We have come to our third and final installment on why God allows pain and suffering (P&S) among the righteous. There is no way to adequately address this complex and controversial issue in a span of ninety minutes. If I had a thousand days I couldn’t adequately resolve the matter of P&S to everyone’s satisfaction much less my own! The cause for our calamities is even more puzzling when sin is not the reason for the pain.
Strange as this may sound, the solution to why the righteous suffer revolves more around our attitude than a specific answer which may explain the silence of God on this subject. In other words attitude gives us an answer without God ever having to say anything! This parallels precisely with Job 13:15a)! I know it sounds crazy but read on to the end.
Strange as this may sound, the solution to why the righteous suffer revolves more around our attitude than a specific answer which may explain the silence of God on this subject. In other words attitude gives us an answer without God ever having to say anything! This parallels precisely with Job 13:15a)! I know it sounds crazy but read on to the end.
My only objective here is to draw some principles from the suffering of Job in coping with our own P&S in a way that keeps our relationship with God healthy. Some of these principles are difficult and challenging. It's not going to be easy, but people of faith since the time of Adam to the present have coped with their P&S, striking a balance between suffering and worship that brought glory and honor to our LORD. It can be so in our lives when we wisely choose to worship God rather than demand “Why me, O Lord?” The former makes us better and the latter turns us bitter.
Regardless of our age, if the Lord doesn’t return before our demise, we could still be facing some of the greatest challenges of our lives up ahead. This lesson is to help us in our love walk to ready ourselves for such an event as well as enable us to navigate through the storms of life on a course that is pleasing and honorable to God in the present tense rather than shaking our fist at Him. This is what we hope to avoid at all cost here.
The fast paced narrative of Job 1-2 downshifts to a school zone speed from chapter 3 to its conclusion in chapter 42. Following Job’s lamentation in chapter 3, a contest of wills and words begin with three rounds of debates:
Round 1: chapters 4 – 14
Eliphaz (Job 4:1-5:27) vs. Job (Job 6:1-7:21)
Bidad (Job 8:1-23) vs. Job (Job 9:1-10:22)
Zophar (Job 11:1-20) vs. Job (Job 12:1-14:22)
Round 2: chapters 15 – 21
Eliphaz (Job 15:1-35) vs. Job (Job 16:1-17:16)
Bildad (Job 18:1-21) vs. Job (Job 19:1-29)
Zophar (Job 20:1-29) vs. Job (Job 21:1-34)
Round 3: chapters 22 – 31
Eliphaz (Job 22:1-30) vs. Job (Job 23:1-24:25)
Bildad (Job 25:1-6) vs. Job (Job 26:1-31:40)
Elihu weighs in: chapters 32 – 37
Dialogue between God and Job: Job 38:1– 2:6
God (Job 38:1-40:2)
Job (Job 40:3-5)
God (Job 40:6–41:34)
Job (Job 42:1-6)
Epilogue: Job 42:7-17
A. Job’s friends in trouble (Job 42:7-9)
B. Job’s two-fold restoration (Job 42:10-17).
I am not going to unlock any mysteries this morning about why God allows pain and suffering (P&S) among the righteous. There are no new answers for 21st century believers, only ancient ones. So why do we as believers still struggle with P&S if we claim to be a people of faith? We believe the Good Book, but it doesn’t give specific answers to the innumerable situations involving P&S. Why does P&S cause a divergent reaction among good Christian people to either curse God for their calamities or to count it (P&S) all joy (Jas 1:2) or stated another way, a “Why me, Lord” (why-ship) or worship?
Here is the premise concerning P&S. Only those believers with spiritual integrity will bless God in trials and tribulations, counting it all joy rather than cursing God. What is spiritual integrity? In light of the NT, we can say that spiritual integrity is Christ-likeness; Christ-likeness is spiritual integrity. If Job had not possessed spiritual integrity, he would have proven Satan right - man only blesses God because God is good to them. If God would allow something bad to happen, man will curse God to His face.
After losing all of his children to a tornado and all of his livestock and many of his servants either to robbers or lightning or both, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong (Job 1:22). Read what God said about it in Job 2:3,
And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason." (emphasis mine)
What makes this spiritual integrity of Job similar to what we would consider Christ-like behavior in the NT is Yahweh’s description of Job – that there is none like him on the earth. In what way? He is blameless, upright, fears God, and turns away from evil.
God didn’t consider him unique because of the superlative statement about Job’s wealth (a worldly standard) – this man was the greatest of all the people of the east (Job 1:3). Rather, what made Job one of a kind was his spiritual integrity – that there is none like him on the earth. This was what made Job special, not his net worth but his spiritual integrity. His metal was an alloy comprised of blameless, upright, godly fear, and purity. These four elements are mentioned 3 times in the first two chapters of Job (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). Repetition is one of those things God employs for emphasis to catch our attention.
Still holds fast indicates that Job’s grip was strong and unwilling to let go of his integrity even under radical conditions. And a man with such a spiritual grip will not curse God. Let’s quickly review these four elements of spiritual integrity which is so vital in having a right attitude in affliction.
Again integrity, the noun relative to blameless, occurs 4 of the 5 times in the OT in Job (Job 2:3, 9; 27:5; 31:6 meaning innocence). Outside of Job it appears in Proverbs 11:3. This is a very practical verse on integrity, and we will pay it a visit shortly.
If you recall from part one in this series that the word integrity here is a cousin of the word blameless. Let’s talk about the alloy of spiritual integrity.
(1) Blameless occurs 13 times in the OT, 7 of those times it is found in the book of Job (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3; 8:20; 9:20-22 meaning complete, morally whole). It is translated perfect integrity (HCSB). It refers to perfect, full, or whole integrity. Sin is vertical; blameless is horizontal (Guzik). Job had 360 degree integrity. In other words, no one could point to any area of his life and accuse him of hypocrisy though that is exactly what his friends attempted to do and failed. When it was all said and done, he was innocent (possessed spiritual integrity). But he had to put up with that non-sense from his self-righteous “friends” while under great emotional and physical stress. It was amazing Job could remain coherent under such great pressure. Job was blameless but not flawless; he was morally strong but possessed a sin nature.
(2) Upright (Heb, yasar, H3477) meaning straight, just, right. Job did not deviate from God’s standards; he was devoted and obedient to the straight and narrow. Prov 3:6, ESV, In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight (yasar) your paths.
(3) Feared God (fear, Heb, yare, H3373) to be afraid, stand in awe, fear (Vine). Yare is a recognition and reverence of the power and position of God and submission to that authority. More than psychological fear, yare responds positively to the awesome majesty of God. Fearing God is wise; The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding (Prov 9:10).
(4) Shunned evil (Heb, sur, H5493) turning away from evil (NASB), resisted, rejected, avoided, kept far away from ungodly things. Simply put, evil is not a creation but a choice to disobey God.
This sums up Job’s spiritual integrity that enabled him along with the Lord’s help to go through the fire successfully; he passed the tests. Except for the humanity of Christ, Job probably suffered more than any man ever will. What got him through the adversity was his spiritual integrity. He refused to loosen his grip on his spiritual integrity (cf. Job 2:3). His spiritual integrity did not develop overnight. He prepared for the reality that man is not going to go through life untouched (cf. Job 1:9-11; 2:10). Somewhere down the line God is going to test him by allowing Satan to break through the hedge. Preparation for disaster was not Job’s sole reason for his spiritual integrity; his love for Yahweh was primary; his preparation was secondary.
Principle #1 (Job 1:1): Spiritual integrity is preparation for the inevitable – P&S.
A man of Job’s spiritual caliber is motivated by a love for the person of God and not what he can get from Him. His spiritual integrity weathered the storm gives proof to his love for God; his refusal to release his grip on that which is the most important thing in his possession – his personal relationship with God (cf. Job 2:3).
Everything must pale in comparison. This is the right spiritual priority to love God with all our being (Deut 6:5). Those who prepare, though caught off guard, are not driven to charge God with wrongdoing and demand that He give us an answer. Look at Proverbs 11:3, the same word translated integrity in Job.
The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.
It has been said by some commentator, “When integrity is a way of life, it guides like a shepherd.” This is crucial when trying to navigate through the storm (cf. Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:11; 2 Tim 3:16-17). The lack of spiritual integrity is what causes so many believers to run aground on the shoals of charging God with wrong doing by deliberately neglecting to follow the Guide Book, the moral compass, the road map through life. Failure to grow in grace is not only a love problem but a foolish neglect to prepare for spiritual warfare (cf. Eph 6:11-17; 2 Cor 10:4).
Principle #2 (Job 1:12; 2:6): Spiritual integrity does not immune from P&S.
Is it possible there is a lack of an honest and realistic appraisal and appreciation of what Christ-likeness entails today? Christ-likeness is more than going to church, giving, singing, praying, worshipping, lifting our hearts and hands in praise and adoration, loving the Lord, loving the brethren, fellowshipping, loving the lost, reading and memorizing Scripture, renewing our mind, witnessing, being a godly testimony to others, walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, reflecting the fruit of the Spirit, and growing in grace in the knowledge of Christ. All of this is part of Christ-likeness!
But there is something centrally missing in our American evangelical mindset on Christ-likeness; it is an abrasive word, and one we do not like to think about because it conjures up so much negative imagery.
It is the word suffering. There are all kinds of suffering: suffering due to sin, suffering due to illness, suffering due to an accident, suffering due to persecution, and endless variations thereof. Add to this mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial strains; my, we got a basket case in the making.
We are not like the lost in that regard. But what makes our suffering as followers of Christ unique among the vast ocean of lost humanity is that our suffering as believers is for the glory of God; their suffering is not. One of the things we have learned about the suffering of Job that is of an absolute certainty; nothing touches our lives without God’s approval, absolutely nothing.
Nothing about Job’s suffering was good, only what came out of it. There is a Divine purpose behind all suffering in the life of a believer (Rom 8:28; cf. Jas 5:11). With that singular truth we deduce that God allows P&S to touch the righteous (cf. Jn 10:28-29; Rom 8:35-39). But we can become so fixated on that deduction (that God allows P&S to touch the righteous) that under crushing circumstances we can sin against God and curse Him in our hearts, if we are not careful. This is possible because we carry that potential in our sin nature. The modern and cultural mindset that excludes suffering in their thinking as a part of Christ-likeness views God as only giving and never taking. How could He be a loving God otherwise?
With that let me say as a matter of course, such thinking is not supported in Scripture. Read what Jesus says about being His follower.
Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross (our identity with Him) daily, and follow Me (Lk 9:23).
Let’s see this gem of truth in the light of a couple of other translations than the NKJV.
Then he spoke to them all. "If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me. (JB Phillips’ NT Translation)
He said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross day after day, and so follow me. (James Moffatt’s NT translation)
And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also]. (Amplified Bible)
And He was saying to all, Assuming that anyone desires to come after me as a follower of mine, let him disregard his own interests, and let him at once and once for all pick up and carry his cross day after day, and let him take the same road with me that I take as a habit of life. (Wuest’s NT translation)
He said unto all. “Take up your own cross daily but keep on following Me.” (free translation)
Undoubtedly, the footprints of Jesus were suffering steps. Read what Peter has to say.
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps (1 Pet 2:21).
Here comes the reality part of pursuing Christ-likeness coming from Jesus.
Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant (literally a slave) is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you (Jn 15:20b).
This should help to correct any misunderstanding; suffering is a part of Christ-likeness; it’s all the things we said beforehand, but it includes suffering in many different shades and colors. I linger on this because one of the principles in the Christian walk (or cross walk) is the expectancy factor of suffering as a believer. There is no way to get around it if we are obedient to Christ.
This is one of the reasons we are shocked when something bad happens to us because suffering is not part of the Christ-like equation in our neck of the woods thinking. We cannot serve Christ and desire to be like Him without suffering in some way for it. No suffering for Christ is indicative of a failure to take up our cross daily – If they persecuted Me, they will (emphasis mine) also persecute you! Obviously, persecution is not limited to imprisonment, torture, or death. Look, if P&S happened to Job, Christ, and Paul, it has and is going to happen to every believer who claims the name of Christ.
We will see shortly from Job’s response to his wife who begged him to curse God and die (Job 2:9) that the word adversity in Job 2:10 is alien to our way of thinking on spiritual integrity, and why we must embrace his statement in Job 2:10 as mirroring Christ-likeness. In light of the NT, we can say that spiritual integrity is Christ-likeness; Christ-likeness is spiritual integrity. Christ-likeness encompasses the aforementioned, plus – suffering! Christ-likeness does not immune a believer from testing, pain and suffering. Let’s not forget this important element because it ties in with the great spiritual conflict at hand which brings us back to P&S.
Let’s look at the response of Job to His attacks (Job 1:20-22).
Attacks 1-4:
Attack #1 (Job 1:13-15): The Sabeans stole 500 oxen and 500 female donkeys and killed the servants overseeing them (cf. Job 1:3).
Attack #2 (Job 1:16): Lightning killed 7,000 sheep and the servants tending the flocks (cf. Job 1:3).
Attack #3 (Job 1:17): The Chaldeans stole 3,000 camels, killing their caretakers (cf. Job 1:3).
Attack #4 (Job 1:18-19): A great wind collapsed a house where all ten of Job’s children were inside. There were no survivors (Job 1:2).
Principle #3 (Job 1:20): Spiritual integrity under fire results in worship of the LORD, not demanding an answer from Him, “Why me, Lord?”
Evidence of his spiritual integrity was that even under dire circumstances; it did not interfere or prevent his acknowledging and reverencing Yahweh. He did not know the why of it, but he knew God was involved (we will see this in his response to his wife). He humbled himself (fell to the ground) and worshiped the LORD.
Before disaster, like Daniel, or after disaster, like Job, spiritual integrity weathers the storm. It maintains its perspective and acknowledges the sovereignty and majesty of God. Spiritual integrity under fire results in faith in God, not fighting with God, submission not resistance. It's easier to worship God on a mountain top than in a valley.
Principle #4 (Job 1:21a-b): Spiritual integrity under fire recognizes God’s sovereign right to do as He please over everything or everyone we hold dear. Compare Job 41:11.
Principle #5 (Job 1:21c): Spiritual integrity under fire does not curse God because of P&S.
Principle #6 (Job 1:22): Spiritual integrity under fire does not sin or charge God with wrong.
Attacks 5-7:
Attack # (Job 2:7-8): Satan afflicts Job’s skin with painful, festering boils.
Attack #6 (Job 2:9): Job’s wife cries out for Job to curse God and die.
Principle #7 (Job 2:10): Nothing touches our lives without Divine approval.
This verse reveals our problem with P&S. We think God should act a certain way. When God acts contrary to our way of thinking, we have a tendency to question God’s goodness and love, attacking His character out of our most vulnerable moment. Our thinking is actually irrational and illogical being finite creatures. We are challenging the sovereignty of God and his right of sovereignty over His creation and ignoring the fact that a spiritual warfare is in progress. There is more going on than just our suffering or loss.
Please don't take this as clinical, sterile, and insensitive, but questioning the character of God is being self-centered (expecting only good things to happen to us) and short-sighted (we will never know this side of eternity what is at stake with our P&S). God never said all things were good after the fall of man.
Due to His sovereignty, beloved, all things work together for good, for His glory (Rom 8:28). The loss of Job’s children and servants were not good; it was devastating. The very silence of God in our P&S can exude a powerful pressure in and of itself. We want answers, not tomorrow but now!
Job 36:22, TEV Remember how great is God's power; he is the greatest teacher of all.
Job 36:23, TEV No one can tell God what to do or accuse him of doing evil.
Nonetheless, there is no excuse to charge God with wrong doing. God by His very nature is incapable of wrong doing. Believe this or not, God loves us. We saw this love demonstrated on the cross. Let's talk reality here.
If we only received the good things of God, it would not result in Christ-likeness, spiritual integrity, but spoiled brats, an addiction to self-entitlement. In our P&S Christ is there, He's always there for us, always in the good times and the not so good times. The cross is our spiritual gyroscope to keep our thinking level in personal crisis (Rom 5:8). Amidst the good and the adversity is God’s presence.
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written: "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG; WE ARE ACCOUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER."
Rom 8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Heb 13:5 “I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.”
Spiritual integrity whether in peaceful conditions or under fire accepts or receives the good and the adversity. This was the day that Job dreaded would come. Job’s hedge had become hinged. We are reminded by this that we are in a great spiritual conflict that has been raging globally since the fall of man. There is no place of safety apart from the Lord. We have no clue what goes on behind the scene. We are fortunate that God has given us a glimpse into the spiritual realm in Job's crisis. What happened to him; happens to all believers; Satan is always accusing a believer about something before the LORD.
It is unrealistic for a man or woman to go into battle, and not expect the potential of injury or death in service to their country. As born again believers, we don’t have to go anywhere, we are smack dab in the middle of a spiritual conflict right where we are located! Pain and suffering are part of the conflict even though we may not realize it. It is unhealthy and foolish for us as believers to expect we can be at peace all of our lives and go unscathed in the spiritual warfare that is going on all around us. Being blessed of God is going to attract the attention of demons! Peace never means the absence of conflict on this side of eternity. In John 16:33 Jesus spoke to His disciples.
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Principle #8 (Job 2:10c): Without spiritual integrity we cannot come out of the testing victorious.
In all of this Job did not sin with his lips. Satan was wrong about his observations and Job never cursed God. What made the difference? Job’s spiritual integrity. He clung to it and refused to let it go even under crushing circumstances.
God promised never to leave us or forsake us in times of good and in times of adversity (P&S)(Heb 13:5). Job realized this for he recognized this was happening because God allowed for it to happen - Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?
Job is not suggesting here that God incited the marauders, used the natural elements, or inflicted him with boils, but he recognized God’s involvement because God allowed for Satan to reach him. Job lived probably 2,000 years before Romans 8:28 was written, but he understood its principle (Job 42:2; cf. Jas 5:11). There is a purpose behind all good and bad.
Attack #7: Job’s friends came to visit, mourn, and comfort him but ended up accusing him of sin in his life and hypocrisy.
Principle #9 (Job 2:11-13; 4:1ff): Suffering is not always the result of sin.
The theological thinking of Job’s friends was incorrect. In their mind such catastrophic circumstances could only result from personal sin. We see this in the classic passage in John chapter 9 of the man born blind. Jesus’ disciples saw this blind man and ask Him a question.
Jn 9:2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jn 9:3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
Rom 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Unfortunately, people still think like that today. In all of these attacks, Job never blamed God. Reflect on all that happened to Job. He could have easily cried out, “Where is the love of God in all of this?” Rather he humbled himself and blessed God. It is crystal clear that Job was not suffering because of sin as his friends erroneously believed (Job 1:22; 2:10). But his P&S was for a greater purpose (cf. Rom 15:4) to bring glory to God, and 4,000 years later it is still bringing glory to God!
Principle #10 (Job 3:11-12, 16, 20-22): We may never know the reason for our P&S this side of eternity.
According to the biblical record, there is no indication Job ever found out the reason for all of his pain and suffering. The questioning in chapter 3 were legitimate and not disrespectful. When we demand an answer from God is when we cross the line. According to Don Piper in his book 90 Minutes in Heaven, though used greatly of God around the world, he really doesn’t know why he got ran over by a tractor trailer rig. Like Job, we probably never will on this side of eternity.
The last principle relating to Job is this.
Principle #11 (Job 13:15a): the only acceptable response to P&S is trust.
Job 13:15a Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
This is one of the greatest passages in all of Scripture of the loyalty and love toward God. This is spiritual integrity, folks. Remember, Job was blameless but not flawless. He had some issues (cf. Job 42:2-6). Below is Today’s English Version of this passage.
(2) I know, LORD, that you are all-powerful; that you can do everything you want. (3) You ask how I dare question your wisdom when I am so very ignorant. I talked about things I did not understand, about marvels too great for me to know. (4) You told me to listen while you spoke and to try to answer your questions. (5) In the past I knew only what others had told me, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. (6) So I am ashamed of all I have said and repent in dust and ashes.
Even though Job was stripped of everything, he never sinned against God. His attitude in affliction brought glory to God.
Remember the chorus of the old hymnal – Trust and Obey.
Trust and obey,
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.
The core value of spiritual integrity is trust. Job was blameless because he trusted God. Job was upright because He trusted God. Job feared God because he trusted God. Job avoided evil because he trusted God. God never violated Job’s trust in Him, and Job never violated his spiritual integrity. Job was willing to trust God even if it meant his own death (Job 13:15). Here is the metal of the man and which made him incomparable (there is none like him on the earth, Job 1:8). Job 13:15 says it all. Jesus described it beautifully in the Gospel of John,
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends (15:13).
If we release our grip on trust; it’s a love problem, and spiritual integrity crumbles. P&S will overrun our defenses.
By the way, did you figure out who the “we” refers to in the acronym W.H.Y. (We Have You)? It refers to our enemy, Satan and his demons. If ever we curse God in our trials rather than worship Him, Satan is victorious and we have volunteered to be had by the enemy.
Curse or count it all joy? Without spiritual integrity you will curse God (Satan was right about you) and charge Him with wrong doing and challenge His goodness. Only spiritual integrity will count it all joy to endure pain and suffering for Jesus who gave His life for us.
We must choose in our P&S to worship or why-ship, to trust and obey or distrust and disobey?
Below is a quick review of some of the principles found in Job.
Principle #1 (Job 1:1): Spiritual integrity is preparation for the inevitable – P&S.
Principle #2 (Job 1:12; 2:6): Spiritual integrity does not immune from P&S.
Principle #3 (Job 1:20): Spiritual integrity under fire results in worship of the LORD, not demanding an answer from Him, “Why me, Lord?”
Principle #4 (Job 1:21a-b): Spiritual integrity under fire recognizes God’s sovereign right to do as He please over everything or everyone we hold dear.
Principle #5 (Job 1:21c): Spiritual integrity under fire does not curse God
Principle #6 (Job 1:22): Spiritual integrity under fire does not sin or charge God with wrong.
Principle #7 (Job 2:10): Nothing touches our lives without Divine approval.
Principle #8 (Job 2:10c): Without spiritual integrity we cannot come out of the testing victorious.
Principle #9 (Job 2:11-13; 4:1ff): Suffering is not always the result of sin.
Principle #10 (Job 3:11-12, 16, 20-22): We may never know the reason for our P&S this side of eternity.
Principle #11 (Job 13:15a): the only acceptable response to P&S is trust.
Job never found out until he got to glory the reason behind this fateful time. Job never cursed God, but he did question God’s wisdom in the matter. He was guilty of thinking that God should act a certain way toward us. Asking God why (Job 3:11-12, 16, 20-22) is not wrong but demanding God to answer why was inappropriate (Job 13:22; 19:7; 31:15) because it challenges God’s sovereignty and questions His character. We’ve never done that, huh? But his thinking finally aligned with God’s way of thinking (Job 42:1-6).
It has to be tough when your friends are basically accusing you of killing your kids, losing all you had, and in poor health because of sin in your life. It had to be baffling as to the pain and suffering when in your heart you know you have spiritual integrity. He experienced intense agony, emotionally and physically, but never denied the LORD. His health returned and was doubly blessed. He was validated and rewarded for his spiritual integrity. The visible scars may still be on his body, but there are 10 grave markers somewhere on Job’s property. Then there are the non-visible scars. Both he would carry to his grave.
Why do the righteous suffer? Maybe we should complain why the righteous don’t always suffer? There is no satisfactory answer this side of eternity, humanly speaking. But I am lead to believe, and I say this with all humility knowing full well I have not been tested like Job, that if God has provided sufficient revelation to live for Him, to glorify Him, to develop a Christ-like nature, then all that He has revealed to us about pain and suffering is sufficient in His mind.
Even if we spoke of things between the cracks, you know those areas where the Bible gives no specific answer, only principles to hint at an answer, God would say to us that His grace is sufficient (2 Cor 12:9). It’s all we need to know, and we have to learn to be satisfied with God’s silence at times, and trust Him for the answer in time or in eternity. With all the questionings of why, what makes us so confident the answer will satisfy us – “Oh, that is why?”…. or it may be that the answer is protracted, involving people in the future impacted by our P&S. For instance Don Piper still doesn’t know why he died and went to heaven and returned, but I believe the answer he seeks will be revealed in eternity. For now he is in 2 Corinthians 1:4 mode,
Who [the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, v3] comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Keep in mind that Job didn’t even have any inscripturated (written down) revelation in all of this! God expects all men to trust him. This is the great expectation of Scripture. And what is Scripture full of – adversity among men!
Like we suggested in Part I, it boils down to trust. We will trust in God no matter what or we won’t trust in God no matter what. The thing I have taken away from my study of Job is that without spiritual integrity I am unprepared to serve God and glorify Him in all that I do. How revealing is our spiritual health if we are able only to receive blessings from God and not adversity. Our thinking would be lopsided and out of balance with the spiritual realities of the faith.
Well, Job lived 140 years after his ordeal. How old was Job during his P&S? Some say that he was 70, making him 210. This is based on inductive reasoning. Job was doubly blessed (Job 42:10); Job lived 140 years after his testing (Job 42:16); so he was 70 at the time of testing; nobody knows for sure. He died full of days (Job 42:17).
Beloved, all we can do with P&S is to trust God, worship Him, and rely on His character under every circumstance of life. God could easily give us an answer, but He won't. If he decides to reveal the reason in eternity, it is a matter of grace, not of debt. Our God owes us no explanation to any one. I AM is sufficient. God in His infinite wisdom places the emphasis in our P&S on attitude rather than an answer. God's grace is sufficient in the silence. Satan, on the other hand, wants us to disrespect God and press for an answer because he is always trying to convince us to question the character of God --
"Look at the circumstances; don't look at Christ! Look at the circumstances; don't turn to the Bible and prayer!Ask why don't worship! Curse God; don't bless God! God is arrogant, unsympathetic, and jerking you around, and He won't even give you the decency of a reply! No, a God of love wouldn't treat you this way!"
I am convinced that only those believers with spiritual integrity will bless God under fire, counting it all joy rather than cursing God. Why, because they trust Him; they trust Him; they trust Him; they trust... Him.
Consider the words of the Apostle Paul who was well acquainted with suffering (2 Cor 11:23-27).
Consider the words of the Apostle Paul who was well acquainted with suffering (2 Cor 11:23-27).
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Cor 4:17). Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thess 5:18, ESV). Blessed be the name of the LORD.
Oh, I would like to say one more thing about the 10 graves on Job's property while he was still alive on earth. Right now as we speak, Job has 14 boys and 6 girls with him in heaven, not to mention Mrs. Job. I bet none of them are mad at God because the hedge was hinged.... <><
