Job 42
JOB’S ending was an exemplary portrait of a live well lived. It was his encounter with the Presence of God that transformed Job.
“I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in the dust and ashes to show my repentance.”
When God grants an encounter with him, this is the general pattern found in scripture...when we meet God, we see who we are, what we are made of and the puzzling truth that despite this, God takes time to reveal Himself!
Neither focus too much on the lists of material blessings nor on the chance to have a family again but rather focus on the Presence of God, and the spiritual discernment of Job...how he handled these blessings and how he lived well and ended well. Don’t miss this...Job did not take advantage of his position to get even with those who treated him unfairly (vv 7-9). Job was also set free from his desire to get even. Finding yourself willing to pray for those who don’t deserve it somehow sets you free from the shackles of quiet bitterness and silent rage.
A God-blessed second half of life is a life that has been tested by brokenness
1. Brokenness helps us learn from suffering
CS LEWIS popularized the statement...”Pain is God’s megaphone. He whispers to us in our pleasures and shouts to us in our pain.”
2. Brokenness teaches us to respect those who are suffering
One of the concrete ways to respect the suffering of others is our disciplined restraint of our opinion about the matter especially when we are just assuming that we are right.
A God-blessed second half of life is a life that tasted all the flavors of grace
1. Sweet Grace - where undeserved blessings abound. It is here we learn the humility to abound and the delight to be generous.
2. Bitter Grace - where grace shifts to another flavor that embitters us because we are not the recipient.
3. Sour Grace - where we are not chosen but others are.
A God-blessed second half of life as modeled by the life of Job is a life that leaves a legacy of godliness
Job reaped the legacy of godliness because his heart was trained by obscurity, nurtured by obedience...enjoying being ordinary. In Chapter One of Job, verse 21, Job said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!”
God wrote the gracious ending “Job lived 140 years after this, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. He died an old man who had lived a long full life. Reading the story of Job gives birth to a fresh hope that something is still cooking in the kitchen, something is still worth expecting during the second half of our lives! Yes, the second half is dangerous, yet the second half can be the most life-transforming. Brethren have faith in God!