Job was beginning to understand that it was not for him to judge God according to his own limited understanding. This is also a good lesson for all of us. It is not for us to lose faith in God, or even to criticize Him. The proper attitude is one of humility, and of earnestly seeking the answer to our questions from the only proper source, the Word of God.

Job finally learned the meaning of his severe trial. He learned that its loving purpose was to give him a clearer understanding of God, that he might serve him more faithfully and with greater appreciation. He speaks of this clearer understanding as “seeing” the Lord, instead of merely having heard about him. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.” (Job 42:2-5) Since he had gained such wealth of understanding, Job’s brief period of suffering must have seemed to him to have been a most valuable experience.

Besides restoring Job’s health, we read that “the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. … And in all the land were no women found as fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.”—Job 42:12-15