Job 42 (Pt 1)

Job 42:10-11 (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.

Job 42 is a short chapter, but it raises so many questions. Why did God mention Job’s three friends, but not Elihu? Why did Job’s family not come to him with gifts and help earlier when things first fell apart, instead of waiting until after the fact? Are Job’s children supposed to be replacements for those he lost? That seems to be a harsh thought. No child can replace a child who has died. I don’t believe they are replacements. Rather, they are further blessings. Verse 10 says that God restored Job’s fortunes, but then verse twelve says that God blessed Job’s latter days more than his beginning. He children are not replacements. They are simply blessings.

This chapter raises a number of questions, but gives few answers. But, there is one interesting statement that takes further consideration. Verse 10 says that “the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends.” Job’s fortunes weren’t restored first, and then he prayed for his friends. He prayed for his friends, and then his fortunes were restored. Three thoughts occur to me as I consider this verse. First, this was an act of faith on Job’s part. It would have been much easier for Job if his fortunes had been restored first, and then he was asked to pray for his friends. We often think that we need to have everything together in our lives before we can minister to others. But ministry is ultimately an act of faith. It is trusting that God can use a broken pot to deliver water to a thirsty soul. It is trusting that ultimately the ministry is about God, not about us. It is trusting that I don’t have to have it all together in order to minister to others.

I think that sometimes we expect or assume that pastors are able to minister to others because they have all the answers, and they have their life all together. Things could not be further from the truth. Pastors are just people. They have their struggles. They get weary and frustrated. They are far from perfect. We must not expect that pastors and those in ministry somehow live on a different level of spirituality that is unattainable to the ordinary person. Neither must we fall for the lie that until we attain that level, we are not really worthy or able to minister. God uses broken vessels. Ministry is always an act of faith.

The second thought that occurs to me as I consider verse 10 is that this was an act of humility and repentance on his friends’ part. In verses 7-9 God spoke to Job’s friends and told them to take an offering to Job and ask him to pray for them. Job didn’t initiate this prayer. Eliphaz and company initiated. They had to come to Job with gifts in hand. They had to come to the one they had just been trying to convince of sin in his life. They had to lay aside their own ego, and their own need to be right in order to humbly ask this “sinner” to pray for them. That is not easy to do, but they did it. How often has our own pride kept us from restoring relationships, admitting wrong, and finding God’s blessing. What an incredible experience to have Job’s self-righteous friends come, gift in hand, and ask him to pray for them. How much healing could occur in relationships if we would lay aside our pride and ask those we have offended to pray for us.

That brings me to the third thought, which is that this was an act of love and forgiveness on Job’s part. Job could have been easily offended. He could have decided that he never wanted anything to do with his friends after how they had treated him. They had assumed the worst of him without evidence. They had pushed, prodded, and insisted that there was sin in his life. Who wants to hang out with friends like that? Yet Job was quick to pray for them, even before his own fortunes had been restored. In our own brokenness, we can often see the brokenness of others better. Job was willing to offer to his friends the grace and acceptance that they had failed to offer him. But that is where restoration begins; not with responding in kind, but with responding in grace.

We can’t always expect the story of our life to end like Job’s. Not all of us will become wealthy. Not all of us will live a long and full life after tragedy. That may be the experience of some, but that is hardly the point of Job. At its heart, Job is about God, and it is about humility. Eliza Hewitt’s words come to mind in her 1887 hymn, More About Jesus. It must be more about him, and less about me. That is the lesson Job and his friends had to learn. It is a lesson that is essential for each of us to learn. May the first verse of this hymn become our prayer:

More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love Who died for me.