THE END. That’s how a book concludes. But with “the end of the Lord” (Jas 5:11), He’s just getting started!
There is just one reference to Job in the New Testament. James, more than likely the half-brother of our Lord, wishes to remind God’s people about Job two millennia after he was born. James has been exhorting us to be unrelenting in our service, just as “the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain” (Jas 5:7). There’s only so much we can do in the Lord’s work. After that, we must patiently wait for heaven’s blessing to bring the fruit. James also encourages us to be uncomplaining in our suffering, and points to our man, Job. “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful” (Jas 5:11). We shouldn’t think of patience here as a passive trait. It’s endurance, perseverance, hanging on when being pummeled by tragedy, criticism, doubts—or all three at once, as Job was. In the midst of life’s whirlwind, it’s very hard to see far enough ahead to consider what “the end of the Lord” (KJV) may be. But at the least we know the proven character of God, “that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful,” and so we hope for the best—for His best—or as James calls it, “the end intended by the Lord.” We know God can make the most amazing stained glass masterpieces out of shattered ruins. Calvary tells us that. Eric Liddell, the Scottish sprinter and Christian missionary who gave his life for Christ in China, wrote, “Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God’s plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins. God’s love is still working. He comes in and takes the calamity and uses it victoriously, working out His wonderful plan of love.”