And Job Lived Happily Ever After . . . Or Did He?, Part 1

0:42 Please turn with me to the 42nd chapter of Job, and I'll be reading the last eight verses of the book. Please hold your applause. Somebody in the first service wanted to know, do we bury Job today? Job 42, verse 10, the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. all his brothers and all his sisters, and all who had known him before came to him. And they ate bread with him in his house, and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him.

1:49 And each one gave him one piece of money and each a ring of gold. The Lord blessed the latter years or the latter days of Job More than his beginnings And he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels And 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys And he had seven sons and three daughters He named the first Jemima, the second Keziah And the third Karenhapuk In all the land, no women were found so fair as Job's daughters. And their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his grandsons four generations. And Job died an old man and full of days.

3:26 we have been fascinated by stories. When we were very young, they were the stories of imagination, a world that seemed larger than life to us, and they all began with the same four words, once upon a time. It didn't matter what time it was, it just, for us, represented a world of kings and queens and princes and knights and fights and love and war and romance and usually marriage and, of course, they all finished the same way. Same six words, they lived happily ever after.

4:13 Oh, that that were true. We grow up with the same hope deep in our hearts because some of us are sort of like that. We like looking at the brighter side. And so when we build a house, we think it'll be our dream house. And it's not. The roof leaks or the electrical doesn't work or the garage door opener doesn't keep working or, or, or. We get a job. It's a new job. And we think this job is going to be the fulfillment of our wildest dreams. And we find we had to bring ourselves with us when we took the new job. And the people we work with are a lot like the people we just left. So that hasn't changed a great deal. Maybe it'll be different when we have our first baby. Remember thinking that?

5:06 Oh, just wonderful. Then the baby comes. And there are sights and there are sounds and there are smells that were not there before. It just goes on and on. New car. New car. Nothing smells like a new car. It's wonderful. Drive out of the showroom. Boom! Somebody runs into you and it looks just like the old car that you drove in and traded. It reminds me of a little four-year-old girl that came into her mother after she had spent the day at day school. And she said, Mama, Mama, I just heard the greatest story. She said there was this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful princess. And she fell into a deep trance. And along came a charming prince. And he kissed her. And it brought her back to life.

6:00 And then do you know what? Mother said, sure, honey. They lived happily ever after. She said, no. They got married. In childhood innocence, that little four-year-old put her finger on the truth that a lot of us really don't like to think about all that often, but we have to, especially true in Bible stories. We love for those in the Bible to live happily ever after, but I can't find one who did. I can't find one. Noah lived this courageous, wonderful life and did this remarkable thing. And the flood came and he ends his life in naked shame and drunkenness.

6:49 Doesn't seem right. These wonderful judges that God gave to deliver the nation one after another in the generations that followed. And then they fall on their faces. it seems like most of them are staining their record before they die. Samson judges 20 years, then falls into the arms of a harlot,

7:16 dies a blind grinder in the Philistine mill. David's life has a dark side as well. We don't want that. We want David to live happily ever after, But before he's finished his life, there's murder and hypocrisy and adultery marking his record. And Solomon, his greater son, wiser than anyone who ever lived on this earth and richer than any in his day, dies a polygamist. Saul, born to be a king, dies a suicide. Peter crucified upside down, John the baptizer beheaded, Paul beheaded after a life of sacrifice and service, and John exiled to an island in the Aegean.

8:19 Isaac Watts was right in the 18th century, as he wrote, must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win this prize and sailed through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me on to God? Sure, I must fight if I would reign. Increase my courage, Lord. it's not a perfect world.

8:55 Before we're tempted to lay someone like Job down on a satin pillow and surround him in an unrealistic setting of pristine peace and beauty, we need to remind ourselves he doesn't have that until he goes to heaven. On this earth, no one lives happily ever after. fulfilled and satisfied you bet challenged and growing and learning I hope but happy all the time get a life not even Job before you get to chapter 42 let me have you look at chapter 23 once again. Just one verse. I wonder if Job remembered saying this to his friend Eliphaz while defending himself in his third reply. Job 23, verse 10. Look closely. You'll see it through new eyes now that you see how the story has led to Job's recovery.

10:04 back when his body was covered with sores, back when his friends were against him, family had gone away, children had died, he was bankrupt, sitting in a garbage dump at the outskirts of the city. Job still has the temerity to say, he knows the way I take. When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Look at that. The H is capitalized. It's referring to the living God. Job makes three statements of faith, even in the midst of his suffering. One, I know that God knows my situation. He knows the way I take. Second, I believe it is God who is testing me when he has tried me. And third, I believe that after the trials have ended, I will emerge a better man.

11:05 There will be gold-like blessings that will come from this affliction. Quite a statement, if you ask me. Realistic, yes, he doesn't deny the trial. But there's hope there. He knows and he will reward. And that's exactly what we find when we get to the last chapter of Job's life and Job's story. I appreciate the words of one author who said this, it would be a great gift if we could be in Job's position at the end of the book without going through what he did through the book.

11:48 Gain his knowledge without suffering. But then he adds, realistically, it's doubtful that it can happen. It takes fire to refine gold. Before I go another step into chapter 42, I want to speak to you going through the fire. Just as we are different in our appearance and in our background and in our levels of maturity and age, so we are different in tests. For all you know, the person sitting close to you is going through one of the deepest times of her life or his life. Or that may be you.

12:28 Fires rage. This vile world is no friend to grace. You may have run right up against the toughest test so far you've ever experienced. my words I hope will not have a hollow ring to them when I say to you two words take hope this is not the end he knows the way you take when he has tried you you too will come forth as gold you're being refined you are being reshaped for he is the potter and we are the clay.

13:19 Better times are coming, if not now, and if not on this earth later, when we stand before him and when we spend our eternity with him, it will be worth it all. Well, Job, dear Job, I find when I get to the 10th verse of this last chapter of his book that it begins to list for me no less than four great rewards that came his way. Four gold-like blessings from the hand of God.

13:58 And I enumerate them for us so that you might take hope where you find yourself today. Now, your rewards will be different because our trials are different. The blessings that come your way ultimately will not be the same as Job's necessarily. But these are his and you will have yours. Take heart. The first of the four blessings I find in verse 10 and verse 12 of Job 42. Job's possessions are doubled. The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends.

14:40 And the latter part of the verse explains what that means. The Lord increased all that Job had twofold. There are times I don't take a verse absolutely literally, but this is one of those I do. I think literally because of what's said in verse 12, everything doubled.

15:06 Perhaps his land as well as his possessions. Perhaps a larger home was able to be built rather than the one they lived in before. But we are told specifically of the multiplication that occurred over the passing of time with his animals. the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning if you check Job chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 you will read one half these figures he originally had 7,000 sheep and he winds up in verse 12 tells us with 14,000 so his flocks grow as he feeds them and breeds them so their numbers increase. And there's plenty to eat and there is plenty of land to graze in and the sheep grow in number to 14,000.

16:02 And remember the caravans that Job was a part of in his business? His business doubles. He now doesn't have 3,000 camels but 6,000 camels. What a sight that must have been. You ever looked at a camel? You looked at one lately? They are weird, weird, weird, weird, weird. They just look funny. We were in central Florida this week, and we were at a particular place where there happened to have been a mama and a baby camel. They don't look any better as babies as they do as mamas. And one of them looked at me and went, and I was just glad I wasn't close. I thought, because I knew this verse was coming, I'd been thinking about it, 6,000 of these things running around. But my, in the days of Job, they were like freight trucks. And they would carry the load in the caravans.

17:01 And his business is increasing. And he's got 1,000 yoke of oxen to work the fields. And it must have been out of every window of his home, he could see luscious plants and the growth of the crops all around him. and he's got a thousand female donkeys. So he's got everything twice as much as he had before. Not instantaneously, but over the passing of some years, his possessions grew.

17:34 There's something here, I think, that's kind of between the lines. The Lord chooses on occasion to bless certain individuals with more than is enough. What we must learn in our lives as God's people to let it be, guard yourself from one of life's ugliest habits, and that is envy.

18:04 I know the great temptation is to remind the Lord of how faithful you have been when you see a neighbor or maybe a friend whose business grows and yours doesn't or whose life becomes more prosperous, in fact, to the point of being downright rich. Don't decry that. Don't try to outguess that. It is unfair, it is unwise to think that every or most every wealthy individual has not earned it well or does not receive it from the hand of God. Some of God's dearest saints are eminently wealthy. Let it be. Let it be. If you are one of them, you hardly need the reminder that you didn't create it yourself.

19:02 It came because of his grace. And if he chooses not to bless you as he has blessed another, applaud it rather than resent it. Job increases, multiplies enormously. He has come forth as gold, having been tested. Now, there's a second blessing that comes in Verse 11, his relatives and friends emerge.

19:39 Some of you have a sense of humor a little like mine, I'm sorry to say. You think like I did. Where in the world were you guys before he won the lottery here? Someone said, you always know who your friends are when you win the lottery or own a pickup. I think that's a good comment. Job looks up and he's surrounded by all his brothers and it repeats it, all his sisters. Interesting, they're never mentioned until now. They weren't around when his time was troubled. Or were they? You don't know that, nor do I.

20:20 But if they were, they said nothing and their names are never recorded or their words recorded in the first 41 and a half chapters of the book. But now they come, all his brothers, all his sisters, all who had known him before. You know who I would include? Because they're now forgiven, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu. Why not? They're not blacklisted, are they? Because they didn't do the right thing or say the right thing at a time when they too were confused. they're forgiven. If I read correctly, verses 7 through 10, Job even prays for them, and they're restored. So why not be a part of the family reunion? Notice what these people did when they came. They came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house, and they consoled him, and they comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. What a great family reunion. Remember the days of family reunions? They're kind of scary when you think back on them. They're kind of funny. We had family reunions not every year, but many years. It got a little weird when Uncle Jake showed up, but until then it was interesting. I loved Uncle Jake.

21:39 Weighed about 400 pounds and had a rope belt. I used to think that was hilarious. My youngest son still loves to hear stories about Uncle Jake. And he was quite a character. I won't go into Uncle Jake any further. I'll just leave it at that. But we had family reunions. My granddad owned a bay cottage, and that's where we would have our reunion, down south of El Campo near Palacios. And we would all pile into this four-room house. And I remember barbecue cooked in a pit outside. The one doing the cooking would use a mop to smear over the... We weren't too clean in those days as we mopped that, slapped that barbecue sauce. Man, that makes my jaws hurt right now when I think about it. Go to bed at night with the mosquito net over your crib and your beds and just fun time. I remember hearing my dad and mom laughing in the kitchen as they played 42 two with my uncle and aunt. Great moments where they talked about fun stuff and life got real simple as you sort of made up your mind about it in a family reunion. Job had a time like that.

23:01 What stories he must have told him. I love it that they comforted and consoled him. Maybe he had a few scars remaining from the sores. Maybe you could tell him about the night he lost all hope of being able to make it. Those are kind of stories that make a family reunion deeper and meaningful. And I notice also, as you have, that each one gave him one piece of money and a ring of gold. Isn't that intriguing? Maybe this was early on and he hadn't yet begun to build back his business And maybe they wanted to participate in helping him get back on his feet Remember, he's lost it all Maybe he had had to take all of the rings he had before and sell them to live on him And they wanted to be sure he had a few nice things as well Maybe they were housewarming gifts welcoming him to a new home that he had just built.

24:07 And they were all happy for him. Men and women in a fast-paced world like ours, it's easy to lose your roots. Easy to live just for yourself. He stays in touch and they stay in touch with him. They have a lot to talk about. You know who had a lot to talk about? It's Job and his wife. In many a home where physical affliction hits hard, there's a separation that occurs. Distance is built. Some marriages can't make it. And the wife goes one direction and the husband drifts another. You gotta hand it to Job and his wife.