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Introduction
We have arrived at the 17th and final message in the Wisdom in the Whirlwind series. This series has taken us through the story of Job’s suffering, lament, speeches from friends, and God’s response.
Today, we will start with a review of the story and then look at the closing passage in which Job’s prosperity is restored.
An important question we need to ask is, why did God restore Job’s prosperity? Was it a reward for his obedience? Or, compensation for his suffering? Or was it some other reason? Before we get there, let’s review the whole story together.
1. The Setup: Innocence and Catastrophe
Job 1:2–3 “[Job] had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.”
Not only does Job appear morally perfect, but the numbers of his children and belongings are typical Old Testament symbols of wholeness and perfection (threes, sevens and tens).
The final claim—that Job was the greatest man of the East—completes the image.1
In short, Job’s status at the beginning of the story is that he is blameless, upright, blessed. Then, apart from Job’s knowledge, a heavenly assembly has convened with the so-called “sons of God.”
A nameless accuser with the title of the satan is in attendance. The satan comes to the heavenly court from roaming through the earth.
We are often quick to associate this character with the devil, who is named later in Scripture, and then to assign this being in Job a character of malice and hatred.
But in Job the satan is more of an ambiguous character, a wandering skeptic. We can only assume his motive because the text doesn’t tell us, but he is concerned about God’s justice being upheld and claims that people only worship God if they get something from him.
So, the challenge which is central to the story is proposed: strip Job of everything dear to him and he will curse God.
God agrees to this challenge, confident that Job will remain faithful.
Initially, Job appears to be firmly resolved to remain faithful to God. But, throughout his speeches, he struggles in his confidence that God is equally as faithful to him as he is to God.
2. The Long Lament: Wrestling with the Silence of God
Throughout the speeches between Job and his friends, which make up the bulk of the 42 chapters, we see a stark contrast. Job’s friends keep turning Job back in on himself, telling him to examine himself for wrongdoing.
And Job keeps turning back to God, seeking an answer from the only one who can truly explain what is happening.
The friends did what they thought best, but they had shallow theology and refused to consider any option outside their narrow view. The only explanation they had for Job’s suffering was that of punishment for sin.
Their accusations grew in strength throughout their speeches, eventually turning to silence when Job refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing.
3. The Search for Wisdom
Ultimately, the story of Job is the search for wisdom. In the wisdom hymn of Job 28, we are invited to consider how difficult it is to find wisdom.
The poem compares it to finding precious resources in the earth. Silver, gold, Iron, copper, and lapis lazuli can all be found if one searches the depths of the earth.
But wisdom cannot be found in this way. Job 28:13 “No mortal comprehends its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living.”
So, where does one find wisdom? Job 28:23–28 “God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters, when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it. And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”
True wisdom is found in the “fear of the Lord.” This is not a fear that makes us run from God, but humble ourselves before him and desire to live a life worthy of his holiness.
This is ultimately what it takes for Job to turn from his lament and to trust God’s wisdom. This is the goal of God’s speeches.
4. The Whirlwind: Wisdom Beyond Comprehension
Throughout Job’s speeches, he longs to have an audience with God. He wants to stand before him and plead his case. He wants answers.
When Job is finally silent, God speaks from the whirlwind. He responds not with answers, but with a series of rhetorical questions.
The speeches are not meant to explain the reason for Job’s suffering, but to expand Job’s vision.
God’s questions point Job’s attention to creation’s complexity, the boundaries of human knowledge, and God’s wisdom and power that brings order out of chaos as represented by the great and untameable land and sea creatures, Behemoth and Leviathan.
The “Wisdom in the Whirlwind” doesn’t give tidy answers about everything in that happens in this life.
Rather, it is a wisdom of trust and wonder at the power and wisdom of God. It calls us to a discipline of humility and faith in the midst of mystery and suffering. It returns us again and again to God’s ability to rule his world justly and lovingly.2
5. The Reorientation: Humility and Presence
God’s speeches prompt Job to turn from his lament and toward trust in God. The repentance mentioned in Job 42:6 is not one of turning from sin, but of reorientation.
Job turns from demanding answers based on his own logic to trusting God, not because he understands what God is doing, but because he understands that God is good and wise.
This brings us to the epilogue, which contains the reprimand and restoration of Job’s friends and the restoration of Job’s prosperity.
Reprimand and Restoration of Job’s Friends
Job 42:7–9 “After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.”
Job’s friends are reprimanded by God because they did not speak truth. They have been insisting in their speeches that Job’s suffering is due to sin because they could not see outside of the view that God’s justice is always executed through retribution.
Sinners suffer; therefore, all sufferers are sinners. Job is suffering, therefore, he must be a sinner. And while there is some truth about this principle, it did not apply here.
There must be something other than retribution that God uses to execute his justice. The friends were wrong essentially because they thought they had God all wrapped up in a tidy box.
But Job is approved by God because he spoke rightly. What was it about what Job said that God is approving?
At the beginning of the story, Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21) But that is not all that Job said. Much of his speeches included some pretty sharp challenges toward God.
Could God be pointing instead to Job’s short, humble replies at the end of God’s speeches? If that’s the case, have those brief statements really said enough about God to deserve such praise?
Or is God referring to all of Job’s speeches as a whole? If so, what is it in them that God now calls “right”?
And how does that fit with God’s earlier rebuke, accusing Job of “darkening counsel”, clouding divine wisdom with words spoken without full understanding (38:2)?
It appears that God is including in his judgment not just Job’s words, but his posture. Contrary to the friends, Job let go of his certainty and in the end trusted God’s wisdom. He repented, and now the three friends need to repent.3
The intercession of Job for his friends is the best proof of his righteousness. It is performed as a disinterested action. In other words, it is not a reaction to any generous action on the part of the friends or of God. He does it because God told him to.
Restoration of Job’s Prosperity
Job 42:10–11 “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.”
Job is never told why he suffers, but after hearing God’s speeches, he has turned from his lament and toward trust and submission to God’s wisdom.
He does this without any promise from God that he will be restored. This demonstrates that Job does indeed fear God “for nothing,” contrary to what the accuser had claimed in Job 1:9.4
The fact that Job’s prosperity was restored after he repented seems on the surface to imply that the friends were right in their speeches.
The friends were constantly pushing Job to examine himself and repent of the wickedness that brought on this suffering. If he did repent, they claimed that God would restore his good fortune.
In 42:6, we see that Job repented, and God restored him, so what does this mean for the concept of the retribution principle which I have been saying throughout the series is not the only way God executes his justice?
First of all, he did not repent of any sin that could have led to his suffering in the first place. The book makes very clear in the beginning that Job’s sin was not the cause of his suffering.
In short, he repents of the growing bitterness of his spirit and his accusations that God was unjust. He turns away from his earlier intention to bring charges against God for treating him unfairly.5
It wasn’t a repentance from sin to God, but a realigning of his perspective in light of God’s power and wisdom as described by God in his speeches.
Such a restoration shows that Job has done the right thing. It would be wrong, however, to suggest that this is the way God will act with everyone.
If we were to take this as a pattern by which God behaves, we would be as guilty of putting God in a box as Job’s friends were in their speeches.
To help Job overcome his losses, we see in verse 11 that each visitor gave him a coin and a gold ring. This detail shows the way God allows people to participate in the restoration of one another. The money provided Job a basis for rebuilding his estate.
It doesn’t indicate the amount of time it took for Job’s estate to double its former size.
In order to acquire and multiply this many livestock and for ten more children to be born, it would have taken many years. And it started with gifts from his friends and family.6
Job 42:12–15 “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.”
The double portion is an indication of God’s approval of Job. The danger again is to assume that this is what God does with everyone who suffers trials.
Keep in mind that central to this story is that Job suffered unjustly. He was the subject of a divine challenge. Restoring Job to twice his former wealth is perhaps a way of God making things right.
You may notice that, while Job in the end had twice as much livestock, the number of his children is exactly the same as before the ordeal, “seven sons and three daughters” (compare 1:2 with 42:13).
In real life, new children does not erase the pain of losing the first set of beloved children. So, in a sense, the number of Job’s children did double.
If you or someone you know has ever lost a child, you know that a child doesn’t cease to exist in the minds and hearts of the parents.
If God gave him 14 sons and 6 daughters in the end to double what he originally had, it would still not be a replacement of the children who were killed in the beginning of the story. You can never replace a child.
The Conclusion of Job’s Story
Job 42:16–17 “After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years.”
And here’s where it all comes to rest. Job’s life ends having been lifted up even higher than his former glory. The great theologian, Karl Barth, observed that the bond between God and Job is a bond of freedom. Not freedom as in free to follow any whim one chooses, but freedom as in love: steady, deliberate, unforced.7
God freely chooses Job, and Job freely bows before God in trust. Nothing drags them together, yet nothing can tear them apart. It is grace meeting faith.
The story of Job does not end here. It is but a shadow of things to come. We all, like Job, are enduring the suffering of this broken world. And we all, like Job, are invited to trust the power and wisdom of God.
This power and wisdom is demonstrated most clearly in the person of Jesus. And it is to this power and wisdom we will be turning to next.
Next Sunday, we will begin a study in the New Testament letter to the Philippians. At the heart of that letter is a poem dedicated to Jesus Christ. It is said by some to be the greatest single work of poetry ever written.
Perhaps, as you read it, you will find within it parallels to Job’s story.
This is what it says:
Philippians 2:5–11 “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
- Craig G. Bartholomew and Ryan P. O’Dowd, Old Testament Wisdom Literature: A Theological Introduction (Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham: IVP Academic; Apollos, 2011), 133. ↩︎
- Bartholomew and O’Dowd, 148. ↩︎
- Tremper Longman III, ed., Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Job (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012), 459. ↩︎
- Longman, 460. ↩︎
- Longman, 450. ↩︎
- John E. Hartley, The Book of Job, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988), 541. ↩︎
- Karl Barth, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Thomas F. Torrance. Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of Reconciliation, Part 3.1. Vol. 4. (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 386. ↩︎