Today, I invite you to read our Scripture passage several times, each time from a different perspective. You may want to journal your thoughts or draw your reactions.
As you read, first read and experience this scene as if you were Job. What emotions do you feel? What is your reaction to what happens? What questions do you have for God?
Next, read the passage and ponder the questions from the perspectives of Eliphaz and from Job's wife.
Lastly, take time to pray. Some ideas to pray for/about:
Any situations or emotions that came to mind as you reflected on this passage.
When God appears to Job, he is taken on a tour of creation and hears about how God delights in every bit that was created. Pray for creation's restoration and flourishing.
The friends could not hear what Job was saying and persisted in their beliefs of how God had to work, even though we know they were wrong. Pray that God would reveal areas that you need to re-examine what you believe.
In the midst of Job's loss, he faced accusations from those who had come to support him. Pray that those who are experiencing pain and loss are surrounded by those who love and support them.
While the restoration of Job's fortunes and birth of more children is not a satisfactory substitute for what he had lost before, it is a sign that he began to embrace life again. Pray for those who face disaster that they may have the courage to rebuild their lives.
Then Job answered the Lord:
‘I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
“Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?”
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
“Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you declare to me.”
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.’
After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls 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 I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has done.’ So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this Job lived for one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children’s children, four generations. And Job died, old and full of days.
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