THE
RESTORATION OF JOB - PART 1
In the previous post, I had given a rough idea of how to read the book of Job. I want to elaborate more on the restoration of Job. Let us begin by looking at satan’s requests to God and Job’s afflictions!
Satan’s Request to God:
What did satan want from God?
The
only request satan placed before God was to, “Stretch out His hand and touch
all that Job has” (1:11; 2:5). Satan wanted God Himself to afflict Job. Satan
wanted God to act against Job. But, God did not grant satan’s request. Instead, God permitted satan to test Job. Thus God made his
sovereignty known to satan, to let satan know that Job is still very much under
His control.
What did satan want from Job?
Satan
wanted two things from Job. Satan wanted Job to
1.
Curse God
2.
Die
God knew very well that it was
satan’s intention to 1) Destroy Job’s righteousness 2) After making Job
unrighteous, to make him die.
As soon as satan started his
conversation about Job, God denied satan the permission to take Job’s life (1:12;
2:6). God did not place any condition there. Whether Job passes or fails the test,
satan did not have the right to take Job’s life. This left satan with only one
option, to oppress Job with such great trials that he would be bitter with his
life and leave his righteous life and die. Later, it was suggested by satan
through his wife. She told him to “Curse God and then die (2:9). (Was
Job’s wife such a great blasphemer to suggest him to curse God? Job didn’t seem
to think so. After his trials were over, they had a normal life. At that point,
it seems satan used her to voice out what he wanted Job to do).
(Although Job groaned because of
his loss, pain and agony, he did not do both the things which satan wanted him
to do)
Job’s Afflictions:
-
Oxen (1:14,15)
-
Donkeys (1:14,15)
-
Sheep (1:16)
-
Camels (1:17)
-
Most of his servants (1:15, 16, 17)
-
Ten children (1:19)
-
Health (2:7)
Job’s Humiliation from his family and neighbours
Job’s
wife: She responded by saying, “Do you still hold fast to
your integrity? Curse God and die!” (2:9); Job’s breath was offensive to his
wife (19:17)
Job’s
Servants: Even his maidservants counted him as a stranger and an alien.
When he called his servant, he did not give him an answer and he had to beg him
with his mouth (19:15,16)
Job’s
Relatives: His brothers were removed far from him (19:13); His
acquaintances were completely estranged from him (19:13); His relatives failed
him (19:14)
Job’s
Neighbours: He was made a byword of the people, and men abhorred
him (17:6); Even young children despised him and spoke against him (19:18); all
those whom he loved turned against him (19:19); Young men mocked him (30:1); He
became their taunting song and their byword (30:9); They abhorred him and kept
far from him, and they did not hesitate to spit in his face (30:10); They cast off restraint before him and young
men pushed away his feet to make him fall and they destroyed his path to
increase his calamity and difficulty (30:12,13);
Job’s Humiliation from
friends
-
Rebuked him (6:26)
-
mocked him (12:4; 17:2)
-
forged lies about him (13:4)
-
scorned him (16:20)
-
Spoke deceptively about him (17:5)
-
Tormented his soul (19:2)
-
Broke him in pieces with words (19:2)
-
Reproached him (19:3)
-
His close friends had forgotten him (19:14)
Job’s humiliation
from his enemies:
His
adversaries sharpened their gaze on him, they gaped at him with their mouth,
they struck him reproachfully on the cheek, they gathered together against him.
(Job 16:9,10)
Job’s Physical
State:
-
Job took for himself a potsherd with which to
scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. (2:8)
-
He sewed a sackcloth and covered his skin and laid
his head in the dust. His face was flushed from weeping (16:15)
-
His bones were pierced at night and his gnawing
pains took no rest (30:27).
-
Even his garments became disfigured because of his
disease (30:18)
-
His skin grew black and fell from him and his
bones burned with fever (30:30).
How do you restore a man who has lost so much in life?
What did Job get back?
-
Restored friendship (42:9)
-
Restored Relationship: All his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances
before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him
and comforted him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him.
Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold, Job 42:11.
-
Restored Wealth
·
Fourteen thousand sheep
·
Six thousand camels
·
One thousand yoke of oxen
· One thousand female donkeys
- Job got 10 more children. He had seven
sons and three daughters (Some people think the death of the first 10 children
is a loss, but for a righteous man death is not the end, and they were not
lost)
How did Job get back his wealth?
The real miracle is not in how
much Job got back, but in how he got that back! Let us ponder this with few
questions!
Ø Did God
do a creative miracle to give Job his children and animals back like in the
days of creation? No, there is no evidence for that in the Holy Bible. Job got
his blessings back through working for them.
Ø What
amount of strength would have been required for a man who was few inches away
from death, to get back to his normal life?
Ø What was
the force that was behind Job getting back to the glory of his former life?
Ø How did
he earn back the respect and reputation from his friends, neighbours and
acquaintance?
Ø What made
his wife and his servants to accept and treat him normally again?
Ø Was there
God’s direct intervention during Job’s trials or any miraculous work in Job’s
life to restore him back again?
No comments:
Post a Comment