"You Reap What You Sow"...

...But Job didn't! The pain and suffering he reaped between was not the result of anything he 'sowed'. His suffering was reaped besides the unqualified good he had sown before. Further, nothing Job got at the end made up for what he had lost. Ask anyone who has lost a child whether 10 later on make up for the one that was lost. I have been around too many people who have lost children to see that as parity. Finally, what do you think Job is 'reaping' at the end? What did he 'sow' to receive that blessing? Loyalty to God? Hardly. Job's entire speech in the Book of Job is a long attack on God, attacking rabidly the idea that God is just and proclaiming his innocence and God's unjust attack upon him. No, God restores Job because Job's friends swore upon God that everything that was happening to Job was just desserts, and Job swore upon God that it was not. Since Job was right and his friends were wrong, Job is rewarded. The benefits Job receives at the end are NOT payment for loyalty, not the reaping of the benefit of good behavior. It MAY have been a repayment by God for the suffering he endured, but suffering in and of itself is morally neutral and in no ways is an example of 'sowing'...we reap suffering when we suffer. A better exegesis is simply that God gives back Job a double portion to let us all know THAT JOB WAS RIGHT ("you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has."- Job 42:7b). God is making the most blatant statement possible so that no one can ever again make the mistake of thinking along the lines of Job's friends. And what were Job's friends' beliefs the whole time? That what is reaped is ALWAYS what was sown. That ALL behavior has consequences proportioned out relative to it's moral standing.