Job 42:10,12,17: “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. So Job died, [being] old and full of days.

If you want to light my boiler fire all you need to do is raise your hand after I give a lecture on Job or I give a testimony of my Job like experience and say, “But remember God repaid Job with twice as much as he had before.” As if this is supposed to be our comfort when we go through the fires and lose everything.  Then we can claim this  promise that God will repay us with twice as much as we lost. I have known many Christians who have gone through a Job like experience, myself included, and we are not up there giving that wonderful testimony of how God repaid us two fold. I personally have not seen one tenth of a return in finances, home, career, health etc. I guess that means we cannot give that testimony of a double return as we do not have enough faith or there must be something wrong with our Christian walk.

Let’s look at this last chapter more closely. A double portion return is not a promise, it is merely stating a fact. There is nothing that indicates we are to expect the same. Jewish tradition teaches that Job 42 is an epilogue. An epilogue is not a real part of the story, it is just additional information for those who are wondering what happened to the old fellow. The epilogue is not intended to be the message of the story, yet our materialistic culture turns it into just that.

Actually the whole message of this story is that in spite of losing everything Job still loved and worshipped God. Job shows us the difference between all the religions of the world and that of worshipping the God Jehovah. All the religions of the world worship their god expecting a good return, if their god does not bring rain or prosperity, then they just shuck that god and go to another who can pay them better. Job, on the other hand did not worship God because God paid him so well, he worshipped God because he loved Him.

When Job’s wife told him in chapter 2 to curse God and die, what she was saying if you examine it in the Hebrew is, “Job, you are dying, why are you not cursing God?” Job responded in verse 10 by saying she was speaking as a foolish woman like a woman of a pagan culture. “Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity?”

If a man tells his wife that another woman can satisfy him better than her and therefore he has every right to divorce her for this other woman, what do we think of a man like that? Selfish is not a good enough word. If he swore his love to his wife then it does not matter if she satisfies him, what only matters is that he can be everything possible for her. Yet, do we not do the same thing with God if we cling to chapter 42? “Ok, God, I will go through this trial but remember, I expect to be pay a double portion when it is over.” How about saying, “It is ok, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away blessed be the name of the Lord.” That is a quote from Job by the way (Job 1:21).

So back to chapter 42, ok God did give Job a double portion. Is that what made him happy? Did God resurrect his children, did God resurrect his beloved and trusted servants. Did God heal the broken heart of Mrs. Job? Are there enough camels, sheep and oxen to pay for the death of Job’s children? I think not.

Look at verse 12, the Lord blessed the latter end of Job. That word for latter end is ‘acharith. I have found this world used in extra Biblical literature to express the idea of being happy at the close of life. The very last verse 17 says that Job died being old and full of days. The word full is sabea’ which means to be satisfied, contented, and happy. Did Job ends his days happy and contented because he was once again rich and had more children?

I fear the answer to that lies in how you respond after you have had a Job like experience. Perhaps the only way to understand is to have a Job like experience. The Apostle Paul had a Job like experience. He was wealthy, had a family, was a member of the Sanhedrin a man of great reputation and influence and when he met Jesus he lost it all. We learn he was no longer married. He had to be married to be a member of the Sanhedrin, what happened to Mrs. Paul? Did she die? Did she divorce him? Nonetheless, we hear nothing about Paul’s family, he lost his family. He lived by the generosity of other Christians, what happened to his wealth? He was persecuted, shipwrecked, stoned and when he ended up in prison God came to Paul and said, “Ok, now I will give you twice as much as you lost.” Not my Bible, maybe your Bible but not my Bible, God told Paul, get ready, it’s going to get worse. Yet, how did Paul respond? You find it in Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Everything you have in this world can be taken from you, job, family, finances, health, everything the enemy can take away, but there is one thing he cannot take away from you and that is the love of God in Christ Jesus. Job proved that the things that are temporal in this world, camels, sheep, oxens, reputation, friends etc. were not what was important to him it was the love of God. That is why he ended his life archarith and sebea, happy and contented.

The way things have been going for me lately, you would not want me on the platform giving a testimony of prosperity and good health.  I hear people giving these testimonies of God giving them a new house, a new car, healing their affliction and I am sorry, but I don’t find myself saying “Praise the Lord,”  but “God why you do that for them and not me?”  If I give a Praise the Lord it is only because I am hoping the same will happen to me, which it usually doesn’t.

I’ve decided to get depressed.  It really isn’t a bad deal, you get to mope around your apartment in dirty stinking clothes, unshaven, eating junk food, and feeling sorry for yourself. Of course as one rabbi once said to me, “Self pity is like a warm wet diaper. All nice and cozy but after a while it begins to stink.”  So I guess I will do what I always do when I get into my Eeyore mode. God and I have to have one of those talks again.  It doesn’t take long for me to remember how He left that throne in glory and never looked back, how he allowed his hands to be nailed to a cross and how he has loved and had that love rejected even despised. How He is holding out His hand right now and saying, “Come, let me go with you on this journey, your hand safe in mine, go ahead pick up your cross and follow close to me.”

I don’t want anyone reading this to pray that God will richly bless me or write to me that God will surely make it up to me. You see, He already has when I took His hand. He has repaid me a hundred fold, more than I could ever hope or dream for the things of this world mean nothing in light of holding His hand. He has given me something that man nor the devil can ever take away from me and that is the Love of God in Christ Jesus.