Chapter 42 Summary - Job Repents and Is Restored to Health and Blessing

 

God enlightens Job’s understanding of who He is. Job is awestruck at the power and wisdom of God. He said, “I know You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You (vs. 2).  Job understood that his words against the Lord were uttered in sheer ignorance. Once Job encountered God personally (through a whirlwind), he despised himself. He humbly repented in dust and ashes (vs. 6).  God told Eliphaz that He was angry with him along with Bildad and Zophar because they did not speak what was right regarding Him. In order for the Lord not to chasten these three men, they had to offer seven bulls and seven rams, go to Job so he could pray for them, and that God would atone their sin. Once Job interceded for them, God restored and healed him and gave him twice as much as he had before (vs. 7-11).  God blessed Job with ten children again – seven sons and three daughters. The Lord gave him 140 more years and he died at a good old age.

Del’s Commentary: Job was the target in this epic drama. We like Job are guilty of the same foolish accusations against the Lord. We charge God with wrong when we do not understand why our lives are falling apart. It is never God’s fault – even if He is the one that is causing the affliction in our lives. As bad as Job’s life became, it was good that God decided to afflict him. Would Job learned the ways of the Lord better had his life remained easy without any pain? No. God saw fit to take everything away from Job - bring him to the point of complete despair so that He could encounter His servant, rebuke him for his unwise words and set him straight. Job learned his lessons well, repented of his sins and was blessed with twice as much as had before. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar also had their sins atoned for once Job prayed and interceded for them.

What do we learn from Job’s story? Job said it best. God can do whatever He wants to do. Any purpose He has determined will happen (Psalm 115:3; Isaiah 46:9-10). The plan to afflict Job and have him suffer was predetermined, by God. It was the will of God to afflict Job (Isaiah 53:10). The Lord used Satan as his instrument of affliction against Job. Now from the human perspective this seems unfair. Why would God harm a man whom He declared was righteous – none like him in all the earth? Job feared God and avoided evil. Shouldn’t he always be blessed and not suffer wrong? Remember, we are God’s clay. The Clay Maker always has the right to mold and shape the clay to any form He chooses. The biggest mistake I believe Job made was that he at some point believed God had abandoned him and had become his enemy (chapters 6 and 30). This was Job putting words in God’s mouth and thinking for Him – a mistake all humans make about God. God never told Job why he suffered so much. He encountered His servant to provide him a greater revelation of himself. This gave Job a renewed awe and worshipful fear of the Almighty. It also revealed to him his own sinfulness on a greater level.

So, when we are in great despair, we should go to the man Job and learn from him.  Pray that God would encounter us and hopefully provide us answers to our questions – not in the way that we desire, but in the way, God has already determined how He will answer us. Wait on the Lord.

The Christ in Job

Job is a type of Christ in that he suffered pain although He was innocent. Jesus Christ was also put to grief by the Father (italics added for emphasis). We read in Isaiah 53:4-6, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God (emphasis added) and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep has gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has the laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Jesus is infinitely better than Job in that He suffered having no sin. Point being is that God is just if He sees fit to put us through a season of grief in this life. It is not because He hates us. He has decided that He would use the mechanism of trials to perfect us and strengthen our faith in the Lord (James 1:2-8; 1 Peter 1:1-6). That is what He did with Job. Job’s friends missed that entirely and incorrectly assumed Job needed to repent of sins he committed.