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Job 42:16-17
16 After ['achar] this lived [chayah] Job ['Iyowb] an hundred [me'ah] and forty ['arba`iym] years [shaneh (in pl. only),], and saw [ra'ah] his sons [ben], and his sons [ben]' sons [ben], even four ['arba`] generations [dowr].
17 So Job ['Iyowb] died [muwth], being old [zaqen] and full [sabea] of days [yowm]. KJV-Interlinear
16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his grandsons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man and full of days. NASB
Only in the Septuagint do we find a final age for Job, 'And all the years that Job lived were two hundred and forty.' Only in an Arabic text is this also represented, hence as we guessed earlier in the study, Job was probably around one-hundred years of age just prior to his afflictions, and then he lived another one-hundred and forty years following his suffering.
But, the original text of Job does not specify his total age, so we can only guess regarding that subject. And anyway, since his total age was never mentioned, it is not really important to our study.
What is important is that Job lived a very long time after his suffering, and during his remaining life, he lived a 'full' life.
'Full,' here refers to a complete life from Gods perspective. It is not related to his suffering, to his prosperity, to his wealth, or to the number of years of his life. Job lived long enough to have everything occur in his life, that God wanted to occur in his life.
And that is our principle of doctrine at the close of this book.
We all have been placed here in this world for a purpose. None of us were placed here in this world haphazardly, or by accident. God has a plan for each individual who has ever lived.
God has a plan for you specifically. Now, whether you fulfil that plan, is dependent on your attitude toward your spiritual life.
So you might say that you have two possible plans for your life - yours and Gods. And in that respect you can be indifferent and defiant toward God or doctrine, and live your life the way you want. Or, you can pursue Bible doctrine and live the life which God lays before you.
And, in most cases, we all live a combination of these two plans, our own screwball way and then Gods way. And that gives us all a wild roller-coaster ride through life, or at least until we get with our Bible study program and let God do the driving.
History is full of stories of famous people who lived for a while, sometimes short lives and sometimes long lives, and when they accomplished something or some purpose, then they died.
Your life may be simply to see your children grow up. Or, you may be here to accomplish some great task. Certainly God knows what he has in store for you, and you may or may not know until the very end of your life.
But one thing is true of us all. We are all here to believe in Christ first, and then to listen and learn and grow up and live within our spiritual life, during our life in this world.
Whatever else we may do in passing through this life, on our way to the next, is a pure honor given us, courtesy of the grace of God.
He does not need any of us in order to have His plan work to its certain conclusion for humanity. We are all expendable in that respect. Only the work of Christ possesses intrinsic value.
Bible doctrine in the soul, leads to a secure life.
A secure life leads to a secure family. A secure family leads to secure children for generations to come. Job lived to see four generations of his family. And they all had security through the life is Job.
Insecure generations seek security not from within their own souls, but by way of external bureaucracies, such as governments or counselors. And from these, there is never any form of security, because they have no security to offer.
Jobs three friends had no security, although they had all of the wisdom of the world at their disposal.
While your life may be pressured constantly, you only need to realize that the pressures of this world are nothing when compared to Gods abilities to deal with them. God spoke and Jobs afflictions went away.
It won't be any different for you.
You will not witness any whirlwinds, and you most likely will not win any lotteries. But, you have something far better - Bible doctrine. You only need to be willing to listen, to learn, to grow up, and to be patient. Doctrine will help you learn to be responsible, to exercise common sense, and to pursue the many things which God has already prepared out there in the world, for you.
God is not a wish maker, nor a genie. Do not treat Him as such.
Get over whatever it is that you have to get over, and grow up with life. Then you will soon realize just how far ahead of you, God is in your life. You just need to catch up.
