Job 42:1

Job 42:1

The Bible says in Job 42:1-2, “Then Job answered the LORD, and said,[2] I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.” The phrase in verse 2 that says “thou canst do every thing,” is literally in the Hebrew “thou canst do.” God is able. God is able to do what: anything and everything. When you talk to God it is good to have that truth on your mind. Jesus said, “With God all things are possible.” Job also said in verse2 that God knows all of our thoughts. You might as well be honest with the Lord when you pray to Him because He knows. God knows all things. That is what confession of sin is all about. You are telling God the truth when you confess. The word “confess” means to say the same thing as. In other words to say the same thing that God says about your deeds or thoughts. When you sin, you admit that you should not have done what you did, you are sorry, and you will try not to do it again next time. When you are honest with Jesus like that, He forgives you. And your relationship with Him stays an honest and true relationship. That is called being in fellowship with Christ.

Job says in Job 42:3, “Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.” One of the themes of the book of Job is the question in Job’s mind and in the minds of his friends: why did all these terrible things happen to Job? Of course, we know because of the first two chapters of Job, but Job did not know. Job was seeking knowledge and understanding. We are sometimes ourselves in the same place. Something happens, maybe a disaster or a disappointment and we wonder why it happened. Why did God allow it? God can do anything, and so why did He allow such a thing to take place? We do not know. Only God knows. Thankfully, God can give grace to bear it and to give a purpose to it. God can give faith, and hope, and love.

Job said in Job 42:4-6, “Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.[5] I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.[6] Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” This is the spiritual principle: the more that you understand about God, the more that you will realize your own sinfulness, weakness, and failures. Compared to God’s holiness we are evil. Isaiah had the same experience. He said in Isaiah 6:1-5, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.[2] Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.[3] And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.[4] And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.[5] Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

The Bible says in Job 42:7, “And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.” The three friends were wrong. They did not know the truth about God. They thought they knew, but they were wrong. Their attacks on Job were wrong, and God was angry with them both for their ideas and for their words. This shows us that God puts a premium on knowing the truth, and saying the truth; and you will be judged for what you know and what you say.

The three friends were in danger of the wrath of God because they spoke things about God that were not true. How would they be able to escape God’s wrath? It says in Job 42:8-9, “Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.[9] So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.” The three friends had sinned greatly in the things that they all said against Job, and in the false things they said about God. They should have emphasized God’s grace and mercy instead of God’s wrath and judgment. But God will offer them mercy, as long as there is a sacrifice. That is how we get mercy. Jesus was the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for us. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission” of sins. Because God has provided a substitute for us, we can have full assurance that God forgives us and accepts us based upon the value of the substitute and not based upon ourselves.

Notice that God says in verse 8, “my servant Job shall pray for you.” It is very important that we follow that example. We are all sinners. We are no better than those who are out of fellowship with the Lord. We need to pray for them that they would find the same mercy that we have found. That is what pleases God because that is God’s primary purpose for every person on the earth: to find the forgiveness of sins so they will go to heaven instead of hell. Pray for those who persecute you. If you do not find forgiveness in Christ, this is what will happen: at the judgment God will “deal with you after your folly.”

The Bible says in Job 42:10, “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” The first part of this verse shows how important it is to pray for others. God is really pleased when we pray for others, especially when we pray for those who have mistreated us. Those are the ones who need help the most. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” And so we see in this instance both the Old Testament and the New Testament have the same spiritual principle, and both show God’s nature as being the same.

The second thing that verse 10 shows us the final outcome of Job’s life: “the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” One of the lessons of the life of Job is this: you win the victory when you learn to wait upon God. And to do that you must learn to wait upon God even when you are suffering. The Lord has a reason, and the Lord will have an answer: we just do not know when. Our duty as believers is to keep waiting upon the Lord. That is the very important lesson to be learned. Some Christians stop following the Lord when things go wrong. It says in James 5:11, “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord: that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

The Bible says in Job 42:11-17, “Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.[12] So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.[13] He had also seven sons and three daughters.[14] And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch.[15] And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.[16] After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.[17] So Job died, being old and full of days.” These verses describe the last 140 years of Job’s life. God turned the tables. The Lord is able to do that. Remember that no matter how badly things seem to be going for you, whenever He decides, the Lord can turn the tables. That is one of the benefits of being a Christian. Where can an unbeliever go when things are really bad? Believers can go to the Lord and keep going to the Lord until help arrives, just like Job did. Notice two things about the phrase in verse 11, “comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him.” The first thing to notice is that up until this time no one comforted Job in all his sufferings: not his wife and not his friends. But now everyone had words of sympathy and comfort. The second important thing to notice are the words “all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him.” The Lord brought evil? How does that work? Remember back to the start of the book of Job we were told of all the things that Satan did against Job. For example, it says in Job 2:7, “So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the side of his foot into his crown.” But Satan could only do things and the other sufferings because God allowed Satan to do them. God was in control. The all-powerful God is in control of all things. And that is what Job focused on in his period of suffering. Job basically kept asking the question, “Why did the Lord do these things?” Job saw the hand of God in all things. Job was not so proud to think that he knew why God did what He did, but Job knew it was God. That is a good example of how to live a life of faith in the Lord. Ignore the devil as well as resist him. The Lord has a purpose for all things that He allows. We may not know until the judgment what that purpose was, but we will eventually know. We know the purpose that God allowed Satan to do all these things to Job: to show that there was at least one person who would continue trusting in the Lord no matter what happened; and to be an example to us of the importance of waiting upon the Lord and enduring hardships by trusting in Him no matter what happens. If we do that, His name will be glorified.

___________________________________________________