Job 42: Job's Daughters

Job is one of those books (like Revelation and Ecclesiastes) which puzzles me. Having just finished reading it again, I still shake my head at its amazing premise (Satan accusing God of bribery!), the Supreme Court-worthy test case of undeserved suffering and the audacity of the author to answer neither the former nor the latter after nearly 40 chapters of unremitting dialog.

And what about that happy ending?

"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." - Job 42:12

So God doubles his livestock (see Job 1:2). His family gathers around him to console him and gives him "a piece of silver and a gold ring" (Job 42:11). He gets an extra 70 years of life. Oh, and he gets seven more sons to replace the seven killed in chapter 1 and three more daughters to replace the three killed in chapter 1. Children are not interchangeable.

So what really happened? I believe the biggest reward for Job was not the change in his circumstances, but the change in his attitude. In chapter 1, we see:

His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular custom. - Job 1:3

If I was to summarize his relationship with his children in the beginning of the book in one word, it would be Distance. The author of Job emphasizes the distance in his relationship with his children: They hold feasts in their homes, but not in his. He has to send to have them purified. He doesn't know what is happening with his children ("Perhaps my children"). His primary goal towards his children does not seem to be extravagantly loving towards them and involved with their lives, but to act as sort of a remote-control life-insurance policy.

Then Job meets God, who grants a two chapter behind-the-scenes look into really what it takes to be God as it details his intimate relationship with his creation. Contrast Job's previous response with his attitude post-interview:

And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years.

In some ways, you have to have the Old Testament in your blood to appreciate the turnaround here. Job has gone from distance to devoted. First, the names of his daughters are listed. You'd have to search high and low to find any place where the daughters are listed (and not the sons!) in the Bible. Second, he gave his new daughters extravagant names, naming them after doves, a sweet spice and a type of beauty treatment. Third, he granted them an inheritance. In the ancient world, sons had inheritances but not daughters. Fourth, he saw his children.

How had meeting God changed Job? He treasured what God gave. He loved.

How has meeting God changed you? Sometimes Christians seem to become extravagantly grumpy rather than extravagantly loving. But the world was not rescued through a grump, but through a giver.

Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. - Titus 2:13