job.

This is something that a friend shared with me while I was on my mission and it was brought to my memory yesterday during church.

Job is a classic example of trials and suffering. And faithfulness to God. 

But I want to talk about how Job is an example of God's promise of eternal families:

This is what Job has before everything is taken away from him:

7,000 sheep

3,000 camels

500 yoke of oxen

500 she asses

7 sons and 3 daughters (10 kids)

He then loses every single one of those things. His kids are killed when a house collapses and fire and other things consume his flocks.

For the next 40 chapters Job stays faithful to the Lord while even his closest friends counsel him to curse the Lord.

Then in chapter 42:10 it says, "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave job twice as much as he had before." (emphasis added).

It then numbers what the Lord gives him after he's proven faithful:

14,000 sheep

6,000 camels

1,000 yoke of oxen

1,000 she asses

7 sons and 3 daughters (10 kids)

You don't have to be a genius at math to see that 10x2 does not equal 10. If the Lord said he was going to bless him with twice as much as he had before, and he only has 10 more kids . . . something appears to be wrong. The math checks out on all the other things.

The only logical explanation is this; Job's first 10 children + his second 10 children = 20, or double what he had before. Ergo . . . his first 10 kids are still his. Even after death. They are an eternal family. After this life, he has 20 kids. The Lord fulfilled his promise to Job and we can see that families are eternal.

Thank you Spencer Hadley for showing me this years ago.