Job’s Repentance And Restoration
December 16, 2019
Commentary
This chapter contains Job’s final words. He humbled himself before the Lord and acknowledged His power and justice in everything (vv. 1-2). Throughout the book, Job’s friends had asked him to admit his sin and ask for forgiveness. In this chapter, Job repents but ironically his repentance is not the kind called for by his friends. He does not ask for forgiveness for committing secret sins, but for questioning God’s sovereignty and justice. He admitted that his words had been wrong, and that he had spoken about things that he didn’t understand (v. 3). Job told God, “I can’t answer your questions! All I can do is confess my pride, humble myself and repent.” Previously he has known about God, but now he meets him personally and sees himself to be “dust and ashes” (v. 6). Job, the sinner, becomes Job, the servant (vv. 7-9).
Job had been angry with his three friends because they hadn’t told the truth about him (v. 7). By forgiving his friends and praying for them he brought back the blessing to his own life (v. 10). Job has a new relationship with himself, with God, and with his friends. Job ends up with twice as much as he had before. First of all he is reunited with his wife. He now has twenty children, ten with God, and ten in his home (vv. 11-13). Friends and relatives bring money for a “restoration fund,” which Job must have used for purchasing animals, as eventually he has twice as many livestock as before (v. 11). In the east parents are especially proud of beautiful daughters, and Job had three of them (vv. 12-15). Even after all that has happened to him, he lives 140 years and sees his sons’ sons, even four generations (vv. 16-17).
Application
Job’s greatest blessing was not the regaining of his health, wealth and family. His greatest blessing was knowing God better. Repentance means to turn around and go the other way. When God points out sin in my life, I want to be willing to turn around and go the other way.
Job 42:1– 17 (NET)
1 Then Job answered the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted;
3 you asked, ‘Who is this who darkens counsel without knowledge?’ But I have declared without understanding things too wonderful for me to know.
4 You said, ‘Pay attention, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye has seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes!”
7 After the Lord had spoken these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is stirred up against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede for you, and I will respect him, so that I do not deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
9 So they went, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and did just as the Lord had told them; and the Lord had respect for Job.
10 So the Lord restored what Job had lost after he prayed for his friends, and the Lord doubled all that had belonged to Job. 11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land could women be found who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance alongside their brothers.
16 After this Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, old and full of days.