Insight for Living

Chuck Swindoll: Henry Thoreau wrote, "None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm." Isn't it wonderful to be around an enthusiastic person whose years are multiplied compared to yours? Isn't it great to see them have goals and vision and dreams and pursuits that have them excited from the time they awake until a late going to bed time?

Bill Meyer: There's a verse tucked into the middle of Job's story, one he spoke long before he understood where his suffering would lead. He said it while defending himself to a friend, never imagining how it would read once the whole story unfolded.

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll invites us back to Job chapter 23. Just one verse to be seen through new eyes. As we near the end of this remarkable journey, we'll discover that endurance isn't merely surviving the hard road. It's what we become along the way. Chuck begins with prayer.

Chuck Swindoll: We're reminded of the psalm, our Father, that says those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. And as we witness the reaping of Job in his joy, we thank you for the memory of the journey. We thank you for your faithfulness to this man of endurance, even when things got terribly thin and the series of tragedies seemed only to increase and multiply. You were there. You were there all the time, and you faithfully watched over him.

Thank you also, Father, for your goodness and equity. You are not unrighteous to forget our work and labor of love. Thank you for rewarding, even as you afflicted. There are some today going through a time of testing. The days are thin, the nights seem long, and the hope at times is like the morning fog that quickly passes away.

And I pray that you will minister to those who are today struggling with issues in their own lives, perhaps in relationships that aren't as they should be, work not as fulfilling as anticipated, dreams dashed, and sorrows many. I pray that you will show us from this brief time together that you have a long view in life and you see us as what we are to become, not simply as what we are. Thank you for proving yourself faithful to a man like Job.

Thank you for those who watch over us in the military. Today we remember them again, as well as our President and those who give him counsel. We pray, Lord, that we'll be reminded that you are in charge of the events of this world. Give us the capacity to grasp the mystery of your will, the strangeness of allowing evil and wrong to continue for a period of time as even through that you're working out your plan.

Deliver us from taking our cues from the media. May we hear your word as more eloquent and significant than any other voice that crosses our attention. Thank you for the lengthened study of this great man who occupies a central place in the book, the Bible. Thank you for lessons learned, and we pray today will be especially keen and sensitive to learn from his later years, even as we have learned from the earlier ones.

And now our gifts, which come from the occupation you have given us, the money we've been able to earn. How grateful we are for good health, for strong bodies and minds that allow us to earn a living. We give today as we have sung to you, gratefully and joyfully and generously. In the precious name of Christ, and all God's people said, amen.

Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into Job's story, be sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message, "And Job Lived Happily Ever After . . . Or Did He?"

Chuck Swindoll: Before you get to chapter 42, let me have you look at chapter 23 once again. Just one verse. I wonder if Job remembered saying this to his friend Eliphaz while defending himself in his third reply. Job 23, verse 10. Look closely. You'll see it through new eyes now that you see how the story has led to Job's recovery.

Back when his body was covered with sores, back when his friends were against him, family had gone away, children had died, he was bankrupt, sitting in a garbage dump at the outskirts of the city, Job still has the temerity to say, "He knows the way I take. When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

Look at that. The H is capitalized. It's referring to the living God. Job makes three statements of faith, even in the midst of his suffering. One, I know that God knows my situation. He knows the way I take. Second, I believe it is God who is testing me. When he has tried me. And third, I believe that after the trials have ended, I will emerge a better man. There'll be gold-like blessings that will come from this affliction.

I find when I get to the 10th verse of this last chapter of his book that it begins to list for me no less than four great rewards that came his way. Four gold-like blessings from the hand of God. And I enumerate them for us so that you might take hope where you find yourself today. Now, your rewards will be different because our trials are different. The blessings that come your way ultimately will not be the same as Job's necessarily. But these were his, and you will have yours. Take heart.

The first of the four blessings I find in verse 10 and verse 12 of Job 42. Job's possessions are doubled. The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends. And the latter part of the verse explains what that means: the Lord increased all that Job had twofold.

There are times I don't take a verse absolutely literally, but this is one of those I do. I think literally because of what's said in verse 12, everything doubled. Perhaps his land as well as his possessions. Perhaps a larger home was able to be built rather than the one they lived in before. But we are told specifically of the multiplication that occurred over the passing of time with his animals. The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. Job increases, multiplies enormously. He has come forth as gold, having been tested.

Now, there's a second blessing that comes in verse 11. His relatives and friends emerge. Job looks up and he's surrounded by all his brothers and it repeats it, all his sisters. Interesting, they're never mentioned until now. They weren't around when his time was troubled. Or were they? You don't know that, nor do I.

But if they were, they said nothing and their names are never recorded, nor are their words recorded in the first 41 and a half chapters of the book. But now they come: all his brothers, all his sisters, all who had known him before. You know who I would include because they're now forgiven? Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu.

Why not? They're not blacklisted, are they, because they didn't do the right thing or say the right thing at a time when they too were confused? They're forgiven. If I read correctly verses seven through 10, Job even prays for them and they're restored. So why not be a part of the family reunion?

Notice what these people do when they came. They came to him and they ate bread with him in his house, and they consoled him and they comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. What a great family reunion. I love it that they comforted and consoled him. Maybe he had a few scars remaining from the sores. Maybe he could tell them about the night he lost all hope of being able to make it.

Those are kind of stories that make a family reunion deeper and meaningful. And I notice also as you have that each one gave him one piece of money and a ring of gold. Isn't that intriguing? Maybe this was early on and he hadn't yet begun to build back his business, and maybe they wanted to participate in helping him get back on his feet.

Remember, he's lost it all. Maybe he had had to take all of the rings he had before and sell them to live on it, and they wanted to be sure he had a few nice things as well. Maybe they were housewarming gifts, welcoming him to a new home that he had just built, and they were all happy for him.

Men and women in a fast-paced world like ours, it's easy to lose your roots. It's easy to live just for yourself. He stays in touch and they stay in touch with him. They had a lot to talk about. You know who had a lot to talk about is Job and his wife. In many a home where physical affliction hits hard, there's a separation that occurs, distance is built. Some marriages can't make it. And the wife goes one direction and the husband drifts another.

You gotta hand it to Job and his wife. They stuck it out. They pulled together. She's not painted in a good light, I'm sorry to say. I think there were great qualities in her. She stays with him all the way through this, as confused as she is, watching her husband dwindle to a shell of what he had once been. Must have been terribly difficult. But she was there.

Hey, stick it out. Stay together. You have a child that can't keep up with other children at the school and there's some brain damage or there's a problem with some ailment or some lengthening disease that takes its toll, stay together. Hang in there. She was right there. They had a lot to talk about as they turn in at night and be all alone where it was quiet.

That brings me to a third blessing that came his way. Job's children are all replaced. Verse 13, he had seven sons and three daughters. Let's say they did, okay? She had a little hand in that. They're both getting up in years, okay? And one day she says to Job, "You're not going to believe this, but I think I'm pregnant." He goes, "Say what?"

Let's just say they're both 70, okay? Let's just start there. Here's Job laughing with his wife over the fact she's gonna have a baby. Takes maternity clothes out of mothballs and says, "Yeah, I guess I could fit back into that." Not just once, not twice. We're talking 10 pregnancies.

So for the next 20 more years they're rearing children again. That'll keep you young, huh? That'll keep you going. I got a funny line, but my wife says don't use that line, it's not nice. So I'm staying away. I need a nice warm place to stay tonight, so I'm not gonna go there. 10 more children.

Oh, it's okay, you can laugh. That's all right. It's amazing. I mean, it isn't all that pious. There are 10 children. He and his wife are given the ability to reproduce. And regardless of their ages, and we're not told exactly what it is, they get to enjoy the blessings of parenting, get this, with the wisdom of grandparents. Can't beat that combination.

How often we have said, "I so wish I knew then what I now know. I'd have been such a better parent." Well, they have the chance for a second time around. They don't make the mistakes they made the first time, or many of them. They got seven boys and they got three daughters. And we read a little about the girls here, not anything about the boys.

We read their names: Jemimah and Keziah and Keren-Happuch. I checked their names, doesn't seem to be that much significance in their names. But they're given, we're given their names. For example, Keren-Happuch, you might be interested. It means a darkness at the horn of the eye. Isn't that interesting? Like mascara would make the eyes darker and they named her Keren. It's better than mascara, so it's a good name.

Jemimah and Keziah and Keren-Happuch. And notice something else about the daughters, not only their names, but they're lovely. In all the land no women were found so fair as Job's daughters. Isn't that great? There are a lot of beautiful women in that era, as there are in every era, and there's none more fair than Job's daughters.

You know part of the reason? They were raised right. They were nurtured. The beauty of the Scriptures is frequently not just physical, but it is internal beauty. It's the beauty of character. It's the beauty of their person. They had gained from wise parents knowledge that was ahead of their years. And in all the land there was none so fair.

And their father, here's the third fact, not only their names and their beauty within and without, but their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. How unusual. But understand this is before the Mosaic law. In the Mosaic law we read one verse that talks about daughters receiving an inheritance. In Numbers 27, verse eight, says that the inheritance will go to the daughter if there were no sons.

But this is before there was the law of Moses. I believe the book is that old. And they're receiving an inheritance along with the sons. So there's no favoritism. Boys and girls alike, loved and cared for. Now the fourth of the great blessings have to do with his later years. The blessings of a long and satisfying life.

You read of them in 16 and 17. Let's say Job is about 70 by the time the healing comes and the recovery and he's lived a full life. And now we read that he lived 140 years after this, after the trials, and now he enters, if you will, a second phase of life. And if you add 70 to this, you come up with a 210 years of life.

How great that must have been for him. In fact, look at what we read: he saw his sons and his grandsons and great-grandsons. It says four generations. Sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, maybe great-great, depending on where the generations would start. It's not clear from this.

And then he died. Isn't that a sweet way it appears? He dies an old man and full of days. The Message reads, "Then he died, an old man, a full life." Living Bible renders this, "Then at last he died, an old, old man after living a long, good life." You know, men and women, not much is said in any circle about those who are aging.

It's sort of the overlooked segment of life, even though there are more of this particular category than ever before in our history of humanity. So we linger here long enough to not only have a little fun with it, but to draw some lessons from it. This is a man who has seen a lot of life.

It's said of Abraham, "He breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life, and he was gathered to his people." Probably a reference of joining his people in the afterlife; we would say in heaven. It was said of David, "Then he died in a ripe old age, full of days, riches and honor."

Job is not dying a struggling, cranky, broken old codger whom no one enjoyed being around. This man is seeing his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren. He is reliving so much of life and passing along so many of the things that he has learned. One of my sources says the patriarchal formula "old and full of years" is expressive of a completely fulfilled life.

What a way to die. Not as we began, "living happily ever after"—that's not possible. We're on this earth, we still have a sin-cursed nature, we still must deal with a hostile world and nature and others that is less than desirable. But there can be satisfaction, there can be fulfillment, there can be a purpose.

As I completed my earlier message to our first morning worship service today, I had an older lady come to me and she said to me, batting her eyes through tears, she says, "I can't remember when a sermon has meant more to me." She said, "Sometimes it feels like folks our age are just forgotten."

Let me say to you who have older parents and older family members: remember them, take care of them, love them. If they're away, write to them. Continue to nurture that relationship. Age is not kind to the human body. There are things that occur that even those very effective in their earlier years find begin to fade.

You who are younger have no idea what that feels like. Let's learn from a passage like this: the value of helping those who are aging enjoy a more satisfying life. Admittedly, much of it becomes a part of their own source of continuing and satisfaction. No one else can make an individual fulfilled and satisfied. But we can certainly help the journey be a little more enjoyable.

There's a Jewish proverb that says, "For the ignorant, old age is as winter. For the learned, it is a harvest." As age stacks up, you find that because you have kept yourself alert and alive, you see life through new eyes. That's why you find yourself saying as an older person, "Take it easy. It's okay. Don't get too worried."

I tell that to one of our sets of kids. They got young kids that are just half nuts at times, and I say, "It's okay, just a stage." It's been going on for years, but it's a stage. It's okay. Henry Thoreau wrote, "None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm." Isn't it wonderful to be around an enthusiastic person whose years are multiplied compared to yours? Isn't it great to see them have goals and vision and dreams and pursuits that have them excited from the time they awake until a late going to bed time?

Bill Meyer: What a fitting place to arrive at the end of Job's long road. Chuck Swindoll reminds us that enduring faith isn't about outlasting the storm. It's about who we become as we walk through it, refined and enthusiastic to the very end.

This is Insight for Living. Chuck titled today's message with a question, "And Job Lived Happily Ever After . . . Or Did He?" If today's message stirred something in you, we invite you to take advantage of two special resources that will challenge your understanding of God's hand in your life.

First, we're inviting you to pre-purchase your copy of Chuck Swindoll's personal memoir. Over the span of nine decades, Chuck has discovered one profound truth: God's grace changes everything. And now, in his brand new memoir, *Awakened by Grace*, Chuck opens his heart like never before, sharing the moments and milestones that have shaped his life.

You can be among the very first to hold this remarkable book in your hands. When you contact Insight for Living and pre-order the book, we'll make sure you receive your copy of *Awakened by Grace* as soon as it becomes available. Plus, you'll immediately receive the first three chapters as a PDF for free so you can get started reading the book. Call 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/memoir.

Also, we're excited to let you know that Chuck recently sat down with actor and talk show host Kirk Cameron. You probably know that Kirk played the wisecracking teenager in the TV show *Growing Pains* and then went on to make Christian films like *Fireproof* and several excellent documentaries.

But you might not know that Kirk had rejected God until he was 17. Then he went to church and heard a sermon that transformed the course of his life. It was a message by Chuck Swindoll. Kirk is now a devoted follower of Christ and one of your fellow Insight for Living listeners.

Enrich your soul with this fascinating discussion between Chuck and Kirk Cameron. You can find it at insight.org/conversation. That's insight.org/conversation. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us again when Chuck Swindoll continues his comprehensive study on the life of Job, Monday on Insight for Living.