7 After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has. 8 So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did as the Lord commanded them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
10 When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before! 11 Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends came and feasted with him in his home. And they consoled him and comforted him because of all the trials the Lord had brought against him. And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.
12 So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters. 14 He named his first daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15 In all the land no women were as lovely as the daughters of Job. And their father put them into his will along with their brothers.
16 Job lived 140 years after that, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. 17 Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.
Job 42:7-17
Dear God, I was struck by the last sentence of verse 15 this morning: “And their father put them into his will along with their brothers.” What an interesting thing to include. Women had no agency back then–especially if this is assumed to be in a time before Noah. So the fact that the author of this story went out of their way to let us know this little detail seems like they are telling us that something new formed in Job as a result of his suffering. I did take a moment to look up some others’ commentaries on this subject, and I found this site, which did a nice job of quoting a lot of people about this one verse.
I am sitting here freshly from having visited with my wife over the breakfast table, and we were just talking about how some of our life sorrows have formed us. She was telling me about one of her dreams which seemed signficant, and that led to us talking about how she is different than she otherwise would be without our sorrow. I talked about a couple of instances this week where two different people commented about a particular aspect of my behavior, and I said that I don’t think I would be that way without the sorrow. The sorrow is awful. It’s painful. I hate it. I’d love for it to be resolved and over. I can’t imagine the delight it would bring me to have it over. But I can also see that it has formed me, and I don’t know who I would be without it. I don’t know that I would like the person I’d be without it as much as I like the person I am now.
Father, I was writing a letter to someone yesterday whose foundation is called “Make it Count.” It made me think about all of the things that can mean. It can mean, “I have a lot of wealth, and I want to make it count for something.” Or it can mean, “If there is going to be pain, let’s make it count for good.” In my life, I’ve learned to embrace both aspects of that phrase. If there is abundance, let’s make it count. If there is pain, let’s not let it be wasted, but let’s make it count. I have a day ahead of me. It will be slower than the days I had this week. It was a really busy and stressful week. But you led me through. And now there is a particular crisis happening in a coworker’s life–the dominoes of which will ripple through the lives of others. And some are having to make some potentially life-changing decisions because of this. For each life. For each family. For each soul that is touched by this, I pray that you will be with those who are making decisions and help them to know what to do. And for those who will be affected by those decisions, I pray that you will teach, love, support, and provide. In each thing all of us experience, Father, please don’t let it be wasted. Don’t let the abundance be wasted. Don’t let the pain be wasted. Please, make it count.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
