God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Job 42:1-17
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.
Job suffered so much after the evil one entered his life..Job hung on and endured and made it through his sufferings...And he got to hear and experience God...
When God spoke to Job it seems that Job at that moment accepts his pain and suffering...When we are able to accept all the aspects and experiences of our lives, the pains and the sufferings, the good times, the ups as well as the downs, then we can better see joy...Job seems to acknowledge that all his life's experiences, the good as well as the bad after feeling God's Presence...Job says "My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You...Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."...When we accept all of life and acknowledge all of our experiences, then contentment and joy are close to us...
Suffering can at times give us valuable lessons...By enduring and keeping his faith, Job got to meet God...By believing and experiencing suffering and going through this suffering God came to see him from out of the Great Storm...Job got to meet God...This would be the thrill of his lifetime...And after he met God, Job was reborn and renewed...Job would live again, because of God...All the suffering would be an experience Job, no likely, would never forget...This suffering experience gave him lessons in life...And though there is much problem with pain, Job would get to meet God because of his suffering and faith...Job seems almost emptied from his suffering...Job was reaching or had reached the bottom...God and His LOVE then fills Job again...God's LOVE gave him a closeness to God, that he had never before experienced...That is what we want in love, and the one's we love...We want those we love to be close and intimate with us...God's LOVE filled all of Job's voids...God's LOVE and His Presence has answered all of Job's questions...LOVE, God's LOVE can do that...
Job's life now reborn, would now meet God and His Father would now renew and make Job's earthly life better...The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more and greater than his earlier life...Job had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys...And he also had seven sons and three daughters...The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch...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...After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation...And so Job died, an old man and full of years...
Through all of his now entire life, Job had gotten something from the LOVE of God...But Job had something more than his livestock and even his family...Job had kept his faith, and got to feel an Infinite Presence, the Infinite Presence...Suffering is not always pretty...We sometimes say things when we suffer we do not mean...Through his suffering, Job kept the faith...Job felt the LOVE of His Father...That feeling, that particular joy will last forever...