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26.10.2011 Feature Article

THE RESTORATION OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN

THE RESTORATION OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN
26.10.2011 LISTEN

JOB 42:7-17

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever stopped to examine weeds? They serve as a reminder of judgment, a result of the curse on the ground after the fall of Adam. But if you look closely, you can see signs of mercy in that judgment. Some weeds have gorgeous flowers: tiny blue bells, ruffled purple blooms, and even magnificent displays of gold. In the same way—even in trials or discipline—if we look closely, we can see beautiful signs of God's mercy.

In a man's dream, he had a vision of walking through life on a sandy beach with Jesus by his side. As he looked back at the footprints in the sand, he noticed that at the troublesome spots of his life only one set of footprints marked the sand. The man asked Jesus where the Lord had been during those troublesome times. Jesus replied: “That single set of footprints is mine. Then I was carrying you and your burden.” (By an Anonymous Author)

I would like to share with you on the topic: “The Restoration of a Righteous Man.”

Background
The background information for our text today is found in Job 38:1-11; 40:1-14, and 42:1-6.

I. THE LORD'S VERDICT AND VINDICATION OF JOB VV. 7-9

After the Lord has spoken to Job from the whirlwind, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as My servant Job has. Why do you think that God is angry with these three friends of Job? God is angry with them because of the harsh things they have said to Job. There are various exchanges between these three friends of Job and Job. Eliphaz's first speech is recorded in Job 4:1-11; Bildad's speech is found in Job 8:1-6; and in Job 11:1-6, we find Zophar's speech. God confronted Eliphaz because he was the oldest of the three friends.

The first notable thing about Job's three friends is that when they heard of their friend's misfortune and his debilitating disease they came to console him. The second thing that is commendable about these three friends is that they spent seven days with their ailing friend in silence. But after the seven days, they started to take matters into their own hands and began to probe Job. They began to give Job some theological lessons. They decided to give Job some words of wisdom. This is a word of caution to every Christian: When you pay a visit to a grieving person, whether a family member, a relative, or a friend and he/she is complaining bitterly to God, don't draw a conclusion that the person has lost faith in God. Don't conclude that after all, that person is not a Christian. When a person is suffering or grieving he does not speak straight from the inner recess of his heart. That person is reacting out of his emotions. Just listen to his complaints and pray silently for him (James 1:19).

What a speedy recovery Job would have had, had his three friends kept silent and prayed for him! God is now angry with the three friends because they had misrepresented Him to Job. They spoke to Job in the name of God. They spoke to Job as if they had received a divine revelation from God. Here God is reprimanding the three friends and vindicating Job. God is saying to these three friends of Job, Job My servant did not sin. His suffering is not the result of sin as the three of you have proposed. In verse 8, God told Eliphaz and the other two friends to take seven bulls and seven rams and go to “My servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves.” Here the role is reversed. God has given His verdict. He has found the three friends guilty of misrepresenting Him and also maligning the name of His servant Job. The lesson is this: please, don't judge anything in a person's life that seems mysterious. Don't offer flippant solutions to human problems or suffering. Know your limitations. You are mortal; you are finite; you don't have all the answers. Know that you are not God and as such you don't know everything. Don't ever play God and assume the role of God. God is displeased with these three friends of Job. God is saying to them go and atone for your sin and My servant Job will pray for you. I will then withdraw My anger from you. What a blow to those who think that they are right in the sight of God, but God has found their counsel wanting. There are some of you here who might have misjudged someone. You have to ask for God's forgiveness. The next step you need to take is to go to that person and apologize and ask for his/her forgiveness. Until you have done that you will not experience the freedom of spirit and God's blessings on your life.

God said, "You have to do this because you have not spoken well of Me what is right as My servant Job." In his affliction, in his pain, and in his loss Job complained bitterly but he did not curse God as Satan had suggested. Job did not lose his faith in God. He did not become a skeptic, cynic, or an atheist. He maintained his faith in God.

In verse 9, the three friends did what God told them. They provided the burnt offering, and also went to Job to pray for them. There is another great lesson here. When someone offends you, when someone maligns you and God convicts him/her to come to you and ask for forgiveness, be willing to forgive him/her. No matter how unjustly you have been treated, forgive the person and pray for him/her. Job did not withhold forgiveness from his friends. He did not say, “I will let you pay for the way you have treated me.” Job interceded for his three friends. Do you pray for those who slander, insult and accuse you? Can you pray for friends who have become your enemies? That is exactly what our Lord Jesus did for you and me on the cross. When the enemies were mocking, spitting, and hurling all kinds of insult on Jesus, He said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” The Lord accepted Job's prayer. There are some of you here whose friends, family members, and relatives are on the road to destruction. It is only your intercessory prayers that can move God to forgive them and save them. Do you care for your unsaved family, friends, neighbors, and relatives?

II. THE RESTORATION OF JOB'S LIFE VV. 10-11
After Job prayed for his friends, God made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. Do you see the practical application here? God restored Job's life and property not before but after he had prayed for his friends. Here is the application: Forgiveness is essential to your spiritual, physical, and material prosperity. To be unforgiving is to forfeit God's forgiveness (Matt. 6:14-15). Only when Job prayed for those who had rubbed salt in his wounds did he himself find God's forgiveness and wholeness. There are some of you who are sitting on your blessings. The Lord wants to restore your health. The Lord wants to restore your home. The Lord wants to restore your business, but until you have forgiven those who have hurt or offended you, your blessings will not come. Your own healing comes in part from your reconciliation with others. It is after Job prayed for his friends that he experienced restoration. The Lord has chosen and called us to be instruments of reconciliation as well as to be reconciled where there may be a division, an estrangement, and misunderstanding. Job's relatives who had kept their distance from the suffering spectacle (19:13-15) now comes back to rejoice with him. These relatives proved themselves to be fair-weather friends. Their comforting and consoling came a little late, but their presents were expensive. When the Lord is on your side, sometimes he makes your enemies to be at peace with you (Prov. 16:7). It is better to forgive and win a friend than to hold on to a grudge and destroy friendships.

Yes, it hurts for a person to malign, to slander, to backbite, and drag your name in the mud, but when the Lord convicts them, be prepared to forgive them. Let go and let God have His own way. Those who condemned Job became his comforters. Those who had distanced themselves from him have now come to console him. In all these God was saying to them, “You were wrong in judging My servant Job.”

III. THE LORD BLESSES JOB AGAIN VV. 12-17
Verse 12 states that the Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. Everything he had formerly owned is now doubled: his sheep, camels, oxen, donkeys, and even his life span are twice the proverbial seventy years. The Lord is always faithful to His children. The Lord gives back Job's children to him. Before the disasters Job had seven sons and three daughters, in His restoration, the Lord gives back the same number of children to Job. If you introduce your children to the Lord and disaster occurs and they die, they are not lost. Some day in the world to come there will be a happy reunion. One day you will see them again when we see Jesus Christ face to face. Someone would protest, but Job got everything back including his children. What about me? My only child died but the Lord hasn't given me another yet. The Lord knows better than you and I. Continue to pray to Him. He may choose to give you more than one child. He may also choose not to give you any. Whatever the Lord chooses to do is best for our lives. This is the caution: Don't make God's restoration and His blessing of Job's life a criterion for all Christians who suffer. God sometimes restores His children's health and their material blessings. At other times too, God gives them the strength to endure whatever life would throw at them. Sometimes God says, “My grace is sufficient for you (2 Cor. 12:7-9). If Christians are to experience all of God's blessings in this present world, then heaven will not be any better place to long for. But I tell you heaven is a place to hope for. The trials that we go through in this world cannot be compared with the glory that is to be revealed at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Job's health, his possession, and his ideal family are restored to him. God has vindicated Job. Job lived a hundred and forty years. God doubled Job's life to enable him see his children's children to the fourth generation. God did this so that Job can inculcate or pass his faith on to his children to the fourth generation. Job did not waste his life. He died old and full of years. Job lived life to the full. Let me ask you a question. When you sit down to reflect on your life, does it seem to you that you have wasted your life? Are you wasting your life now? Are you experiencing some suffering? Are you wasting your sorrow? It is from Job's trials that we have this magnificent book called the “Book of Job.” God did not tell Job why He allowed him to suffer intense affliction and disasters. However there are reasons for Job's suffering.

1. The Book of Job was written to affirm the fact that the innocent do suffer.

2. It was written as a rebuttal of the orthodoxy that saw suffering as unjustified.

3. God sometimes ordains or allows that His children walk in the valley of the shadow, perhaps because it may be there that they would discover His comforting rod and staff. In His inscrutable providence, God sometimes allows His children to go through pain and suffering to bring about His purposes in our lives.

4. Life is a school and suffering is one of its instructors. The heavenly Father cares too much about His children to let us go on in ignorance. Some lessons are not learned apart from suffering. Therefore, some sufferings are educative to the children of God.

5. Suffering is not always punitive or corrective. It can be instructive.

6. Sometimes God allows us to suffer because it provides the opportunity for building our character for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

7. Suffering is morally therapeutic and preventive.

The Life of Job teaches us that suffering is the common burden of all humanity and the lonely burden of every person. Yes, suffering can be a punishment for your sin, but it can also be corrective, exemplary and redemptive. Suffering does not mean that God has abandoned us. The purpose of suffering is not seen in its cause but its result. Does suffering make you a bitter or a better person? God was not punishing Job but was testing his faith and refining his character. It was to prove to Satan and to show Job's critics that he was not serving God because of material blessings. When all these blessings were removed, Job still served God. What happens when bad things happen to good people? They become better people and God turns their suffering into service for His glory. Job is vindicated; his trials are over; and his faith is triumphant. Job could have said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

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