With God; the End Matters - Job 40-42

Job 42:16-17 (ESV Strong's)
16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.

With God; the End Matters

Here is the first verses of the story of Job:

Job 1:1-3 (ESV Strong's)
Job's Character and Wealth
1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

Here are the last verses of Job:

Job 42:12-17 (ESV Strong's)
12 And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.

It is the stuff in the middle that scars us.   These are 20 of the best verses about Job’s life.   The other 1,050 verses are about suffering and judgement and confusion and pain and God’s revealing Himself through His creation to rebuke Job and his three friends.   BUT, the beginning and the end are amazing snapshots of Job’s life.   We all want the beginning and then end and not the rest.   Yet, it is the middle part that Job learned the most about God. It is the suffering that lead Job to this ending.   In the end, God balances the scales.   In the end, God puts us on one side and Jesus on the other and “we all live happily ever after!”   This is the story of faith journey.   In the end, God matters.   Job was blessed in the end, but he still carried the scars of the loss of his first children.  That did not go away.   But, God made his days “full” and he was able to live out his days in glory to God.  Job’s life had changed.  Job’s perspective had changed.   Job’s circumstances had change.  But, God had not.   God was there for all 1,070 verses written about Job’s life.   For many of those verses, he struggled to put God in the center of that life. But, in the end, God gave him “full days.”  The end matters to God.