Read | Job 42:1–17
Then Job replied to the LORD:
I know that you can do anything
and no plan of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, “Who is this who conceals my counsel with ignorance?”
Surely I spoke about things I did not understand,
things too wondrous for me to know.
You said, “Listen now, and I will speak.
When I question you, you will inform me.”
I had heard reports about you,
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore, I reject my words and am sorry for them;
I am dust and ashes.
After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 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.” 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.
After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and doubled his previous possessions. All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to him and dined with him in his house. They sympathized with him and comforted him concerning all the adversity the LORD had brought on him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold earring.
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. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance with their brothers.
Job lived 140 years after this and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. Then Job died, old and full of days.
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How does Job respond to the Lord meeting him in his grief and questioning? In what ways has Job spoken true of God when his other friends have not?
Focus
To prepare your heart and mind even further for today's sermon, the Story of Scripture team at Dallas Theological Seminary wrote this devotional you might enjoy. Make a plan to join us at one of our five campuses to engage this passage in prayer and study with others in our church family.
Job – When Answers Aren’t Enough by Kraig McNutt
“I had heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you.” —Job 42:5
If there is any character in the Old Testament whose very name is almost synonymous with the theme of suffering, it must be Job. Maybe Joseph runs behind a distant second.
The first two chapters of the book of Job lay out the disasters that befall Job—losing everything—and the next 39 chapters record dialogues between Job and his friends. These dialogues, or conversations, are often humorous and just plain pathetic, as Eliphaz and Bildad advise Job; Zophar is about as helpful as a participation trophy at a funeral.
The writer of Job puts the reader through an exhaustive display of bad advice and counsel for almost 90% of the narrative text, and then, boom! Job’s “aha moment” is recorded, “I heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you.”
As the book of Job winds down, we see a series of conversations that Job has with God, “from the whirlwind,’ starting in chapter 38. Many Bible scholars believe this was a genuine divine encounter of the highest order (i.e., a theophany). This argument has much merit. At the risk of oversimplifying, it took a personal encounter between Job and the Lord to satisfy his questions about his suffering and losses.
Job learned that reports—arguments, questions, defenses, complaints—were too insufficient to explain why he suffered. Instead, we simply read that the secret sauce to enduring suffering is to realize that the Lord himself is with us!
It is amazing how the story of Job ends. We learn that a personal encounter with God is the answer, but not an explanation. Job didn’t need an argument explained, but a deep, intimate experience of the sovereign Lord of the universe. As God’s imagers, we were never promised an explanation for why we suffer. Instead, we were given something far better: God himself.
For me, this revelation engenders the inclination to worship the One who has come near, who desires above all else to be with me, to be in relationship with me. A particular song titled, “There Was Jesus,” by Zach Williams and Dolly Parton puts this concept to music in a meaningful way for me. Listen to this song, and you will hear that Jesus is always there and we never walk alone regardless of the circumstance.
Pray
Craft your own prayer based on the Scripture passage, asking God to be present in all the gatherings of churches across the globe, as the gospel story is shared today.
Invite someone else (friend, family member, church member, etc.) to engage in this passage in prayer with you, and share with them one thing that was meaningful to you from it.
Going Deeper
If you are also following the BibleProject’s One Story That Leads to Jesus reading plan, complete today’s reading.