JOB 40:3-42:17
God has had a good plan for you from the moment you were conceived. He also had a good plan for Job. Right from the start he had planned Job’s restoration and blessing.
Job is remembered throughout history for his faithfulness. The apostle James says, ‘You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about’ (James 5:11).
Once again God fires questions at Job making him realise that there are simply some things ‘too wonderful for [Job] to know’ (Job 42:3b). Job holds on to the faithfulness of God: ‘I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted’. This is a wonderful promise to hold on to when things in your life are not going according to your plans. God has a good plan for you and it will not be thwarted.
God does not give us trouble-free lives. He does not answer all our questions. But he does reassure us that he is with us in our troubles.
God tells Job to pray for his friends who had hurt him, let him down, wrongly accused him, judged him and criticised him. Job forgave them and showed his total forgiveness by praying for them. As he interceded for them, God not only accepted Job’s prayer for his friends but also, ‘The Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before’.
Joyce Meyer writes, ‘If you do things God’s way, he will give you double for your trouble.’ ‘The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first’. As with David, God showed his kindness to him and his descendants.
Job is commended for his perseverance in the face of suffering (James 5:10–11). Satan believed that suffering would cause Job to turn away from God. Job’s perseverance demonstrated that Satan was wrong. With brutal honesty at times, Job was nonetheless able to maintain his worship of God in good times and times of great trial.
His perseverance is an example to us of how to respond to suffering. When you respond with faithful perseverance, Satan is defeated. Job is a ‘type’ of Christ. Through Jesus’ faithful perseverance in response to his suffering on the cross, Satan has been totally defeated, once and for all.
