Page 41 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

after living 140 years, twice the average life expectancy, and seeing descendants to the fourth
generation. He died “an old man and full of years” (42:17).

The ending of Job, or epilogue as it is sometimes called, is vaguely dissatisfying. We pause over the gift
of ten more children. Where did they come from? Did Job remarry? His children were grown at the
beginning of the book. Now he has another set in his old age. How did he feel about the exchange? Ten
children died. He was heartbroken for them. Does the author mean to imply that ten new children can
replace those who died? What of the lives of the ten dead? Did God do right by them? Did they in some
way deserve to die young? Were they simple window dressing for Job who himself was a pawn between
Satan and God? We must resist these speculations. We have forty-two chapters on Job alone. Our minds
are already over loaded from thinking about this one man. How many chapters would it take to discuss
all ten children and Job’s wife, not to mention the servants? We will have to be satisfied with God’s
dealing with Job. If we are content with his life, if his life makes sense, we can be content with the lives
of the others who appear so…extra.

What do you think about God’s treatment of Job? Elihu had assured Job of a ransom for him out of God’s
grace and not out of Job’s righteousness. Job could not earn the goodness that eventually came to him
(33:24). Elihu assured Job of God’s ability to reward in a better way than Job could ever design (34:33).
Elihu assured Job that his case was before Him, implying the fairness, the justice, of God (35:14). Elihu
assured Job that God was actually “wooing” him to a better place, “a spacious place free from
restriction” (36:16). Has God delivered?

The main point is simple. God is sufficient. Before God restored Job’s fortunes, Job declared himself
satisfied. The sight of God was enough. “Now my eyes have seen you (42:5).” All of the suffering of Job,
placed on one side of a balance scale, cannot outweigh the presence of God on the other side of the
scale. Pile up everything: financial ruin, community dishonor, the death of each precious child, physical
agony, and his wife’s curse-God-and-die advice. Pile up everything and God is more than enough.
Yahweh is the “spacious place.”

We are invited to think about people we have known who have suffered greatly. The list could go on and
on: a woman dying of AIDS who leaves several children to relatives, a Christian tortured to death for his
faith by Moslem extremists, a Bible school graduate experiencing poverty after graduating and going
home, a mother who loses all her sons in a war, a promising young person stricken with terminal cancer,
a beautiful teenager raped, a man in prison falsely accused of murder. Each reader can easily come up
with examples. Perhaps the reader is a prime example. Is God enough? Can the presence of God
outweigh any suffering?

Job’s experience is somewhat unique in the Old Testament. Not everyone had this much personal
revelation from God. The Son of God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:8). God
spoke clearly, unmistakably to Noah about the ark (Gen. 6:13), Abram about leaving Ur to travel to
Canaan (Gen. 12:1), Rebekah about the twins she was carrying (25:23), Jacob through a dream (28:13),
and many others. Yet we are left with the impression that these contacts were occasional and selective.
At key points Yahweh seems to have spoken to certain people. The text leaves us with no indication of an
everyday activity with everyday people. A personal visit of any kind was rare. Until the middle of his life,
Job had not “seen” God but only “heard” of him, implying a certain distance. Revelation existed, but
revelation was not personal.

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