The Double Reward and the Resurrection of Children

You were judged so that you might be crowned, judged so that you might be praised by all under heaven. Before the suffering, one person knew you; after the suffering, all under heaven will know you. Your hardship becomes more brilliant than any royal procession. Those bearing the diadem desire to see your struggle and the toil of the athletic contests.

I made your hardship a paradise; I cultivated it toward piety, bringing forth a heavenly plant. You received heavenly things; now receive also the earthly things, taking all things twofold. Here, every Christian, learn your hope, the excellence of your promise. For to Job double is promised, and double is given; but the Savior says to his own disciples: whoever has left father, or mother, or sisters for my sake, shall receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life.

But attend to that precisely, so that while the friend is corrected privately, Job's friends are reproved publicly. And God says to them: Why did you not speak rightly concerning my servant Job? But, O Judge, we set forth the word on your behalf, we proclaimed your righteousness, we judged a man, but we showed your righteousness to be innocent. Therefore, attend here to the judgment of God. For if he does not accept those speaking on his behalf against the righteous, will he accept those speaking against the righteous in an unrighteous way?

Thus he reproves his friends, and says: Now, if not for my servant Job, I would have destroyed you. Thus at once he reproves and he saves. He saves because they said nothing evil against God; but he reproves the righteous, restoring his integrity. And he honors the friends through him; but he honors the righteous through the contest, and gives him double, and from his darkness his light shone then and now.

Having said one more thing, let us show the excellence. He received the sheep twofold, and oxen, camels, and donkeys twofold; but the children, having lost ten, he did not receive twenty. Here one must seek how the cattle indeed are twofold, but the children are simple. Because the cattle and the possessions, being lost, were lost completely, but a man dying is preserved unto life and is raised unto resurrection.

He does not give him the children twofold, so that he might not cut off the hope of those who departed, but so that he might show him that they, even if they were taken early, yet they live. They all indeed are provided for him; but he gives him only ten, so that Job might be found not passing from life to death, but passing from house to house. For having completed ten years of life, they sent him to the grave; ten again on the day of resurrection they will receive him from the grave into kingship, and he will enjoy those unutterable and eternal goods in unison. May all of us be worthy of this, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and the power, now and always and unto the ages. Amen.