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Chapter 42:10-17 (ESV) - 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. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
Question to consider: How does Job appear in this passage to be a type for the exaltation of Christ?
Throughout this book, I’ve pointed out that Job was a type for Christ’s suffering. Of course, Christ was the better Job in that He willingly endured His suffering for the sake of the church, but it’s fascinating to see how such an ancient text seemed to hint so heavily at Christ. Job lost everything including his power, wealth, family and friends during his ordeal. Christ willingly left the power, wealth, and His heavenly family to live among us. At the hour of His greatest need, Christ also lost His friends, and the people turned against Him.
Both endured earthly trials which had false witnesses and baseless accusations of sin. Both looked to God for their redemption and endured great suffering. Of course, Christ was truly blameless in His suffering, and though He cried out to God to take away His suffering, He willingly subjected Himself to God’s will. Unlike Job, Christ could have ended His own suffering at any time but chose to endure it for our sake.
In today’s passage, we also see Job as a type and shadow of Christ’s exaltation. After the suffering of His soul, Christ was restored to the right hand of God where He continues to intercede for His enemies. Job was also restored to his position of power and interceded for those who persecuted him. Job was given twice as many animals and children. I say “and children” because the seven sons and three daughters who died would be reunited with Job at the resurrection. The family of Christ was also multiplied in that all who belong to Him are His brothers and sisters.
I wish I knew who wrote this book. Perhaps Job wrote through the first half of Chapter 42, and his son or grandson wrote the epilogue? I hope it has been a blessing to you to see such an ancient text reveal so much about the mercy of God and the redemption He continues to offer us.
Dear heavenly Father, let this text be a comfort to us when we experience times of frustration and suffering. We look forward to the day when there will be no more calamity, disease or pain. In the meantime, let us rejoice that we belong to Christ. Amen.