Week 11: Job's Restoration (42:1–17)

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Job’s Spiritual Restoration (42:1–6)

Job says he now knows that no purpose of God’s can be thwarted (v. 2). Coming so soon after the description of Leviathan’s defeat, this is more than a general statement of omnipotence. How would God’s invincible purposes have been an immense comfort to a man who had lost so much?

The verb translated “repent” in verse 6 could also be translated “am comforted” (see ESV note).

How do you define repent?

How can repentance also be comforting?

“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (v. 5). \

What new insights has Job gained into God’s character and action, and how have these insights changed his former knowledge of God?

Job’s Vindication before his Friends (42:7–10)

After the protests of Job’s speeches, it is surprising to see God say that Job has spoken rightly (v. 7).

Although this not an approval of everything Job has said, how has Job shown a faith in God more genuine than that of the friends, even though the friends’ theology might have been superficially more plausible?

When God commands the friends to sacrifice, and Job to pray for them so that they can be restored to God’s favor (vv. 8–9), how is God contradicting the friends’ theology? (How did the friends think one gained favor with God?) How would this have been a blessing to Job as well?

Job’s Restoration in his Family (42:10–17)

In the final passage of the book, we have a sense that the nightmare is over, that Job has passed the test and Satan has withdrawn his objection to Job’s faith.

Job’s family and other friends come to comfort Job (v. 11)—succeeding where his three friends had failed. Strikingly, no speech is recorded; rather, concrete actions are detailed.

What do Job’s family and other friends do for him? Why would this have been more comforting than were all the speeches of his friends?

Gospel Glimpses

JOB’S FAITH. When God gave Job a close-up tour of the terrifying monster Job knows by name and reputation only, Job could have renewed his protest by claiming it was unjust of God to allow this great evil to continue to exist. Instead, Job does the opposite: he worships, entirely reconciled to God’s decision to allow this evil some limited agency for a set time. He is “comforted” (v. 11) even though Leviathan is undefeated. In honoring God’s decision to administer creation in this particular way, Job is able to enter into trusting fellowship with God in a way he never could before. His final speech shows him overwhelmed with his unstoppable Savior, who is at work to heal and save and restore in ways too profound for Job to understand (vv. 2–3). Job relates to God on the basis of faith and is treated by God better than he deserves as God restores him to happy fellowship with his Savior.

A RIGHTEOUS MAN INTERCEDES FOR HIS TORTURERS. 

God’s command to Job to pray for his tormentors displays God’s grace in a number of ways. First, although God is angry with Job’s friends for their attack on Job, he takes the initiative to restore them to divine favor. Second, God breaks the friends’ theology of currying favor with God through religious self-improvement by commanding the sacrifice of a substitute and by making them depend on the intercessory prayer of a man they thought to be beneath themselves. As Job prays for his friends, he prefigures a greater righteous man who intercedes on behalf of his torturers as one part of the grace of God to restore sinners to himself, despite their unworthiness. That man was Jesus, who on the cross prayed for the forgiveness of those who would torture and execute him (Luke 23:34).

Whole-Bible Connections

RESTORATION, RETRIBUTION, AND RESURRECTION. 

The book of Job nuances the biblical idea that everyone reaps what they sow. The last chapter shows God’s desire to bless his children not just with knowledge of himself (42:3) but in every other good thing as well. Although God must sometimes interrupt his normal policy of blessing in order to test the reality of man’s relationship with him, these interruptions are always temporary. Within the framework of the old covenant, these blessings took on a material and earthly form only, but Job’s blessings anticipate those greater blessings in the new covenant, which will be seen most fully in the life of the world to come, where, “all safe and blessed, we shall meet at last.” This is God’s will for his children, to give us all he can, resolving tremendous pain into peace and blessing.

Theological Soundings

NOW MY EYES SEE YOU. 

In 42:5, Job compares all of his former knowledge of God to mere rumor and hearsay. Since Job was already a mature saint, this is quite a thing to say! But Job is entirely caught up in his vision of his victorious Savior. This is not only because God has made himself visible to Job. In his worship, Job has accepted and even come to rejoice in God’s manner of ruling creation without demanding an explanation from God as to why he allowed Job’s particular tragedy. Job accepts God’s promise that he will one day defeat this evil even as he keeps it within bounds now. As Job does so, he is able to see God as the Sovereign Lord and not just as a business partner with whom he negotiates for a blessed life. The same is true for us: as we accept the Lord’s control over evil and his eventual defeat of it, we see him as God and Lord in a new way. We are delivered from reducing him to a local, pet deity who serves our own interests. Along with Job, we say, “Now my eye sees you.”

GOD’S VINDICATION OF HIS SERVANTS. 

When God allows Job-like suffering in our life for a certain time—suffering that is inexplicable and seemingly useless—it is possible that other Christians, with the best of intentions, will try to help us in ways that only increase our pain, as Job’s friends did. It is also likely that we will say some foolish things about God that will shame us when he restores and comforts us. The book of Job teaches that God is surprisingly gentle with us as we struggle in our faith, and he vindicates those who persevere in keeping faith with God (however imperfectly) over against others who attack, lecture, or criticize his servants. This vindication is entirely on terms of grace, not merit, and is meant not to destroy Job’s comforters but to restore them as well. It is encouraging to remember that God cares for our relationships with other Christians and that it matters to him enough to intervene when we are humiliated and attacked without good reason.