the righteousness of God in him.
So Job, number one, is missing the presence and power of God in his life.
But then number two, he says, "My children were about me."
You know, children are more valuable than any material possessions that you could own.
Your children are more valuable than that.
And this is something that we've lost sight of in our society because today children are
seen as a liability, as a burden, or you know, it's almost considered like an STD, getting
pregnant.
Okay, like it's just some kind of a thing to be avoided at all costs.
And people strive to only just have one or two children.
Now look, if that's all God blesses you with, well then great, you know, be thankful for
that one or those two or whatever God blesses you with.
But you know, when people have this mentality of I don't want to have children or, you know,
I just only want to have one or two and that's all I want to do, you know, it doesn't seem
like they have a biblical perspective on what's important in life.
Because in the Bible, the Bible says children are a heritage of the Lord and the fruit of
the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath this quiver full of them.
It doesn't say happy is the man that has two arrows and then stops.
Happy is the man that has one and then stops because all things in moderation.
No, you know, I believe that God wants us to be fruitful and multiply and I believe
that having a multitude of children is a blessing.
Now, is it hard to have children?
Absolutely.
Do they bring pain and suffering and I mean, even just it all starts with the pregnancy
and the birth.
"In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children," the Bible says.
So obviously there's pain and suffering, but here's the bad news for you mothers out there.
When you give birth, the pain is just beginning.
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, there's more pain to come through just, you know, just disappointments and heart
breaks and just pain and just sleepless nights and just work and toil of having children.
But you know what?
The things in life that matter the most and that are the most valuable, they often take
a lot of investment of time and work and effort.
And so having children is a blessing.
And Job saw it as a major blessing.
That's why Job had 10 children.
I mean, you see Job having 10 children, that obviously shows that Job is a guy who values
his children because he keeps having more.
And then when they're taken away from him, second only to the presence of God, he misses
his children.
I mean, that makes sense, right?
The next thing he would bring up is the children.
And then not only that, but even though his children all sound like they're all grown
and he's kind of out of that phase of life, you know, after everything's all said and
done and when he gets his health back and his wealth back and everything goes well,
in the end of the book, you know, he ends up having 10 additional children.
So this guy just doesn't know when to quit, does he?
But that's the point, is that, you know, from a biblical perspective, if he gets all his
wealth back, you know, if he's really going to be restored to his former situation, then
he needs to have more children.
And you say, well, why did God give him back twice as much money?
Because the inflation was so incredible in the time, no, I'm just kidding, yet today,
today you'd have to get twice as much back just to break even, you know, you'd have to
give you like four times as much to actually have double.
But you know, the reason why he only gets ten additional children is because the first ten
children aren't really gone.
So his number of children has still been doubled because they're in heaven.