The Restoration of Job
‘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”. (Job 42:10)
Nearly all admit that the narrative of Job has an allegorical element to it. Though most apply it to the lesson of the permission of evil, Job representing mankind, there is an alternative and complementary possibility. What happens to the nation of Israel, both historically and prophetically, is a microcosm of the human race. In this article we will treat Job as representative of natural Israel.
TWO STEPS OF REPENTANCE
The turning point in Job’s experiences was his repentance. This was vocalized in two progressive stages. After God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, emphasizing his greatness and his wisdom in planning creation, (Job 38,39) Job humbly responded: “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.”
Here is an acknowledgment by Job that he has been trying to justify himself before God. He admits that he has been put to silence, that he has no rebuttal. Yet he stops shy of a statement of repentance.
In the balance of chapter 40 and all of 41 God resumes his speech to Job. These chapters demonstrate God as the tamer of the untamable. Two animals are described in detail: behemoth and leviathan. The descriptions of these beasts leave it debatable whether they are mythical creatures or animals such as the elephant or hippopotamus (behemoth) and the crocodile or alligator (leviathan). That discussion is perhaps irrelevant, since the main point is that they are untamable and invincible. God asserts that these seemingly indomitable animals are also under the almighty controlling hand of the one who created them.
It is when Job recognizes this that he offers his statement of repentance: “I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. (Job 42:2-6)
References in Psalms 74:14 and Isaiah 27:1 suggest that leviathan, a sea monster, may be typical of Satan, the great dragon. This definition is supported by Job 41:34, “He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.”
Behemoth is somewhat harder to identify. The main element in his description is his power. He is called “the chief of the ways of God” (Job 40:19) and is so self-confident that he feels he can “draw up Jordan into his mouth”. (Job 40:23) The very vagueness of behemoth’s description calls to mind another indescribable beast in Daniel 7:7. “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” This beast of Daniel represents the fourth great universal empire – Rome – both pagan and later Papal.
Although Israel recognizes the supremacy of God in his creative powers, it will not be until they experience the domination of Jehovah over their twin tormentors through the centuries – Satan and his Papal masterpiece – that they will come to full national repentance.
As Job 42:5 phrases it, heretofore they had heard (through the mouths of their prophets) of the conquering power of God, but it will not be until their final deliverance that their own eyes will actually see this power displayed. With this accord the words of the prophet Ezekiel concerning the effect on Israel of their victory through God when attacked by the “armies from the north.” “And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day forward”. (Ezekiel 39:21,22)
THE COMFORTERS APOLOGIZE
The next step in Job’s restorative process is the apologies offered by his three comforters. (It is noteworthy that Elihu, the fourth comforter, has no need to be included in these apologetics. Perhaps this is because he represents the true church which has the real answer to Job’s dilemmas.)
We notice in the text in Ezekiel above that God sets his “glory among the heathen:” This agrees with Isaiah 66:18-20, where “all nations” are made aware of his glory and respond by releasing all remaining Israelis to return to their homeland.
It is also noteworthy that the comforters must apologize, not for speaking evil of Job, but because “ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job”. (Job 42:8) The crimes of Christendom, under the leadership of Satan, have not been so much against Israel as they have been against God himself. It is under the Christian banner that they accuse the Jew as Christ-killer; it is in the name of God that they have tortured and persecuted the wanderers of the Jewish diaspora. As Jeremiah 50:7 expresses it, “All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers:”
Job Learning of His Disasters
JOB’S REACTION
The seven bullocks and seven rams of the comforters’ offerings are not to be presented directly to God, but to be given to Job to offer on their behalf. Thus the required service of the three was not merely to express to God their sorrow for what they had said to Job, but to offer their apology directly to Job. This was as much for the sake of testing Job as it was to try the obedience of the comforters.
Job 42:10 says it was “when” Job prayed for his friends that God restored him two fold for all his losses. The offering of forgiveness by the offended is every bit as important as the requesting of it by the offender to set things straight between each other and with God. “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift”. (Matthew 5:23,24)
FAMILY AND FRIENDS
The narrative then records that Job’s family and acquaintances came to him. “Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.”
Each of his kinfolk and acquaintances were to do five things:
Eat bread in his house – It remains a Mideast custom to this day, that to share a meal is to make a pledge of eternal friendship. It is this custom that is referred to scripturally as “the covenant of salt”. (Numbers 18:19, 2 Chronicles 13:5) Thus, those formerly estranged from Israel as a result of their sufferings must make a pact of reconciliation with the Jew.
Bemoan him – Bemoaning not only expresses sorrow for what has happened to another, but also regret for any contribution to those sorrows by the one doing the bemoaning.
Comfort him – Although closely related to “bemoan;’ the comfort goes beyond mere regrets and suggests the making of amends for any wrongs done.
Give him a piece of money – Adam Clarke, commenting on the Hebrew word here used, wrote that the word “signifies a lamb; and it is supposed that this piece of money had a lamb stamped on it, as that quantity of gold was generally the current value for a lamb.” Commenting on Genesis 33:19, he further wrote concerning this word: “It has been conjectured that the money had the figure of a lamb stamped on it, because it was on an average the value of a lamb.”
When the Jews finally realize their full redemptive experience, they will have uniquely learned the value of a lamb – the value of “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. (John 1:29) All mankind will need to come to the Jew to learn the value of this lamb. (Zechariah 8:23)
Give him a gold earring – But it will not only be the value of the redemption through Christ that will be learned through the Jew, it will include all the divine instructions necessary for man to maintain the life which they obtained through the slain lamb. The significance of the golden earrings can be epitomized in the words that Shakespeare put into the mouth of Brutus at Caesar’s funeral: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” Truly all mankind will lend the Jew their ears during the instruction period of the Messianic Age.
THE DOUBLE RESTORATION
The details of Job’s final possessions are given in Job 42:12, “So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.” These are exactly double his original resources listed in Job 1:3.
The number of animals itself is significant in regards to the twelve tribes of Israel. He originally possessed:
7,000 Sheep
3,000 Camels
1,000 Oxen (counting two oxen to a yoke)
1,000 Asses (presuming a he-ass for each she-ass)
———
12,000 Animals in all
The double possession at the end gave him 24,000 animals total – another number significant with historical Israel.
THE RESURRECTION
However, though all of his four-legged animal possessions were doubled, the same was not true of his children. Comparing Job 1:2 and Job 42:13, we see that his original seven sons and three daughters were exactly replaced with the same number.
In this there is a hint of the resurrection of the dead. When the redemptive price is fully applied, Job’s original ten children will return from the grave, as will his ten latter-born, giving him a total of fourteen sons and six daughters, or a total of twenty offspring.
THE NAMES OF THE THREE GIRLS
Contrary to the usual pattern in the Old Testament, the last three daughters of Job are the only ones who are named, with no mention given to the names of any of his sons. It is worthy of note that the meaning of the three given names have one thing in common:
Jemima – Dove
Kesia – Cassia (an aromatic spice, an ingredient of the holy anointing oil, Exodus 30:24).
Karen-happuch – Horn of oil (actually a container for antimony, or ancient mascara)
All three names contain symbols used elsewhere of the holy Spirit – both in the anointing oil and in the dove. Thus these three names of the daughters may well illustrate different roles of the holy Spirit which will be exercised by Israel in the age to come.
It was again contrary to the custom of that time to consider the daughters as co-heirs with the sons. However, in this case, if they do indeed represent elements of the holy Spirit, it is most appropriate.
THE AGE OF JOB
“After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations”. (Job 42:16)
If the extension of Job’s age follows the pattern of his restored inheritance, it would suggest that he was 70 at the time the afflictions began, and died at age 210.
Perhaps of more interest is that he lived to see his second sons produce both children and grandchildren, “even four generations.” This appears to be a Hebrew idiom expressing the duration of inherited sin, “I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me” (Exodus 20:5, see also Exodus 34:7,Nu 14:18,De 5:9).
Thus in the story of Job we may find not only an answer to the ancient question of why God permits evil, but also an allegorical picture of the restoration of his favored people of ancient times, the nation of Israel.
– Carl Hagensick