Introduction. Read Job42v7to17.

The author of Job returns to prose to bring his fascinating and illuminating book to a conclusion. The epilogue can be dealt with under four headings: (1) God's judgment, (2) Job's mediation, (3) Job's reintegration and (4) God's blessing.

(1) God's judgment.

God passed judgment on:

(a) Eliphaz and his two associates.

God announced that Eliphaz and company did not speak the truth about him. They made at least three mistakes:

• God needed to act in a way compatible with their Theology. If someone suffered it was because of their sin whether open or hidden. Conversely if someone prospered it was because of their righteousness. This Theology had no room for either man's freedom or God's grace. When God exercises his grace he doesn't treat us as we deserve. The implication of Eliphaz's Theology was that he and his friends were upright and God had to reward them. Their well being was but their just desert.

• Eliphaz and his friends ignored the facts rather than admit their Theology was inadequate. They had an ostrich mentality and buried their heads in the sand. Unfortunately many Christians resemble Eliphaz. They affirm that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been callled acording to his purpose. Rom8v28. When a Christian suffers from such severe depression he commits suicide or succumbs to Alzheimer's disease in what way is their affliction of any benefit to them whatsoever? Rom8v28 can be translated in at least 8 different ways. The best translation should surely be the one which most closely matches experience. See Romans8v28to39.

• A legalistic attitude to God made Eliphaz and company unsympathetic to Job. If he deserved what he was suffering why should they feel especially sorry for him? This attitude is reflected in expressions like: "He's brought it on himself." "It's only what she deserves." "He's his own worst enemy." People embracing views like this have a ready make excuse for not helping those in trouble. If someone has brought it on him self he is only getting what he deserves. See London story.

  Quite a number of people are opposed to providing overseas aid because those suffering poverty and deprivation have only themselves to blame. Why cannot every country be like South Korea or Malaysia and pull itself up by its bootlaces!

(b) On Job.

God pronounced that Job had spoken the truth about him. This might seem very surprising. Job was guilty of lacking humility. God spoke to him at length about his creative power and wisdom. Job was abashed. He had to acknowledge that he was no match for God and that he had spoken without understanding. He repented of his self-conceit. So we have to ask in what respects was Job superior to his counsellors. He was in at least three ways:

• Job longed for God. He longed for God to come to him. Notwithstanding his terrible losses and horrible physical condition Job never discarded God. Some people are quick to do so at times of personal tragedy and intense distress. Job never, never wanted to be rid of God!

• Job valued God's opinion more than any other. In the end he stops talking to his friends who had irritated him with their accusations and addresses God alone. He said, "Oh that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defence - let the Almighty answer me." Job31v35. This was Paul's view. He writes to the Corinthians: I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. .... It is the Lord who judges me.1Cor4v4and5.

• Job believed God cared for him and would finally vindicate him. He never lost his belief in God. Job's friends valued their Theology but Job valued his relationship with God. What he desired more than anything else - more than life itself - was God's good opinion of him.

Perhaps one of the things we lack most is a genuine longing for God. We sing but do we mean the words of Fanny Crosby's great hymn:

O love divine, how sweet Thou art!
When shall I find my willing heart
All taken up by Thee?
I thirst, I faint, I die to prove
The greatness of redeeming love,
The love of Christ to me!

(2) Job's mediation.

(a) God tells Job's three friends that they are in the wrong. Nobody likes being told that they are in the wrong. However, if we are - it is as well to be told. It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke than listen to the song of fools. Ecc7v5.

There are many instances in the Bible of someone being told they are in the wrong. Nathan had to tell king David how wicked he had been to seduce Uriah the Hittite's wife. Jesus told Peter, "Stand behind me Satan," when Peter upbraided him for speaking about his death. Paul spent his two letters to the Corinthians pointing out their many mistakes.

It is not kind to keep quiet when someone is going about things in the wrong way. When I visited Japan with my friend Tommy I had no idea about how to hold chopsticks. Eventually a very sweet Japanese lady asked, "Is that the English way to hold chopsticks?" I replied, honestly, "No it is just my way!" The Japanese lady said, "I show you the Japanese way." She took my hand and arranged the chopsticks in the correct manner! What a gracious and charming lady she was! From then on I never looked back.

I am sure that Priscilla and Aquila very graciously pointed out to Apollos where he was going wrong. They set him right on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and made him more effective in the service of Jesus. See exposition on Acts18v24to28.

A rebuke will not achieve anything unless we are humble enough to accept it and act upon it.

(b) Forgiveness was mediated to Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar by the sacrifice they offered and the prayer of Job. We need to note:

• God demanded a payment because it is a serious matter to misrepresent and demean God. A sacrifice drew attention to the seriousness of the three friend's offence.

  When a sacrifice was offered to God it never merited his forgiveness. It could never earn redemption. A sacrifice is ALWAYS but a token payment for sins committed. It relies for its effectiveness upon the grace of the recipient - upon God to whom the sacrifice is offered. God was never under an obligation to accept a sacrifice - not even Christ's sacrifice. He does so of his free and sovereign grace.

• God provided a mediator. Job prayed for the three men who caused him such grief. His intercession meant Eliphaz and company were not dealt with as they deserved.

  Jesus is our mediator. We benefit from his prayer for all believers recorded in John17v20to26. Furthermore we benefit from his continuing ministry as our Great High Priest. In this respect I love the words of the AV: Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Heb7v25.

(3) Job's reintegration into society.

I think that Job was reintegrated into the community before he became prosperous again. We are told that his relations and acquaintances came and ate with him in his house. They comforted him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

There would have been little need to comfort Job if many years had passed since his troubles and he had become prosperous again. He might still need comfort if his losses were recent and remained raw and painful.

The question that demands an answer is: Why has a change taken place in the attitude of relatives and associates?

(a) Job's health may have returned. He is no longer on the ash heap but in his own house. Psoriasis, the disease Job may have suffered from, can disappear almost as quickly as it comes. Sunlight is particularly therapeutic and Job sitting on his ash heap would have got plenty of that. Also, Job's stress levels, a possible cause of psoriasis would have eased after God appeared to him.

People find it very difficult to associate with the chronically sick and disfigured. It is a painful experience. Folk try to avoid personal distress and so stop away from those they should visit.

(b) News undoubtedly spread that God had exonerated Job. Consequently his friends had to change their attitude. They relied on Job to act as their mediator, to secure them God's forgiveness and spare them his wrath. This may well have come as a relief to Job's brothers and sister. He was no longer a pariah, a spiritual outcast, far from it - so they came visiting.

LESSONS:

It is important that we visit the sick. This is one of the things that Jesus specifically told his followers to do. We should also never despise those who fall on hard times or shun those others ostracise. Jesus was the friend of publicans and sinners - men and women on the margins of society - men and women of dubious morals that respectable people steered well clear of.

(4) The Lord's blessing. The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. 42v12.

(a) I believe members of Job's family and former business associates played a part in restoring Job's fortune. Each gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. This provided the working capital an astute business man restored to full health needed to prosper again.

My father, a somewhat impoverished Grace Baptist pastor, often used to say that it wasn't the Lord's responsibility to provide - but the Lord's people - and they weren't very good at it. I think my dear father was being unduly cynical. The Lord has used his people to provide for his work for two thousand years. He used me to provide for my mother and father!

(b) Job also prospered because God's hand was upon him. He prospered by God's grace before his faith was tested. His faith passed the test and so it was seemly that he was restored to his former prosperity.

(c) Job enjoyed a happy ending to his life. And Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years. 42v16and17.

Some would say that this detracts from the main message of the book, namely, that God does not always reward the righteous or punish the wicked in this life. However, we have to remember:

• The teaching of Moses, the prophets and the psalms that those who keep God's law and please him prosper.

• That although Jesus taught about the dangers of wealth in this life he did encourage his followers to lay up treasure in heaven. The Master taught that his faithful servants would ultimately be rewarded if not in this life than certainly in the next.

• The apostle Paul looked forward to his reward. He believed that he would be crowned with the victor's garland in the life to come. Paul made no secret of the fact that if there was no resurrection he was of all men most miserable.

(5) Conclusion.

(a) The book of Job provides an explanation for some kinds of suffering:

• It is necessary to test faith to develop faith.

• It exposes our weaknesses and increases our dependence upon God's grace.

• It can draw us closer to God and thereby improve our relationship with him.

(b) It does not deal with human suffering which is not directly God's responsibility.

• Much suffering is a result of God's commitment to human freedom. Leaving men and women free to do bad things undoubtedly leads to much misery and injustice but this is a price God is willing to pay.

• It is likely that some suffering results from man leaving the safe haven of Eden, going into the world and changing his environment in ways not always conducive to health.

Facing this problem I am content to trust in God's superior wisdom and power. He can achieve far more than I can ever ask or think. So, I sing by faith:

Sovereign ruler of the skies,
Ever gracious, ever wise;
All my times are in Thy hand,
All events at Thy command.

Viruses cause many important infectious diseases, among them the common cold, influenza, rabies, measles, many forms of diarrhoea, hepatitis, yellow fever, polio, smallpox and AIDS. Bacteria are responsible for tuberculosis, smallpox, bubonic plague and influenza. Malaria is caused by a small organism transmitted to humans by a mosquito bite.

Then there are mental disorders the origin of which are still unknown - for example: depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease.

I do not believe all these diseases contribute much to human welfare. I know that it is popular for Christians to reply when questioned about these diseases that they are a consequence of the fall. If that is the case then everyone should have their fair share of human misery. However, when the plague killed half the population of Europe in the early middle ages the other half survived.

When the disciples of Jesus asked him to explain why a man was born blind they suggested it was because either the man or his parents had sinned. Jesus replied that it was not a result of the man's sin or his parent's and neither did the Master blame Adam's sin. Jesus gave no explanation for the blind man's affliction. I expect it would have been too complicated for the disciples to follow. It would not have done the blind man any good! Jesus taught that the best response to suffering is to do our best to alleviate it. See exposition on John9.

I am troubled by how much some people have to suffer. It is no good saying all things work together for good to those who love God. How can depression or schizophrenia that drives a Christian to suicide be working for his or her good. One of the key lessons of the book of Job is that we cannot ignore experience. If our Theology conflicts with our experience something is wrong.

I have no explanation for horrible diseases like malaria that has killed so many and spoiled the lives of others. I have no explanation because the Bible does not have one. Jesus showed by his example that these diseases are not a good thing. If leprosy was something to rejoice in and to offer to God why did Jesus heal lepers? If the woman with an issue of blood had this debilitating disease to bring her closer to God why did Jesus heal her? If we are ill we want to be made well! We also embrace preventative medicine to avoid nasty diseases. In practice we do not consider that illness is going to bring many benefits.

Christians have to accept, along with Job, that there are some things we are never going to understand. We can no more take God on about issues that puzzle us than Job could. Jesus gives us the best advice. Our best response to the suffering of others is to do what we can to relieve it. The blame game will get us nowhere.