Two Worlds
Job's story demonstrates two ways of doing theology. One (Job Mark 1 and the friends) moves from doctrine to the human condition. The other (Yahweh and Job Mark 2) moves from human experience to faith. The two worlds are totally different. Mark 2 is not a reversion to Mark 1 and to see the restoration of Job's fortunes as unfair and unjust is to miss the point. In chapter 42 we revert to Job's family, but it is a very different family from the one we started with.
In chapter 1 Job is clearly a strong character both in the family and in the local community, but he is a detached father and there is scant evidence that he relates closely to any of it. It is a dysfunctional family with no mood music. No atmosphere, no fun, no laughter, no spirit or emotion. Job has little regard for his wife, much less for her opinions. His children have no names and such human interaction as there is is confined to the eldest brother's house and Job is not part of it — he is on the fringe worrying about their spiritual well-being.
In chapter 42 we have revelry. His family has grown. He has brothers and sisters and lots of others who want to share his life. He even seems to have learned the art of hospitality (v 11). You can give him a present, and he can receive it. Relationships matter. His daughters have names and are included in his inheritance. His family business is thriving. This is a totally different Job, and when Job changes we all change. Unreal? Maybe. Untrue?
At the beginning we suggested treating Job like a piece of music. A variation might be a play where, once you get to the end and grasp the whole, the rest falls away. Shakespeare's Winter's Tale has a most unlikely ending when a wronged Hermione who has been dead for sixteen years comes to life. Unreal? Of course, and many critics have found it difficult, but transcending the literal is a gospel of hope. Hermione's restoration to life closes the circle, 'where what began with death and winter now ends with spring and a new birth'. (www.sparknotes,com). Much the same might be said of Job.