After
more than four years, more than 100,000 words and 69 blog posts/chapters (this
being the 70th), we have come to the end of the remarkable Old
Testament book of Job. (And the title of this blog, “Conversations from the Ash
Heap”? I really need to change that
sometime J)
I
have alluded to this before, but when Chuck Swindoll announced that that
particular Sunday would be the last of his sermon series on the book of Job,
the congregation stood and applauded. They
did it good naturedly of course with a lot of respect and love for their pastor.
So I am sure there may be some out there in Internetland standing and applauding
as we come to the end of this series (and some may even be muttering, “Jeepers,
its about time he gets off maggots and misery!”).
In
the first portion of this last chapter we learned that Job was healed and his
“captivity was turned” (his misfortunes were reversed) and that he was given
double of what he had before.
Job
has passed the test. He didn’t pray for his friends in order to get off the ash
heap – he simply obeyed (unaware of the consequences of his prayer), and he was
healed and restored because of his faith. And God didn’t reward him with a
double portion because of some divinely mandated mathematical formula – God
poured out His blessings out of love and grace.
Gerald H. Wilson says in his commentary on Job that “the restoration, in
a sense, resets the clock back to the pre-test situation.”
42:11 “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.”
Verse
11 begins with “Then…” Job needed “when”
friends – people that would have stuck it out with him and his wife “when” Job’s
world fell apart in chapters one and two. Instead, he found himself surrounded
by “then” people – those that came running in after things began looking up.
Hartley translates “those who had known him before” as
“former close friends.” Keil and
Delitzsch write, “Prosperity now
brought those together again whom calamity had frightened away; for
the love of men is scarcely anything but a number of coarse or delicate shades
of selfishness...Now they all come and rejoice at Job's prosperity…in
order to bask therein. He, however, does not thrust them back…they are his
guests again…and now their tongues, that were halting thus far, are all at once
become eloquent: they mingle congratulations and comfort with their expressions
of sorrow at his past misfortune. It is
now an easy matter that no longer demands their faith.”
“…for the love of
men is scarcely anything but a number of coarse or delicate shades of
selfishness…” That’s a statement that
cuts you to the very core.
The
pain of Job’s isolation is over. The
willingness of Job to welcome back those that had so maliciously accused and
abandoned him gives us another glimpse into the breadth of this man’s
character.
42:12 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.
Barnes
notes that this new-found prosperity of Job’s did not happen all at once, but was
accumulated throughout the remaining 140 years of his life. But Adam Clarke
thinks that the opposite happened: that Job’s wealth increased rapidly as each friend and family member brought him
something.
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.
God knew that
without children, all of Job’s wealth and life would be meaningless. Trapp writes, “Wealth would not be comfortable
to Job unless he had children to leave it to.”
We are not sure why they are singled out, but our hero’s
daughters received a special place of honor. And there names were not without
significance: Jemimah meant “Turtledove” or “Day-bright,” Keziah meant “Cinnamon” or “Cassia,” (a fragrant scent), and Keren-Happuch meant “A Jar of Eye Paint” or “Horn
of Beauty” (the idea was that she was so beautiful that she needed no
cosmetics).
They
were women of unparalleled beauty and grace.
42:16 After this, Job lived 140 years, and
saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations.
The
number 140 plays a prominent role in Genesis – Abraham was 140 when Isaac
married, Jacob was 140 when he returned to Canaan ,
and the sum of the squares of the numbers 1-7 equals 140! (Does anyone find
that fascinating besides me? :>))
And
it could be that, as his material wealth was doubled, so the remaining years of
his life were also doubled. Some conjecture that at the start of this trial Job
was 70 years old and he lived another 140 years after that (2 X 70) to the ripe
old age of 210!
42:17 And
Job died, an old man and full of days.
Remember
the sense of gloom and despair that surrounded these cries of Job in chapters
three and ten? “Why did I not die at
birth, come forth from the womb and expire?” (3:11) “I wish I had been carried
from the womb to the tomb!” (10:19 ).
But now
weigh those thoughts against the last verse of this book…” Then he died, an old man who had lived a
long, full life.” (NLT) The word
“full” in verse 17 is literally “sated” or “stuffed.” Job died “stuffed with days.” Isn’t that a fitting way to end this
book? Job, who for so long endured
unimaginable physical, emotional and spiritual pain, died totally satisfied
with life – he was stuffed with days! The
narrative of Job comes to an end not in suffering, but in satisfaction.
Job
persevered through untold adversity.
Putting one foot in front of another when you have no idea where the
path is going takes faith, stamina and great endurance. God may be saying to you, in your seemingly
hopeless situation, “Stick it out! Don’t
give up!“ Here is James 5:11 from The Message, “What a gift life is to those
who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you
know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That’s because God
cares, cares right down to the last detail.”
Epilogue: “We all have Job’s God”
We
are never told that Job was ever told about the contest that took place in
chapters one and two. But I am sure Job did eventually find out about those
heavenly courtroom scenes, the questions that God put to Satan, and the
double-dare that Satan threw back at Jehovah.
Maybe Job and his wife, after he began to feel better, stopped by Barnes
and Noble at the local mall whereupon Mrs. Job remarked, “Hey look honey! This new best seller…why it’s the story about
your trial! Let’s get a copy!"
Actually,
I think one of the first things that Job did when he got out of the hospital
was that he went to each of his employee’s families and cried with them and
assured them that he would take care of all of their needs.
Job was
sick. His family was gone and his life lay
in ruins. It was there on the dusty,
dirty plains of Uz where the “Why?” was never expounded. It was there that the
Divine Mystery was so roughly handled by the Eliphaz crowd of Job’s day. And yet out of this wreckage Jehovah appeared
and brought total healing and satisfaction to Job. Job’s restoration touched every facet of his
life – he was healed physically, emotionally, socially, but most importantly he
was healed spiritually. It was the sense
of the presence of God – the Presence that his heart so agonizingly craved –
that finally brought a sense of “OK, I don’t need to know the why…I just need
to know Him!”
As
Keil and Delitzsch put it, “He bows beneath the enshrouded mystery.”
I obviously
still have a lot of questions about some of the issues that are presented to us
in this book. But despite those
questions I have come away with a greater sense of the majesty and the terrible
beauty of God. In the midst of chaos,
heartbreak and darkness, God isn’t alarmed and His plan for us is still on
course. I need to know that. When life gets difficult and you can hardly
see through the tears, I need to know that.
Charles Spurgeon wrote, “We are not all like Job, but we all have Job’s God. Though we
have neither risen to Job’s wealth, nor will, probably, ever sink to Job’s
poverty, yet there is the same God above us if we be high, and the same God
with his everlasting arms beneath us if we be brought low; and what the Lord
did for Job he will do for us, not precisely in the same form, but in the same
spirit, and with like design.”
