So many good things in Job 42.
1) “No plan of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).
What an encouraging Word! God has plans of hope and salvation, and no work of man, no matter how evil things get, can stop that. Granted, sometimes he hands man over to his sin (Rom 1) but the goal is always redemption. Perhaps we are in that “handed over” state now globally. But God has very good plans and no politician or evil plan or people can stop what he decides to do. That is encouraging.
2) Job encounters God’s righteousness, something we all need.
The book of Job is his suffering and his questions because he feels righteous. But Job didn’t understand something. Man’s righteousness is as nothing before God. In fact, man’s righteousness compared to God’s is as filthy rags. When God finally speaks, Job is rightly and profoundly humbled:
“Surely I spoke about things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know…I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore I take back my words and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).
The more we look at our phones the less we look at the stars. The problem is that we easily forget the grandeur and greatness of the universe, and put all that is happening on this planet in perspective. God is so extraordinary He is unfathomable. And when we dwell on His greatness and His righteousness our problems come into perspective. We all need to gaze more at the greatness of God.
3) Misrepresenting God isn’t a small issue.
Job’s friends were actually brought unto judgment for not representing God appropriately. God says to them, “you have not spoken the truth about me” (Job 42:7), and while confronting them of their sin, he also provides the path for their redemption and reconciliation.
When I think of this, I think of all the YouTubers who say, “God told me…” or “In God’s eyes you’re/we’re…” or things along those lines. These things are dangerous to say (Jer 23:25-32). We need to be wise with how we speak about the things God has revealed to us and do so in humility and in community accountability.
4) Job’s daughters were named and even received an inheritance!
Considering Job is one of the oldest book in Scripture, perhaps even older than the book of Genesis, this is earth-shattering. It was a man’s world and men took the dominance. Very rarely do we see a woman named in a genealogy.
Yet here we are and we don’t even know the name of Job’s sons, only his daughters. Who were very beautiful by the way. The most beautiful in all the land (Job 42:15).
But what is shocking is that Job gave his daughters equal inheritance. While her brothers were still alive!
We have seen previously there was a big legal case with Zelophehad’s daughters (Number 26,27,36) because Zelophehad had no sons. Typically the inheritance went to the sons as the women married and moved to wherever their husbands were, and it was important for the land to stay in the family name.
But here Job’s sons were still alive. This wasn’t an exception case. This was a counter-cultural shocking amount of value bestowed upon his daughters after his encounter with God Almighty.
“their father granted them an inheritance with their brothers” (Job 42:15).
This is often the fruit of an encounter with God.
