Job 42 might be the most confusing part of the book. You will notice that Job 42:10 reveals that the Lord restored the fortunes of Job and the Lord gave him twice as much as he had before. What are we supposed to make of this ending? Is the message that, after your trials, everything you lost will be restored to you? Is the message that once Job repented, then he was restored again? What is this ending communicating and how does it fit with the message of book about suffering and how God runs the world?
God Vindicates Job (Job 42:7-9)
The Lord will now bring the trial to a close. The Lord tells Eliphaz that his anger burns against him and against his two friends. Please note that Elihu is excluded from this condemnation. But notice what the condemnation is. These three friends have not spoken what is right about the Lord. So what were the three friends saying about God? It seemed like everything they were saying was about Job. But what they were saying wrong about God was that God inflicted suffering on Job to punish him for his sins. The book has been very clear that this is not what God is doing nor how he runs the world…
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