After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and doubled his previous possessions. All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to him and dined with him in his house. They sympathized with him and comforted him concerning all the adversity the Lord had brought on him. 42:10-11
When the dust settles in the book, Job is humbled by God’s rebuke. Yet, the LORD makes it clear that He is more unhappy with Job’s fair-weather friends than He is with Job. He repeatedly chastises them because they did not speak truthfully of God as Job did. Then He tells them to go to Job, humble themselves, and make sacrifices. God declares, “Then my servant Job will pray for you. I will surely accept his prayer and not deal with you as your folly deserves.” (vs. 8) Job does pray for His friends, God forgives them, and then He restores Job’s fortunes and doubles everything He had before. I am sure that nothing could replace the lost children, but he gains even more children in the end which somewhat soothes his broken heart.
This is all good news for Job, yet the most telling verse is verse 11 where his friends and family come around him and dine with him. They sympathize with him and they comfort him, concerning all the adversity the LORD had brought on him. We tend to blame everything that happened to Job on the Devil, and to be sure, he was the agent of adversity but the Bible lays this at God’s feet. God allowed all of this to happen, He permitted the enemy to hammer Job, and He was actually the one who brought it all up to start with. Does this mean that God is not a good God? On the contrary it means that God is a great God who can do whatever He wants, and as Job learned in these chapters we have no right to question Him.
Sometimes bad things happen to us, and this is completely for God’s glory and ultimately for our good. In God’s economy, what seems bad to us at present will actually turn out for good for those who love God and have been called according to His purpose. The prosperity gospel tries to brush past this, but we need to reflect and lean into this truth. I have heard prosperity preachers proclaim “your chapter 42 is coming,” and emphasize the fortunes of Job being doubled. They get right up to that phrase “concerning all the adversity the LORD had brought on him,” and they stop short. The fact that a good God would allow seemingly bad things to happen to His people just doesn’t make sense in their theology. As children of God we don’t need to run from this truth. We can know that God is good and our circumstances do not define His goodness. Because He is Lord, He can do whatever He wants with whomever He wants and it doesn’t change His glory or His goodness. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Loving and serving Him means trusting Him no matter what makes sense to our limited minds.
