Job 29:1 - Meaning and Application

People who have lost much are often given room to speak, and nothing moves them more than the comforts they once had and then lost. Their former prosperity becomes one of the sweetest things to remember and talk about. That was true of Job, who begins with a wish, “Oh, that things were as they were in former months” (Job 29:2). He is looking back on the days when he was prosperous.

Job’s wish has two parts. First, he longs for the same outward condition he once enjoyed, with wealth, honor, and comfort. He is not mainly thinking of his own ease, but of his name and the glory of God, which seemed dimmed by his suffering. He wants his good standing restored, so that his friends’ criticism would be answered and their reproaches taken away. If we desire life, health, and success so that God may be honored and our faith made known in a good light, that desire is not only natural, it is spiritual.

Second, Job longs for the same spirit he had before. What weighs on him now is the burden on his mind, which he feels as God seems to be withdrawing. So he wishes that his heart were again enlarged for God’s service, and that he could again enjoy the same freedom and fellowship with him. This was in the days of his youth and strength (Job 29:4), when he was best able to enjoy those blessings. Those who prosper in their youth do not know what dark days may still be ahead.

Two things made those former months so pleasant to Job. First, he had comfort in God. This was the chief joy of his prosperity, the source and sweetness of it, that he had God’s favor and signs of it. He did not credit his success to luck, his own strength, or his own effort. Like David, he would say, “By your favor you made my mountain stand strong” (Psalm 30:7). A godly heart delights more in God’s smile than in the praise of the world.

Four blessings were especially sweet to holy Job then. He felt the confidence of God’s protection. These were the days when God preserved him (Job 29:2). Even then, Job knew he was exposed, and he did not make his wealth his safe place or trust in riches. Instead, he trusted the Lord as his strong tower. He knew he was safe only because God kept him, and he gave God the credit for preserving his comforts. The devil saw God’s hedge around Job (Job 1:10), and Job himself knew it was God’s care that guarded him (Job 10:12). Only those whom God protects are truly safe.

He also enjoyed the comfort of God’s favor. “God’s candle shone upon my head” (Job 29:3) means that God gave him the light of his smile, the assurance and sweetness of his love. In this life, the best we receive of God’s favor is only candlelight compared with what is coming later. Yet Job found such deep satisfaction in that favor that, by its light, he could walk through darkness. It guided him in uncertainty, comforted him in grief, carried him under heavy burdens, and helped him through trouble. Even people with outward success still meet dark moments. But those who know God’s favor can walk through those times with courage and peace.

Job also enjoyed close fellowship with God’s word and will. “The secret of God was upon my tent” (Job 29:4) means that God dealt with him freely, as a close friend speaks with another. He knew God’s mind and was not left in the dark, as he had recently felt himself to be. The “secret of the Lord” belongs to those who fear him, because he shows them what is in his covenant that others do not see (Psalm 25:14). Some understand the phrase to mean the gathering of God’s people in Job’s house for worship, where he had joy in leading them. Others take it to mean the angels of God protecting his home.

He also had the assurance of God’s presence. “The Almighty was with me” (Job 29:5). Now Job feels as though God has left him, but in those days God was with him, and that meant everything. God’s presence in a man’s home, even if it is only a small cottage, makes it like both a castle and a palace.

Second, Job had comfort in his family. Everything at home was pleasant. He had both enough children to enjoy his estate and enough provision to support them. The loss of either is a great sorrow. He had many children gathered around him: “My children were around me.” They were attentive and ready to serve him, and this was a special comfort to loving parents. Job speaks with deep feeling because he had lost that comfort. He saw his children’s presence as one proof that God was with him. Yet when we lose our children, we should still remember that we have not lost our God.

He also had plenty for the support of that large family (Job 29:6). His dairy was so full that he could have washed his steps with butter. His olive trees were so fruitful that it seemed as if the rock itself poured out rivers of oil. He counts his wealth not by silver and gold, which are often kept and stored, but by butter and oil, which are used. An estate is only useful if we enjoy its good use ourselves and share its good with others.