we will have hardships and troubles...But in the end of Job, goodness endures and in the story of Job goodness makes its comeback even with all the hardships along the way, as Job clung on to His Redeemer and God...