"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."-Job 1:21 (Lamsa Translation).

About the time of Melchisedek and Abraham there also lived a man named Job. Job was a good man of great wealth, learning, and influence. He loved and reverenced God and appreciated justice, and God loved him. Job and his wife had seven sons and three daugthers.

A merchant prince, Job was considered to be one of the great men of his time, yet he thought of the widows and orphans and was very generous to them. Satan told God that Job loved him only because God had so greatly blessed him. So God allowed Satan to test Job.

Suddenly terrible disasters came upon Job-his children, wealth, influence, and health were all taken from him. In spite of all that happened, Job's faith did not waver. He said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." Job's wife did not share his trust and said to him, "Curse God and die" (Job 2:9; 13:15).

Three friends came to visit Job and comfort him in his trials, but they, too, felt that Job was to blame for all the misfortunes that had come upon him. They said that he must surely have sinned against God. Job is remembered to this day for his great patience, yet at one point, his trials were so heavy and severe that he wished he were asleep in sheol (the grave) and asked only that he would be remembered in the resurrection.

Eventually God brought blessings again to Job. In fact, he now had more than he had ever had before (Job 42:10). What a beautiful picture of the history of mankind!

Man was removed from his perfect garden home and suddenly found himself having to work very hard to have a home and enough to eat. In the Millennial Age mankind will be restored to all that he had had and more! The curse of sin and death will be removed, and instead, the blessings of God will flow down upon the human family for a thousand years, giving back life to all who have gone down into death, and multiplying the blessings of the earth more than double.

Job was a wealthy, but generous, merchant prince!

Like Job, mankind will be restored to all that he had had in the garden-and more!

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