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Job 42: “There but for the grace of God go I.”
In this chapter we will be focusing on the three daughters of Job: Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch. When you see someone who is suffering, who is down and out, finding life very difficult, as we look on and try to understand why, we respond in one of two ways: we can say he or she deserves it, or we can say, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’
These friends of Job who come to comfort him (Job 2:11-13), instead of comforting him they become his worst enemies. They said he deserved what he was getting because he was a hypocrite.
In 1 Corinthians 15 the apostle Paul says he is not wanting to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church. We can empathise with a person experiencing difficulties because we realise those same difficulties could happen to us. God demonstrates His grace, He shows us His grace. Grace is God choosing to bless us rather than curse us as our sins deserve. God is benevolent. God bestows grace on us. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, He has blessed you with His grace, with His compassion, with His kindness. He has given to you what you don’t deserve.
God’s grace is the restoration of Job. God’s constant work is seen in a two-fold aspect: spiritually, He restored Job’s soul and physically He restored him. This is something we see throughout the life of every believer – our spiritual and physical restoration. Even though I’m saved, you may say ‘I’m ailing.’ But my dear friends, very soon our Lord Jesus Christ is coming and He will restore our bodies. We will have a glorified body. We shall be like Him. This is something to look forward to. The restoration of the soul is only possible for those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Job’s three daughters had wonderful names. Jemimah means ‘day light, as handsome as the day.’ Keziah refers to cassia, a fragrant spice, a beautiful fragrance. Keren-Happuch, the most beautiful of all the daughters, is ‘the horn of paint.’ Eye-liner accentuates the beauty of the eyes. Job saw her beautiful eyes. These girls were the most beautiful in all the East, “In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job,” (Job 42:15a).
There is no doubt, from the time Job came from the dung heap, he is now living with his family. All that he had lost was restored. When we come to the miracles of Jesus Christ, to the lady who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment (Mark 5), Jesus says ‘They faith has made thee well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.’ Here we see the restoration of the soul and the physical healing. Do you know you’ve been physically healed? If you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, we will never die. We have been saved for glory. Our souls have been restored. In the eyes of God, He sees Christ in us, who is perfect.
Job had seven sons and three daughters, “He also had seven sons and three daughters.” (Job 42:13). The sons are not named. Job loved them. He offered sacrifices regularly to God for his sons and daughters, just in case they sinned. He names the daughters. Why? Names in scripture hold great significance. The Lord Jesus Christ is given the name Jesus, ‘For He shall save the people from their sins.’ These three daughters were going to be a testimony of God’s grace towards Job. They are part of the blessings of Job’s prosperity. Job sat in the ashes. Here we see a representation of three beautiful women. In Christ you are beautiful. He has given you life, He has given you salvation, He has given you of Himself, He has given you Christ. We also see that Job gave the names to his daughters. This is the only place in scripture where a father gives names to his daughters.
For a long time Job experienced darkness and long nights. He calls his first daughter Jemimah. Day. Job was a man of great faith and patience. There were times when he was so low he only expected death. But there were other times when this wasn’t so (Job 13:15, 19:25, 23:10). Daylight. Job is thinking about the graciousness of God. David describes it in Psalm 23 as living in the shadow of death. Day – the Lord has brought him out of darkness into His glorious light. Now he can see the day. His night has been turned into day.
Then Job had a second daughter, Keziah. Job deemed her as precious as cassia, a fragrant spice. In Hebrew it means ‘bow down the head.’ Perhaps, Job remembered those days and those nights when he was bowed down in ashes, in a dung heap, with no place to rest. He was also being tormented by his friends. Cassia was also used as an anti-inflammatory drug. Perhaps it was part of his cure. This is also a picture of prayer. At the end of chapter 1, when messengers came and gave him the bad news, Job bowed his face down and worshipped the Lord. Here, in chapter 42, he bows. This is repentance. You cannot have forgiveness without repentance.
We are reminded in Corinthians, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7). God is that cheerful giver and He now lavishes Job with another daughter, Keren-Happuch, ‘horn of paint.’ Keren-Happuch didn’t need this paint to accentuate her eyes, she had such beauty. Job would look at her and see he is now newly-restored, “In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.” (Job 42:15). Job’s three daughters, Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch, represented God’s graciousness to Job. They represented God’s favour towards Job.
“to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”
(Isaiah 61:3)
The beauty that God gave to those ladies would speak of His blessing. Men and women around would see these beautiful women, the offspring of Job. Doesn’t this remind you of the Lord Jesus Christ? In the same way these three women spoke of God’s restoration on Job’s life, we see the man Jesus who He sent to become our Saviour, who brought light, who was beautiful in every aspect, who came into a Christ-less, dark world (Matthew 4:16, 1 Thessalonians 5:5).
My dear friends, you are the children of day, not of darkness. You are the children of day. We will never experience darkness. We need to live in light.
“Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad.” (Psalm 45:8)
The garment of the High Priest was sprinkled with this beautiful fragrance as he walked into the Holy of Holies. The fragrance would ascend to the throne of God. Jesus Christ was a sweet-smelling aroma to His God. “Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” (John12:3). He displayed the glories of God’s grace.
Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch had an outward beauty, but possibly an inward beauty. The Lord Jesus Christ had no beauty to desire Him (Isaiah 53). Yet when He walked this earth, people saw beauty, glory, power and compassion. He displayed a sweet-smelling savour to God. It came from His heart and He displayed it to all around. He still displays it today. His grace and favour is displayed in you.
We look forward to His coming again. Now we can rest in Him, the glory of the Father. We are clothed with garments of salvation, so we can display His glory. “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.” (2 Corinthians 2:14) Through you. That’s me and you. We are to God the fragrance of Christ. Wow!
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. He is refining our nature. Job was the greatest man in the East. Now it is his daughters who display the glories of Job and are the most beautiful women of the East. When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ we see one who displays the glories of His Father, Now His beauty rests not only upon us, but in us. Now we are beautiful. Do you believe that? God looks upon us and sees beauty in us because He sees Christ. Do we live in that grace? Do we live in a way that displays God’s beauty and His grace?
Let’s pray that the inward beauty and the fragrance of Christ may be seen in us, and that the Spirit of God – who is there transforming us by the renewing of our minds – that as we walk and as we live, we may display the same beauty and remember Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch. They were there for the glory of God. We are here for God’s glory.
Penuel Baptist Chapel, Roch 