Today, would you believe it, we reach the end of the book of Job! God has just finished his second reply to Job. We will now hear Job’s response and the conclusion of the book.

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.

REFLECTIONS

We will think more about the way the book ends in church next week, but the line that stood out to me today was: “So the LORD restored what Job had lost after he prayed for his friends, and the LORD doubled all that had belonged to Job” (v. 10). It would be a mistake to read this as a promise that God will give you material prosperity in this life if you trust him enough. That is not what the Bible promises us. But when the book finds its fulfilment in Jesus, this becomes a rock-solid promise of what God will do for his suffering people when Jesus returns to unveil the new creation.

No matter how much you have suffered, no matter how much you have lost, if you are waiting with your hope in Jesus your Saviour, God will restore overflowing joy to you in his everlasting kingdom.

Who is a Christian brother or sister you could encourage to keep waiting patiently for Jesus’ return? Pray for them now.