A commonly asked question is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Though Jesus Himself (Luke 18:19) and Scripture (Romans 3:10-12) remind us that no one but God is truly good, from a human point of view, we can rightly judge that some people are closer to representing God’s goodness with their lives than others. It bothers us when we see those whose lives reflect God’s goodness to those around them suffer. This question is not a new one that people ask or struggle with; after all, the oldest book in our Bible, as far as when written (not in content), is concerned with this same upsetting question. The man, Job, whose book bears his name, is described to Satan by God Himself as being,
Job 1:8
“… the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”
Yet, it is this man that God describes in such a way to Satan that experiences significant loss and suffering in the coming pages that describe the events of his life. In every aspect, Job is what anyone would consider the epitome of a good man (Job 1:1). As we quickly make our way through this critical and profound book of our Scriptures and focus on suffering and faith, it is essential to realize that as far as we know, Job is never informed about the why behind his suffering like we are today because of our access to the heavenly events found in Job 1 and 2. We understand that God is allowing Job to suffer to prove to Satan that people worship Him and are faithful to Him because of Who He is and not because of what He has given them (Job 1:9-12), but God never discloses this truth to Job in any of the book’s 42 chapters.
The sun rose like it did every morning, with the warm glow spreading over the landscape again. Job arose from his sleep, feeling the warmth of the morning’s rays, and blessed God for life and a new day. Knowing that his children were feasting once again, he prepared and offered his usual sacrifice on their behalf. The day was off to its usual start; his family was well and together, his servants were busy, diligently caring for his herds and interests, and he and his wife were enjoying the security and all the benefits that came with it when things began to come unraveled. Within minutes, four of Job’s servants reported devasting news to him, informing him that he had lost his livestock, thus much of his wealth, servants, and even his sons and daughters through the sinful actions of others and natural disasters. After receiving the crushing news of losing his children, we see Job react with the following actions and words,
Job 1:20-22
Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. 21 He said,
“I came naked from my mother’s womb,
and I will be naked when I leave.
The Lord gave me what I had,
and the Lord has taken it away.
Praise the name of the Lord!”
22 In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.
While grieving and in crisis, Job presents a significant challenge to God’s people when initially faced with pain, suffering, and loss. Though broken and lamenting, he praises God in both His giving and taking. Job’s words and heart were no doubt proof for God to Satan that Job worshipped God for who He was and not what He had blessed Job with during his lifetime. God still calls Satan’s attention to Job in chapter 2 by describing him as a blameless man and one of complete integrity (2:3). Being driven by his pride and hatred of the Almighty, Satan once again shows his disdain and devaluing of his Creator by suggesting that if God allowed Job’s health to fail, his faith in Yahweh would fail too. God permits Satan to take away Job’s health but not take his life. Once Satan left God’s presence, he struck Job’s body with boils from head to foot.
After Job’s body has been oozing puss for who knows how long, we see a loving wife who has painfully watched the man she loves and shared her life with suffer up to the point that she could bear seeing him in pain any longer. No doubt, her mind had restlessly tried to understand how her godly husband was suffering like he was, why her children had died, and why their financial security had eroded. Mentally depleted, confused, and probably angry, she encouraged Job to curse God and die. Many of us have experienced such tension. We have seen people we love suffer and fight to hang on, and seeing them suffer was much more painful than to see than them letting go and seeing their Heavenly Father, knowing that God has promised that we will see them again. How did Job respond to his wife’s desperate plea?
Job 2:10
But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.
While Job didn’t understand why he was suffering and why his life had been turned upside down, he gave us the first thing we must remember so that our trust remains in the Lord, even in dark and painful times. Job stated that both good and bad things come from God’s hand. Again, while Job had no idea that he was God’s proof to Satan that His people loved and served Him because of who He is and not what He does or does not do on their behalf, he knew that for anything to affect him in any way, it had to pass through His God’s righteous and sovereign hands. These same hands that allowed both the good and bad of life to affect him were the same hands that held him securely in love and would see him through his suffering, even if his sickness led to his passing.
Job 19:25-27
“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
and he will stand upon the earth at last.
26 And after my body has decayed,
yet in my body I will see God!
27 I will see him for myself.
Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
I am overwhelmed at the thought!
From the very first written words of God’s Word, we see some wonderful truths about our God and our future! We know that we have a God who redeems sinners. He has paid the ransom for us with His Son’s blood, paying our sin debt. We see that our Redeemer will stand upon the earth (Zechariah 14:4; Acts 1:11) and that we will experience a future bodily resurrection (Daniel 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:12-58). We, with Job, will see God with our own eyes and live with Him forever on the new earth where all of this life’s suffering will have vanished (Revelation 21:1-5) and even seem insignificant to us then (Romans 8:18)! Job knew that anything that he faced in his life was allowed into his life by this God and because of these truths about God and His work, Job could still praise and trust God even as a deserted bag of skin and bones (Job 19:13-20).
I am reminded of Jesus’ promise concerning those who belong to Him in John 10:28-29.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.
Once we turn from our sins to Jesus, we are firmly in His grip. These same hands that we are trusting to bring us into our heavenly home are the hands we must have faith in to lead, strengthen, and comfort us through our seasons of sickness, loss, and suffering. We know that because of His pure love for us as His child, whatever we are facing is for His glory, our transformation, and the benefit of others.
To remain faithful to God during seasons of suffering, we must remember that we remain in the faithful, loving hands of God even during our suffering.
At the end of chapter two, Job has three friends who come and share his grief. Job’s pain is so great that it causes his friends to sit speechless for seven days and nights. Job breaks the silence in chapter three, and then chapters 4 – 31 contain three cycles of dialogue between the three friends and Job, with each cycle becoming shorter and shorter. They, too, had tried to wrestle with the reason behind Job’s great pain. The only logical explanation they could think of for Job’s suffering was because of secret or unconfessed sin, and because God was righteous, He was punishing Job. They reasoned that if Job confessed his sin to God, God would relent and replace His divine discipline with divine blessings. If only the answer to avoiding suffering in this life was so simple, and while this cookie-cutter approach doesn’t answer our question for this week, it has long been a popular way to explain suffering, even in Jesus’ day (John 9:1-5).
Throughout the recorded conversations, Job doesn’t claim to be sinless, but he makes his case that any sins he has committed aren’t worthy of this type of judgment and pain. After the conversations between Job and the three friends that make up the bulk of the book, we see a fourth friend, Elihu, speak, beginning in chapter 32 and through chapter 37. These chapters present a theodicy (36:2), a man defending God and his character, here, Elihu, to Job and his friends. As Elihu speaks, he comments on the previous dialogues between Job and the other three men. He accuses Job of arrogance and defends God’s sinlessness (34:10), being just (35:14-15), all-powerful (37:5, 23), and wise (36:5).
As Elihu neared the end of his defense of God, Job and his friends felt the wind begin to pick up more and more until there was a whirlwind in their midst. It was in the middle of this storm that the LORD challenged Job. Throughout the book, Job maintains much of his faith and is relentless in pursuing God, believing that God will answer him (6:24). However, somewhere along the way, things start to change, and Job puts God on trial. Job questioned whether or not God was innocent of sin. Job steps over the line when willing to put God’s righteousness on trial to maintain his innocence (Job 38:2, 40:8). Now that God has everyone’s attention, He challenges Job from the storm He has spun into existence.
Job 38-42 are some of my favorite chapters to read in the Bible, but they are also at the top of the list of chapters that I wouldn’t have wanted to experience personally. Throughout chapters 38-41, God floods Job with many rhetorical questions to illustrate His incomparable wisdom and power. These questions and theophany of the LORD led Job to repent of questioning God’s wisdom and character and to accept his current state of being with humbleness and confident faith (Job 42:1-6).
After Job prayed for his friends, God restored to Job a double portion of his possessions he had before his trial began (42:10). Job lived a long life and enjoyed seeing four generations of his children and grandchildren (42:16-17).
I have two final thoughts for remaining faithful to God and hopeful during times of trial and suffering from the second half summary of the book of Job. First, it is alright for us to bring our questions to God about our current suffering or trial and seek His face and help. God is big enough and welcomes our questions about the why behind what is transpiring in our lives or of the lives closest to us (Psalm 42:9). God may not explain the why to us in the same way that He chose not to reveal the heavenly events that led to Job’s loss and suffering but He does invite us to bring everything to Him in prayer (Psalm 55:22; Philippians 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:7). We experience suffering due to the results of our sin, the sins of others, of living in a fallen world, persecution because of our faith in Jesus, because we have an enemy who wants to kill, steal, and destroy, and for reasons that may remain unknown, like in the case of Job. But, we, too, step over the line in questioning if we, like Job, stop seeking God for wisdom and any insight He is willing to give us about our situation and instead start questioning God’s character for our current suffering.
Suppose we follow Job’s example of faithfully calling out to God, being willing to respond to His expected answer (Job 6:24). In that case, we will do well, for we see that David called out to the LORD when Saul was pursuing him, and God heard his prayer, rescued him from his enemies, thus delivering him from his time of suffering.
Psalm 18:6
But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears.
To remain faithful to God during our times of distress, we must faithfully cry out to our faithful God for help.
We may experience God’s help in His healing of a sickness, deliverance from the consequences of someone else’s sin, or His helping us to become more like Jesus through our suffering, thus changing our perspective on our current situation and allowing us to experience joy and freedom even amid continued suffering. He may answer our call of trouble the way we prefer, or God may allow our suffering or that of one we care deeply about to run its course. If this is how God chooses to answer our call for help, we can trust Him even though we can’t make sense of His choosing this way. Yet we can still call on Him for comfort, peace, and acceptance of His will as we move forward. Finally, suppose we are suffering because of our sin and its consequences and the weight of God’s discipline as His child. In that case, we can repent and begin to experience God’s restoring work in the areas of life affected by our rebellion. We might even simply find ourselves sensing that we are in danger of becoming bitter against God for our current plight, and so we may just pray that God would help us to remain faithful to Him as we go through the painful and confusing season of suffering.
Lastly, God is faithful to use our suffering to reveal more of Himself to us and others around us!
Job 42:5
I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
Though Job stumbled through his season of suffering as it went on, God used every part of Job’s suffering – his responses, emotions, words, and conversations with his friends, to reveal Himself more deeply to His child. Job admitted that he had only heard of the Almighty, but now he had seen Him for himself. This encounter with God wouldn’t have been possible without Job’s trying season. Job’s friends also experienced God’s presence and power in a way that they wouldn’t have had the chance to share without their friend’s desperate situation. God will use suffering in this world to help us see that something is broken in the world and us and show us our need for Job’s Redeeming God, and thus get to experience Him as Redeemer, Delivier, and Savior when someone puts their trust in Jesus. God will use our grief to experience Him as our comforter; if we didn’t experience grief, we couldn’t experience the comfort of the Holy Spirit. We can’t experience God as our healer without sickness. There are some levels in our relationship with God that we can never reach without us allowing Him to minister to us and reveal Himself to us during our times of suffering. I encourage you to faithfully seek the LORD during times of suffering so that you (and I) can experience God deeper than we ever could have experienced and know Him without our experienced suffering.
God is faithful to reveal more of Himself to us if we are faithful to seek Him, even wrestle with Him, during our suffering.
Is there a way that we can be praying for you? If so, please email me your request at Thomas@cornerstonego.com.
If you’ve ever wondered why life is so hard, watch this incredible short film.
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