JOB 42
JOB RESTORED
Then Job died, old and full of days.
—Job 42:17
The boy rolled his eyes as the man read aloud:
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.554
Now take seven bulls and seven rams,
go to My servant Job,
and offer a burnt offering for yourselves.
Then My servant Job will pray for you.
I will surely accept his prayer
and not deal with you as your folly deserves.
For you have not spoken the truth about Me,
as my servant Job has.”555
Then Eliphaz the Temanite,
Bildad the Shuhite,
and Zophar the Naamathite
went and did as the Lord had told them,
and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.556
After Job had prayed for his friends,
the Lord restored his fortunes
and gave him twice as much as he had before.557
Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends
came and feasted with him in his home.
And they consoled him and comforted him
because of all the trials the Lord had brought against him.
And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.558
So the Lord blessed the last part of Job’s life
more than the first.
He owned fourteen thousand sheep and goats,
six thousand camels,
one thousand yoke of oxen,
and one thousand female donkeys.559
He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters.560
He named his first daughter Jemimah,
his second Keziah,
and his third Keren-happuch.561
In all the land no women were as lovely as the daughters of Job.
And their father put them into his will along with their brothers.562
After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years.
He saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.563
Then Job died, old and full of days.564
“Wow. What a fairy tale ending that was,” said the boy. “Job was one horse shy of riding off into the sunset there.”
“Yes,” said the man. “You’re not the first person to feel this ending was a bit, well, tidy after the struggles of the previous chapters. One might wonder if Walt Disney himself wasn’t a tad older than he led us on to believe. But like many chapters in the book of Job, a hasty first impression shadows a thorough understanding of the genius behind the words.”
“I’m sure,” said the boy, “but these words leave the taste in your mouth that being faithful to God leads to material wealth after all.”
“Ah, very good,” said the man. “Let’s circle back to that in a moment though. First, let’s take a look at God addressing the friends. It says His anger was burning against them, but this is an understatement. In other biblical examples, one animal sacrifice is sufficient enough to pacify God’s anger, but in this case, fourteen are required to appease the wrath against these men who ‘comforted’ Job.”
“I see,” said the boy. “But weren’t the friends preaching how great God is, and all-powerful, and just? So none of those are true?”
“Of course, they’re true,” said the man. “But the meat of their argument is that God operates according to their principles of justice. They present a deity who is only concerned with rewarding righteousness and punishing evil. They whittle our Lord down to a predictable cosmic judge, taking cases and doling out punishments, operating in a world that’s only value is providing space for repentance so blessings of obedience can be enjoyed. The Lord has become some kind of genie, where you rub the lamp the right way and all your desires come true. But God showed us His world and wisdom are more complex than these simplistic ideals.
“Despite this story, however, many Christians still think like these men today. They declare punishment will come the moment anyone steps out of line, and promise reward in return for good behavior. They think they have the Lord figured out so they can predict His ways. But these folks leave out room for compassion and mercy, mystery and wonder. They live their lives as ‘good’ people, feeling entitled to God’s blessings. But when God acts in a way these people don’t expect, there’s no accounting for it. That’s because instead of a faith in God, they have faith in religious dogma. There’s an element of faith in the way they live, but it’s a weak element at best. They believe in a reasonable and rational Lord, confined to their box of theology, not in the way God operates in the real world. But instead of reshaping their theology to fit reality, they prefer to reshape God to fit in the box.”
The boy gave a nod. “Imagine how devastating it would have been for guys who lived their entire lives obeying the rules of their culture, defending God the best they could, only to have the Lord come down and say, ‘You’re wrong.’”
“Mmm. What a blow to their pride that must have been,” said the man. “Their well-kept illusion of God must’ve been shattered. If we put ourselves in the friends’ shoes, I think we would have felt the rug was ripped out from underneath us. But they never expressed any encouragement to Job to have a real relationship with God, beyond what their formulas described. There wasn’t any talk of prayer and yearning to speak with the Almighty. No, they were content with the rules of engagement that their system upheld.”
“But wasn’t this Job’s view as well?” said the boy. “That’s why he was so upset. Because God violated the expectations that he and his friends all shared. Job only started thinking differently after his make-the-right-sacrifices-at-the-right-times scheme broke down.”
The man shook his head. “Job’s argument was that he was innocent, and that his suffering was not a divine punishment at all, both of which are true. Remember, God Himself said Job was blameless and upright. Job declared that God must not run the world according to his friends’ view of justice. And although Job may have said some ill-advised and inaccurate things, overall he came honestly before God with his emotions and pain, exposing himself to God’s potential scrutiny or wrath.
“That’s why God never reprimanded Job for asking tough questions. His reprimand was reserved for Job’s so-called comforters because they tried to provide simplistic answers to life’s tough questions. But God’s vindication of Job and reprimand of the friends need not be taken as total approval or rejection of everything each of them said. His response does, however, show the right way to process through struggle is with prayer and dialogue with God Himself. He is far kinder to any honest seeker than He is to those self-appointed spokesmen who take refuge in theories about the Lord.”
The boy scrunched his brow. “I can’t tell if you’re doing this on purpose or if you’re saying what I’m saying without actually seeing what I’m saying. Job only did those things after he was suffering. Up until he lost everything, he believed exactly what the friends believed. The friends were saying Job violated their interpretation of God’s rule, and he was being dealt with accordingly. But Job was saying, no, it’s God who is acting outside of our expectations. That’s why the friends got upset, because Job’s mindset shifted away from the one that they all shared.
“And yes, Job is blameless, meaning he hasn’t murdered anyone or committed any crimes. Yes, he’s upright, meaning he does and says all the right things to praise God. Yes, he feared God and stayed away from evil. But you can still be blameless and upright and fear God and not be evil while not having a genuine relationship with God.
“That’s what Satan was getting at from the start. Job was rubbing the genie’s lamp by making sacrifices and became wealthy doing so. He only questioned his beliefs when they no longer worked to reward him. We never saw Job speak directly to God before that. He said nice things about God, like ‘the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,’ but he never had a direct relationship with God. He just rubbed the lamp the way he heard he was supposed to until it stopped working, and then his frustrations got the best of him. Then he dropped the righteous façade and actually said what was on his mind, to God.
“Which ties into what I was saying about Mrs. Job before. She had a genuine reaction to what happened. Anger, fire, feelings. Job just ‘stuck to the book’ about what to do. Say nice things about God on the surface, even though you’re obviously in pain underneath, and hopefully, He’ll restore you again. But after Job developed a genuine relationship with God, out of frustration, by expressing his true emotions to God, he took back all his canned theology.”
The man stroked his beard as he more or less spoke to himself. “I’m just not sure how this aligns with Job being blameless and upright from the start. Job never confessed to any sin when taking back all he said. And God continually refers to Job as ‘My servant,’ a title Job never lost throughout the story. This is only applied to those who walk closely with God.”
“Job was never being punished,” said the boy. “None of this was about punishment, which was the whole argument Job and his friends were going back and forth on. There were thirty-something chapters arguing over something that was never the case to begin with. Job was right in that his suffering wasn’t a punishment. The whole thing was a test of Job’s relationship with God, not a punishment for anything he did or didn’t do.
“And didn’t Abraham pimp out his wife? Didn’t Moses murder somebody? Being God’s ‘servant’ doesn’t mean you’re pure by any means. Arguably the opposite. No one’s disputing whether or not Job was God’s ‘servant,’ just that God’s ‘servant’ wasn’t as perfect as we were led on to believe.”
The man continued stroking his beard.
The boy let out a sigh. “Do you have anything more to add about the ending? Otherwise, I want to circle back to what I was saying about Satan.”
The man snapped his attention back to the conversation. “Well, let’s first point out that Job could have easily told his friends, ‘I told you so.’ But instead, in God’s infinite wisdom, He instructed Job to pray for his friends, and only then would God accept their sacrifice. This pushed Job in the direction of shaking hands, offering forgiveness, and letting bygones be bygones, to make everything in the community right again. This restoration of the community shows a public confession of the wrong done to Job but does so in a manner that didn’t allow the friends to walk away in shame or with broken bonds either.
“Now, it is infinitely important to note that Job prayed for these men before any of the restoration we witnessed. He was still sitting on the ash heap, without knowledge that God would double his blessings. This merciful move came from the bottom of Job’s heart. And to the friends’ credit, they made their sacrifice immediately, without argument or protest. Then and only then was the Lord so pleased that He restored everything for Job twofold.
“Which takes us to the feast in Job’s home. All of a sudden, the clouds are parting, the boils are healing, and Job’s brothers and sisters and friends came around to console old Job about the trials the Lord put him through.”
“Yeah. ‘Oh hey, Job. Sorry we weren’t there for you when you were broken, looking like a freak at the dump, but we heard you won the lottery. Can we come in?’ Typical,” said the boy, shaking his head.
“Yes, well, some of the more cynical observers mention that point of view,” said the man, “but I like to focus on what these family members did provide, which is the comfort Job’s friends failed to. And the gifts they came bearing must’ve been a symbol of redemption, honoring one formally shamed. Or perhaps welcome home presents or donations to help Job get back on his feet.”
The boy muttered to himself, “Or a little bribe to smooth things over with Scrooge.”
“What a reunion that must have been!” said the man. “What a feast they must’ve enjoyed! What laughter and joy! Finally, home is home again. Surely, they had much to talk about after all that time.”
The boy shook his index finger. “I hope Job at least gave a toast in front of all those schmucks who came crawling out of the woodwork, acknowledging the people who were actually there when he needed someone. Without them, Job never would have gotten fired up enough to demand an answer from God in the first place.”
The man gave a nod. “There is some truth to that. God used Job’s friends for a purpose in Job’s life. We saw the pain they caused, but we also saw the character built through the crushing pressure of insensitive arguments, which led to a deeper faith in God.”
“I wonder what would have happened if they never showed up to poke the bear?” said the boy. “Job probably would have lived out the rest of his days wallowing at the dump like a baby. Instead, his wife got to see him grow a pair of… sinews, like Behemoth, so she could say, ‘My husband? Stood up to God?’ Talk about a panty dropp—”
“Speaking of Mrs. Job,” said the man, “I think she and Mr. Job had the most to talk about. In many homes where affliction strikes, separation can occur. Marriages don’t always make it as couples drift apart. But you’ve got to hand it to Job and his wife. They stuck it out. They pulled through. And while many still paint Mrs. Job in a poor light, in the end, she stayed with her husband all the way. As lost as she was in the face of tragedy, she hung in there.”
“And good for Job,” said the boy, “to stick it out after she told him to go kill himself.”
The old man waved his hand dismissively and continued. “A few weeks after this celebration, perhaps over breakfast one morning, I like to imagine Mrs. Job leaning over the table with a giggle, whispering to Mr. Job that she has some wonderful news.”
“Yeah, she did,” said the boy, giving a smirk and a nod.
“And there goes Mr. Job,” said the man, “laughing over the fact that his wife is going to have another baby, and at their ripe old age. How wonderful. And not just once, or twice, but ten more times this miracle occurs. And so for the next thirty years, they’re rearing children again, enjoying the blessings of parenthood with the wisdom of grandparents. I believe this is the reason Job’s daughters were the most lovely in all the land. Their character was nurtured by parents with wisdom beyond their years.”
“Which is great and all,” said the boy, “but is replacing Job’s first kids with new ones really justification for killing kids in the first place? We’re supposed to believe this is a victimless crime just because God says, ‘Oh, you lost some children over our wager? No worries. Here are some better ones.’”
“Of course not,” said the man. “Nothing, not even ten new children, could replace the loss of a single one who leaves this world too soon. But Job never really lost his children, did he?”
The boy blinked. “He didn’t?”
“Of course not,” said the man. “You might have noticed how everything was restored twofold except for Job’s children. That’s because Job’s first ten children weren’t lost forever, they merely returned to God. And God knew that one day Job would be reunited with his entire family in Heaven, where he would spend eternity with all twenty of his children.”
“Except Job lived before Jesus,” said the boy, “so he didn’t know about Heaven.”
“But God knew about Heaven, now didn’t He?” said the man.
The boy conceded a nod. “Touché.”
“Perhaps it’s a morbid justification, but as we discussed earlier, this tale wouldn’t have cut as deep if Job hadn’t lost his children. Perhaps he never would have been driven to the depths of questioning God as he had been, and therefore the reader could never have derived the lessons from the book of Job that we have. These children may be considered some of God’s early lambs, sacrificed for the greater good of humanity.”
“I think Mrs. Job made the real sacrifice here,” said the boy, “popping out decuplets in her seventies. Oh sure, it’s a happy ending on paper, but in reality, they’re back to square one, changing diapers when they were ready to retire. And I noticed God forgot to replenish Job’s servants, so now it’s just Mrs. Job chasing around ten pooping babies, while Mr. Job is busy chasing ten thousand pooping livestock. Put yourself in her shoes after giving birth to a twentieth child and tell me this is a fairytale ending. And for another hundred forty years, Job had to listen to her nag about it? The author didn’t even have the guts to claim he lived happily ever after. All it said was ‘then Job died.’ The whole time he was probably thinking the real moral is just listen to your wife. When she says curse God and die, just do it.”
There was an awkward pause as the old man looked as though he saw a ghost.
“What? Too far?” said the boy.
“A tad overboard,” said the man. “Do me a favor and let’s stick to the happy ending narrative please.” And without giving the boy a chance to retort, he continued. “As with the prayer and forgiveness of the friends, it must be noticed that Job is restored only after he apologizes to God. There he was, sitting on the ash heap, long before this feast was made possible, taking back everything he said about the Lord. This is the most important detail of our story because it proves that Job did not worship God because of blessings. All Job had to his name at the time was his boils, with no promise of redemption, yet he still bowed down in humble submission to his Creator. This was the crowning, ‘Take that, Satan!’”
“It was?” said the boy.
“Of course it was,” said the man. “Job realized that it was God Himself, not some temporary blessings, that was at the root of his faith.”
“Exactly,” said the boy.
“Exactly,” said the man. “Job learned that true happiness is not a matter of wealth or health or family, but it results from a true knowledge of the Lord. Which is the lesson unexplainable suffering can teach us in this lifetime.”
“No, I mean, exactly,” said the boy, “Job realized this. He learned these things. After he suffered. Meaning he didn’t realize this back when his relationship with God was based on blessings, meaning Satan was on to something from the very start. And that in a way, it was Satan who was the reason Job learned these lessons.”
“All with God’s foresight and permission,” said the man, opening his Bible to the early pages of the book. “But perhaps you bring up a good point. Depending on how you read the passage, maybe it’s not so much of a wager at all. Look here,” he added, running his fingers down the lines. “God asks if Satan considered Job, and Satan says if you take away everything, he’ll curse You. So God tells him to go ahead. It’s more the allowance of a test than anything, with God was using Satan as a puppet for His will.”
The boy rolled his eyes. “Finally, a storyline I can get on board with.”
“Wonderful,” said the man, closing his Bible with a smile.
“Not so fast,” said the boy, and the man’s smile collapsed again. “What I mean is that Satan and God are on the same side. Well, sort of.”
“Ha!” said the man. “Don’t be silly.”
“I’m not,” said the boy. “I’m serious.”
The man rolled his eyes this time. “This should be good.”
“What if,” said the boy, holding up his hands for emphasis, “God created Satan to be a hitman of sorts.”
The old man raised his eyebrows and blinked dramatically.
“You know,” said the boy, “like this was the Job job.”
“The Job job?” said the man.
“Yeah, the Job job. Job was God’s servant, right? But he also needed to be taught a lesson about genuine worship and pride. So God drew Satan’s attention to Job, knowing fully well that it’s in Satan’s nature to accuse others. He’s a chaos creature after all, like you said. He’s just like the ostrich.”
“Satan is an ostrich?” said the man, a smirk growing across his lips.
“No, Satan isn’t an ostrich,” said the boy. “He’s like the ostrich. God said He didn’t endow the ostrich with wisdom or give her a share of good sense, instead he endowed her with the speed to outrun anyone. In the same way, God didn’t endow Satan with a sense of moral character, but He endowed Satan with a cunning tongue and power to influence others. These things are by design.”
“I’m not really sure where you’re going with this,” said the man.
“Where I’m going with this is that God created certain creatures to be certain ways. He brought everything into existence and kept labeling it ‘good,’ so I’m thinking Satan is another one of God’s ‘good’ creations, even though he’s chaotic like the ostrich.”
“You think Satan, the Prince of Darkness, is good?” said the man, folding his arms. “Now, how do you figure that?”
“Because God said so. He said so after creating all the beasts of the field.”
“Well, of course He did,” said the man. “Everything God created was good, at first. But then Satan rebelled, choosing evil on his own.”
“Listen to the way God described Leviathan though,” said the boy, “after Genesis, after the fall. He brags about how ‘graceful’ and mighty His creation is. It wasn’t some kind of intimidated description like Little Red Riding Hood talking about the wolf. ‘Gee, Grandma, what big teeth you have!’ No. God is saying, ‘Look how awesome and ferocious I made this thing. I designed him to be that way. Only I can make a covenant with him. Only I can take him as a servant or put him on a leash.’
“So God summons Satan and says, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, the most righteous and upright man in the East?’ And Satan says, ‘We’ll see about that!’ Because that’s his nature. But what goes unsaid by God is that, ‘As righteous and upright as I said Job is, I know in his heart he only acts that way because He thinks I reward him for doing so. So I need you, Satan, the creature of chaos that I made you to be, to teach him a very harsh but humbling lesson.’”
“I think you’re missing the fact that Satan was acting on his own,” said the man. “God never instructed him to destroy Job’s life. Satan made the conscious decision to do so, just like he chose to tempt Adam and Eve in the garden. We learn more about his nature in Ezekiel565 and Isaiah,566 where Satan is described as an angel who rebels against God.”
The boy crossed his own arms to mirror the man. “You know, you keep mentioning these other books, but can we actually read where they talk about Satan?”
“Certainly,” said the man, flipping back to the Table of Contents.