(Job: An Epic in Brokenness) 5. the Happy Ending — Roy Hession

We come now to the last chapter of the book of Job. We have traversed so far no less than forty-one chapters. A brother told me the other day that after we started on Job, he sat down and he read the first twenty chapters.

And he said, today I've finished the last twenty-two. And he was thrilled, and he really saw the panorama. He read it in one of the versions, which is a little less complex than the authorized, a very good version, and he was so happy.

Well, you might like perhaps sometime to try and get the same panoramic view of this great book. Because of necessity, one could only talk, say, about our times here, that there have been studies in the book of Job.

Or perhaps I would say we've been discovering the message of the book of Job. It's been quite impossible to follow all the ins and outs of the discussion, the philosophic discussion that was there. And by the way, this does throw an interesting light on the doctrine of the full inspiration of the Holy Bible.

Verbal Inspiration and the Book of Job

The inspiration of the Bible only claims that the writing was inspired of God. It doesn't claim that what the three friends said were all eternal truth, nor even what Job said was always the truth. It's simply a verbally inspired record of what these men said.

You get the words of Satan in some places. That doesn't mean to say that's what the scripture teaches, that what he said was true. But it does mean that that is an accurate, inspired record of what the devil said.

And so we have this great book before us. We come to the last chapter, and we can call this the happy ending. This last chapter provides a perfect balance to the book. The book begins with a prologue, and in it it tells us where Job's sufferings originated.

You will remember the prologue, Satan's interview with the Lord, etc. And the book ends with an epilogue. Beginning with a prologue, it ends with an epilogue. And the epilogue tells us what those sufferings eventuated in.

The first, how they originated, the second, and the ultimate one, what they eventuated in. And to make the balance of the book more obvious, both the prologue and the epilogue are in prose. They're the only parts of the book that are in prose, except a little bit in the middle to introduce Elihu.

All the big middle section is in poetry. And so it is you've got this perfect balance. I tell you, God's an artist. And the artistry of God revealed in the scriptures is astonishing. And dibby but no more.

And they're time to study, as some have. They've seen this artistry right down to small portions of the word. It's like a crystal. Right down to the smallest part. A beautiful, poetic, accurate artistry.

Job 42 and the Happy Ending

Now the epilogue begins at verse 7 of chapter 42. But I want us to start at verse 1. At verse 1 we're still in the last moments of the poetic section. And we are hearing there Job's response to God's speech to him, which we considered yesterday.

All right then, let's read chapter 42, beginning at verse 1. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know thou canst do everything, and that no purpose of thine can be restrained. You asked, I told you how we've got to infer that.

You asked, who is he that guideth counsel by words without knowledge? Close inverted commas. Therefore have I uttered that I understood not. Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Inverted commas.

You said, hear, and I will speak thee. Speak. I will question you, and you will answer me. Close inverted commas. And then Job says, I have heard of thee. By the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see of thee.

Wherefore I abhor myself. We picked up that marginal reading from somewhere, which does seem to be so right. Wherefore I loathe my words, and repent in dust and ashes. Here comes the epilogue proper. 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 Bilvad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, went and did as the Lord commanded them.

And Job, and the Lord accepted Job, on their behalf that is. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Now that phrase, turn the captivity, is a phrase that often appears in the Old Testament, in the Psalms and the Prophets, about God turning the captivity of his people.

It's an expression. It doesn't necessarily have much to do with actual captivity. Job himself wasn't in actual captivity. And the Revised Standard Version consistently has a very happy rendering for this phrase wherever it occurs.

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job. And I believe that is really what is meant. As I say again, it's a special phrase. Not necessarily meant to be an accurate phrase about captivity. And I think they've got it absolutely splendidly.

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job. That's what grace does. Grace, when we repent, proceeds to restore the fortunes of that Christian whose spiritual life had ended. It can happen in a church. God can restore the fortunes of that needy church where things have gone dead.

I think it's one of those beautiful expressions to describe what revival is. God restoring the fortunes of that church. God knows it needs it. But that's exactly what grace proposes to do. That's what Jesus is all the time seeking to accomplish.

To restore the fortunes of Israel. And not only the church, not only Israel, but of the individual. And just as God did it for this individual, he'll do it for you. He designs to restore the fortunes of that needy child of God.

Where he's had such trouble. Where he's been so wrong. Where he's lost so much. Grace determines to give back again what has been lost in our tests. Also, verse 10, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, who'd shunned him in the days of his adversity, you remember, 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 every one an earring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.

For he had 14 ,000 sheep, 6 ,000 camels, 1 ,000 oxen, 1 ,000 she-asses. And if you compare that with the inventory of his possessions in the first chapter, in the last chapter he gains exactly twice as much.

Those flocks and herds were big, but only half of what he ultimately received. He was confused at the grace that so freely was offered him. It was unbelievable what grace gave back to the man who consented to be robbed of everything by the chastening of God.

What a happy ending! And he had his children restored to him, not the same ones, but God gave him seven sons and three daughters. He didn't give him twice as many children. That really might have been not quite such a blessing.

That would have been a bit much. He was a big family, but he wasn't allowed to have any cause for complaint, for regret. He was given seven sons and three daughters. And what daughters? They were the smartest girls in town.

And he called the name of the first, Jemima, and the name of the second, Keziah, and the name of the third, Kerenhapuch. And in all the land where no women found so fair as the daughters of Job. And he did an unusual thing.

And their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. Usually the inheritance was divided among the sons. You didn't need to divide it among the girls, because they were going to get married, and they would probably make good marriages, and they would marry wealthy men.

But in this case he parted with custom. And he gave those three girls an inheritance equal to that of their brothers, so they were very much sought after, I'm sure. They were very good cats for somebody.

After this lived Job 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations. What a satisfaction that was to that man. So Job died, being old and full of days. The happy ending. Now before we look in greater detail into that happy ending, I just want us to look again at Job's words of repentance.

Job's Repentance as the Turning Point

They are the crucial point. This was where the turning point in his fortunes began. It began as a result of what happened and what is said in verses 5 and 6. Let me read them to you again. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes seeth thee.

Wherefore, I loathe my words, and repent in dust and ashes. In those words, Job revealed that as far as he was concerned, he was the only sinner in the situation. He's not looking at anybody else's sins.

He's not blaming anybody else. He's alone in his repentance. He is the sinner. I loathe my words. God forgive me. What have I been saying? And I repent in dust and ashes. He didn't then add, but you fellows provoke me to it.

I was getting on all right till you came. Quietly submitting to the will of God until you came with your philosophies. He might not have said it, but he could have implied it. And sometimes in trying to repent, you try to imply, but the other person was wrong too.

This battle I've had, it's because of what he did, what he said, or what he didn't do. And that robs your repentance of any real value in the sight of God at all. It's not a repentance at all. I want to tell you, dear friends, you and I cannot do two things at the same time.

You cannot be repenting and trying to challenge another at the same time as to where they're wrong. If you are repenting, you are repenting. You're the one that's wrong. Full stop. I undo my repentance.

If there's any implication that the other fellow's wrong, you get no blessing by confessing or even by implication somebody else's sin. There's only one person's sin that must be confessed, and it's your own, no matter what anybody else has done.

No matter if perhaps your sin is a reaction to what they've done. They're wrong. Other people don't always react that way. Jesus certainly didn't, but you have. And the only thing God's speaking about is you, your sin.

If God's leading you to challenge another, to be an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto another what is right for him and where he may be wrong, that's it. Let it be that. But don't mix the two.

If I'm repenting, I'm repenting. And you cannot do the two things at the same time. It shows you you haven't really heard that voice from the whirlwind. Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the world that you've acted and reacted as you have?

And perhaps we haven't really heard afresh that voice from Calvary, more potent than that from the whirlwind, which says, I was as a lamb led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers was done, I opened not my mouth.

And it may well be we need God to deal with us, and break our hearts, and cause us to see the sinfulness of our actions, reactions and words. That's how it was with Job. I know from my experience how futile it is to try and do those two things at the same time.

One of the most serious disturbance in my relationship with my first wife, Revel, was when I tried to do that. When I tried to repent, but at the same time tried to show that she was wrong too. And we couldn't get through.

I don't know. I had a more painful experience in my life. I thought I was going to lose my reason. And I was in the middle of a world tour, and Revel was at home. I had to quit and leave Joe Church in India while I returned home.

Praise the Lord. He healed it completely and gloriously. It's our testimony to the power of the blood of Jesus. But the acuteness was simply that. I didn't see it at first. I wasn't seeing. I wasn't really judging and letting God show me the wrong of mine.

I was seeing somebody else. So this is tremendously important. He did not bother to challenge the wrong attitudes of the three friends. He left that to God. I don't think he did it very consciously. He was so obsessed with his own wrong that all he could do was to bring it out.

Loathe his words and attitude before God and repent in dust and ashes. And that repentance was the turning point. That sort of repentance always is. It led, as ever, to the happy ending. But nothing else does.

Nothing else does. Oh, this is the battle. This is the battle when it comes to repentance. What battles we have. You see, it is complicated. You've got to disassociate your wrong from somebody else's wrong, right or fancied.

You've got to do it. And the devil doesn't help. He points at somebody else. But God says, I'm pointing to you. I believe there's many a domestic break-up would be saved if men were able to do this and women too.

It's mine. It's me. Sometimes when I've had my battles along this line, and who hasn't, it's as if the Lord has said, can't you take that? What that person's done or said? Because he said, I want to tell you this.

There's plenty more like it coming. Plenty more. And if you can't take this, what can you take? So you better learn it. This is life. Wherefore I repent in dust and ashes. This is this rare thing called brokenness.

It's very, very rare. That's why revival is so very, all too rare. God is near them that are of a broken, contrite heart, who can disassociate other people's wrong from their own and bring their own to Jesus in confession.

It's very rare. Thank God he is slowly teaching us it. And we're slowly learning. I believe many of us are learning this. This is what, perhaps, if you say, what's the thing this conference is after all for?

Well, who could summarize? But this sure is one of the things God has taught us. And it's the only answer to situation after situation. And above all, it always brings God, the God of grace, into the situation.

And that's certainly what happened with Job. It brought into the situation in which Job was, the God of grace, in an absolute classic way. What a happy ending grace has got for us when we come to this place.

Grace, Justification, and Job's Vindication

I want you to notice the various things that happened. The first thing was the Lord spake again. And Job was accounted right. He who had confessed just now at long last that he was wrong, God now accounts to be utterly right with himself.

That is seen by what the Lord said to Eliphaz. He said to him and his three friends, Ye have not spoken of me, the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Hello, what's that? Job is said by God to have spoken that which was right of God.

I believe when Job heard that he might have queried. He said, Lord, what's that? I've just been telling you that I've been speaking of thee, the thing that is wrong. It's taken me quite a time to get that place, but I admit it.

And now you say that I have been speaking of you, the thing that is right. He said, I had to wait a long time to hear you confess what you did. But now you've confessed that you were wrong, I'm declaring that you are right, utterly right with me.

You have spoken of me, that which is right. When we've got wearisome chapters where Job was speaking of him, that which was wrong. But the point is, he had repented. And his repentance was counted to him for a righteousness that he did not otherwise possess.

It is true that Job did speak of God, that which was wrong. In that he justified himself rather than God. Which means that he said, I'm right, and God is wrong in denying me justice. But as I say, he repented.

And his repentance simply consisted in reversing that attitude. He justified God rather than himself, which meant he said, Oh God, you're right, I'm wrong. That's it, says God, that's it. Now man, now man, you are speaking of me, the thing that is right.

Please turn the cassette over now, do not fast wind it in either direction. Oh man, now man, you are speaking of me, the thing that is right. And when I come to a place, oh God, you're right and I'm wrong.

You're right, and the others may well be right in what they say, but I'm wrong. You're speaking of me, the thing that is right. And you've never spoken of him, anything that is right, before you can do that this morning.

You cannot speak more nobly of God than when you say, I give in. Thou art right, I'm wrong, I justify you in all that thou hast done and brought upon me. And I've been utterly wrong. And the rest of those weary chapters were forgiven and forgotten.

In fact, in God's economy, they didn't even exist. For thereafter, Job is always known as my servant that has spoken of me, the thing that is right. Oh, the glorious paradox of grace. You see, grace, when we repent, has a retrospective action.

Now, over in the book of James, you have a New Testament reference to Job. James, chapter 5, verse 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

I think Job, had he read those words, would have felt really embarrassed to see that he's put down as an example of a patient man, patient under suffering. He says, that's the last thing I've been. I've been squealing, and that's what I confessed.

And yet, it's proverbial, the patience of Job. When a person's faced with a difficult situation, he said, it really needs the patience of Job. But Job didn't appear to be very patient. But listen, he repented of impatience.

He repented of rebellion, and that repentance was counted to him for a patience he didn't possess. And he is now known to us as proverbially, the man who patiently endured suffering. Now, this is beautiful.

I'm preaching the gospel to the sinner, to the saint. When I confess to God I'm wrong, at the level in which Job did. God says, at last, I now can declare you right. That is brought out very much in that parable of the publican and the Pharisee.

When the publican at the back of the church beat upon his breast, and said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. You remember that. And then Jesus' comment on the parable was this. I tell you that that man went down to his house justified.

In other words, he said, oh God, I'm all wrong. It's not the wife, it's not the kids, it's me. Be merciful to me. And God in effect said to him, now you're all right. I don't know if you think you've quite understood me, Lord.

I'm telling you I'm all wrong. I've never seen it before. And I'm telling you that now you've admitted it, you're all right. As right with me as that sacrifice on the altar can make you. When you say you're wrong, when you say you're right, you're wrong.

But when you confess yourself to be wrong, you're accounted right. You can't understand it. You're not expected to, but you're meant to receive it. This is the only way in which a failing saint or a sinner can ever find peace.

This knowledge that under grace if he's been to be broken and put himself in the wrong, God's waited a long time for that and worked to that end. The victory's been won. And God declares that man justified.

He goes down to his house, declared right with God. And the blood of Jesus, the moment I confess myself to be wrong, comes into view before God on my behalf. Behold Him there, the spotless Lamb, my perfect, precious righteousness.

Because the sinless Saviour died, my guilty soul is counted free and God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me. But more than pardon, He declares you right. He declares that thing as if it had never happened.

And you're put into a relationship with God which is better than that of the archangel Gabriel by the mighty power of the blood of Jesus that speaks on your behalf before that throne of grace. My servant Job, who has spoken of me, the thing that was right.

Beautiful, amazing grace. This is the way men get saved. This is what we call justification. But justification is an up-to-the-minute experience among the saints. You may be justified in an overall sense, but not in the gladness of it because you haven't been repenting.

You haven't been in the sinner's place. If you want an up-to-date experience again of that which you knew when you were first saved, take that place again. Take Job's place. And you will be declared as right with God as the blood of Jesus can make you.

You cannot be any more right than what the blood of Jesus makes you when you call sin, sin. Amen. The next is this, that God owned Job as His servant. My servant Job. And He took His part against those three men.

He didn't have to try and challenge them. As He got right, God would see to them. And He did. And He called Job, My servant. And He showed Himself on the side of this poor sufferer, but who'd repented of his wrong attitudes and self-righteousness.

God's Vindication and the Ministry of the Penitent

God arose on His part. I want to tell you, God is always near those that are a broken of a contrite spirit. He takes up your case. He answers it. Isaiah 54, 17 is often meant much to me in the past, and it still does.

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. And every tongue that is risen against thee in judgment shalt thou condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me.

It's Me, your righteousness, your vindication. You don't have to clear yourself. You don't have to protest your righteousness. You admit you're wrong. And thereafter, your righteousness, your vindication, is of Me.

That's how you were saved. When I confessed myself a sinner, Christ was made unto me righteousness. My righteousness was of Him. And so it is on every subsequent thing. He's going to vindicate you. What does that mean?

Is He going to prove that you were right after all, and your critics were wrong? No, no, no. You've admitted your critics were only too right. They didn't know half the story. I tell you what this means, this owning of God, this vindicating of God.

He simply owns you as His servant. You're wrong. You said so. God says, Amen. But the blood is availed. And all I do, I'll own you before anybody in the world. My servant. You know, you have your critics.

But if you're a penitent man, and people start criticising you, they say this, that, and the other says, Oh, yes, yes, yes, I know, but he's my servant. This works out in teamwork, in human fellowship.

Ken Moiner used to run into people who were criticising me. And he said, used to say, you know, but he's my brother. That's teamwork. He's my brother. And they had to disapprove of both of us. And he was a difficult man to disapprove of, was Ken Moiner.

Beautiful. You know, you feel like hugging his feet, don't you? God of grace. Revealed in Jesus. For failures. You're loved. You're taken on. And it's only spoiled by the fact that we would keep justifying ourselves.

But now we're there. And then another beautiful thing is that Job was given a ministry for others. God said to those three men, Take bullocks and rams and go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering and my servant Job shall pray for you otherwise I will treat you according to your folly but him will I hear.

And Job is still in distress. He's still got boils from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head. He's still sitting on the ash heap. But he leaves himself and his troubles with God to minister to these men.

And as a result of his prayers for them they were spared and they were blessed too. And you know, if I go the path that Job's went even though I may still be in my problems that situation hasn't changed those wrongs have been done.

You still suffer from them. No one would say they're not real sufferings. But if you know things are well with your soul between you and God you can leave yourself and your troubles with Him and begin to minister to other people.

And God will give you a ministry because you're on the ground of grace as a penitent man which means you've got something for others who are wrong too. I have a very dear friend in the United States he's a pastor, or was, he's retired now and he made some classic mistakes in his life.

After the death of his first wife he contracted a second disastrous marriage. And it lasted only a short time and he was divorced. She divorced him. It wasn't due to any immorality or such a thing on his part or even on her part.

It was his own fault because of utterly unwise decisions and blind mistakes. That marriage never should have been. And my dear friend lost the pastorate of his church. His wife had a little money she got his bags and she put them on the street and turned him and his son out.

And it wasn't that he was wronged. He knew this was God showing him he was wrong to have ever gone on that path at all. It was a wrong choice. There were wrong motives. And there he was without a job, without money, without a home.

But he repented. In the middle of the situation that he created for himself there was only one person who was wrong. It wasn't her. Though many people could have said so. He said, no, no, he knew who was wrong.

It was me. And he went to Jesus for the cleansing power. He was washed in the blood of the Lamb and that dear man repented his way through the collapse of everything. And as a result, although everything was collapsing around his head still he was at solid peace with God by the blood of the everlasting covenant.

And he began to go round the little fellowship meetings of the brethren and sit in the back of them and from time to time give his testimony. He declared himself the failure of the century. Here stands the biggest failure of the century.

Everything he's done is wrong. But God's had mercy, the blood of Christ has cleansed. And you know that man ministered to other people more effectively and helpfully in those days of failure than he ever did when he appeared to be a success.

He was still on the ash heap. Still, so to speak, covered with boils. But he was at solid peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ and grace gave him a ministry as a failure to other failures.

Some of us are just too good for God. The best thing that ever happened to Peter was when he failed and denied the Lord. Thank God he did. He was impossible before. But now he's got something for sinners and my dear friend had something for sinners more than he ever had.

And all his hope was in amazing grace. How sweet it sounds. And that was what people needed. So then some churches heard him share. They said, OK, can you be our pastor? He said, before I say yes, you must hear the story.

And he told them the story. They wouldn't want a man like that. He said, you know, strange that we think we do. A man who was a sinner, but one who'd found mercy, had something for sinners. Well, he said, I'd better go and see the superintendent.

And he told the superintendent his story. Never expecting. He said, somehow I don't know. That's what my people need. That sort of testimony. And although things have gone so wrong, he was ministering to other people.

Oh, what grace will do for the penitent man. I don't care, or the woman. Because women can have their ministry. That woman who's had an unhappy time in her home and things have gone wrong, she can yet be a minister for good to other people who face such problems.

She's found mercy. The blood of Christ has cleansed her. She's been restored. And then, and the Lord turned the captivity of Job, and the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends.

And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. You see, Jesus is an adept. He's an expert in dealing with people who've been deprived of everything. And if he could only get the man in the middle of it to get to the sinner's place.

He'll take up the situation and make it again another situation as seems good to the potter to make it. And who's to say that the second thing that God brings forth is any less good than the first plan that got messed up.

If it's God that does it, it's beautiful. We talk about getting, receiving second best. In a mournful way, I'm only having second best. The first best got messed up. Listen. It's second only in point of time, not as regards quality.

It's second best. Beautiful. So it is with the brother of whom I've spoken. And the Lord has blessed the latter end of my dear brother more than his beginning. He did it for Job. There it is, verse 12.

And so the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning in the most astonishing way. Took from him everything. Showed him his heart. Caused the scum that was there to come to the surface as he was on the crucible.

And when he'd seen it and confessed it. And come down then the Lord did this new thing. This gives every one of us hope. There's a wonderful verse, Ezekiel 36, 11, which it says, where the Lord, speaking to Israel, says, I will do for you better than at your beginnings.

Can you credit a God of grace to do that with you? Maybe things haven't been very good for you, haven't been very happy. Your own attitudes haven't been right. But grace is prepared to do for us better than at our beginnings.

And this is the happy ending. This is the happy ending. We expect a bright tomorrow. Yes, we say to do. Even failures can expect it. Sinners can expect it. This is custom made for people like that. And man, if you let him bring you down, there's going to be a glorious happy ending.

I don't mean this is all once for all. There will be another situation. And God will have to lead you through in much the same way. But these are the principles. Always a happy ending. And what is so beautiful?

That you will be known, perhaps, as Job was, as distinguished by certain qualities which were the one qualities you never had. But just because you've seen it and repented, you've not only forgiven the lack of those qualities, but grace progressively puts them into you.

But I don't think it's when they see it. Somehow it's, as I say, grace has this beautiful retrospective action. And we are counted as men who have spoken of him, the thing that is right, when we had to confess we'd been terribly guilty of speaking of him, the thing that was wrong.

Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Let's sing it.

Thank you for this.

Lord, we feel like hugging your feet, bathing thy feet with tears for this amazing grace. And Lord, you know how to show where we are candidates or need to be candidates for this grace. You know how to apply thy healing to us here.

And we're concerned that those who are in need shall find their way to thee again and find peace. In Jesus' name. Amen.