Job 42:10–12 ESV

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

Job’s Restoration and Ours

Prayer

We need to remember the U-Shape pattern of the book of Job.

Job began at a position of exaltation.

We have watched him at his worst.

But now we’re watching him move to a position of exaltation.

Life as a Movie

I’ve been working through the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan and in it he gives a really good example.

He says that if life were a movie, we often believe that we are the lead character.

We believe that we are the main character.

The problem is that God is the main character in the drama of Scripture.

We have a disproportionate understanding of our role in the movie.

When we think of ourselves as the lead character, we have a lopsided approach to Scripture.

We begin to approach the book of Job specifically, as though it’s ultimately a book about human suffering.

Or worse it that it’s book about us.

The profound reality, though is that the book is ultimately about God.

The way God answers Job by revealing his character is just more evidence of the fact that the book is fundamentally about God.

Job’s reversal reveals a blameless sufferer’s vindication, which foreshadows the ultimate sufferer’s vindication, which is our own.

Now we looked at verses 1-6 of chapter 42 last week, but I want us to be reminded of them again here.

God showed Job how he was going to deal with evil.

God was going to decisively deal with death and Satan himself.

Repentance

“Looking Up at God” (Job 42:1-6)

Job 42:1–2 ESV

Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

He acknowledges that no purpose of Gods can be stopped.

He thought he understood before, but now realizes he did not.

Job 42:3 ESV

‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

He did not understand what God was doing before because it was too wonderful for him.

Job 42:4–5 ESV

‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;

Job acknowledges that before it was as though he heard him vaguely from a friend.

He had heard of God from “the friends.”

He had heard of God from traditions.

He had heard of God from the world around him.

But NOW he has “seen” Him.

Now the seeing that Job is describing here is not just a seeing with the eyes, it is a seeing that is to be taken up with.

Taken Up

“From Hearing to Seeing”

Job is experiencing an entirely different understanding of who God is.

I want to be careful here because it would be very easy for us to read this book and know what is about to happen to Job.

We have a picture of Job’s situation that he was not privy to.

Job did not know that God was going to restore double his possessions.

I don’t want us to have the notion in our mind the Job is repenting to get something from God.

If we think this then we will affirm what Satan has said of Job.

Job is repenting because he has been confronted by God and in his suffering God is all that he has.

Humility

“Repenting in Dust and Ashes”

Job 42:6 ESV

therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job is acknowledging that he has spoken wrongly of God.

He admits that he has spoken wrongly of God.

It’s at this moment, I want to pause and consider what Job has in his present suffering.

Like I said, he doesn’t know that God is about to doubly bless him.

He is not aware that God is going to give him everything he’s lost two fold.

At this moment, Job is satisfied.

He is not satisfied because of the material blessing.

He is not satisfied because his family has returned.

He is not satisfied because God has given him goodies.

Rather, he is satisfied because God has revealed to him His character.

Piercing Leviathan: God’s Defeat of Evil in the Book of Job ‘Now My Eye Sees You’: Job’s Second Response (42:1–6)

This means that, without anything in his life improving, Job now says he is comforted over the same suffering that drove him to such desperate extremes before.

Nothing in his life has changed.

He is still sitting on the ash heap, but God has come near.

The only change that has happened to Job is in reference to His relationship to God.

The only change is that he knows GOD better than he did.

It’s at this point I want us to deal with what James tells us about Job.

James 5:10–11 ESV

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

James tells us to see Job as an example of perseverance.

Job’s exemplary perseverance reveals us of our greatest need.

Job was NOT going to let go of God until the Lord responded to him.

Our greatest need is to see God for who He is.

Our greatest need is to behold as 2 Corinthians 4:4-6

2 Corinthians 4:4–6 ESV

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Now we are going to see the Lord turn and address the friends...

Rebuke

“God Corrects the Friends” (Job 42:7-9)

Job 42:7 (ESV)

After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends...

When we see God, rebuking the friends, we should be very careful to think that we are not like them.

Like I mentioned, at the beginning, we often have a tendency to put ourselves at the center of the story, and especially in the hero position.

We read the book of Job and we immediately assume that we are like Job.

We assume that the friends represent, all those “haters”.

To read this book correctly is to glean wisdom from these friends.

It’s to caution us in the way that we speak to people when they suffer.

And what we see here at the end with God rebuking the friends is the final warning to someone who speaks like these friends.

The warning is that God will one day come and rebuke, all of these friends.

All those who speak a worldly wisdom will be rebuked.

But notice what God says of Job...

Correct Speech

“As My Servant Job”

Job 42:7 ESV

After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

How can God say that Job has spoken rightly of him?

We have just watched God, correct Job, and Job repent.

So how does it make sense that God can say Job has spoken well of him?

The answer to this is really the answer of the whole book of Job.

The friends have asserted God’s justice is only retributive.

Basically that when you put good in you get good out, and vice versa.

But Job has articulated a more nuanced understanding of God’s justice.

He hasn’t given into the pressure of the friends and admitted that he was in error.

As one author said…

Piercing Leviathan: God’s Defeat of Evil in the Book of Job ‘Job Spoke Rightly about Me’: Job’s Vindication (vv. 7–9)

Apparently YHWH would rather have someone struggle and endure in a relationship with him than take refuge in perfect theories that reduce God to more familiar dimensions.

God has been VERY gracious with Job here.

But God has also been extremely kind to the friends.

Before any of them considered to seek the Lord’s forgiveness.

God is the ONE who comes near to them.

God is the ONE who “takes the initiative.”

God is the ONE who wants the friends to be restored.

But notice what He will require of the friends...

Job 42:7–8 (ESV)

“My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

Offering

“Have Job Pray for You”

God warns the friends that he is angry with them, and they should repent.

But the only way he will receive them is if they go to Job and have him pray for them.

James tells us that Job serves as an example of perseverance.

But Job also serves a prophetic function in these last chapters.

He is prophetic because he stands as the mediator between the friends and God.

This mediatory position that Job stands in is a foretaste of the mediatory role that the Lord Jesus will one day fulfill.

Job serves as an example, but he chiefly serves as a prophetic witness to the need for humanity to be reconciled to god.

The way God tells the friends that he will receive them is through Job’s prayer for them.

It’s in this moment that we remember the Lord Jesus.

His words in the garden of Gethsemane.

When he prays in John 17 not simply for his disciples on earth at the time, but for all those who will believe one day.

This is why we call John 17 Jesus is high, priestly prayer.

John 17:20–21 ESV

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Consider this Christian....

Before you ever considered coming near to Christ.

Before you ever were born or thought of.

Before you ever made a decision to follow Christ.

CHRIST prayed for you.

Notice what happens though in verse 9....

Job 42:9 ESV

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

Accepted

“On Job’s Behalf”

Job acted as a kind of priest for his family in chapter 1.

Job 1:5–6 (ESV)

he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

But now he is serving as a priest for the friends.

This pre-covenantal priesthood role reveals, shouts, declares, and beckons us to see our need for a mediator.

Job’s prophetic perseverance reveals to us our great provision.

The need of humanity is to have one who Job longed for earlier.

To have ONE who comes and can touch God, and touch men at the same time.

Job 9:33 ESV

There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.

Without being aware, Job prefigures the great mediator who will come on our behalf.

The provision we need has come.

1 Timothy 2:5–6 ESV

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Restoration

“God Restores Job” (Job 42:10-11)

Job 42:10 ESV

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Notice the concurrence of the events of Job’s prayer and the Lord’s restoration.

After Job has prayed for his friends, then the Lord restores him.

Restored

“From Dust to Glory”

Now the restoration of Job happens in two distinct ways.

Relationships

“Comfort and Sympathy”

Job 42:11 (ESV)

Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him.

The people who one abandoned him are now caring for him.

We are NOT told what has changed other than God’s blessing.

Finances

“Twice as Much”

Job 42:11 ESV

Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

When God wants to restore blessings to people, He does it through other people.

Doesn’t God’s reversal of Job’s situation validate what Satan has said of him?

Satan has accused God of protecting Job.

Job 1:9–11 ESV

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

If God restores Job to twice as much as he had before, doesn’t invalidate what Satan has said?

It’s important to remember that God was the one who was protecting Job, and the one who initially allowed Satan to strike Job.

Piercing Leviathan: God’s Defeat of Evil in the Book of Job YHWH Restores the Fortunes of Job (vv. 10–17)

Perhaps we might say the book of Job relativizes the law of retribution around God himself, subordinating it to his own prerogative to administer his creation according to his own will and not according to mechanistic principles, thereby reserving God’s right to interrupt blessing when necessary.

I said at the beginning of this book that the book of Job contradicts the prosperity gospel.

The prosperity gospel says that if you love God he will bless you.

Doesn’t the ending of Job affirm the prosperity gospel?

We need to be careful with this question.

Because many state and believe by pointing at the book of Job, that God’s desire is only to bless people.

Rather than affirming, the prosperity gospel, I would argue the book of Job, completely undermines the prosperity gospel.

We do not see any hint that Job was pursuing God to get more of a blessing from God.

The blessing that brought Job comfort was not material blessing.

Rather it was a greater revelation of the character of God.

Job’s reversal reveals to us the compassion of God.

God’s compassion is His loving kindness toward a person in an unfortunate state.

It would be tempting for the reader to walk away from Job and wonder...

Maybe the friends and Job were completely correct about God?

Maybe God really didn’t care for Job?

But this reversal shows God’s great compassion on Job.

Job’s reversal reveals a blameless sufferer’s vindication, which foreshadows the ultimate sufferer’s vindication, which is our own.

Renewed

“God Renewed Job” (Job 42:12-17)

Job 42:12 ESV

And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

Material

“Blessings”

It needs to be said as well, that people who suffer and he should not necessarily expect the kind of restoration that Job received in this life.

Many prosperity teachers have taught that because Job was restored at the end of the book, then everyone should expect the same kind of abundant blessing after they have suffered.

This is not the case.

To believe this would create a false expectation of what God is going to do for a sufferer.

Which will eventually lead to disappointment if he does not choose to pour out his blessing.

For the Christian, as they see the wisdom of Job displayed.

They need to look beyond Job, who is the shadow of Christ, to see the substance of Christ.

Job 42:13–17 ESV

He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man, and full of days.

Familial

“Blessings Upon Blessings”

Notice the way, Job deals with his daughters.

This is an interesting piece, because in the ancient world, daughters, and women, especially were viewed as property.

Job who is described as a righteous man, including his daughters in the inheritance with their brothers.

What is the significance of this?

In our day it’s not strange that women inherit things, and I would argue that the reason that women in our culture are treated with any semblance of dignity is because of the Christian worldview.

Look at every other culture outside of Christian worldview, and you will find grotesque miss treatment of women.

But Job, a righteous man, leaves his daughters and inheritance.

It would’ve essentially been for the purpose of "life insurance” for them incase of their husbands death.

Even if their husbands died, they would have been well taken care of.

Job—The Wisdom of the Cross Blessing in the End (42:10–17)

God graciously pours out all manner of blessings here and now. But the blessings we get now are just a tiny foretaste of the blessings to be poured out at the end.

Job’s reversal reveals to us the mercy of God.

Philippians 2:6 ESV

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

Philippians 2:7–8 ESV

but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Or as Isaiah 52:13

Isaiah 52:13 ESV

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.

Hebrews 2:9 ESV

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Philippians 2:9–10 ESV

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

The promise of the Christian is the Christ has been exalted to the fathers right hand.

The hope extended for the Christian is that God will one day raise us to newness of life with the Lord Jesus with new resurrection bodies.

John 10:17–18 ESV

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

The book of Job gives us the wisdom of God, for those who suffer, and the promise we see elsewhere in scripture is that one day God will restore all things.

The inheritance for the Christian, which is promised in Christ far exceeds the blessing.

Job’s reversal reveals a blameless sufferer’s vindication, which foreshadows the ultimate sufferer’s vindication, which is our own.