Job 42, it's on page 542, and Kirsty is going to come and read for us there.
Okay, Job chapter 42, verses starting at verse 7.
After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Tamanite,
I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.
So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves.
My servant Job will pray for you and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.
You have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.
So Eliphaz the Tamanite, Bildad the Shuite and so far the Namathite did what the Lord told them and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.
After Job had prayed for his friend, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.
All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house.
They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first.
He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys.
And he also had seven sons and three daughters.
The first daughter he named Jemima, the second Keziah and the third Keren Hapuk.
Nowhere in all the land where there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters.
And their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
After this, Job lived 140 years.
He saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
And so he died, old and full of years.
Hang on, hang on.
Well, there's sheets and pens going round.
And if you want to make use of them, you can take notes.
So we get to the end of Job.
And thankfully, after many weeks of lots of suffering,
suffering turned to healing and celebration.
And that's what we're going to be thinking about.
So have your Bibles open there at Job chapter 42.
And we'll just ask for God's help as we look at this together.
Let's pray.
Our Father God, we thank you for this great book.
The life story of a man who suffered much.
Thank you for all that it has been able to teach us and instruct us.
And we pray now that, again by your Holy Spirit,
you would be teaching us afresh and helping us to see with fresh eyes
the wonder of the new creation,
of the healing that you bring to your people
that is found in Christ.
So please encourage us all today.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty,
do you remember them?
Some of the great fairy tales that I'm sure you've all heard.
But do you remember how they all finish?
And they all lived happily ever after.
That's what makes them great stories.
That's why children love to listen to them.
And that's why parents love to tell them to their children.
It's what we all dream of.
Because we all know what happily ever after means.
It means the end of all the bad things that break and destroy our lives.
And it means the end of all the suffering, heartache and pain.
But the problem is that they are just fairy tales.
They're not real tales.
Real life does not always end happily ever after.
During these weeks of going through Job,
the book that I've mentioned to you before,
A Place of Healing by Joni.
As a teenager, she suffered a terrible accident,
which has left her in a wheelchair for over 40 years,
paralysed from the neck down.
Listen to what she says about her desire for things to end well.
Through all the years of my paralysis,
I have longed, yearned, ached, wept and prayed for God's healing in my broken body.
After 40 plus years in a wheelchair, however,
I have settled into the realisation that in his love,
sovereignty, far-reaching, perfect, but often incomprehensible plan,
he has chosen to gently but firmly say,
no child.
Not now.
Not yet.
In fact, rather than discovering healing in her life,
there seems to be more suffering in her life.
Throughout the book,
she tells how she's now dealing with excruciating pain,
and in the epilogue of the book,
she tells how she's just got news of breast cancer.
It seems that real life is not a fairy tale.
Real life does not always end with
and they all lived happily ever after.
But there is a story.
It's not a fairy tale.
It's a true story where everything does end happily ever after.
Again, listen to Joni on this,
as she thinks about happily ever after.
Children seem to know.
They realise that the world is full of wolves, trolls and big bad bears.
They're aware that things aren't quite right,
that's something wrong with the world.
And we all want, we long,
for that time when we will live happily ever after.
When the prince will finally kiss us
and we will wake up from this strange dream
and enter true happiness and joy forever and ever.
That's why faith in Jesus Christ
is so satisfying,
so fulfilling,
for only in Christ is every longing fulfilled.
every hope realised,
every yearning for peace and wellbeing
finally answered.
In Christ is the culmination of that classic struggle
and the defeat of all things evil
when our wonderful Saviour will right every wrong
and the Prince of Peace will be our King of Kings.
There is a happy ending ahead.
The true story of Job that we're looking at
tells us what that happy ending is.
In fact, the ending of Job in some ways
is also our story.
It's our story because it's the Gospel story.
Because what happens to Job
is a picture,
it gives us a glimpse of the ultimate healing
that is yet to come
where God's children
will live happily ever after.
And in the epilogue of Job,
these last few verses,
we are given three pictures,
or I've put together three pictures,
that guarantees
our ultimate healing.
The first picture is this,
that is about the suffering of Job
and the sacrifice of Jesus.
Job, as we've seen through the book,
has suffered terribly.
And to add to his personal grief and pain,
he had three so-called friends who came along
and for 21 chapters,
they add insult to injury.
This was their so-called comfort or wisdom to Job.
This is, in a nutshell,
what they were saying to him.
They were saying,
God punishes sin.
Job, you're suffering.
Therefore, Job, you need to repent
so that you can be healed.
But the reality is,
as we've been seeing,
that Job is actually innocent.
He has done nothing wrong.
Look at what God has to say about this in verse 7.
42.
Chapter 42, verse 7.
After the Lord had said these things to Job,
he said to Eliphius the Temanite,
I am angry with you.
My judgment is upon you
and your two friends
because you have not spoken of me what is right,
as my servant Job has.
You see, it's not Job who's been in the wrong.
It's the three friends who have been in the wrong.
They are the ones who actually deserve to suffer.
They're the ones who are guilty.
They're the ones that have spoken wrong against God.
Now, you place yourself into Job's shoes.
After all of these things that have happened,
how would you treat these so-called friends
after everything they've said and done?
Go on, secretly,
what would you like to do to them?
Hmm?
Pull their fingernails off one by one or something?
Hmm?
Well, how Job responds to his friends
is actually a picture
of how Jesus responds to us.
Look at the middle of verse 8.
Look at how he responds to them.
Middle of verse 8.
My servant Job will pray for you
and I will accept his prayer
and not deal with you
according to your folly,
to your sin.
You have not spoken of me what is right
as my servant Job has.
So Eliphaz, the Temanite,
Bildad, the Shuite,
Zophart, the Namathite
did what the Lord told them
and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.
You see, how Job responds to his friends
in this instance
is a picture, I think,
of how Jesus responds to us.
Job has been the innocent one.
Yet he is the one who prays for his friends.
He acts on this occasion
almost as a mediator
between God and the friends
so that they can be forgiven.
Look what it says in the middle of verse 8.
So that God will not deal with them
according to their folly.
They deserve to suffer.
They deserve God's anger,
as it says in verse 7.
But in turn,
they are shown mercy
and grace.
Now whenever we suffer,
one of the first complaints we make is,
God, that's not fair,
or it shouldn't happen to me.
As if somehow we have a right
in this world
not to suffer.
As if something about our lives
says that we should never have
trouble or hardship.
But the big surprise
as we've seen through the book
is not that we suffer,
but why is God so gracious
and merciful with us
when we have rejected
and rebelled against God so much?
The question is not
why do we suffer,
but why do we not actually suffer more
when we see the lives
that we live?
Like Job's three friends,
we deserve so much more,
but yet God responds
with grace and mercy
to his people.
He doesn't treat us
as we deserve.
And this is the beauty
of the gospel story.
These are the things
we long to read about
and are true
when we look at God's word.
Job's friends
had to make a sacrifice.
We see that in verse 8.
The seriousness of their sin
is seen by the cost involved.
Verse 8.
So they are to take
seven bulls
and seven rams.
Go to my servant Job
and make a sacrifice,
a burnt offering
for yourselves.
Now an offering like this
was loaded
with symbolism.
The friends would
take this animal,
one of the animals,
and they would place
their hands on the animal
as an act of identification.
And then symbolically,
not literally,
it's like my sin
being transferred
to this animal.
So that what happens
to this animal
should actually happen
to me.
So when this animal dies,
when that throat is slit
and the blood pours,
they are saying,
this death
is in place of my death.
I am the one
deserving to die.
That's what's going on
with this sacrifice.
But of course,
all of this was to point forward
to the real hero
of the story
who came to be
our sacrifice,
the complete sacrifice.
Jesus was the one
who beyond Job
was truly innocent
and suffered.
He never did anything wrong.
But yet he entered
into this suffering world.
He came into this world
to take my sin.
He came to take your sin.
He came to suffer
the punishment
that you and I
deserve to suffer.
And by faith,
which is this act
of identification
again with the Lord Jesus,
our sins are transferred
from us to Jesus.
And if we could picture
Christ on the cross,
it's like we take the hammer
and the nails
and we crucify Jesus.
With every blow of the hammer
as the nails go into
the hands and the feet,
we are saying,
this death
is in place of
my death.
I deserve to die.
But yet we are forgiven.
We are not treated
as our sins deserve.
Instead,
we receive mercy
upon mercy
and grace
upon grace.
This is the first step
to our ultimate healing.
as we find acceptance
and forgiveness
with our God
and how we can live
happily ever after.
The second picture
is one of a feast.
The feast of Job
and the welcome
of Jesus.
Thankfully,
Job's suffering,
it didn't last forever.
It soon turned
to celebration.
Verse 10.
After Job had prayed
for his friends,
the Lord made him
prosperous again
and gave him
twice as much
as he had before.
What an amazing
turn of events
for this man.
His life has been
completely restored
and to celebrate,
he throws a party,
a great feast.
Verse 11.
All of his brothers
and sisters
and everyone
who had known him
before came
and ate with him
in his house.
and they comforted
and consoled him
over all the trouble
the Lord
had brought upon him
and each one
gave it a piece
of silver
and a gold ring.
What an occasion
that would have been.
After all the suffering,
all of that heartache
and pain,
Job is in his home
surrounded with his friends
and his family
celebrating God's
amazing goodness
to him.
But what's incredible
about this feast is
Job is celebrating
this feast
with those friends
because they're there too
who had caused him
so much trouble.
Job has opened his house
as it were.
The welcome has been given
and they are there
welcomed in
to eat
and to drink with him.
And again,
I think it gives us
a picture
of how this feast
of Job
is like the great feast
of Jesus
who welcomes
people
like you and me.
We don't deserve
to be there
but yet we are invited
and we are welcomed.
It's as if Jesus
has thrown open
the doors
of his home
so that together
we can eat
and drink
with him.
This picture
of this feast
is common
through scripture
and it's carried
on through the Bible.
Have a look at Isaiah
chapter 25
it's on page 708.
Keep your finger
in Job
go to Isaiah 25
it's on page 708.
Isaiah 25
starting at verse 6
On this mountain
the Lord Almighty
will prepare
a feast
of rich food
for all peoples
a banquet
of aged wine
the very best
the best
of meats
and the finest
of wines
on this mountain
he will destroy
the shroud
that enfolds
all people
the sheet
that covers
all nations
he will swallow
up death
forever
the sovereign
Lord will wipe
away the tears
from all their faces
he will remove
the disgrace
of his people
from all the earth
the Lord
has spoken
what a feast
that is going
to be
and this feast
in Isaiah
is the same feast
that Jesus promises
to all
who will come
to him
go to Luke
chapter 15
it's on page
1049
the story
is familiar
the prodigal son
the one who had left
who had gone away
and it gives us
that picture
of the son
returning
and the celebration
and the feast
that takes place
we'll pick it up
in verse 20
Luke 15
verse 20
so the son
got up
and went
to his father
but while he was
still a long way
off
his father
saw him
and was filled
with compassion
for him
he ran
to his son
he threw his arms
around him
and kissed him
the son
said to him
father
I have sinned
against heaven
and against you
I am no longer
worthy to be
called your son
but the father
said to his servants
quick
bring the best robe
put it on
and put a ring
on his finger
and sandals
on his feet
bring the fattened cap
and kill it
let's have a feast
and celebrate
for this son
of mine
was dead
and is alive again
he was lost
and is found
so they began
to celebrate
that's what the good news is
that's what the gospel story
is all about
people like you and me
who do not deserve
to be there
get welcomed in
to join in the feast
and as it was in Job
to share in that feast
was a sign of acceptance
and belonging
to join in that celebration
is that seal of approval
that you are forgiven
that you are treasured
and of course
this feast of Job
with his friends
is a glimpse
of that ultimate
and final feast
the feast of heaven
with God's people
a feast where like Job
look at verse 11 of Job
a feast like Job
where we are comforted
and consoled
not by friends
and family
but by God
our Father
who wipes away
every tear
this is the feast
that we have been
welcomed to
so this is the second
step to our
ultimate healing
and how we can live
happily
ever after
the third picture
is one of the
blessing of Job
and the promise
of Jesus
Job's suffering
does come to an end
and he experiences
a complete renewal
and restoration
look at verse 12
the Lord blessed
the latter part
of Job's life
more than the first
he had 14,000 sheep
6,000 camels
a thousand yoke
of oxen
and a thousand
donkeys
double
everything that he
had before
and he also
had seven sons
and three daughters
verse 16
after this Job
lived
a hundred
and forty
years
he saw his
children
and the
grandchildren
to the fourth
generation
and so he died
old
and full
of years
how different
this is
to chapter 1
isn't it
where he experienced
the loss of his
family
the loss of all
his wealth
the ruin
of his health
this is a
complete
and utter
reversal
of what has
happened
in fact
his life
that he has
now
can't be
compared
to his
pre-suffering
days
it's an
amazing
transformation
now we've
got to be
very careful
as we read
this
not to read
in what we
call a
prosperity
theology
into this
and by that
I mean
the kind
of teaching
that says
God rewards
you
and God
is going
to bless
you
if you
do good
things
that's
not what
happens
to Job
look at
verse 10
after Job
had prayed
for his
friends
the Lord
made him
prosperous
again
and gave
him twice
as much
as he
had
before
Job
prays
for his
friends
not for
what he
can get
from God
but because
he loves
his God
there's no
ulterior
motive
he obeys
God
because he
simply
loves
God
and wants
to do
what's
right
God
never
promised
to Job
Job
look
I know
your friends
have been
pretty bad
to you
but if
you pray
for them
if you
could just
bring
yourself
to pray
for them
I'm
going to
make you
prosperous
no he
never says
that
there's
no such
promises
Job
does
what is
right
and God
in his
grace
gives him
more than
he could
ever
imagine
this is
not a
reward
for something
good he's
done
this is
just
simply
the
extravagance
of God's
grace
just as
Job's
suffering
is not
a sign
of a
disobedient
life
so Job's
healing
is not
a sign
of an
obedient
life
God
responds
in grace
simply
because of
who God
is
not because
of what
we are
or who
we are
but once
again
what we
see happen
to Job
here and
the blessing
that comes
to his
life
is a
picture
of what
Jesus has
promised
to his
people
God
in his
grace
has
blessed
us
beyond
our
wildest
dreams
let's
just
take a
look
at what
the
risen
Jesus
has
promised
to his
children
let's
go to
Revelation
chapter 21
at the
very end
the
ultimate
healing
of Job
comes
at the
end
just as
our
ultimate
healing
will come
at the
end
Revelation
21
let's pick
it up
in verse
3
and picture
this
is
what
is
promised
this
is
the
blessing
that
is
for
all
those
who
love
and
trust
the
Lord
Jesus
verse
3
and I
heard
a loud
voice
from
the
throne
saying
now
the
dwelling
of
God
is
with
you
and
he
will
live
with
you
and
you
will
be
his
people
and
God
himself
will
be
with
you
and
will
be
your
God
he
will
wipe
every
tear
from
your
eyes
there
will
be
no
more
death
there
will
be
no
more
mourning
or
crying
or
pain
no
more
Job
stories
to be
told
for
the
old
order
of
things
has
passed
away
no
more
suffering
no
more
heartache
and
he
who
was
seated
on
the
throne
said
I
am
making
everything
new
chapter
22
verse
1
we get
another
picture
of what
this
promised
life
is
going
to
be
like
22
verse
1
then
the
angel
showed
me
the
river
of
the
water
of
life
as
clear
as
crystal
flowing
down
from
the
throne
of
God
and
of
the
lamb
that's
Jesus
down
the
middle
of
the
great
street
of
the
city
on
each
side
of
the
river
stood
this
tree
of
life
bearing
twelve
crops
of
fruit
yielding
its
fruit
every
month
a sign
of
prosperity
and
goodness
and
blessing
and
abundance
but
here
it
is
and
the
leaves
of
the
tree
are
for
the
healing
of
the
nations
all
suffering
gone
all
that
heartache
and
all
that
pain
all
the
battles
with
sin
all
the
trouble
that
we
live
with
in
the
world
the
leaves
of
the
tree
are
for
the
healing
all
gone
a
distant
memory
not
even
a
memory
all
gone
the
blessing
that
Job
experienced
at the
end of
his
life
is going
to be
our
experience
this
is what
is
promised
to
God's
children
this
is what
is
guaranteed
this
is the
third
step
to our
ultimate
healing
and
how
we
can
live
happily
ever
after
the
truth
is
we
all
love
fairy
tales
because
it's
what
we
all
dream
of
each
one
of
us
in
our
lives
we
long
we
yearn
for
our
lives
to be
made
better
and
for
this
broken
world
that
we
live
in
to
be
put
right
where
evil
is
banished
where
suffering
is
no
more
and
we
all
get
to
live
happily
ever
after
but
thankfully
there
is
a
real
story
there
is
a
true
story
where
our
dreams
do
come
true
that
story
is
the
story
of
Job
because
through
Job
we
actually
get
to
see
Jesus
we
see
Jesus
the
God
who
sacrificed
his
life
for
our
life
the
one
who
has
prepared
a
feast
for
us
and
has
welcomed
us
in
to
celebrate
it
the
one
who
has
blessed
us
and
promised
us
and
guaranteed
a
wonderful
future
of
course
God
may
choose
to
bless
us
now
we
may
experience
healing
in
some
measure
we
can
pray
for
healing
in
our
lives
and
we
should
pray
for
healing
but
sometimes
God
answers
no
my
child
not
now
not
yet
but
be
absolutely
assured
of
this
God
in
his
grace
and
mercy
is
upon
you
the
Lord
Jesus
will
keep
you
he
is
going
to
hold
you
in
your
hands
he
will
not
let
you
slip
or
let
you
fall
he
will
bring
you
home
you
will
feast
with
him
you
will
enjoy
eternal
blessings
together
God's
people
will
live
happily
ever
after
let's
pray
father
we want
to
give
our
thanks
to
you
for
taking
us
through
the
story
of
Job
for
helping
us
to
face
up
to
our
suffering
in
whatever
shape
or
form
it
is
in
our
lives
or
will
come
in
our
lives
we
thank
you
for
giving
us
the
picture
that
you
are
the
sovereign
God
with
absolute
power
and
supreme
authority
over
all
things
and
therefore
we can
trust
you
and
we
thank
you
today
for
giving
us
a
little
picture
a
little
glimpse
a
little
taste
of
our
ultimate
healing
that
is
to
come
all
because
of
Jesus
Christ
so
we
praise
you
we
acknowledge
you
we
say
thank
you
and
may
this
fill
our
lives
with
joy
may
it
change
us
and
transform
us
that
there
would
never
be
an
ounce
of
bitterness
or
anger
with
what
we
go
through
but
we
will
continually
look
to
you
and
praise
you
and
thank
you
and
find
grace
and
mercy
in
abundance
we
thank
you
in
Jesus
name
Amen