`glistering' stones there described, anticipating as it does the splendour of the New Jerusalem, even as the `painted'

face of Jezebel anticipates the evil system described in Revelation 17:1-6.

Moreover Job is said to have lived `after this' another hundred and forty years. If his age was doubled, as the

number of his cattle had been, then Job's total age would have been 280 years. If on the other hand, his age was

repeated as the number of his children had been, then he would have been 70 at the time of his affliction and 70 +

140, namely 210 at the time of his death.

At the time of Job's experiences, Israel had not come into being, but the God of Job was also the God of Israel

and of the ages. It is therefore entirely in harmony with the teaching of Scripture that the experiences of Job should

be echoed by those of Israel. Thus we notice in the first chapter of Isaiah that Israel, like Job, is seen covered with

incurable sores, and that in Isaiah 61 in the acceptable year of the Lord, we find this promise:

`For your shame ye shall have double'

`In their land they shall possess the double' (Isa. 61:7).

In Job 42:10 we read the words `the LORD turned the captivity of Job' and the reader will recognize in this

phrase, a recurring promise made to Israel through Moses and the later prophets. Over and over again we read the

words `bring again captivity', `turn again, turn away or turn back captivity', all of which go back to Job's experience

as their original. If it is true, that Moses is the one into whose hands the story of Job came, it is impossible to

believe that he could write of Israel's future `The LORD thy God will turn thy captivity' (Deut. 30:3) without

associating Israel's age-time experiences with those of Job. This `turning again of the captivity' of Israel is the

burden of the Psalmist, `Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the LORD bringeth back the

captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad' (Psa. 14:7; cf. 53:6; 85:1 and 126:4). Jeremiah

uses the phrase twelve times over, a number suggestive of Israel. Hosea 6:11, Joel 3:1 and Zephaniah 3:20 also

should be read. In the strictly literal sense of the term Job was never in `captivity', and in the prophetic references to

the captivity of Israel, much more than physical bondage or exile is intended.

Did Balaam know the story of Job? We cannot tell, but he could easily have been acquainted with the life of this

great man of the East, and might even have had him in mind when he said `Let me die the death of the righteous,

and let my last end be like his' (Num. 23:10), for it is the same word that is translated `latter end' in Job 42:12.

Prophecy concerning Israel has much to say concerning `the last days', `the latter days' and `the latter end'.

Deuteronomy 8 opens with a reference to trials and chastenings, but it has in view `good at the latter end' (Deut.

8:16). `There is hope in thine end', said Jeremiah to the captivity (Jer. 31:17). In every way the book of Job is seen

to take its rightful place in the forefront of revealed truth.

By the time that Moses had been raised up to be the deliverer and law-giver of the chosen people, the testimony

of tradition had become distorted and valueless as may be seen in the vain endeavour of Job's three friends to solve

his problem by appeals to that source. The testimony associated with the stars had become corrupted, the day was

drawing near when a great prophet should be raised up to give to Israel, and through them, to the world, a written

revelation of Truth. Moses opens the book of Genesis with the sublime words `In the beginning God created the

heaven and the earth'. If his own mind and that of others in Israel to whom he had shown the book of Job upon his

return from the land of Midian had been prepared by the lengthy appeal to the wonders of creation that occupy the

closing chapters of the book of Job, the epitome of Genesis 1:1 would come with even greater force. To us, who

read the book of Genesis and have not the knowledge supplied by the book of Job, the entry of the serpent into

Genesis 3 is an enigma. Moses and those who had read the book of Job would have been prepared for such initial

intrusion and would have seen the attack upon Adam and Eve in the light of the subsequent attack upon one of the

woman's seed.

The lesson for us who are teachers or students, seems to be that wherever possible, students and teachers should

make themselves acquainted with the book of Job as a necessary preparation for the greater study of all Scripture.

Let us rejoice that we not only hear of the patience of Job, but also that we have `seen the end of the Lord' wherein

we find the solution not only of Job's problems, but also of the age-long problem concerning all who pass through

the wilderness of this world, and the way which leads to the goal of the ages, when all tears shall be wiped away,

Satan and his seed destroyed, and God All in all.