For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 42:1-6

1 Then Job replied to the Lord:

2 ‘I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, “Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?”
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.

4 ‘You said, “Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.”
5 My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.’

A. Find Out

1. What does Job acknowledge about the Lord? v.2
2. What does he acknowledge about himself? v.3
3. What had the Lord said? v.4
4. How had Job known the Lord? v.5
5. What does he conclude about himself? v.6

B. Think:

1. What does Job acknowledge has been his folly?
2. What had brought about change in him?
3. What is his final state?

C. Comment:

As we draw near the end, we find the Lord stops speaking and allows Job space to speak (v.1). Job acknowledges, first of all, the Lord’s sovereignty, (v.2) that the Lord can do whatever He wants and (implied)  that will be right. Any plan He has can be brought to ultimate fruition and we cannot stop it.

Next he acknowledges what the Lord had asked about who speaks without knowledge (v.3a) and he acknowledges that this was a true description of him, yes, he had spoken about things that were beyond him, things that he did not understand (v.3b). This is surely true for he had not been privy to all that had gone on in the courts of heaven between the Lord and Satan and therefore did not know the true nature of all that was happening. It was testing not judgment.

Yes, the Lord had challenged him to answer His questions (v.4) and they had all been questions (over seventy of them!) designed to help Job realise the Lord’s greatness. Previously Job had heard about the Lord but now he had encountered Him (v.5) and he had come to realise something of the Lord’s greatness (implied) and so now he despised himself for all his foolish words (implied) and he truly repented of his wrong attitudes (v.6)

This is a time of truth that came to Job through revelation and a right perspective has now truly been gained.

D. Application:

1. Can we acknowledge we sometimes speak without knowledge?
2. Can we acknowledge we lose sight of the Lord’s greatness?

Passage: Job 42:7-9

7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.’ 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

A. Find Out

1. To whom did the Lord next speak? v.7a
2. Why was He angry with them? v.7b
3. What did He tell them to do? v.8a
4. What would He have Job do for them? v.8b
5. What did He say about Job? v.7c,8c
6. So what happened? v.9

B. Think:

1. Why were the friends rebuked?
2. How was Job’s activity spoken of?
3. What had to happen to put things right?

C. Comment:

Now is a time of humbling and correcting of the three friends (Elihu doesn’t get mentioned). The Lord speaks to Eliphaz (v.7) who had spoken the most, possibly the elder or leader of the three. He expresses His anger at the three for not having spoken correctly about Him. He doesn’t itemise the things they have said wrong but just gives a blanket disapproval.

He instructs them to offer sacrifices (v.8) as a means of coming into a right place with God and, to make a point, the Lord will have Job pray for them – a humbling of them in the light of all they have said.  No, he is not the sinner they maintained; he will be their intercessor.

The divine corrective is so strong that they get on and do it without question (v.9) and Job prays for them and the Lord accepts his intercession on their behalf. They are forgiven.

Now perhaps the most significant words in these few verses, which we have referred to a number of times as we’ve gone through the speeches are, “as my servant Job has” (v.7 & 8) referring negatively to what the friends said and positively to what Job said. In this Job gets a doubly repeated approval from the Lord. Yes, he may have spoken without understanding what went on, but he spoke to the Lord and he spoke truthfully. His cries come out of his previous relationship with the Lord.

D. Application:

1. Would God chide us for speaking wrongly?
2. Can the Lord praise us for speaking well about Him?

Passage: Job 42:10-17

10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

A. Find Out

1. What did the Lord now do for Job? v.10
2. Who came and did what for him? v.11
3. What was a sign of God’s blessing on him? v.12
4. And what else? v.13-15
5. And what else? v.16,17

B. Think:

1. How was Job restored financially?
2. How was he restored socially?
3. What further were signs of God’s blessing on him?

C. Comment:

The blessing that now comes, comes in abundance. We aren’t told that this is reward for Job but it is clearly God’s blessing on him. He had suffered financial ruin as his livestock had been stolen (1:14-17) but now God blesses him and his finances are restored and he is twice as wealthy as he had been before (v.10)  with large numbers of livestock (v.12) as obvious signs of that.

Moreover he is restored socially, he is no longer the outcast that his illness had made him and his family gather to him to bless him again (v.11). More than that, having lost all his children previously (1:18,19), his family is rebuilt with ten children (v.13) and the daughters were put on an equal footing with the sons (v.14,15).

At the end we are told that he lived to a ripe old age (v.16,17). No doubt he would have looked back many times to that awful period in his life, but now he lived in affluence with the clear and obvious blessing of God on his family. If anything shows the lie that his suffering had been because he was a sinner, this does. He is a man mightily blessed of God. He has come through the trial and he has been blessed.  The trial was short lived but the blessing lasted over many years. The trial was a time of awful suffering and being ostracised by people. The following life was clearly one of well-being and social acceptance once again. Job has remained faithful and the Lord has blessed him.

D. Application:

1. Can we trust God to bring us through our trials?
2. Can we believe His future blessing will be greater than the present?