Lessons from the Suffering of Job

One of the most challenging things to understand is God’s delayed justice. Why does he allow wicked people to seemingly thrive, and righteous people to endure suffering, sometimes at their hands? This is a difficult question to answer, and in fact, is often unanswerable.

The good news is, as is often the case, the Bible gives us some comfort in the story of Job. Job is a guy a lot of us would like to emulate. The Bible calls him “blameless” and full of “complete integrity.” He is righteous, so much so, God, like any proud Father, dotes on Job to the Accuser himself. “Have you noticed my servant, Job?” God says to the devil. I doubt many of us would use the same adjectives to describe our own lives as God uses to describe Job. Many of us have just made too many mistakes, hurt too many people, and fallen short of God’s glory too many times. At least by our account. But thank God for the blood of Jesus which washes away all our sin and puts us in right standing with God! While this is true and brings great comfort, it is not the point of this post.

God delivers Job to the Accuser to test his faith, resilience, and integrity. Job loses everything he has, including his health. He has some pretty bad friends who egg him on to “curse God and die,” but Job refuses. Even his own wife chimes in a time or two. Job does question God’s decisions in his life, and his faith wavers trying to explain why this may have happened, but he never crosses the line, and only speaks accurately about God.

His faith wavers. It doesn’t break.

After 37 chapters of Job’s lament, the bad advice of his friends, and a lot of back and forth, God finally responds. He responds, not with the answers Job is really seeking, but with a demonstration of His majesty, power, might, and sufficiency. Chapter 40, in recent days, has been a strength to my life, and I wanted to share it with you, especially if you have been waiting for God’s justice, or to receive answers to things you’re facing you just don’t understand.

God’s answer to Job is simple:

1. “Will you discredit my justice and condemn me just to prove you are right?”

God gets blamed for a lot of stuff. We blame God, we get frustrated with God, and sometimes we even give God ultimatums. But God’s justice is righteous. He doesn’t want anyone to perish, so He is far more patient in our and other’s situations than we would be. This is actually really good news for all of us! God acknowledges here Job’s concerns may be justified. He really doesn’t deserve what’s happening to Him, yet God’s justice and purposes outweigh Job’s need to be right.

2. “Are you as strong as God? Can you thunder with a voice like His?”

Another shot at just how majestic and powerful God is. Literally nothing is stronger or greater than God, and EVERYTHING in the whole universe cowers at His voice. The nature of humanity is finite. Our strength, justice, and authority will never surpass His. Maintaining this perspective is paramount in seasons of uncertainty.

3. “All right, put on your glory and splendor, your honor and majesty. Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. Humiliate the proud with a glance; walk on the wicked where they stand. Bury them in the dust. Imprison them in the world of the dead.”

This is kind of funny when you just read it. God is showing a bit of sarcasm and humor here. He’s pointing out no matter what we may want to do, or the justice we think we want to see, His is greater and more complete. We have no glory to put on but His. We have no honor or majesty or splendor but that which God bestows. He’s the only one who can deal with the proud and the wicked. No human justice will ever surpass His ultimate justice. This is important to remember both for those who unrighteously do harm to us or those we love, as well as when we have harmed others, albeit unintentionally. God’s justice will ultimately come to pass, in this life AND in the one to come. Wicked

people will indeed receive justice from God. That will not be a great day for them, and we will grieve their judgment along with all of Heaven. We must watch our own step, keep our eyes on eternity, and wait for the Lord.

4. “Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you.”

Finally, and I think this is a powerful truth: Do we want our strength to save us, or His? Our strength is weakness to God. Our wisdom foolishness to God. I want justice. I want God to take care of me, defend me, fight for me, etc. But I can’t, and truly do not want, to save myself. I want Him to do it. I want His strength to save me. His saving will be far more complete, eternal, and full of His great care. But this requires me to accept His saving will not come as expected – in style or time. I have to find a way to be OK with that.

So, I will wait for God, and you should too. Even if justice doesn’t come for us in this life. Job was fully restored, but scarred, I’m sure. His body bore the remnants of the physical tole disease had ravaged. The hole in his heart from his lost children likely never went away. The time spent in grief and pain most likely left emotional residue. That’s the human tole of wickedness and waiting for God’s justice. But Heaven will dry every tear, heal every wound, and finalize the justice of God. Even Paul acknowledged these scars in Galatians 6, saying, “I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus Christ.” Scars, then, are part of being a disciple. Suffering is the natural way of a disciple.

Job says to God in Job 42, “I know you can do anything and no one can stop you….I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me….I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”

A couple observations for us:

• Job gained an understanding of the power, majesty, and greatness of God through suffering which can be gained no other way.

• Job realized he does not have the capacity to understand the ways of God. He needs to trust the Lord and allow God’s ways and purposes to prevail, even, no especially, when he didn’t understand.

• Job received a fresh revelation of God through suffering. He knew God more intimately. He grew in his faith in God’s provision. He understood his human thoughts could never match God’s.

• Job chose humility. Ultimately, this is what brought restoration to Job’s life and God’s justice in the end. Humility is much more powerful than glory.

So, Job repented of his words, said in pain, fear, and confusion. But he repented and made it right. Worth noting is the blessings of God which accompanied Job in the second half of his life. This indicates, even for us, suffering is not without purpose, and even reward. Job’s words about God were never untrue. God confirms this in Job 42:7-8. We can be right about a situation, but still miss the work God is trying to do. Job, though, got a lot more than riches and more children, in the end. He gained an eternal inheritance which can never “perish, spoil, or fade” (1 Peter 1:4). How we suffer, when we suffer, is deterministic for us, too.

Wait for God.

Trust He actually knows what He’s doing. He does, by the way.

Put on a little humility.

Look for fresh revelation.

Be restored. Likely with scars. But restored nonetheless.