Happily Ever After?
Notes
Transcript
Happily Ever After?
Happily Ever After?
We are winding down our study through the book of Job today.
It has been an interesting journey, to say the least.
The question for us is:
Will Job live happily ever after?
The adversary has been merciless and unfair, doing everything he can to PROVE God was wrong.
All at the expense of Job.
This is a KEY MOTIF to the book.
And what will happen to the friends, will there be any restoration?
What will God do? Let’s read and see...
After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
We are not told how the LORD speaks to Eliphaz.
Is it from the whirlwind? We don’t know, the author does not seem to think that is important.
IMPORTANT:
My NOSE has become HOT against you and your TWO FRIENDS!
You HAVE NOT SPOKEN TO me what is right
As my SERVANT JOB has
Take Seven Bulls AND Seven Rams
Astonishingly HIGH atonement sacrifice
God must be serious about what has been said about him and about his servant Job.
TO MAKE THIS RIGHT will REQUIRE a SIGNIFICANT SACRIFICE!
**** NEXT SLIDE ****
And my SERVANT JOB will PRAY for YOU.
The sacrifice is a PART, the Prayer activates the mercy
Again, For you have NOT SPOKEN of me WHAT IS RIGHT.
The theology of the friends is UNTRUE and given the nature of the sacrifice, WICKED and SINFUL
So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
The friends, WHO see themselves as Job’s MORAL SUPERIORS and THEOLOGICAL INSTRUCTORS
MUST ACKNOWLEDGE themselves as Job’s INFERIORS, as SINNERS, who need ATONEMENT
They must DEPEND on Job’s prayer to AVERT the WRATH of God, whose NOSE IS HOT!
***** IMPORTANT *****
Job takes on the role of a priest...
Job 42:10 (ESV)
And the Lord restored the fortunes (returned the captive/booty/spoils) of Job, when he had prayed (while he was praying) for his friends. And the Lord gave (added to) Job twice as much as he had before.
FORTUNES
HITPAEL
We want to make it WHEN, but the Hebrew gives a different verb form.
Hitpael infinitive construct with a bet preposition (in, among, during, while) Job himself was praying
Might seem trivial, but it is an important distinction.
Because Job is still sitting on the ash pile when he prays for his friends.
In Hebrew poetry, things are often not sequential, and things that are simultaneous are written that way for a reason.
HE DOES NOT KNOW that God will restore him and his health WHILE he prays for THEM.
ALSO…Job is not asked to pray for their forgiveness. He does it as an act of the sacrifice of the animals.
LAST…this is the FIRST selfless act that Job has performed since God’s honor was challenged by the adversary.
Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
Job has exited HIS MOURNING...
He will dine with his family and friends again...
RINGS
Worn by women in the nose and worn by men and women in the ears
COMFORT and CONSOLE
Two things. Comfort immediately after the loss (which they did not show up to perform, perhaps because his friends were there)
Console, encouragement to get back to the business of living, sometimes harshly (directly).
But...
***** SLIDE *****
We have an uncomfortable phrase here...
“For all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him”
No one, not Job, his friends or his family knew what really happened.
That God’s judgement, God’s integrity was being tested.
HEAVEN and EARTH, it would seem, ARE CONNECTED.
We will come back to this later...
And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
These are double the numbers that Job started with.
God has restored Job to what he had AND compensating him for his loss EXODUS 22:4
“If a beast is stolen the one who stole it shall pay double.”
This was Job’s fundamental complaint. He had been unjustly deprived of his possessions and GOOD NAME.
God does NOT acknowledge that a wrong was done to Job, but God’s DOUBLING of Job’s possessions says it all.
All he had was lost in a single day, but not all was restored in a single day. THAT WOULD BE A FAIRYTALE, not the FOLKTALE this is.
He will be a poor man for many years before the effects of his affliction will be undone.
He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch.
Okay, this is pretty cool.
Females are named in the Hebrew Bible when they are going to be important to the plot.
Like most Hebrew names in society, even today, names are taken from OBJECTS in the everyday rather than encapsulating a short prayer or theological statement as most male names do.
THE ONLY PLACE WHERE A FATHER NAMES HIS DAUGHTERS
ימימה
Jemimah, Arabic, “TURTLE-DOVE”
קציעה
Keziah, Aromatic spice cinnamon
קרן-הפוך
Kerenhappuch, Horn of kohl, antimony, a black eye cosmetic
THREE SENSES: Hearing the turtle-dove, smelling/taste of cinnamon, and seeing (sight)
NOTICE WHO IS MISSING…Job’s wife...
If she is still around, then she has had TWENTY children
And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations.
INHERITANCE among or with their brothers.
If a father had no sons, he could leave his inheritance to his daughter(s). But to leave an inheritance with his daughters while he has sons is VERY unusual.
But, if Job is going to image what a future Messiah will look like, then in the Kingdom of God there is neither male and female.
Four generations:
His own generation
His former families generation
His new children
His grandchildren
(May be the authors call back to the children who were lost)
Pre-Moses
Post-Moses
Post-Jesus ascent
Post-Jesus return
The Psalms speaks of the normal life of a man is 70 years. For Job, it is as if he has started over and lived another lifetime.
This would be in keeping with compensating double what was taken.
And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
Job received what he asked of God, but he received it on God’s terms.
He died the desired death at the end of a full and satisfied life.
He had no other unexpected calamities.
END...
What, in the end becomes of Job?
After all he endures, the vigor to clear his name, a disappointing encounter with God who does not even discuss humanity or Job, he accepts consolation and resumes his life.
He CLOSES THE DOOR on this intense intellectual struggle.
He is no longer suffering from EVIL SORES.
He may have heard how YHWH spoke well of him, but we are unsure.
HIS WEALTH indicates to all that he is not a SINNER, as everyone HAD THOUGHT.
Is that enough to constitute happiness?
Job’s complaint is that the world is NOT being governed in JUSTICE.
Neither the RIGHTEOUS nor the WICKED receive their “just deserts.”
YHWH declares that Job has spoke of him was is right.
Job never gets to discover the debate in the heavenly court (divine council) that is behind YHWHs affliction of him.
Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 18B: Job 38–42 Explanation
The focus for the author of the Book of Job seems to have modulated in this epilogue from such questions as “What is the meaning of the universe?” and “Is there justice?,” to a new question, “What is important for an authentic human existence?” How to measure the relative value of a solution to the intellectual puzzle of the universe against the delight of dreaming up beautiful names for beautiful daughters? Where stands a claim for cosmic justice against the demands of sociability and familial harmony?
Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 18B: Job 38–42 Explanation
Even the fundamental questions about God and the universe, the author seems to be saying, however pressing, however distressing, have their own context, in a world where human life goes on regardless—eating, drinking, begetting, dying. There is more to life than justice—more perhaps even than theology in general—however insatiable the human spirit may be for answers, however oppressed it may be by injustice. Yet the big questions, that come of their own accord, will not go away. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
Now, this is how we often read the book…Let me give you some of my thoughts on the matter.
The satan is abusing a human to try and overthrow God.
Job is suffering because of the satan, but God is taking the responsibility for what the satan has done.
He is taking on himself the injustice of what happened to Job and the restoration of Job.
There is another human who did something similar but to the extreme.
Jesus accepted the abuse of the satan
at the request of his Father in Heaven.
The sacrificial price was very high.
Jesus went so far as to allow evil to overwhelm him to death. (high sacrifice, seven bulls, etc.)
God restores Jesus to life, and gives him the inheritance of the whole world.
Namely, the nations and the people.
The outcome is:
The satan is proven wicked (wrong)
God is proven righteous (right)
The human (Job/Jesus) is justified.
Because God spared Job’s life and restored double what was taken from him.
The satan owed Job, but God stepped in and made Job whole (justified), because it was God that ultimately allowed this to happen.
Job had a choice, he could have cursed God.
But he did not. He took up the cross, as it were, and bore it alongside God.
We think of God being distant and not caring about Job. But this would be US ADDING to the text.
Job became the key witness against the satan in the heavenly court.
Just as we become a key witness of God’s love to the world.
Jesus stands in the place of Job on behalf of all humanity.
He takes the accusation from the satan.
If Jesus fails, God fails, and God is not a God of truth.
If Jesus succeeds, God succeeds, and God is a God of truth and mercy.
That is why Jesus can disarm the principalities and powers and inherit the earth.
This is how God can justify all who believe in Jesus
So, put this in perspective to how Jesus lived, died, and inherited
Jesus,
lives life full of life,
eats with others,
prays for others,
knows and sees injustice,
acts as a judge at the gate (overthrow tables),
(unlike Job) is aware of the plan,
prays to God (garden) no answer,
experiences Psalm 22,
is abandoned by God,
and (unlike Job), he dies.
Then Jesus,
is resurrected to life,
eats with others,
acts as a judge at the gate (heaven),
is the most blessed of all,
becomes the Highest Priest of all (Job as priest),
and shares His inheritance with the sons and daughters of God.
JOB HINTS AT A REDEEMER:
Job 9:33 “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.”
Job 16:19-21 “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor.”
Job 19:25-27 “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”