Verses from Job

“这样，耶和华后来赐给约伯的福比先前更多：他有一万四千只羊、六千匹骆驼、一千对牛、一千头母驴。他也有七个儿子和三个女儿。

此后，约伯又活了一百四十年，得见他的儿孙到四代。这样，约伯年纪老迈，寿终而死。”

约伯记 42:12-13, 16-17 

“The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters.

After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. And Job died, an old man and full of days.”

Job 42:12-13, 16-17 

What would Job say if he knew that his name was synonymous with suffering and loss?

Would he agree with us that his life was defined by the things he lost? Or would he argue that his life was better depicted in his faithfulness through the trial and the blessings he received in his latter days?

Job’s response to his loss tells us where he found his identity.

Job’s story picks up when he is already the richest man in the East. He is blessed beyond blessing beyond proportion beyond measure. He was the man with the Midas touch in his day. And not only that, but he had a great family, too.

He lost all of that in literally one day. Everything came crashing down and he was left with four servants who had nothing to do and a bitter wife who wanted him to die. Then, next thing he knew, he began suffering from excruciating boils so that his suffering was great both internally and externally in every way.

Yet through it all, he never turned from God. He remained patient and faithful. And in the end, God gave him double what he had lost, even giving him another seven sons and three daughters.

What sustained him through it all are the things the devil could never take away from him—his faith, his identity, and his will to honor God in his words and his attitude.

Because his life was defined by God and not by his possessions—even his children—then he was not destroyed when he lost those things, even though it was painful. He was able to remain steadfast and wait for the faithfulness of God to redeem him.

Are you grounded in a God-centered identity? If you are, then you can be like Job as he would want to be remembered—unshakable regardless the storm or pain, faithful to the end, and rewarded of God.

Lord God,

You are my God and my faith is in You alone! I will not put my faith in the things I own, because You are my provider. No matter what, I choose to stay in You, and trust that You will redeem and restore my life no matter what I may face.

Amen