Job 42 might be the most confusing part of the book. You will notice that Job 42:10 reveals that the Lord restored the fortunes of Job and the Lord gave him twice as much as he had before. What are we supposed to make of this ending? Is the message that, after your trials, everything you lost will be restored to you? Is the message that once Job repented, then he was restored again? What is this ending communicating and how does it fit with the message of book about suffering and how God runs the world?
God Vindicates Job (Job 42:7-9)
The Lord will now bring the trial to a close. The Lord tells Eliphaz that his anger burns against him and against his two friends. Please note that Elihu is excluded from this condemnation. But notice what the condemnation is. These three friends have not spoken what is right about the Lord. So what were the three friends saying about God? It seemed like everything they were saying was about Job. But what they were saying wrong about God was that God inflicted suffering on Job to punish him for his sins. The book has been very clear that this is not what God is doing nor how he runs the world. We cannot look at someone’s suffering and declare that the person must have sinned. Nor can we declare that if the person would repent, then all of their suffering would come to end. This has been the repeated refrain of the three friends. The Lord makes it clear that this is not how God runs the world and that the three friends were wrong. I think it is worth noting that the Lord is not making a calm declaration about the error of the three friends. Rather, the Lord is angry with these three friends for misrepresenting him. The Lord was angry for saying things about him that were inaccurate.
But verse 8 is the key vindication of Job. The friends’ proclaimed that Job must have sinned. But who needs a sacrifice: Job or the three friends? The three friends need the sacrifice and Job must offer a prayer for them, indicating that Job is in right standing with the Lord while the friends are not. For months, these friends have said that Job must be a sinner. But this is Job’s vindication. Remember that this is something that Job has said throughout his trial. He has believed that God would vindicate him even though he thought he would die from this trial (cf. Job 19). This is the likely explanation for what is said about Job in verse 7. Clearly, not everything Job has said was accurate. We have been reading about the Lord saying that Job is speaking ignorant words and questioning God’s actions (cf. Job 38:2-3; 40:7-8). So what has Job said that was right? What Job has been right about throughout his suffering is that the Lord would eventually vindicate him. Now is that moment Job has been waiting for. Job is proclaimed to be in the right while the friends are proclaimed to be in the wrong.
There is another key aspect to Job’s restoration. Please notice that the Lord has Job pray for these three friends who have maligned him and falsely charged him with wrong. This is a universal truth to be pleasing to the Lord. Jesus taught us to pray for our enemies (cf. Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27; 6:35). Further, Jesus practiced this on the cross. As his enemies were proclaiming that Jesus was accursed, he was praying for the Father to forgive them (cf. Luke 23:34). Job prays for those who were against him and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
God Honors Job (Job 42:10-11)
Next, we are going to see honor returning to Job. You might remember from our study that Job had become dishonored because of his suffering. People were mocking and rejecting him (cf. Job 12:4; 16:10; 17:6; 19:13-19; 30:1-15). But notice what happens in verse 11. All of Job’s brothers, sisters, and all who knew him came to him. They do not come to scorn Job. They came and ate in his house. They comforted and sympathized with Job. When I read this, I wonder where all these people have been throughout this whole trial. But this is not the point. The point is that you are seeing people honoring Job for his faithfulness in the trial. Family and friends now come and show him comfort. They each bring money and a gold ring. Rings marked status, honor, and a restoration of dignity. You might remember that in the parable of the lost son we see the father ordering for a ring to be placed on his son’s hand (cf. Luke 15:22). The symbol indicates restoration to his status as son. Comfort and honor are given to Job after he experienced all the adversity the Lord brought on him (cf. Job 42:11).
God Blesses Job (Job 42:12-17)
Finally, we see the Lord richly blessing Job. Verse 10 declares that the Lord restored Job’s fortunes. In verse 12 we read that the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning days. Job also is blessed to have ten more children. Job thought that this trial was going to kill him. But Job lives a long life and saw four generations in his lifetime. The final words of the book are about Job living to be an old man with a long, full life. The key here for us is verse 12. The Lord blessed the latter part of his life more than the former days. The point is not that everything will be all better in the end. The Lord blessing Job later in his life does not mean that the pain of what he endured was erased. I am sure that the scars from his trials remained on his body and in his mind. Further, having ten more children does not erase the fact that Job had lost ten children to the windstorm of chapter 1. We must not read Job 42 in a way that says it will all be better later or that the future will always be better than the past. But Job 42 leads us to consider some really important messages to help us when we are struggling with our trials.
Future Hope Here
It is possible for our latter days to be greater than our former days. This can simply seem impossible when we are going through trials. It feels like all that lies ahead is more darkness. It feels like the good days are gone and we will never have any future good days. We certainly cannot believe that anything better could possibly come. Even in extreme loss, this chapter shows that it is possible for God to richly bless our future in ways that we could never imagine. Satan wants us to believe that life could never get any better. Satan wants us to believe that the blessings of God have dried up, never to return. Job had no idea what God was going to do in his life. Job had no idea the bright future that existed on the other side of his pain. We do not know what God can possibly have in store in our future. We can experience some really terrible trauma and tragedy in our lives. But we do not need to believe that this is the end of our life story. God may be taking us in a different direction that we never expected to go.
This means that we cannot evaluate what God is doing in the middle of our life story. If we stopped reading at chapter 2, we would have a completely different idea about the end and the message. If we stopped reading at chapter 19, chapter 30, or any other chapter, then we would draw the wrong conclusions and be hopeless about our situation. Too often we are trying to pass judgment on what God is doing when we have not yet come to the final chapters of what God is doing in our lives. Though you are going through a trial now does not mean that God does not have future blessings in store for your life.
Future Hope To Be Revealed
But there is a greater point that Job 42 is teaching. We will be vindicated for holding on to our faith through our suffering. We may lose our possessions. We may lose our jobs. We may lose our family. We may lose our friends. We may lose it all. But we will be vindicated for our faith, even if we are required to lose it all. The point of the chapter is not about our fleshly desires to have the temporary riches of this life returned to us. God does not run the world in a way to make sure that his people are comfortable, healthy, and wealthy. Using scriptures that speak about how God blesses his people to mean that we will get everything we want in this life and in this world is to corrupt the message of the scriptures. But one of the key messages found through the scriptures is about the vindication of God’s people. There are so many scriptures about how we will be vindicated for our faith. Jesus was the model example of this truth. Jesus suffered and was rejected. But Jesus’ faith was vindicated three days later when he rose from the dead. We also will have our steadfast faith vindicated in the face of suffering, rejection, and injustice. Jesus tells a story in Luke 18 about a widow was pleading for justice against her adversary (cf. Luke 18:3). I want us to listen to the message Jesus was teaching from this story.
And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:6-8 ESV)
Jesus told this story to make the point that God will give justice to his people. God’s people will be vindicated for trusting in him and waiting for him. But the question is if he will find such faith when he comes. Will we be the people who will be vindicated when he returns in the clouds? Job has waited for the Lord and has been found faithful, not because he was perfect, but because he was repentant.
This is the true message from Job 42:10 and 42:12. In verse 10 we see the Lord give Job twice as much as before. In verse 12 we see that the greater blessing was later than at the beginning. Friends, the greater blessing and the greater glory is not in this life or in the things of this world. Our whole time on this earth is the time of trial, sacrifice, hurt, pain, and loss. But when the Lord returns, then we will receive vindication and the blessings and glory that will far surpass anything we can experience in this life.