The Old Testament Book of Job is undeniably one of the most philosophical pieces of literature ever written. Although it often seems out of place, it is a powerful reminder that the Holy Bible is anything but tame.
Technically, it is a lyrical poem that concentrates on the central theme of human suffering, which takes center stage in Job's story.
I will reiterate that there are no easy answers to the issue of suffering. If there were, this article would be much shorter. The Book of Job tackles the problem of suffering with unparalleled depth and intelligence and reminds us of God's mysterious power. Let's dive in.
THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN GOD & SATAN
The story of Job begins with a dialogue between God and Satan. One day, Satan tells God that He has been roaming the earth, going "To and fro and walking up and down upon it." Of course, this means that Satan has been doing his rounds on the earth, no doubt causing all manner of trouble.
God then inquires of Satan if he has "considered His servant Job, for there are none like him on all the earth." God describes how morally upright and blameless a man Job is because he worships and exalts God.
God looks upon Job favorably, blessing him with a beautiful family, tremendous wealth, and good health.
After praising Job and extolling his virtues, Satan suggests that Job's devotion to God is based on the blessings he receives rather than genuine love for the Lord. Satan argues that if Job were to lose his blessings, he would abandon his loyalty to God altogether.
So, God does something very interesting and allows Satan to cause misery in Job's life. It is hard to understand why God would do this. After all, no good parent would allow suffering for their children at the hands of an evil-doer, and yet we are to believe that a God who would allow this to happen is righteous, good, and loving.
It is important to understand that God is always in control. God and Satan are never equals (not by a long shot); God must allow Satan to wreak havoc in Job's life; otherwise, Satan is entirely powerless, but make no mistake, God's control is further evidenced by the conditions that He sets on Satan's ability to cause Job to suffer. Satan is allowed to do all but take Job's life.
SATAN IS ALLOWED TO AFFLICT JOB PHYSICALLY (JOB LOST EVERYTHING)
Satan makes quick work of Job by taking the lives of his children as well as his property and all that it produces. Job's wife curses and forsakes him, and to top things off, Satan even attacks Job's health.
In no time, Job goes from living a life filled with blessings to wishing he had never been born.
Job's friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar), men of faith in God, visit him to offer sympathy. However, when they see the sorrow that has befallen Job out of seemingly nowhere, they cannot believe that God would allow what has happened to Job for no reason other than to punish him for secret, unrepented sin. They accuse him left and right of whatever undisclosed wrongdoings he has "no doubt" committed.
THE DIALOGUE WITH JOB'S FRIENDS
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar cannot quite reconcile nor explain what is transpiring in Job's life and initiate a prolonged dialogue with him about how he must be deserving of everything that has happened to him because only good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.
Job's friends, now turned rivals, continue to speak at him and make assumptions about how God runs the world. They condemn Job and even proclaim that he deserves worse! Again, the three men are convinced that Job has done something vile to warrant such misery.
After extended discussions with his three rivals, Job is on the verge of complete despair and hurt because they continue to condemn him. Job then says that the "wicked prosper" and live both long and well despite turning away from God. Job grapples with trying to understand why God is punishing him.
Despite his questioning, Job believes that God must have a reason for allowing all of this and continues to hold onto his faith, vowing to maintain his integrity.
JOB SPIRALS & TRIES TO CURSE GOD
However, as the story continues, Job is wracked with grief and burdened by so much uncertainty. In his final appeal to God, Job asks many questions about his "supposed wrongdoings" and demands that God review his record. He challenges God to point to an instance of sin that would justify his present circumstances and asks Him to appear and provide an answer.
Job now accuses God of being unjust and incompetent at running the world. Job begins to curse God for what He has done to his life, complaining that God's ways are unjust and insufficient.
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar stop responding to Job because they see his questioning of God as a sign of complete self-righteousness and begin to view Job as a lost cause.
Suddenly, a younger man named Elihu arrives on the scene, full of anger. He rebukes the three men in addition to Job and draws some unique conclusions about why Job has been allowed to suffer so much.
Elihu starts by stating that God is just and thus operates the universe according to His justice; he then concludes that God may very well inflict suffering on people to serve as a lesson for others to follow to refrain from future sin or to use suffering as a tool to teach people valuable lessons.
Elihu ends his dialogue by recognizing that he does not know why God does what He does, but regardless of the reasoning, Job is wrong to accuse God of being unjust.
THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN GOD & JOB
God suddenly appears in a whirlwind and directly answers Job, challenging him in return. God asks Job a series of questions, such as where he was when God laid the earth's foundations, determined its measurements, created morning and evening skies, established animals' feeding patterns and birth cycles, etc.
God makes the point that He alone watches over all these cosmic details that Job has never even conceived of.
Up to this point, Job's comforters (turned rivals) have concluded and assumed how God ought to run the world according to what is just. When God arrives in the story to speak for Himself, He deconstructs these assumptions. God has always existed and thus has a much broader perspective of the world and an infinitely greater responsibility towards it.
Job then confesses his ignorance and repents to God, acknowledging that he has no place to question Him in any capacity, and asks for forgiveness. God then proceeds to rebuke Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, telling them that His "anger burns against them" because they did not speak of Him correctly, as Job did.
God then proceeds to restore Job's health, wealth, and family many times over, and Job lives well, dying as an old man "full of days."
MAKING SENSE OF THE (SEEMINGLY) SENSELESS
The story's ending may seem surprising because God vindicates Job and rebukes his accusers. I can assure you that this is no inconsistency. Instead, it supports a few lessons the Book of Job is trying to get at, which we will unpack soon enough.
Job never turned his back on God despite his suffering at the hands of Satan. He understood his place in the world and chose to love God, fulfilling what God had planned for him.
Job's suffering was not meaningless. Instead, it was driven by God's desire to prove Satan wrong and teach humanity a lesson. Ultimately, God restored Job's family, health, and wealth because He deeply cared for Job and wanted to make things right (as He always does).
THE RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE
The first perspective is what I like to call the "religious perspective." Many people of various religions hold this perspective to be true. It is similar to the beliefs of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, who accuse Job of having a secret, unrepented sin that has caused his misery.
According to the religious perspective, good people have good lives and are blessed by God, while bad people have bad lives and are punished.
It is important to note that many religions outside of Christianity follow this logic because it is the only way we "spiritual" humans can often reconcile the issue of suffering. If we don't have good things happen to us, it is most likely because we do not have enough faith or aren't living well enough. Conversely, if bad things happen to us, then it must be because we are being punished for wrongdoing.
THE SECULAR PERSPECTIVE
The "secular perspective" is often predominant in modern Western societies. It suggests that either God exists but does not effectively intervene in the suffering and disasters of our world or that He does not exist at all and circumstances in life are entirely random.
According to this view, people suffer without purpose or reason, and life is merely a "game of chance."
SPIRITUAL "DEAD ENDS"
Both these "religious" and "secular" perspectives are spiritual dead ends in that they ultimately lead to nowhere.
Those of us so self-righteous as to say that we are "basically good" ought to think twice about uttering such words in the presence of a God who has His eyes set on everything. God is not necessarily sitting up in heaven rewarding good people with gold stars and bad people with pain and misery.
As Job pointed out, if we take one good look around us and witness the many "prospering people" building their lives off of things, money, status, and popularity, then it becomes clear that God is not going out of His way to allow them to suffer as some other people appearing to be "good" often do.
The story of Job provides profound wisdom that can help us make better sense of suffering, but arriving at the truth requires some digging and some spiritual maturing.
THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
Every Christian must recognize and accept God's mysterious nature, endeavor to build a strong relationship with Him, and continue to love and serve Him even when we don't understand why we suffer. God is always in control, and thinking that we know how God ought to run the universe leads to the same sin that unleashed human suffering upon our world to begin with.
We should not just accept that we will never understand the reason for our suffering; we should embrace that we may never receive an answer for why we suffer as we do.
Loving a God who represents goodness and seeking a relationship with Him is the only way to overcome the evil in our world.
LESSON #1: WE MUST LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL ELSE
It might seem like God and Satan are playing with an ordinary person, but solely focusing on this aspect overlooks the deeper meaning of Job's story. Satan's belief that Job doesn't truly love God but instead loves the good things he receives from Him catalyzes Job's suffering.
We should keep in mind that Satan's initial goal with Job was to expose and discredit him. It is important to recognize that Job never learned why God allowed him to suffer so greatly. At no point did God explain to Job what transpired with Satan before Job's misery was allowed to occur, nor did He explain to Job why He had allowed such suffering to take place.
Looking back on the story now, it is evident that Job's lack of understanding regarding his suffering was crucial in proving Satan wrong when he accused Job of not truly loving God.
If Job had known that he would eventually be restored, he might have attempted to see the "bigger picture" and persevered through the hardships by clinging to hope for what God was trying to accomplish.
Instead, when God and Job finally converse near the end of the story, God reminds His servant of who He is: the one and only God of the universe, whose eye is on everything and whose responsibility is beyond measure.
By loving God for who He is, we must accept that suffering is unavoidable and that God is more significant than any evil, pain, or misery we may face.
LESSON #2: OUR WORLD IS MORE BROKEN THAN WE CAN IMAGINE
At no point did God directly generate Job's suffering; Satan did. God merely allowed Satan to torment Job, but He was always in control, limiting what Satan could and couldn't do.
You see, God didn't create the world with death, illness, and catastrophe. The Bible teaches us that the world God created was beautiful, good, and without sin. Death, illnesses, and catastrophes are a result of the costly sin that has been unleashed into our world, a sin that the first humans caused when they turned away from God.
By allowing Satan to cause misery for Job, God overruled the evil forces that have broken the created order of our world. God allowed Satan to achieve the opposite of what he intended with Job, which exposed Satan as a liar. Satan aimed to discredit Job, just as he seeks to discredit all of us by causing immense suffering, hoping that we will choose to turn away from God.
Just like Job, the ultimate choice is ours. If we choose to love God with all our hearts and place our trust and faith in Him, we can demonstrate that goodness exists within humans. We are able to show that we can choose the path of righteousness even while living in a world that is more broken than we can imagine.
LESSON #3: GOD ALWAYS GIVES US A CHOICE
God gives us free will because true love involves choice. He didn't create mankind to be worshipped by us but to have a relationship with us. Just as a parent often desires to be closer to their child, God wants to know and be near us despite sinning against Him.
When free will is used to love God and seek holy righteousness, it leads to goodness and flourishing. However, the choice to turn away from God always remains. Evil exists because God allows us to follow His model for moral goodness or define it for ourselves. At no point did God take away Job's free will. Job chose to still put his faith in God and trust in His character.
Yes, Job expressed his displeasure and complained to God during their conversation. However, the Bible teaches us that bringing our pain and anger to God without turning away from Him or dictating how things should be run in the world is what is most important, as evidenced by God's vindication of Job.
Deciding to love God does not guarantee that our lives will improve. In fact, the opposite is often the case, as seen in Job's story.
However, having unwavering faith in a personal God involves trusting His overall plan and purpose. Regardless of how difficult things become, we must embrace God's mystery and acknowledge that His reasons are beyond our understanding.
When God finally speaks to Job, He conveys that His role is vast and complex, far beyond human comprehension. God oversees everything, and He carries out His work alone. We must understand our position within the created order, and it is never our place to dictate to God how the universe ought to run.
LESSON #4: GOD MAKES EVIL WORK FOR GOOD
God hates all things evil just as He hates suffering. Only God can take any evil and make it work for good. Satan was permitted to cause suffering in Job's life only to the extent that evil ended up defeating itself. In other words, God only allowed Satan enough leeway to ensure his own downfall.
Once again, God did not reveal the reasons for Job's sorrow. It's safe to assume that Job spent the rest of his life on earth without understanding the reasons for his past misery.
However, it is plain to see that the Book of Job has profoundly impacted the world many times over. Job's story has helped millions of people, and it seems God intended it to be so. God may allow us to endure things we cannot handle, but in our weakest moments, we can find strength and refuge in Him, using our newfound strength to eventually overcome evil.
LESSON #5: GOD WILL ALWAYS DO WHAT IS RIGHT
God is righteous and good. He will always do what is right. In the end, Job was pushed to his absolute limit. Although he expressed anger towards God, he ultimately trusted Him and remained faithful. God responded by vindicating and restoring Job's life because God always does what is right in the end (not according to our own standards, but to His).
GOD HAS A PLAN
We often hear the saying, "It's all a part of God's plan." Yes, God has a plan because He is the powerful, unique, all-knowing tuner of the cosmos. However, that ultimate plan does not necessarily revolve around you or me. Quite frankly, compared to God, we are like ants.
Despite our comparative insignificance, God loves us deeply and has guided mankind since the creation of the earth and stars. It is because He loves us that we are significant. He desires justice against evil and has never broken His promises to humanity despite mankind repeatedly breaking our promises to Him.
We can never know the extent of God's plan, but we must recognize that He has a plan, nonetheless. God's timing is not the same as ours. The average lifespan of a person in Western civilization is still less than one hundred years, which is tiny compared to God's infinite nature.
I have observed how modern medical technology has advanced, often motivated by individuals affected by the loss of loved ones due to illnesses, which has improved the chances of survival for future patients.
I have witnessed the compassionate response of people reaching out to help impoverished nations through mission trips and humanitarian aid provided by the military.
I've seen individuals who were conceived through rape grow up to lead incredible lives and become forces of good in the world.
And, of course, I have witnessed beautiful children who were denied love from their biological families being adopted by loving parents who were unable to conceive a child of their own.
God has a plan, and although it may not be the same as our plan, He has shown that He can take any evil or degree of suffering and overrule it, making it work for good.
Job may have cursed God and questioned Him directly, but in the end, Job chose to trust God's plan. God wants us to do the same when we suffer: to bring our pain to Him and never turn away, never to believe that we know how things should run in the world because it isn't ours to dictate.
Patient endurance is often so difficult to demonstrate when our world appears to be crumbling, and the life that Job lived proves that suffering comes for the best of us.
God invites us to pour out our hearts to Him, just as He allowed Job to share his anger and grief. God does this because He loves us; His heart breaks for us when we suffer.
One of the many lessons from the Book of Job is that we should embrace the mystery of God and accept that suffering is a part of life. Ultimately, God is more significant than any pain or sorrow we experience during our time on earth.
