Job 42 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study
Job 42 Short Summary:
In Job 42, the final chapter in the Book of Job, Job repents of speaking too boldly about things only God could know. Then God rebuked Job’s 3 friends for misrepresenting Him and accusing Job of sins he hadn’t committed. At the end of the chapter, God restores Job to health, to wealth, and gives him 10 more children. Job lived 140 blessed years after his suffering and died at a good old age.
Job 42 Bible Study
SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB
Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan
Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution
Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.
Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost
WHEN:
The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).
I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.
The fact that Job lived 140 years after the events of this book is also an indication of early writing (see Job 42:16).
KEY CHARACTERS:
Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.
God – God descends to respond to the debate between Job and his friends.
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar - Job’s 3 friends who came to comfort him but ended up arguing with him and accusing him of wrongdoing.
WHERE:
Job lived in the land of Uz. Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.
OUTLINE:
JOB’S REPENTANCE (42:1-6):
After being challenged by God with a series of questions, Job realized he had spoken out of turn. He had been too bold and said some things in ignorance that he shouldn’t have said.
He said, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know… therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:3, 6).
Job resolved to speak less and listen to God more.
JOB’S FRIENDS TOLD TO REPENT (42:7-9):
After questioning Job, God turned his attention to Job’s 3 friends.
God was very displeased with them, more so than He was with Job.
He said to Eliphaz, “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” (42:7).
God instructed them to offer 7 bulls and 7 rams as a sacrifice for their wrongs. They were to ask Job to pray for them so that God would have mercy on them.
To their credit, they accepted God’s judgement and did as He instructed.
GOD RESTORES JOB (42:10-17):
“And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before… And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning” (42:10, 12).
Job’s family came to him and comforted him. They gave him money and a gold ring.
God gave Job 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
He was given 7 more sons and 3 daughters. His 3 daughters were unmatched in beauty.
After these events, Job lived 140 years.
“And Job died, and old man, and full of days” (42:17).
APPLICATION
Job never got the answers we received in Job 1 and 2 (that it was Satan behind the curtain who was causing him to suffer).
It wasn’t God’s intention to explain everything to Job; it was God’s intention to reinforce His sovereignty to Job. What Job needed to grasp was that there were many things he didn’t understand, but that God was in control of all of those things.
In a way, God’s answer is the perfect ending for modern application. Because, although we got to see behind the curtain of Job’s circumstances, God doesn’t show us what is behind the curtain of our own circumstances.
We aren’t told about all the spiritual forces and divine intentions that bring about our circumstances, which leaves us with many of the same questions as Job, especially during times of suffering.
So, what is the proper response?
We’ve observed how not to respond. We shouldn’t call God’s justice into question. We shouldn’t think ourselves worthy of a better life due to personal righteousness. We shouldn’t speak in bold ignorance about what we don’t know. We shouldn’t come up with an oversimplified model of God’s justice and start assigning every hardship to an unconfessed sin.
The right response is to trust God, whether He explains the situation to us or not.
It is not the will of God to reveal every mystery to mankind. Men must accept that they will not be able to explain everything.
Through what has been created, God has displayed His sovereign power and superior knowledge, and we are instructed to put our trust in that superior mind.
His management of our small world, which itself is beyond our comprehension, should be sufficient to teach us that the management of all things is in good hands.
We should devote ourselves to Him in humility, living out our small lives in full contentment that the governance of the physical and spiritual worlds is in the best of hands at all times.
