Restoration and Inheritance | Job
Table of Contents
Restoration and inheritance. Two things that demonstrate God’s love for us. For we have a God who is known to restore what has been lost; a loving Father who provides an inheritance for His children.
Job’s life and God’s response certainly demonstrate both. But what makes Job and his children—his daughters in particular—unique?
Join us as we explore the end of Job’s story, and how the restoration and inheritance within the last chapters stand out…
The Story of Job
While most of us know the story of Job, before we dive into the restoration and inheritance found at the end of Job’s story, it is important to look at the beginning…
Now, Job was a righteous man—blameless and upright—and God blessed Job with great wealth, a large family, and joy. In fact, Job was blessed by God so greatly, that he was the greatest of all the people of the East (see Job 1:3). And in all of this, there was not likely to be any change…
Except that God decided to shift things, to bring Job—through the course of time—into a greater fullness of not only relationship with Him, but also in terms of the blessings poured out upon Job. And, for this to happen, the Lord decided that He would bring Job to the attention of the enemy…
And so, the enemy began a long succession of attacks on Job. And in each, even at the loss of Job’s children, property, and health, Job chose not to curse God. However, after Job’s three friends had come and wept with him for seven days, Job allowed himself to curse the day of his own birth. And this opened a door for things that should not have been…
Certainly, before this point, after Job became sick and his wife thought that he should curse God… Job told her they ought to accept the choices of God. However, after Job decided to curse his birth—something that God surely had chosen—many things went downhill. For, after this, Job’s friends began to attack Job’s character—saying that Job had surely done something wrong to suffer so. And Job, while not cursing God, did begin to question God…
We might consider Job’s reaction mild considering the suffering he endured. And certainly, Job may have done more than question God had he not been clinging to faith. But, just as God took issue with Job’s friends who were lecturing Job, God took issue with Job’s questioning of Himself and His choices…
Because, as God reminded Job, it is the Lord who has power. To do all things. To create worlds and universes. To be wise and know all.
It is the Lord—not Job, or angels, or any of us—who is high and lifted up… Who is God!
Job Returns to the Lord
After all of this, when the Lord began to speak to Job and his friends, reminding them of HIS SOVEREIGNTY, Job realized that he needed to lay his hand over his mouth and be quiet. To listen to God and to trust God’s wisdom, ability, and perfection.
In all of this Job learned the true sovereignty of God. He returned to God, repenting and acknowledging that he had been speaking of things he did not know…
And God forgave Job.
Yet, while God’s forgiveness is certainly THE most important thing both in this story and in our own lives… there is more!
A Double Portion of Restoration and Inheritance
God admonished Job’s three friends, telling them that they had not spoken the truth about Him as Job had, and that they needed to offer sacrifices because of it.
Now, this is interesting… not because God was angry with them, or because He gave them a list of things to do to rectify the snare of their words. It is interesting because God said that Job had spoken things that were right about God. That, even in the midst of Job overstepping, ‘overspeaking,’ and even cursing his own birth… Job still remembered the truth regarding God. There was still something within Job which had to speak accurately of God.
But what of Job’s reaction to his friends?
Even after dealing with lecture upon lecture from his three friends and all of their words… Job chose to pray for his friends. As the Lord directed, certainly… but it was an important part of Job’s complete restoration. Because it was after Job prayed for his friends that the Lord restored Job’s fortunes and gave Job TWICE what he had before!
Job had to humble himself and choose forgiveness—just as God had forgiven Job—in order to release God’s highest and best. After all, why would the Lord favor a man who had been forgiven but refused to forgive?
Yet, because Job chose the path of forgiveness rather than bitterness, this double portion was opened to Job; and remember, Job, before all this, had wealth and blessings that caused him to be the greatest of all the people in the East… a double portion of that would be enormous!
Still, God’s blessings did not stop there, for God also gave Job children again! Seven sons and three daughters…
But here is where things become fascinating.
At the start of Job’s story, his sons were at the forefront. They had parties and would invite their sisters to join them. However, at the end of the book of Job, it is the daughters of Job’s restoration who are at the forefront…
The Book of Job does not mention the names of Job’s seven sons. We know they receive an inheritance, but beyond that, we do not know much.
However, we are told a little bit about Job’s three daughters:
- Their names: the first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch (see Job 42:14).
- That they were essentially the most beautiful women on earth.
- That Job gave them an inheritance alongside their brothers!
Now, it was not wholly unheard of in the Word for a daughter to receive an inheritance, but typically it was only if they had no brothers. We see this when a group of daughters with no brothers went to Moses to seek an inheritance in the Promised Land. However, Job, whom God favored and found upright and blameless in his way… chose to include his daughters along with their brothers in the provision of inheritance!
Remember, Job had an encounter with God. God revealed Himself to Job and explained much of who He is to Job. Few people in the Word had encounters like that. Few of us meet with God and are not forever changed.
Could it be that Job was acting in accordance with God’s will? Not only regarding Job’s own sphere, but the sphere of God’s plan as a whole?
What We Can Learn from Job’s Restoration
Job’s journey was an interesting one…
- Job—blameless and upright—has great favor, wealth, and blessing from God
- God brings Job to the attention of the enemy
- Job suffers loss of wealth, family, and health
- Job defends God
- Job weeps and mourns with his three friends
- Job curses his birth
- Job’s friends lecture and condemn Job
- Job responds
- God reveals Himself to Job and lays out His truth
- Job covers his mouth
- Job repents
- God corrects Job’s friends and instructs them on how to be forgiven
- Job prays for his friends
- Job receives a double portion of restoration
- Job leaves an inheritance for his children
- Job lives to an impressive 140 years
In this short bullet-point version of events, we notice a few key points from which we can learn…
- We need to guard our hearts and mouths
- The heart easily transitions to words, so, when we allow things to fester in our heart it eventually makes its way to our mouth. There are times when we all need to do what Job did when God revealed Himself; laying a hand across our lips. This does not mean that we are meant to go through life in silence, but that our words need to be led by God—for we are meant to proclaim the good news and our praise to the Lord.
- We need to repent whenever we go against God—His will, His ways, His Word
- A lifestyle of repentance is not a life filled with sorrow or woe. It is not a prison or jail. Instead, a lifestyle of repentance is one of joy and fullness. It is freedom and hope.
- We need to forgive
- Just as God forgave Job, He expected Job to forgive his friends. This is the way God wants us all to live. To not only accept the forgiveness God offers, but to give forgiveness in turn.
- We need to remember to pray
- Job not only had to forgive his friends in his heart, but in his actions as well. God had Job pray for his friends. This was in many ways an action of forgiveness, but the prayer was also a release. When we pray, God listens. But, when we pray for those who persecute us, we not only answer the biblical mandate of blessing those who curse us… we open doors. Good doors. Not only to those we pray for, but also for ourselves—for God forgave Job’s friends when Job prayed for them. Job’s obedience to God in praying for his friends released the double portion of Job’s restoration!
- We need to leave an inheritance; to bless others
- Job was greatly blessed. But he did not hold onto that blessing as if afraid he’d lose it. Instead, he blessed others—particularly his children—as he had been blessed. He realized that, as the Word says, it is better to give than to receive (see Acts 20:35); that a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children (see Proverbs 13:22). This is a lifestyle that we are meant to engage in; a lifestyle where we not only receive, but give!
While there are other lessons that we can learn from the Book of Job, each of these are essential to our walk with God. We need to be good stewards. Of our time, our words, our finances. We need to walk with the humility to repent and to forgive. In this, we open the doors to a relationship with God. To blessings. And to all God has for us and those around us.
We are in a new season. A new era. We have not walked this way before. Yet, when we are willing to align ourselves with God, there is nothing too great. Nothing too hard.
We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!