By Robin Sam
After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations (Job 42:16)
HOW long was Job sick? For how many days or months was Job afflicted? How long did he have to scrape himself with a potsherd while he sat in ashes cursing the day he was born? We do not know. The Bible does not tell us about the longevity of Job’s suffering. What we know for sure is this: Job’s friends, Eliphas, Bildad and Zophar saw his grief was ‘very great’ and sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights without uttering a word. That is in the 2nd chapter of the book of Job. Thereafter, the Bible is silent on how much time passed from the 3rd chapter to the 42nd chapter where his health and wealth were restored.
However, the good news is this: God had ordained a time of ‘after this’ in Job’s life. Job did not know about it. Neither did Satan who attacked Job know about it. Nor did Job’s comforters who came with the express intent of consoling Job but ended up heaping misery on his misfortune know God had kept a time of ‘after this’ in Job’s life.
I praise God the Almighty who kept a period, a time of ‘after this’ to bless the latter days of Job’s life more than his beginning. If it were not for this time in his life, the book of Job would have been a really gloomy book.
After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations (Job 42:16). The time of ‘after this’ is a time of restoration. Job’s misery began with Satan’s malice, but God hedged His servant’s life and prevented the devil from snuffing him out. However, when the time of ‘after this’ began God restored all that Job had lost earlier. And, Satan could not challenge or curtail the hands of God who restores.
Dear child of God, perhaps your situation is not as bad as Job’s was. But there are things that you have lost too. I have good news for you, dear brother / sister. You are not going to live a life of pain, agony and misery forever. Proverbs 23:18 says, ‘For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off.’
One of the names of our God is ‘Elyashibh’. It means ‘God restores’. The God who restores has ordained a time of ‘after this’ to change your destiny, to change your mourning into dancing, to make you pick your mat of ill-health up and walk, to give sight to the spiritually blind eyes, to strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees, to give you the strength of an ox.
Joel 2: 25 says, ‘I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.’
Yes, child of God. Your days of ‘after this’ will soon begin. ‘Surely, there is a hereafter.’
Isaiah 58:8, 9 say: ‘Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.’
When God restores, He can bless us double-fold. That’s how God restored Job’s fortunes and increased his estate. However, remember to take time and find out how you lost whatever you lost. Was it because of your sin, disobedience and foolhardiness? If that is the case, then get down on your knees and seek God’s forgiveness. ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart’ (Psalm 51:17). He will not despise the sincere prayers of a penitent heart.
If you think you have lost things in your life due to the evil machinations of people around you, I urge you to look at Job’s life one more time. Job’s 500 yoke of oxen and 500 donkey were attacked and made off by the Sabeans. While lightning struck and killed 7,000 sheep, Chaldeans made off with his 3,000 camels. Worst, Job’s seven sons and three daughters were killed in a desert storm. Yet, we find no evidence to say Job cursed the Sabeans and the Chaldeans. Job 1:22 says, ‘In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.’ What more, restoration happened not when Job was contesting with his friends about his own righteousness. God allowed restoration to begin only when Job was interceding for his friends. Remember these two virtues of Job. He took care not to sin against God and made sure he interceded for people around him.
God is waiting to restore your life. His name is Elyashib – the God who restores. If He can make a way in the wilderness (Isaiah 43:19) and make rivers flow on barren heights (Isaiah 41:18), He can restore your life, too. He is the God of impossibilities. Trust in Jesus Christ today. Make Him your Lord and God.
Support us to support you! You can support this website by your prayerful contributions. Make a donation now by PayPal.
