Lessons from Job’s repentance (4) By Babatunde Olugboji
As we conclude our series on Job’s repentance, we will examine how the Bible makes clear that God blessed Job’s latter days more than his beginning. At the start of Job’s story, we met a blessed and godly man; at the end, we found a man more blessed and more holy, with Satan’s attack on him making him stronger, not weaker.
Did you notice that under God’s blessing, Job’s possessions and children doubled, and we can trace all these blessings to the attitude of repentance Job exhibited. There are a few things we should observe as believers:
- Like Job, we should be convicted of our sin (I abhor myself).
- Like Job we should be broken and repentant (…repent in dust and ashes).
- Like Job when God speaks to hard hearts, we should listen (…the LORD said to Eliphaz).
- Like Job we should pray for others with the assurance that God answers (Job shall pray for you).
- Like Job we should be obedient to God (Eliphaz… Bildad… and Zophar… went and did as the Lord commanded them).
- Like Job we should remain united and jubilant (all his brothers, all his sisters… came to him and ate food with him in his house).
- Like Job we are blessed and highly favored (the LORD blessed…).
While nothing could replace the children Job so tragically lost in Job 1, the 10 children God blessed him with in his latter days were of true consolation. We can thus assume that Job’s relationship with his wife was fully restored. Job’s daughters were also uniquely blessed. The Bible describes them as being beautiful and having an inheritance among their brothers. There was, no doubt, some connection between Job’s godly conduct as a family man (Job 31:1-4; 31:9-12) and God’s blessing on his daughters.
In addition, his daughters’ names are of great significance: Jemimah means “Turtledove” or “Day-bright;” Keziah, “Cinnamon” or “Cassia,” a fragrant scent; and Keren-Happuch, “a Jar of Eye Paint” or “Horn of Beauty;” implying that she was so pretty that she needed no make-up.
Job was blessed with a long life. He died old and full of days, at 140 years. God kept him alive to see his children and grandchildren for four generations. He was well rewarded as a warrior who won a great battle for God’s glory. By the time of his death, Job became a much better man than he ever was before; the dispensations of God’s providence were illustrated and justified; Satan’s devices unmasked; patience crowned and rewarded; and the church of God greatly enriched by having bequeathed to it the vast treasury of divine truth which is found in the Book of Job.
One of the key lessons in the Book of Job is the revelation that God may call men into fellowship with Himself through challenges; and that the strength of the human soul is having the knowledge of God.
We may not all face the severe challenges Job faced, but as believers, we all have the same God that Job had. Many of us may not be as wealthy as Job, and we may never sink to Job’s poverty, yet there is the same God above us, with his everlasting arms beneath us. What God did for Job, he is able to do for us, being a merciful God. All we have to do is come to him. And repent of our sins.
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