The Lord Restores.

Job 42: 10-17                                                                                 Kevin E. Jesmer

Key verse 42:10,                                                                            12-26-14

“After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.” 

God restored Job’s fortunes and blessed the remainder of his life. He experienced, not only forgiveness and grace, but restoration of life. Recall what Job’s original situation was in Job 1:2-3, “He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.”  And now look what his situation was in chapter 42. Verses 10-17 reads, “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.” Wow! How could one man become so blessed? He had twice as much material riches than he had before. All of his friendships were restored. The respect and honor of all his extended family and community were granted. All of those who had previously spoken so harshly of him will change their minds now. God gave Job and his wife, ten more children and all of the girls were very beautiful. The sons were probably handsome too. He also recovered completely from his illness and lived another 140 years. Job was exactly 70 years old when the calamities came upon him. Adding another 140 years meant that Job lived to be 210! Not only that, he was accepted by God. He knew that God was pleased with his faith. When he died, he would be taken up by the Lord to dwell in the Kingdom of God forever and ever. What wonderful grace from God.

One thing that was not restored in this world, were his original children that died during the calamities. Nor did he receive the faithful servants that died either. They were not resurrected from the dead while Job lived. God gave him new kids and new servants. But these could not take the place of those he lost. This must have broken his heart. But he would have found solace knowing that he would see them again one day in the kingdom of heaven. So in a sense he would be reunited with his original kids, but not during the remainder of his life on earth.

There are wonderful promises of healing, vindication, restoration and blessing for those who have held onto Jesus in the midst of all kinds of trials. Check out some of these verses. James 5:11; “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” James 1:12: “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”  And Jeremiah 9:23-24 reads; “23 This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, 24 but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.”

Our God is into healing and restoration. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come. (2 Cor 5:17)  The Bible is full of people whom Jesus has forgiven and restored in this life. I always think about the disciples in John 21. Think about their situation. They had just witnessed the suffering and death of their leader, Jesus. They had left jobs and careers and dedicated 3 ½ years of their lives to follow Jesus. But at that time they were being hunted down as criminals. They didn’t know what to do and so they went back to their old lives, trying to fish. But even then they caught nothing. Jesus came to them forgiving them and calling them “friends”. He helped them to have a great success in fishing. He helped restore Peter spiritually, by allowing him to confess his love to Jesus three times. Then he gave them a mission to feed God’s sheep. They came out of their despair and condemnation and were raised up by Jesus to be the Apostles. They became spiritual leaders for the known world. God worked through them to establish the Christian church. They were history makers by the grace of God. Not only that, they had a rich reward in the Kingdom of God. Talk about restoration.

Jesus says that someone gives up something for the kingdom of God will be repaid. (Luke 18:29-30, “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” Our restoration may or may not be the same type as Job. Our complete restoration may not even be in this life. But it will happen. I remember a “chick tract” that I read when I was a child. There was a homeless child, living in a cardboard box, is suffering greatly. She is near the end of her life and gives her heart to Jesus. Then she dies in the cold, wet, cardboard box. It is what happens after her death that amazed me. She was resurrected from the dead and met Jesus in the Kingdom of God. Her life was totally restored and abundantly blessed in heaven. God loves us and he is just. He will keep his promise to restore whatever we have lost. He will give us more than we can imagine. Cling tightly to your faith through all of your trials and you too will be rewarded by God, if not now in this life, definitely in the life to come. It will happen.

I know personally how Jesus restores peoples’ lives. I was one who was in desperate need of restoration. Before I met Jesus at the age of 22, I was far from what God intended me to be. I was a hedonistic person who lived to have a good time. I couldn’t study and failed my first year of University with 1.0 GPA. My relationships with others were not healthy. I was in deep despair with no hope. But Jesus came into my life. He forgave me. He showed me the Gospel truth and showed me to the way. He healed me and restored my life in a myriad of ways. He is leading me all the way to eternal life in the Kingdom of God.  Even if I got sick and died immediately after meeting Jesus, that would be O.K. because my restoration would be made complete in the Kingdom of God. Praise God for his redeeming and restoring grace. I also know that if he did this in my life he can do this to anyone.