Job 42:10 - Meaning and Application

You have heard of Job’s patience, says the apostle (James 5:11), and you have seen the end that the Lord brought about for him. At the start of this book, we saw Job’s patience under suffering as an example. Here, at the end, we see the happy result of his trouble and the good condition to which he was restored. This encourages us to think of those as blessed who endure.

Job’s great prosperity after his suffering may also point to a Christian hope. It can serve as a picture of the glory and joy of heaven, which the troubles of this present life are preparing for us. That future joy will be far greater than all the comfort we now know, just as Job’s later wealth was greater than what he had before, even though he had once been the greatest man of the east. The one who endures testing and is approved will receive the crown of life (James 1:12), and Job, after being tested, received wealth, honor, and comfort.

God returned to Job in mercy. His thoughts toward Job were thoughts of peace, not disaster, to give him an expected end, and even more than he expected (Jeremiah 29:11). Job’s troubles began in Satan’s malice, though God restrained Satan. His restoration began in God’s mercy, which Satan could not stop. Job’s deepest grief was that God seemed to be against him. Now God plainly appeared for him, watching over him to build up and plant, just as Job had felt, at least in his pain, that God had watched over him to tear down and pull up (Jeremiah 31:28). That changed everything at once. Now all looked as pleasant and hopeful as before it had seemed dark and terrifying.

God turned Job’s captivity, meaning he removed Job’s troubles and took away the causes of his complaint. He broke the chain with which Satan had bound him for so long and delivered him from those cruel hands into which he had been given. We may suppose that Job’s bodily pain and sickness were healed so fully and so suddenly that the cure was almost miraculous. His flesh became fresher than a child’s, and he returned to the days of his youth. Even more, his mind became calm and steady. His distress was gone, his fearful thoughts vanished, and God’s comforts became as welcome to his soul as God’s terrors had once been heavy.

This change came while Job was praying for his friends, offering sacrifice for them. Mercy did not come back when he was arguing with his friends, even though he was right, but when he prayed for them. God is better pleased with warm prayer than with heated argument. When Job finished his repentance by forgiving those who had wronged him, then God completed his forgiveness by turning Job’s captivity.

We may learn that we are really doing our duty when we pray for our friends, if we pray rightly. Such prayers contain not only faith, but love. Christ taught us to pray with and for others when he taught us to say, “Our Father.” In seeking mercy for others, we may also find mercy for ourselves. Our Lord Jesus is honored and reigns there where he lives forever making intercession.

Some take the turning of Job’s captivity to mean that the Sabeans and Chaldeans, the raiders who had taken his cattle, were moved by God to return what they had stolen, and that Job began his life again from that. That may well be true. Those robbers had swallowed his wealth, but they were forced to give it back. Still, I take this more generally to mean the full change God now made in Job’s condition.

The Lord also gave Job twice as much as he had before. It is likely that God had first given Job some assurance, in one way or another, that it was his gracious purpose to bring him little by little to such prosperity that he would have twice what he once had. This would encourage his hope and stir his effort, and it would show that this great increase was a special sign of God’s favor.

This doubling of his possessions may be seen in two ways. First, it balanced his losses. Job suffered for God’s glory, and so God repaid him with more than enough. God sees to it that no one loses by serving him. Second, it rewarded Job’s patience and trust in God, which he did not throw away, even though corruption was still at work in him. That kind of steadfastness has a great reward (Hebrews 10:35).

Job’s friends had often used this argument against him: if you were pure and upright, God would surely rise up for you (Job 8:6). Since, in their view, he had not risen up for Job, they concluded Job was not upright. God now answered that false charge. Even if their reasoning was weak, he would use Job’s restored greatness to show the integrity of his servant. Job’s latter end would greatly increase, and by that it would appear, since they insisted on such a test, that he had not suffered because of wrongdoing in his hands.

Now it was clear that Job had good reason to bless God for taking away, as he had done before (Job 1:21), since God made such a good return.

Job’s old acquaintances, neighbors, and relatives were also kind to him again (Job 42:11). They had kept their distance from him, and that had been one of the sharpest pains of his suffering. He had bitterly complained about their coldness (Job 19:13, etc.). But now they came to visit him with every sign of affection and respect.

They honored him by coming to dine with him as they had before, though we may suppose they brought their own food, so that Job had the credit of entertaining them without the expense. They showed sympathy and real concern, as true brothers should. They grieved with him when they spoke of his former misery, and they comforted him when they saw God’s kindness returning to him. They wept over his sorrows and rejoiced in his joys. They were not like Job’s three friends, who had been so ready to sit with him at first, yet proved miserable comforters. These neighbors may not have been as great, learned, or eloquent as those men, but they were far better at comforting Job. God sometimes chooses the weak and foolish things of the world, both to expose error and to bring comfort.

They also made a collection among themselves to help repair his losses and set him up again. They did not stop at saying, “Be warmed, be filled,” but gave him things that could truly help him (James 2:16).

Each person gave him a piece of money, some more and some less, according to what they could afford. Each one also gave him a gold earring, a common ornament in the East, which would be as useful to Job as money. This was extra wealth that they could well spare, and the rule still stands, our abundance should meet our brother’s need.

Why did Job’s relatives finally show him this kindness? First, God put it in their hearts to do it, and God makes every creature serve his purpose. Job had trusted God even during their distance from him, and now God rewarded that trust by turning them back to him. Second, some may have stayed away because they thought Job was a hypocrite, but once his integrity was clear, they came back to him and renewed fellowship with him. When God was gracious to Job, they were willing to be gracious too (Psalm 119:74, Psalm 119:79).

Others may have kept their distance because Job was poor, sore, and a sad sight to see. But when he began to recover, they were willing to know him again. Friends like swallows, who disappear in winter, may return in spring, though such friendship is worth little. Perhaps God’s rebuke of Eliphaz and the other two for their unkindness also stirred the rest of Job’s friends to do what was right. We should take reproofs given to others as warnings and lessons for ourselves.

Job prayed for his friends, and then they gathered around him, moved by his kindness and wanting a share in his prayers. The more we pray for our friends and relatives, the more comfort we may often find in them. His estate then increased greatly, by God’s blessing on the little his friends gave him. He received their gifts thankfully and did not think it beneath him to have his estate restored through their help.

He did not push his friends to raise money for him. He had already cleared himself of that charge, saying, “Did I ask for help or ask you to give me something from your wealth?” (Job 6:22). Yet he accepted what they brought, and he did not scold them for their earlier coldness or ask why they had not done this sooner. He was neither greedy enough to beg for charity nor proud enough to refuse it when offered. Because he was in such a good spirit, God gave him something far better than money and gold earrings, his blessing (Job 42:12).

The Lord comforted him now in the same measure as the years in which he had suffered, and he blessed Job’s later days more than his beginning. The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich. It is God who gives power to gain wealth and success in honest work. So anyone who wants to prosper must look to God’s blessing, and never be without it, even if the sun is warm and the outlook seems good. Those who have prospered must not boast in their own skill, but thank God for his blessing.

That blessing can make a person very rich, and it sometimes does so for good people. Those who have gained wealth by working may think they can make themselves even richer by careful saving. But just as those with little must depend on God to make little much, so those with much must depend on God to increase it. Otherwise, they may sow much and bring in little (Haggai 1:6).

The last days of a good man are sometimes his best days, and his last works and comforts may be his best as well. His path, like the light of morning, grows brighter until full day. A wicked person’s last condition is worse than the first (Luke 11:26), but the upright person’s end is peace. And sometimes, as death draws near, the view of that peace becomes clearer. In outward prosperity, God sometimes makes the later part of a good man’s life more comfortable than the earlier part, and he often exceeds the hopes of his suffering people. They may think they will never see better days, yet God may still reserve good times for their later years. It may yet go well with us, though it does not now.

Job had once wished to be as he had been in former months, rich again as before, and he had almost given up hope. But God is often kinder to us than our fears, and even kinder than our wishes. Job’s possessions were doubled, and the numbers of his sheep, camels, oxen, and female donkeys are exactly twice what they were before (Job 1:3). This shows how wide God’s providence reaches, even to things that seem small, like the exact number of a man’s cattle. It also shows how God orders events together, because all his works are known to him from the beginning to the end.

Job’s other possessions, no doubt, increased in proportion, land, money, servants, and all the rest. So if he had once been the greatest man in the East, what was he now?

His family was also built up again, and he found great comfort in his children (Job 42:13-15). The last and most painful of the recorded losses in chapter 1 was the death of all his children at once. His friends had used that loss against him (Job 8:4), but God repaired that breach in time, either through the same wife or, if she had died, through another.

He had the same number of children as before, seven sons and three daughters. Some think they were not doubled like his cattle because the children who had died were not truly lost, but had gone on before him to a better world. In that sense, the number may be thought of as doubled, since he had, as it were, two groups of children, one in heaven and one on earth, and in both he was rich.

The names of his daughters are recorded because their meanings seem meant to keep alive the memory of God’s kindness in Job’s surprising change of condition. He named the first Jemima, meaning day, because prosperity had broken through after a dark night of suffering. The second he named Kezia, a fragrant spice, because God had healed his sores, whose smell had been unpleasant. The third he named Keren-happuch, meaning restored abundance, or a horn of paint, because God had wiped away the tears that stained his face (Job 16:16).

We are also told that God gave these daughters great beauty, and no women in the land were as fair as Job’s daughters (Job 42:15). In the Old Testament, women are often praised for their beauty, such as Sarah and Rebekah. But in the New Testament, no woman’s outward beauty is specially noted, not even Mary, the mother of Jesus, because the beauty of holiness comes into much clearer light through the gospel.

God also gave Job’s daughters and sons good land and a strong share in their family inheritance. He did not leave them with only small portions, as was common, but gave them inheritance among their brothers. It is likely they had special personal worth, which Job saw, and this led him to show them this unusual favor. Perhaps they were ahead of their brothers in wisdom and godliness, and Job wanted them to stay in his family as a help and blessing.

Job also lived a long life. Scripture does not tell us how old he was when his troubles began, but it says he lived 140 years after that. Some think this means he was about 70 when his suffering started, so his years were doubled just as his property was. He lived long enough to enjoy much of life’s comfort, and he saw his children’s children to the fourth generation (Job 42:16). His own children were not doubled to him, but in his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, they were more than doubled. God has ways to heal losses and ease the sorrow of those who lose children, as Job did when he buried all his sons and daughters.

Job also lived until he was fully satisfied with life. He died full of days, content to leave this world. He did not feel bitter about it, as he had during his suffering, but lived in a godly peace. In that way, as Eliphaz had encouraged him to hope, he came to his grave like a ripe grain bundle gathered at the right time.