The Latter End of Job

As Job's trial is brought to an end, the Lord restored him and blessed him greatly. We read in Job 42, So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. For he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.

He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first Jemima, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Kerenhapuk. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. After this lived Job a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons and his sons' sons even four generations. So Job died being old and full of days. The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. The Lord blessed Job. He blessed Job. But he blessed Job in Job's trial. What Job was brought to suffer in losing all things was a great blessing from the Lord. It brought him to God.

He had nothing else but to throw himself on the Lord's mercy and look by faith under his Redeemer. It stripped all confidence in the flesh away. All trust in man, all trust in self, all trust in Job's wisdom, understanding, knowledge, righteousness. Any trust he might have had in himself or anyone else was stripped away and he was laid bare before his God, broken, cast down, having nothing but that faith that God put in his heart. to look up and to say, I know that my Redeemer liveth.

Yes, God bless Job as he does all his children in trials, great trials. When brought into trials especially the deep trials of life like Job was brought into, when bereaved, when brought into great illness, when we've suffered the loss of all things, when brought into these deep waters, they may not feel like a blessing.

They may feel like the Lord's hand is gone out against us, like we're being chastised, judged, condemned. We may feel like God is at a distance and wonder whether our faith in him is true, wonder whether we are truly one of his or wonder whether he's cast us out forever. Yes trials may not seem like a blessing when you're in the midst of them because we as men tend to measure blessing in earthly ways. religion, in the churches of men, people look to blessing in terms of numbers.

When meetings grow in numbers, when the churches are full, when people are coming in, when they appear to be thriving, man says in religion, oh how the Lord is blessing us. We've had this family come and these baptised and these added to the church. Look at the numbers, look how the Lord is with us.

And then when numbers go down, when the elderly die and no young come in, when ones and twos go out, when division comes, when the numbers go down and there's but a handful How easily by nature we feel otherwise. The Lord's no longer blessing us. His hand's gone out against us. It's not just in the false churches that men can feel like this. This is not just in terms of looking upon these huge churches of thousands. But even in small places, people can so easily look upon those times when one or two come in and say, oh, the Lord's blessed us. And when one or two go out, oh, how discouraged we are.

But if there's anything we might learn from Job's account, it is this, that numbers outward appearance is never a measure of success or a measure of the blessing of God. God blessed Job when he brought him to nothing. That was God's blessing and presence with Job.

He lost all. He lost his family, he lost his wealth and he lost his health. He lost the respect of man. Then in the midst of his suffering, his free friends come to him. Free religious friends. He as it were sat there and his brethren in the church came to him. Those in the midst of suffering that he might have expected would have pity upon him, would have compassion upon him, would understand.

And these religious men, his brethren as it were, gathered around and condemned him and found fault. essentially said under him, the Lord's not blessing you Job, he's condemning you and rightly Job because of your sin. They heaped doubt upon doubt. Oh how could Job's faith stand in the midst of this? He'd lost them too. He was brought to nothing as though everyone in his small meeting had gone out and left him alone and said you've got it all wrong Job. There was no one left.

Was God judging Job? Was God blessing others? Was God blessing these three who still had their health and their wealth and their families? Were they blessed and Job wasn't? Was God blessing others that grew in number and condemning Job who was all on his own?

No, not in the least. This trial This being brought to nothing brought Job to Christ alone. What a blessing it was to Job to be brought through this, to be brought into this, to be brought by faith to look unto God out of the midst of his suffering. to be given faith to look unto his Redeemer, to look unto his Saviour, when everything outside, everything in man's reason, would condemn him, and say otherwise, and say, you're not blessed of God, Job.

You're under his judgment and wrath. You've been cast out. You've got everything wrong, Job. The reality was that Job had the root of the matter in him. God had put faith in his heart and he looked beyond the outward circumstance to Christ alone. This trial was a great blessing.

Oh how God blessed Job by bringing him to nothing. by taking away all confidence in the flesh, anything he could trust in by nature, and leaving him with nothing, nothing but Christ. Do you ever feel like that? Have you ever been brought into circumstances like that? Do you see the blessing in being brought low, in being brought to nothing, that you may be brought to Christ alone. This was God's gracious dealing with Job.

In all of this he pictured Christ his Saviour. He pictured Christ his Saviour who lost all things that he might save his people. He came from heaven's glory, humbled, made lower than the angels, made a man. He walked in the darkness and the evil of this world. rejected and despised of all men.

He came unto his own and his own received him not. Men spake evil of him. He had nowhere to lay his head. Men sought to put him to death. The religious came to him and like these three friends of Job, they condemned him, they found fault in him. They cast him out as a heretic, as a troubler in Israel. They despised him.

They sought to stone him to death and in the end they crucified him. and all his own, his disciples, his friends stood at a distance, they departed and on the cross he was alone, alone in the darkness bearing the sins of his people, made sin, guilty before the law of God and God's justice poured down on him in great fury such that even the Father was at a distance. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He lost all things, and yet through it came the greatest blessing. Through Christ's sacrifice, he saved everyone. everyone whom the father gave him, everyone chosen before the foundation of the earth unto salvation, everyone whose names were written on his breastplate. everyone whose names were on his heart, everyone whose sins he bore on the cross in the darkness under the fires of God's wrath, everyone was delivered, everyone was washed clean in his blood, everyone was delivered from captivity. and brought into everlasting life with him. He saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied. Oh how God blessed his son. This is my beloved son. Hear ye him. Hear ye him. How the Lord lifted him up and glorified him.

And like Job, blessed his latter end. more than the beginning. Job was brought to know this, to see this, to see Christ in his suffering, to see Christ in his resurrection, to see Christ in his glory through all that God brought Job through. But to see this, God had to strip Job of everything. He was brought to be alone with nothing, as God brought you there.

When all alone, alone, alone with no one but Christ your Saviour, having no one to comfort you, having no one to strengthen you, having no one to agree with you, alone before your God, alone with but faith in Christ, having been brought to that point, stripped of everything. Do you see the blessing of the Lord, the gracious hand of the Lord in bringing you there to place you upon the rock, Christ Jesus? to bring you into everlasting glory.

In Mark's Gospel, as in, as repeated in several other places, in Mark's Gospel chapter 8, Christ writes, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Whosoever will save his life, whoever tries to grasp at what this world gives him, who gains the entire riches of this world, who seeks to get out of trouble, who seeks to get out of the trials that may come his way, whosoever shall save his life shall lose it.

But whosoever shall lose his life, whosoever shall be brought where Job was brought, for Christ's sake, whosoever is humbled by God in gracious dealings with him, and is stripped of all confidence in the flesh, brought down low brought to nothing whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels the same shall save it for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Job lost his life as it were for Christ's sake and the Gospels that he saved it.

His latter end was such a blessing. Later in Mark in chapter 10 we read that then Peter began to say unto him, Lo we have left all and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land for my sake and the gospels.

But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time. Houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life. But many that are first shall be last and the last first. Oh yes the world may look upon you if you've many things. If you've house, brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, land, oh how blessed you are. But if you just have it in this world, what a curse.

But if the Lord brings you to nothing, brings you to be alone before him, if the Lord puts you last, he will bring you first what a blessing Job's three friends still had their health their wealth their families and all the time they looked on Job and condemned him but see where they were brought in the end And it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends, for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.

Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you. For him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuite and Zophar the Nehemiphite went and did according as the Lord commanded them. The Lord also accepted 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. Yes in the end these three friends are brought to come before Job and offer up a burnt offering to come to my servant Job who had spoken right despite all their condemnation.

As we've seen Job is a picture of Christ. And here we see a picture of man, religious man perhaps, who thinks he knows right when actually he knows nothing. Being brought to the point of coming to my servant Job, my servant Christ, coming before the Lord, coming unto God's Son, Jesus Christ, coming unto my servant Job, my servant Christ, and offering up a burnt offering. And my servant Job shall pray for you. For him will I accept. lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. Oh, has the Lord brought you to come unto Christ with a burnt offering, not your burnt offering, not something that you can produce, but his burnt offering, Christ himself, Have you come unto God in Christ? Come unto my servant.

For him will I accept, the Lord says. God the Father accepts Christ on behalf of his people. And if they're brought down low to come unto him with nothing, and to trust in His offering, His burnt offering on their behalf, His sacrifice on their behalf, then God will accept him and accept them in him.

Have you come that way? As God told you, you've not spoken right, as my servant the Lord Jesus has. all your words against him, all your attitude towards his gospel, all your condemnation of Christ and the gospel, all your rejection of him, all your shutting your ears has led you astray. But if you come under him and bow down before him and trust in his sacrifice I'll accept him and I'll accept all those in him as he brought you to him then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters and all they 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 everyone an earring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.

Has the Lord brought you with Christ, Brethren, and his sisters? to come and to eat bread with him in his house. Has he brought you by faith to come unto Christ and to comfort him over all the evil that the Lord brought upon him for your sake? Has he brought you to look upon Christ suffering in your stead, bearing your sins, bearing the judgment of God that you should suffer Did He suffer there for you? Was He bearing your sins? Was He made sin for you? Did God bring evil? Did He bring wrath and judgment upon His own Son because of your sin? Has He brought you unto Him, into His house to worship and praise Him because of what He suffered in your place?

So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. For he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 she-asses. He also had seven sons and three daughters. The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.

When our trials are brought to an end, If we're believers when our trials, like Job, are brought to an end in Christ, our latter end will be so much better than before. No matter what we might have had before, no matter how great we may have been before the Lord brought us low, it's nothing compared to what we will have in Christ eternally. What Job had before his trial was nothing compared to what God brought him into afterwards. A picture. A picture of his own son. His own son. The Lord blessed the latter end of his servant Job, his servant Christ, more than his beginning.

When Christ was joined in glory by all His people. When they came unto Him, His brethren, His sisters and all that had been of His acquaintance before. When that people come unto Him in eternal glory and sit down and eat bread with Him in His house. And comfort Him and worship Him and praise Him for all that He's done.

Oh what a blessing it will be. What a joy, what a joy for the Son of God to see His people gathered in His house. For the joy that was set before Him. He endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. What a blessing there was for Christ. ahead of him as he entered into his sufferings. How the Lord blessed the latter end of Job. But he's just a picture. Just a picture of Christ when he came into the world and lost all, rejected by all. Just a picture of Christ when he came in his gospel to you.

Every time the gospel has been preached to you and every time you've turned away and shut your ears and said I don't want to know. How often we've turned away from him. How often we've rejected him. How often every one of us has in our hearts when Christ has come unto us in the gospel, when he as it were has come into this world to where we are and stood before us as the saviour of sinners and we've said no. And we've taken up nails. nails of unbelief, nails of rejection, nails of sin and nailed him to a cross and crucified him and said in our hearts away with him, away with him, we will not have this man to reign over us, crucify him, crucify him and in our apathy, our disinterest, love of this world and all that's in it we've gone another way and left him to die in the darkness. We have as it were taken our brother Joseph whom we despise with our jealousy because he's favored by the father and we've thrown him in the pit to die.

Every time and yet Christ in the midst of the trial, not just in time when he came into this world as a man, not just when the Jews rejected him, not just when all men rejected him and nailed him to the cross, not just when he suffered in the darkness upon the cross bearing the sins of his people, But he's endured it every time he sends his gospel forth and mankind despises it and rejects it and casts him aside. He feels the same pain, the same rejection and yet he suffered all that he suffered because he saw beyond the cross. and he saw beyond the rejection of his people to his gospel to that day when he would save every one of them.

At the cross he delivered everyone and because of what he did at the cross there comes a day when that gospel will come in power to everyone. and enter into their soul in a way that it never entered and come into their ears in a way that they never heard and all the previous times that they turned away they can no longer turn away because in irresistible grace he speaks And the Lord says, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

He comes unto his own and says, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And finally, the scales drop off our blind eyes and our deaf ears are opened and we hear the voice of the Son of God. and we see the satisfaction of his soul in saving sinners everlastingly we see the joy that was set before him and we see him as our saviour.

We are brought to look upon him whom we have pierced and see him as our saviour. looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Suddenly for the first time we see him for who he is. not just the Son of God, not just the one that was crucified for others, but our Saviour, our Redeemer. And we say with Job, I know that my Redeemer liveth. I know that my Redeemer liveth. And we see his hands and his feet and the blood that flowed from his side. and we see ourselves washed in it and made to be the righteousness of God, we see the cleansing power of His blood, we see our Saviour glorified for us.

When He walked by faith through the darkness of this world looking unto the cross, when He suffered the rejection of men when wicked men nailed him to the tree and lifted him up. He looked by faith unto his father and knew that all would result in the salvation of everyone for whom he suffered. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.

He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. He shall see those brethren, those sisters, all of his acquaintance, come and eat bread with him in his house. He shall see them. He shall hear their comfort. He shall hear their praise. He shall see them washing his feet with their tears. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.

Yes, he lost all like Job did. Yes, he was alone like Job was. But the Lord blessed his latter end more than the beginning. He rose triumphant from the grave, having put away all sin, having conquered death. having conquered hell, having conquered the devil and all his enemies and having delivered every one of his people with an outstretched arm, he led them in victorious from battle into glory and he gathered his children together, his sons, his daughters in the church. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.

For he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. A perfect number of sons and three daughters. Triune. He also called the name of the first Jemima, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Kerenhapak.

And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job, and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. He brought them into their inheritance. None were so fair as the daughters of Job. Oh what an inheritance Christ has. What sons and daughters he has, what a multitude he has in his household. And there's none so fair as his daughters because he's washed away their every spot and their blemish in his own blood. His bride is perfect from head to toe. He gave himself for her. He loved her and gave himself for her, he gave himself for the church. What an inheritance she has.

2 Corinthians 6 we read, Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. and will be a father unto you. And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Isaiah 61 reads, And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. The seed that the Lord hath blessed. Oh what a people Christ has.

In all the land there were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. After this lived Job 140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons even four generations. So Job died being old and full of days. Oh the grace of God that was shown unto Job.

What a trial came upon him. Everyone rejected him. He was on his own. He lost all things. But God gave him faith in his Redeemer. What came upon Job was the greatest blessing that God could send him. And if God brings us anywhere like he brought Job, if he brings us down, if he strips us of all fleshly confidence, if he takes away our works, our will, our righteousness, if he brings us in alone before him, he'll do whatever it takes. if he has to bring us away from friends and family if he has to bring us on our own before him he'll do that but what a blessing it will be if he brings us to know that my Redeemer liveth if he brings us to call out upon Christ my servant Job My servant, Jesus Christ. If the Lord says unto us, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, he ye him. If he gives us the grace to hear, the faith to believe, if he strips us of all to bless our latter end more than the beginning, Oh how blessed we will be.

Oh to be amongst that company gathered to eat bread in his house. Oh to be among those daughters of Jesus Christ washed in his blood. In all the land there were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.

O may he in grace. Give us faith to look unto His Job, Jesus Christ, and see our salvation, our Redeemer, and everlasting life in Him. If He does, He'll bless our latter end more than our beginning, and we'll love Him and rejoice with Him forevermore. Amen.

The Latter End of Job

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