The following extract is taken from Robert Sutherland’s new book “Putting God on Trial: The Biblical Book of Job” (Trafford, Victoria, 2004) It is reproduced with his permission and he retains the copyright. Mr.Sutherland is a Christian Canadian criminal defense lawyer instrumental in changing the Canadian law on aggravated assault and solicitor-client privilege. He is a Senior Fellow at the Mortimer J. Adler Centre for the Study of the Great Ideas. And he is a member of St.Stephen’s Anglican, Thunder Bay. The book has received high praise from Job scholars: David Clines, Norman Habel and Gerald Janzen. Several chapters and order information are online at http://www.bookofjob.org

“God’s restoration of Job

God restores Job to his former position. Job had not asked for such a restoration. At first glace, it appears as an act of grace, not justice.

“The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children’s children, four generations. And Job died, old and full of days.” (Job 42:12-17)

But some scholars have seen in this restoration an act of justice. And there is something to this insight. Hebrew law provided that if a person was wrongfully deprived of goods, both parties shall come before God; the one whom God condemns shall pay double to the other. (Exodus 22:7-9) God has wrongfully deprived Job of seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys. (Job 1:3; 14-18) God now repays the loss double, giving fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys.” (Job 42:12) God has wrongfully deprived Job of the good life. God now repays that loss double, giving an extended good life. Job lives a further 140 years (Job 42:16), presumably double the 70 years he has already lived. He dies at the ripe old age of 210 years, a life-span typified by the patriarchs themselves. But Job is the ultimate patriarch, the father of theistic humanism.

To some, this seems like just reparation. However, it is not. His ten children are not resurrected. They are not restored to the good lives they lost. The ten new children are no substitute. There is no real compensation that can be offered for the loss of human life. As with much in The Book of Job, this final restoration is mere temptation on the author’s part, a temptation to the reader and a temptation to Job to premature judgment. That premature judgment is that now all is right with the world. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A standard of justice was set with the first scene on earth and the first scene in heaven. Job was the best a man could be. All that he had, all that he was, was rightfully his. This is what he was and reward was instituted. Job lost everything. Prima facie, this was an act of injustice, because Job was deprived of what was rightfully his as a matter of justice. This restoration of Job is richly ambiguous. If the first test was having less reward than one’s righteousness merits, then this restoration is a second test. The second test is having more reward than one’s righteousness merits. The moral test that is life itself is merely transposed into a different key. The test is never ending as long as life continues. Will Job continue to demand answers for the question of evil in the world even when he is well off? Will we?”