<p>5:11<i> Behold, we call them blessed that endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the result that the Lord intended, how the Lord is full of pity and is merciful</i>-The concluding theme of this letter is that despite their faults, all the ecclesia should pray for God's forgiveness for the others, especially bearing in mind the physical affliction that had been brought on some of them because of the grossness of their sins (see notes on 4:12). Job was a prophet (Job 29:4), one of those referred to in the preceding verse, and his example seems to be behind much of what James says in this chapter. &quot;Happy&quot; being the same word translated &quot;Blessed&quot; in the beatitudes encourages us to see an allusion here back to Mt. 5:10-12, which v.10 has already referred to: blessed are those who endure tribulation for speaking the word. The Jews (&quot;we&quot;) counted the prophets as blessed people because of their sufferings (Mt. 23:29; Acts 13:15,27). Indeed, the Greek for &quot;count&quot; means 'to beautify', and is from the word for &quot;happy/ blessed&quot;. The suffering which Job endured was not just physical but more especially from the mental trauma created in him by the criticisms of him by his friends with their (false?) claims to be inspired prophets, saying that his sufferings were due to gross spiritual weakness. This was probably the elders' reason for not supporting the poor brethren- they would have reasoned that their hardships were a sign of God's displeasure because of their lack of spirituality. We have discussed the problem of Job being credited with &quot;patience&quot; despite his mistakes elsewhere; his patience seem to have been in continuing to speak forth the true word of God, and in having the humility at the end to accept his failures. That Job did have failures is indicated by James saying that in &quot;the end of the Lord&quot; He showed great mercy and pity, which would imply forgiveness. The same word is used in Heb. 10:28 concerning the man dying without mercy, i.e. forgiveness, under the Law as a punishment for sin.</p><p>&quot;Full of pity&quot; is very intense in Greek- elsewhere it is translated &quot;bowels&quot;, &quot;inward affection&quot;. Thus the position of Job touched the Lord's heart in a way few other human experiences are said to in the word. We have elsewhere shown Job to have been a man who allowed himself to be too far influenced by the Judaist-type philosophy of the friends, the 'elders' of his ecclesia, and yet to have kept doggedly reflecting on and believing God's basic principles so that he eventually came to an appreciation of human nature and God's greatness which few others have done. The poor brethren in the Jewish ecclesias were in a similar position- being worn down by the spiritually cocksure reasoning of their elders, feeling increasingly spiritually desperate because of their words, as Job did, and therefore needing every encouragement to patiently continue rather than give way in bitterness, so that they might come to the same end as Job. The tremendous pity which God showed for Job would also be shown to them if they fully fellowshiped his example by their patient endurance.</p><p>It is not only so that we can limit God by our prayers. It is also true that prayer and spirituality can to some degree change the stated intentions of God, such is His openness to it. That God has intentions proves of itself that there can be a degree to which what He intends to do is governed by human response. James reasons that because we have seen &ldquo;the end intended by the Lord&rdquo; (James 5:11 NKJ) we ought therefore to do the maximum of <i>our</i> ability. Thus Amos pronounced what the Lord had shown him: that the land would be destroyed by grasshoppers, and then by fire. But each time he begged Yahweh to relent. And &ldquo;the Lord repented for this: It shall not be, says the Lord&rdquo; (Am. 7:1-7).</p><p>That God has intentions proves of itself that there can be a degree to which what He intends to do is governed by human response. James reasons that because we have seen &quot;the end intended by the Lord&quot; (James 5:11 NKJ) we ought therefore to do the maximum of <i>our</i> ability.</p>