The story of Job (especially the book’s last chapter) reveals how God can bring double portion blessings despite the destructive actions and misunderstanding by others of your bad situation or circumstances.
Job was an upright man and blessed in every way, yet he feared that things were too good to last. That hidden fear moved him to pray daily and offer sacrifices to God for his sons, fearing that they may have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.
Job had what these days is termed A Negative Expectancy. That which he had “greatly feared” came upon him (Job 3:25). God permitted Satan to take from him all that he held dear. Satan tried to use the terrible string of disasters to bring Job down. But God used what fear had brought to bring Job to a better place and double blessings.
Romans 8:28-30 confirms that “all things work together” (synergize) for the good of those whom God before Time began predestined, and throughout Time calls, justifies, and ultimately glorifies. Stripped of all that was dear to him except for his embittered wife (who told him to “curse God and die” — the very thing Job had feared his sons might do).
The comforting words of Jesus in John 10:10 encapsulate the whole of Job’s experience in a single verse. Job’s story does not end with Satan carrying out his intent to “steal, kill and destroy” but instead with God’s abundance, His overflowing blessings! It pictures the life that was later brought by Jesus, the Good Shepherd. The verses in John chapter 10 that lead to verse 10 remind us of Job’s losses, his terrible trial, and God’s restoration. More than restoration because the LORD blessed Job with far more than he possessed before his many losses! “So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning…” (Job 42:12)
Reading the first two chapters of the Book of Job and listing the blessings the righteous man had, that he lost, and that he regained enables the reader to be more certain of the abundant life promised us by Jesus in John 10:10.
A good beginning, a great loss, and a doubly blessed ending! If you are facing great loss or are having a bad time, then look forward to God’s abundance — beyond Job’s initial good and Satan’s very bad to God’s very best!