The Restoration Of Job

The Truism 'You Get What You Deserve' 1:33

Now, there was a truism that Job had heard. There was a truism that Job believed in. And it went something like this. You get what you deserve.

They might have phrased it to use a more vernacular phrase. You might have said what goes around comes around, or people get what's coming to them. These are not new phrases or concepts. These things have been around for a while.

Now, why did Job believe that? Why did Job's friends believe that you get what you deserve? Well, they believed it because you want to believe that, right? You want to believe that that's the way the universe works, that there is this one-to-one correlation between certain actions will result in certain consequences, that certain causes result in certain effects.

And we want to apply that to morality. If you do something good, you help an old lady across the street, you give a batch of sugar cookies to someone down the block, you think, ah, look what a good person I am. I've done something good. And you want to believe that goodness in some way that you can't fully understand will resonate and trickle outward in the future.

That goodness begets more goodness. I did something good and therefore something good will happen to me. And then we like to apply it to the villains in our lives. And we say, ah, this person has wounded me, has hurt my feelings, has offended me, has stepped on my toes, has taken something from me.

Well, if the universe is just and fair, if there's a God in the heavens, that person is going to get what they deserve. You know, if you steal a man's wallet, you know, you expect God will drop an anvil on your foot. You know, something like that. You steal a man's car or something, you catch some sort of disease.

You steal a man's celery. Then having to eat that celery is punishment enough. You get the idea, though, that there's this consequence, there's this cause and effect, that you do certain things and then certain things happen to you. That's the way that we sort of want things to work.

We sort of want it to work that way because it helps us to make sense of the universe around us.

When Cause-and-Effect Fails: The Problem of Innocent Suffering 3:37

But what happens when it doesn't work out that way? What happens when you see an absolute villain put in a place of prominence? What if you're in Israel and you look and there's Herod as the king? You're thinking, Herod?

Herod? He's terrible. He should never be in this spot. What about when villains rise to positions of authority?

What about when good, righteous people have something hideous happen to them, like Job? In order to try to make sense of that, you try to fit it in the box if you get what you deserve. in Job's case, guess what?

The Doctrine of Divine Providence: God Brings Good Out of Evil 4:08

It wasn't that easy. Job and his friends tried to force what God was doing through a framework that they had constructed that said, this equals that. And last week, God shows up on the scene and says, that's not the way that this works. Job, don't you understand?

I have divine prerogatives to do what I will do, and often as not, I will use something terrible, and I will even use terrible people to bring about good outcomes and to bring about good endings. And that's my prerogative to do so. Why? Because I'm God.

That's really what He spent several chapters trying to explain. Now, Job, up until that point, remember, he thought he had a case. He says, I've been good. Bad things have happened to me.

Unfair. Job's friends, in order to try to apply the same sort of box, they said, something bad's happened to Job. Therefore, Job must have done something bad. See?

They were trying to do the same thing. Job said, I didn't deserve it. And honestly, he was right in a sense. He didn't deserve it, strictly speaking.

In chapters one and two, we saw something interesting. You see, in chapters one and two, we saw that Job wasn't appointed this trial or this suffering because he'd been bad. He was appointed this trial because he'd been good. You see that?

That's what causes our minds to implode, because we don't want it to work that way. And yet God says, look, this is just the way I've always done things. And if you doubt that, look at the good that came out of Joseph being taken prisoner into Egypt. Look at the good that came from Paul ministering in jail.

Look at the good that came from My Son being crucified on Calvary. Look at how I'm willing to appoint things no one wants in order to bring about wonderful outcomes that wouldn't happen any other way. So that's the conflict that has existed up to this point.

Job's Repentance: 'Now My Eye Sees You' 6:03

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

— Job 42:5-6 (NKJV)

Well, now in chapter 42, after God spoke to Job, and God didn't answer all of Job's questions, but he let him know there is a God, and Job wasn't Him. And at this point, Job, somewhat deflated of his own ego, says, I get it. I still don't understand why you did everything you did.

But at least I now understand where you're at and where I'm at, and how that equation works out sometimes in ways that I don't necessarily have to like. All right, let's look at verses 1 through 6. I'm going to reread that, and then we'll just work our way through the bounds. Verse 1.

Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Because remember, God asked that of Job just at chapter 2 earlier. Therefore, I've uttered what I didn't understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn't know.

Listen, please, let me speak. You said I will question you and you shall answer me. Well, I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear. But now my eye sees You and I abhor myself.

I repent in dust and ashes.

Job's Friends and the False Theology of Retribution 7:10

As we said a few moments ago, for most of the book of Job, God had been silent. I mean, you see God speaking in chapters 1 and 2, but for most of the book, God is silent. For most of the book of Job, there's other people speaking, most notably Job and his three primary kind of grumpy friends.

And for chapter after chapter, those guys had been arguing back and forth. And on the occasions when Job spoke, if you read the whole book, on the occasions when Job spoke, he would generally say, things are just terrible, things are unfair, I wish I'd never been born, this is just awful. I've gotten a raw deal was kind of what his connotation was.

I've got a case here. I've got a case as to why this isn't right. So that was his point of view. Now, again, to refresh us, his friends had been saying really the exact opposite.

They said, all right, well, you say that you don't understand what's happening because it's not fair and you haven't done anything. Well, that can't be the way that God works. In order for anyone to suffer as badly as you've suffered, man alive, you must have really done something. For the love of all that's good and right in the universe, Job, confess.

Tell God what you've done. You've done something, and apparently His heavy hand is going to be on you until you repent. So Job is sitting there basically defending his own righteousness. His friends are basically telling him that he must be the worst sinner on earth in order to endure these things.

And both of them, again, were trying to take what was happening, circumstances, and filter it through a truism, that you get what you deserve. Filter it through concepts that we assign to the world around us to help us to make sense of the world that aren't necessarily overtly scriptural. And so God, again, God is patient.

God lets us do this sort of stuff, talk and debate and argue it for a season. Well, here, the later chapters, he just says, all right, here's how it works. When God finally spoke to Job, and the friends heard this stuff as well, God blew the theories out of the water. He says, look, cause and effect is not what happened here.

God looks at Job and his friends and says, you are making the precursor to a terrible concept from another terrible religion called karma. You are coming up with a concept here that the universe spits out goodies in relation to the things that you've done, and that's not what happens. Rather, I do what I do because I'm God and I have divine prerogatives that belong to me.

I reserve the right to bring good out of bad. In fact, I do that a lot. Again, there's examples throughout Scripture. I mentioned Joseph earlier being settled into slavery, or Paul in prison.

Think of Daniel in the lion's den. Who wants to go into a lion's den? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in a fiery furnace. There's all sorts of terrible things that have happened to people, and yet they've been appointed by God to bring about good ends.

And so God shares that with Job. He says, this is the way I work. And ultimately, I bring good outcomes out of everything I do. The fact that you can't see it in your specific situation does not reflect poorly on me, the one who ordained it.

Again, some things are above your pay grade.

God Speaks from the Whirlwind: Creator and Creature 10:15

And that's why in last week's study of Job 40, God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind to emphasize His power and His might and His authority. And He said this to Job. He says, the Lord answered out of the whirlwind and said, who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Where were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Again, God loved Job, but Job had come up with a theology that really was not accurate. And so God calls him out on it.

And again, He did so out of a mighty whirlwind, and I can't even imagine what that would be like. Just having God speak to you at all, wow, but out of a whirlwind. Imagine the hurricane, tornado, cyclone, whatever, coming at you out of the gulf. That alone would be scary enough, right?

This approaching storm that constitutes a whirlwind or something significant, that's scary in itself. But think of, consider a booming voice coming out of the clouds, out of the tempest, out of the swirl, directed at you. This has the effect of God reminding Job the difference between Job and God. There is a God.

Job was not him, and that's what we saw. Well, in verses 1 through 6, it appears Job got the message. He says, look, I'm sorry. I uttered what I didn't understand.

I uttered what I didn't understand, things that were too wonderful for me, which I didn't know. If we put this in 21st century language, this is him saying, my bad, I've stepped in it. Oh God. And then after declaring these errors, Job makes another interesting statement.

He says, I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now, now my eye sees You. What did he mean here? On the one hand, he could have been talking about the whirlwind, right? He's looking at a whirlwind.

God's manifested in the whirlwind. That could have been what he meant. I see you in a way that I previously had only heard about You.

Suffering as a Means of Grace: Knowing God Through Trial 12:05

So it could have been that. I think it's more than that. I think Job's very spirit had had a reckoning. I think Job's spirit had had a reckoning.

I think that for some of us, there's this, I don't know, there's this wall in our minds, this artificial construct between faith and doubt. I think the veil had fallen off completely for Job between his spiritual eyes. I think he now believed something in his heart in a way that he'd only apprehended perhaps from a distance.

Sometimes God will allow you to undergo terrible circumstances in order to bring home truth to you that you would not otherwise understand. We can all read about those who suffered and nod our heads and go, wow, they suffered. We can read about hardships in Scripture and go, wow, there's a hardship. But there's something faith-building about God parking some of that on your doorstep and having you walk through it.

Maybe not in the exact same way that a Moses or Joseph or a Paul had to, but in your own way, in your own circumstances, walk through that difficulty, and on the other end of it, what you previously heard only through the ear and could study when you were reading your devotionals and scripture, you now understand.

The eyes of your heart can apprehend God in ways that you couldn't if you hadn't previously undergone that hardship. For some of us, you want to know why you got something difficult on your radar right now? It's to allow you to come closer to God than you would be if it never happened.

That was certainly the case for Job. We don't have to speculate.

God's Wrath Against Job's Friends and Job as Intercessor 13:25

That was the case for Job. All right, let's look at verses 7 and 8. Verse 7, and so it was that after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, because you've not spoken to me what's right, as my servant Job has.

Now therefore, take up for yourself seven bulls, seven rams, go to my servant Job, offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly, because you've not spoken to me what's right, as my servant Job has.

All right, so remember way back in chapter 3, something cool had happened. So Job's suffering, his health is gone, his wealth is gone, his children are dead. This is just the worst week of his life, and something good happens. His friends show up, right?

You want to be comforted. You want people to take time out of their lives to come and be with you when you're undergoing some hardship. So it's good that the friends showed up at his side, and they stayed with him for a while. I mean, that was not a small thing.

They were busy guys too. These are real dudes who had busy lives, and they came and hung out with Job. However, all that goodwill and good intentions started to evaporate the minute that these guys opened their mouths, the minute that they started to speak. Now, what did these guys have to say?

Well, again, they told Job that he was at fault. His sin was the reason for his suffering. They did that over and over and over again. John Calvin said that these guys only had one song to sing, and they sang it to death in their interactions with Job.

So again, that's their thought. However, we know, because we read the prologue, we read the stuff that Job and the others didn't have access to at this time. We knew that this was a divinely appointed test. And that Job's sin wasn't the reason for his suffering.

And that meant his friends were dead wrong. And God tells them that they were wrong. Here in verse 7, he says, look, you guys, you haven't got it. You've spoken to me what's wrong, what's not right.

My wrath is aroused against you because of what you've been saying. And then God says, all right, friends of Job, you guys go make a sacrifice. And I'll tell you what, if my friend Job prays for you, then I'll accept his prayer and I will forgive you. Do you understand the irony?

This is intended to be this ironic, you know, twist of the tables, turn of the tables for these guys. On the one hand, these guys spent 40 chapters high-roading Job. You know what it is to be high-roaded? It's when someone comes to you with this moral imperative and talks down to you and says that you're doing everything wrong, right?

So these guys have spent 40 chapters high-roading Job here, telling him what a sinner he was. And by contrast, they felt pretty good about themselves, right? You must be a sinner because God is dealing terrible with you. Well, he's not doing that to me.

Therefore, by contrast, I must be a-okay. So they spent 40 chapters high-roading Job, demeaning his spiritual condition. However, here in verse 7, God says, hey, that's not the way this works. It's the other way around.

See, Job has remained righteous. Yes, he's been frustrated and clearly he hasn't said everything right. But he hasn't cursed me to my face the way that the devil said he would. He has stood up under that which would have melted you guys down to the floor.

Because of that, Job will be fully restored. But you guys have a problem. You guys have some repentance to do. And not only do you need to repent, but honestly, the very God that you've been demeaning, I want him to pray for you.

I want your outcome to be the fruit of this guy who you thought was the biggest sinner in the world of his prayers. See, that's the irony.

Restoration Begins When Job Prays for His Friends 17:12

“And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.”

— Job 42:10 (NKJV)

This had to be humbling for these guys. All right, let's look at verses 9 through 11. So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite, went and did as the Lord commanded him, for the Lord had accepted Job. And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends.

Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had had before. Then all his brothers and his sisters and those who have been acquaintances before, they came to him and ate food with him in his house. They consoled him and comforted him for the adversity that the Lord brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold.

All right, so upon being told that they needed to make this series of sacrifices, Job's friends went and did that. And then Job prayed for his friends. And it's also worth noting that Job here, he didn't withhold his prayers. And he didn't pray spitefully.

This wasn't an imprecatory prayer against his friends, but because Job was a good and righteous man, he prayed a good and righteous prayer on behalf of these guys who had made him feel miserable for all these chapters. And it was at that moment, if you look, if you look at verse 10, at that very moment that his restoration began, when he prayed for his friends.

It says, the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends, when he demonstrated repentance, when he served as an intermediary between God and them, a Christ-like figure so to speak, when he stood before God and interceded on behalf of these guys who had hurt him and wounded him, when he reflected Christ-likeness in that moment, God restored him.

This is when the restoration began, at this moment.

The Doubling of Job's Blessing: Earthly Wealth and Children 18:47

All right, let me go ahead and read verses 12 through 15. Now verse 12, now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning, for he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 female donkeys. He also had seven sons, three daughters, and he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch, and in all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job, and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

So verse 12 says that the latter days of Job, after the tests and trials, that they were way better than even the previous days, which had been pretty amazing. Remember, Job had already been the richest guy, right? In all of the earth. And yet the latter days after his trial were more significant since.

The 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and the like. Let me ask you, do you remember when you got your first camel? That's when you know you've really made it big, right? When you get your first camel.

Well, look, he had not just one, he had more camels than you could possibly imagine. Now, camels is interesting because camels, that's the equivalent of getting a car, really, because camels were utilized. No one had themselves a nice camel burger. That wasn't what they were utilized for.

Camels were utilized in order to get people from A to B. Mobility, transport, and not only transport of people, but of things. You could load up the camel, and that's how people got from place to place. So this is like having a garage full of more cars, so to speak, than you can possibly imagine.

6,000 camels in his Old Testament garage is basically what he had. This is a staggering amount of wealth. There's really no contrast. Even among the Bill Gateses of this world, there's no contrast with what this was, with how God rewarded and blessed him.

And he not only blessed Job with regards to financial provision, but if you'll notice here, he also says that God multiplied his children. He went on to have 10 more children. As you remember, Job started out with 10 children, but then he lost them back in chapter 1. And of all the losses, that had to be the hardest, right?

Because we sit back and we go, okay, so I had 10 camels before, now I have 20. Okay, good. But what about my kids? So we perceive that this would have left a hole in his heart.

Well, very possibly. I mean, he still undoubtedly grieved over his children, and yet God also gave him an additional 10. Where he's at right now, how many kids does Job have? 10 plus 10? 20.

Assuming that these are children of God as well, because he prayed for them regularly. We trust that they're sanctified. The point is this, that Job had 10 kids. He gained 10 more kids.

He's got 20 kids, assuming they're all in the kingdom at this time. Job undoubtedly was blessed with 10 additional children and their grandchildren, all the things that he would have missed out if he had never been a grandparent again. So he was blessed.

Treasures in Heaven and the Hope of Resurrection 21:40

God said, I will bless you in this way, in a manifest way. And yet, a reminder is that in the resurrection, Job has retained not only what God gave him in that season, but far more. Do you think the wealth and riches and just the blessing that Job had in this last few verses compare with the wealth and riches and blessings that he has right now?

Not a chance. Why? Because we're building up for ourselves treasures in heaven, because God is capable of restoring to us that which has been taken from us, and because there is reunions with people that we've lost. Job, the latter days were better than the previous ones.

Yes, amen and amen, and yet the present days for Job are better still. Back in chapter 19, Job seemed to acknowledge a future resurrection. He said, I know that my Redeemer lives. He shall stand at last on the earth, and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, how my heart yearns within me.

Job looked on to better days. In time he saw them, even here on earth. Chapter 19 was not the end of his story. In time he saw better days.

But even that pales in comparison with God as appointed for those that love Him. You and I, if we're in the midst of circumstances that are terrible, things we don't like, hopefully tomorrow will be better. That's always our prayer. We're undergoing some hardship, or sickness, or some relationship seems to be broken, or there's a financial mountain that we're under, and we want tomorrow to be better.

And it's very possible that it will, because God does like to fix things and bless children. And yet, whatever the future should hold, it pales. It doesn't even hold a candle to the future that exists beyond. The hardships you're undergoing today are supposed to cup your chin to focus you on a kingdom to come, and to stop building up baubles and treasures and trinkets here, and stop even bemoaning that which we've lost here, because if you live long enough, you'll outlast most of the people and things that you have.

But rather, to consistently focus you to a place where treasures are built up that no one steals, no moth eats, they're reserved in heaven for you, and my Father's house are many mansions, I go in to prepare a place for you, that where I am, that you might be also. Job, in chapter 19, he looks ahead to better days, and God gave him better days, both in verses 12 through 15, but even more so in the present, right now, in his eternal estate.

Job's Latter Days and the God of Better Days 24:06

All right, let's look at our final two verses. Verse 16 and 17. After this, Job lived 140 years, and he saw his children and his grandchildren for four generations. And so Job died, old and full of days.

You know, back in his worst moments, Job had wished that he had never been born. Well, if he hadn't, then he would have missed out on all this. Sometimes we just, we can't take it anymore. We don't want it anymore.

We get frustrated and angry. We want to throw up our hands. We don't know what's waiting just on the other side of our current trauma. Job lived 140 some odd years old.

Remember, he lived back in the book of Genesis time frame. But he lived a long time. He saw his children and his grandchildren for four generations. Anyone here a grandparent?

You enjoy being a grandparent? Well, Job enjoyed being a grandparent, and he saw his kids for four generations. Imagine that. What a blessing this was for Job.

Again, better days were ahead, much better days. Our God is the God of better days. Some of those days might come here on earth. Suppose it would be great to live 140 years and see generation after generation of your grandchildren.

But even that, again, is a tiny slice of that which God had in store for Job, which God has been pouring out to Job every day since. You know, no matter how long you live, no matter what you may see here on earth, good or bad, these things are small potatoes, a trifling compared to what is in store.

Job in heaven right now is not pining for the good old days. You know, Job's not sitting there in heaven like, oh, I remember the good old days there on earth. Not at all. Not at all.

Things are much better for Job. The prophets who suffered a great deal as well. It wasn't only Job who suffered. He's the one we call the great suffering guy because of the degree and severity of suffering.

But other guys, all the prophets suffered. Virtually all of them died as martyrs. And yet they were always looking forward to a kingdom to come, something that was better. The prophet Isaiah said this on behalf of God.

For behold, I'm creating new heavens and new earth. And the former things, the former things shall not be remembered or even come to mind. Adversity we're going through right now, the things we hate, the things that are broken in our lives, it hurts, it stings, it's painful. All of it's meant to point us to him and to point us to a better place.

And then time will be there. And this other stuff, the hurts and pains we have going on right now, we won't even remember it. Won't even come to mind. In Job's time, his adversity ended.

In Job's time, the worst suffering that we know any man to have had in the Old Testament, in time it ended. In time, his tears were wiped clear.

Every Trial Is a Test of Faith: 'Though He Slay Me, Yet Will I Trust Him' 26:48

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

— Job 13:15 (NKJV)

Better days can and do exist. This is true for us, and my closing observation is that all your current heartaches, whatever they may be, they will be sponged away in time because God has not appointed trials to last forever. Trials are just that. They're trials.

Tests are just that. They're tests. Right now, you may have been appointed a season of trial. All right.

What do you do? You turn to God. You turn to His Word. You say, God, help me.

Here's my hand. My eyes are closed in the sense that I don't know what's going on tomorrow. I'm like a child walking in a darkened room. I have no idea what's around the corner, but I know this much.

I will put my hand up to you, and you promise that you'll take it and lead me through. Your test that you're in is not a test of your intelligence or your acumen in terms of how you're going to figure your way out of your problems. The test that you're in is a test of your faith.

That's the only type of test that God is concerned about. Do you understand that? It's not a test of how smart you are, how bright you are, your intelligence, your acumen, your ability to work out this puzzle. It is a test of your faith whether you will turn to him in confidence and say, Lord, take my hand.

Can you do that? Can you look skyward when the ground has fallen out beneath your feet? Way back in Job 13, while he was still suffering horribly, Job said this. He says, yet though He slayeth me, yet will I trust Him.

This is the confidence we're called to have. That whether God should bring good or that which we perceive to be bad into our lives, we'll close our eyes, reach our hand up, stop trusting in ourselves, turn to Him. Yet though He slays me, yet though my circumstances are terrible, yet though I don't get it, yet though I don't understand it, yet though I don't like it, yet I will trust in Him.

Let's pray for the grace now to trust in more. If you'd like to check out additional recordings or videos by Dr. Toby Holt, please visit our website at fpcgulfport.org. And if you're on the Gulf Coast, come join us at 11 a.m. Sundays at First Presbyterian Church of Gulfport, Mississippi.