God Restores Job

Then Job answered the Lord and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know  ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”  . . . The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold . . . And Job died, an old man and full of days.  (Job 42:1-6,10,17, NASB)

To recap the story of Job:  Job had been messed up by Satan.  “Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes.”  (Job 2:7-8)  This was after Satan killed all Job’s livestock, his children, and almost all of his servants.  He must have been a sight, covered with boils from head to toe.  Mrs. Job even wanted him to “curse God and die.”  (Job 2:9)  Then Job’s friends showed up.  They acted like friends for a week, sitting in the ashes, mourning with him.  When Job started cursing the day he was born, and wondering how God could let this happen to him, they began to tell him how wicked he was.  “With friends like these, . . . ” 
The story continues with Job wondering how God could let this happen to him, and his friends going back-and-forth, telling him that he must be a sinner.  Finally, God speaks to Job, and reminds Job just Who He is!  We pick up with the passage above. 

The bottom line to the story of Job is that Job repents; God restores Job’s fortune “twofold”; God blessed Job with more children; “And Job died an old man and full of days.”  Job contended with God.  God set him straight.  Job repented, and God restored his family and fortune.  God wants us to repent.  For those of us who do, there’s no guarantee that everything will be roses while we’re here on this earth.  But whoever calls on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, “shall not perish, but have eternal life!”  (John 3:16)