Job’s three friends expected God to condemn Job for his wrong responses. Instead, God told the three friends that He was angry with them for not speaking what was right of Him like His servant Job. Job was an innocent sufferer, but his three friends self-justifying, legalistic retribution theology missed the whole point. They failed to truly help a suffering friend in need and were more keen to defend their theories than to discern the real situation. The Lord God told them to ask Job to pray for them. Then they were to offer a burnt sacrifice in repentance, lest divine judgment fall upon them. Job’s willingness to pray for them revealed his righteousness and forgiving spirit.
Some of us may wonder why God was so affirming of Job. Is it not true that Job cursed the day he was born; he complained with bitterness and challenged God’s wisdom in running the world; he even expressed doubts about God and His justice? But note that Job did not abandon his honesty. Indeed, he complained to God and he expressed his doubts to God. In this way he continued to address God, seeking God and an explanation for his sufferings. His sufferings did not drive him away from God; instead, they drove him to God. Job was in fact praying to God for vindication; he felt that only God could put things right.
The Bible reveals that God cares for the broken-hearted and the humble in spirit. In our difficult moments, in the darkest of night when there is no relief, remember that God is always there. Like Job, we must continue to seek Him, even complain to Him, for this is in fact an expression of faith. We must not lose heart and lose our faith in Him, even though we do not understand fully what is happening. God does know best and He always works for the good of those who put their trust in Him (Romans 8:28). God’s affirmation of Job revealed His wondrous grace and forgiveness, even though He noted the failures in the responses of Job. For He saw the heart of this righteous man.
And God restored Job’s prosperity two-fold to indicate clearly that God does bless the righteous but He is not to be restricted by the retribution theology on every count. His wisdom is beyond our understanding and His justice is not to be measured by our measurement. In the case of Job, God blessed him in the physical realm and demonstrated His justice in this world. For some, such material prosperity will only come after death and resurrection in the new heavens and new earth. All the while, we remember that ultimate justice will be manifested at the final judgement by God through His Son.
Job lived on many years after this, but it was surely a different Job. It was a Job who saw God, encountered Him and was transformed by these experiences. Job’s sufferings did not make him bitter. Rather, they refined him, humbled him and helped him to worship God from an entirely different perspective. The school of suffering can yield great lessons: we do not know who we really are until we are tested; we cannot fully empathise with others who are suffering unless we ourselves have suffered; and we do not really know how to trust God wholesomely until we are at the end of ourselves with nothing and no one else to depend upon.
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
May this be true of us; that our faith may be proved genuine. When we meet the Lord Jesus Christ, our faith will result in praise, glory and honour unto Him.