The Lesson
The trial of Job is over.
The Trial of Job: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Job, by Patrick Henry Reardon
Job repents:
Job 42: 3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. … 6 Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
A completely new level of humility. Yes, Job feared God and shunned evil. He was also the greatest of all the people in the east. Perhaps it was the case that this greatness that allowed room for pride, and that pride had to be excised. Whatever the case, there was a lesson here from God as Elihu offered, and Job has learned it. That lesson was proper humility.
Throughout his arguments, Job has been proclaiming his personal integrity, but this is no longer the issue for Job and it was never the issue for God.
Job is justified by faith, not by any claims to personal integrity. All that is in the past, and Job leaves it behind.
None of this is in the picture, and it is no longer a consideration for Job in his relationship to God. He has experienced God’s overwhelming power and glory, and this also was a lesson Job had to learn.
It is the same lesson Peter learned when first called by Jesus:
Luke 5: 5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
Peter also came to a new level of humility:
8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
Peter and his partners, after experiencing this level of power and coming to a new level of humility, also left everything behind:
11 So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.
So, we see Job has learned the lesson that he was to learn. What of the three friends, those who came to comfort Job?
Job 42: 7 And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”
These three failed miserably in their task. They presumed to speak for God, instead of trying to understand Job. They had a lens that saw suffering as punishment, yet in Job’s case – as in so many cases, suffering is for some other cause and is to serve some other benefit.
The divine reprimand of Job’s counselors also implies that their many accusations against Job were groundless. Indeed, Job had earlier warned them of God’s impending anger with them in this matter.
These three are to offer a burnt offering, and Job is declared their intercessor – Job will pray for them. God will accept Job’s prayers and therefore not deal with these three according to their folly.
Job 42: 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord commanded them; for the Lord had accepted Job.
The Lord then blessed Job for this act of praying for his friends:
Job 42: 10 And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job received double of all that he had before – include living 140 years, or double the normal span of a man’s life. While the text is a little clouded on if the 140 years is after these events or in total, it would seem 140 total years is the proper understanding as it fits with the doubling of everything else.
But what about the children. Job has again seven sons and three daughters, just as before. On the surface, this isn’t double. St. John Chrysostom explains:
“He lost his children, but he received, not those restored, but others in their place, and even those he still held in assurance unto the Resurrection.”
Unlike his lost animals, Job’s first children are not lost for eternity.
What of Elihu? God makes no comment here. A complete man of mystery, not introduced at the beginning and not commented on in the end.
Conclusion
Job saw and believed; Peter saw and believed. But Jesus offered:
John 20: 24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
This is the case for each of us. We haven’t seen, yet we are to believe. We don’t have the direct experience of Peter, catching fish when none were caught before only due to Jesus’s direct and visible intervention; we most certainly would prefer to avoid the experience of Job…
I recall something I have mentioned before: God isn’t done with you until He breaks every bone in your body. He did this to Job. Humility; complete and total humility before God. This is why Jesus opens the Beatitudes:
Matthew 5: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
It is just this humility – to be poor in spirit – that opens the door to the kingdom of heaven. There is no entry without it. Such humility is something that requires God’s intervention to achieve – we can take no pride in our humility! It takes the breaking of every bone in your body.
Such humility is also is the first step necessary for the Christian journey, a better summary of which cannot be found anywhere else than the path Jesus offers in the Beatitudes.