Pacesetters Bible School: Bible Questions

Question 17: How can we explain Job's suffering? One of the questions that I am most frequently asked is, "Why did God allow Satan to commit such unspeakable horrors not only on Job's possession, but even more so his family? As a Christian minister, I am inevitably drawn to Job's words when he says, "Even though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!" But for the unsaved, and even many Christians, this remains at least confusing, and to the unsaved even cruel and unjust. What advice or guidance might you have in this area?

My understanding of Job is based both on study and experience. My 17 year old stepson passed away last September after a five year battle with cancer. With the related problems of keeping up with business and work and paying bills, many people saw my wife and I going through a Job-type experience. One thing I learned from experiencing this directly is this: Don’t claim to have fully satisfying answers.

Each person is going to have to make their own peace with the way God has worked in their life. If you, as a pastor, come with a prepared set of answers that are supposed to settle everything, it can make it difficult for the person to find out what God is doing in their life. A pastor often sees having a satisfying set of answers and confidently presenting them as a way of encouraging a parishioner and increasing their faith. But it can actually discourage the member.

I sent your question on to my wife who has a way of getting down to the practical issues. She wrote in her e-mail devotional this morning:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Jesus told me to "Go! and make disciples". I do not believe that I can truly testify to the depth of Jesus' love and the power of God to reach into my life and heal until I have first been tested. It is in the 'test' that I find my 'test-imony', don't you see? Paul says here that God is FULL of compassion and comfort and he knows this because he has RECEIVED this. I can be a conduit of God's love and compassion and comfort when I have received this myself and just pass it along to others.

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 1 Peter 4:12-16

Peter, too, encourages me as he tells me that PAINFUL things are going to happen. They happened to Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus even asked His Father to change the plan. "Couldn't we do this another way, Father?" THEN He said, "Not MY will but YOURS be done." But LOOK! Look what the Father did in response to this 'real' outburst from Jesus. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. Luke 22:43

Being a Christian doesn't mean that I become EXEMPT from trials and sufferings. It just means I don't have to go through them on my own strength. Many people have asked me how I have made it these last months since my 17-year-old son, James, died. God. That is my answer. That is the ONLY reason that I am able to get out of bed every day and find joy in the day. That is the only reason that my heart is healed. Do I miss my son? Do I tear up on Mother's Day or in unexpected moments? Absolutely. But I have the assurance that our time apart is miniscule compared to our eternal time together.

God has a Kingdom plan. His eyes are able to see infinitely. I do not know the 'why' of everything in my life and others that I love in this world. I only know that I trust God. He has NEVER let me down.

[Jesus said,] "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Now let me add some notes on a more technical side. Job never knew what had happened. He was never told that there had been any agreement with Satan. That’s provided for us as the readers, but Job never knew. He simply knew that he was innocent, and that he suffered. God never explained himself to Job. He simply confronted Job with His greatness. Job’s response in chapter 42:5, “I had heard about you with my ears, but now my eye sees you.” Job’s final position was not “Though he slay me, yet will I trust,” but rather that after personally encountering God he came to a position of trust. His questions weren’t answered, they were overwhelmed by God.

Here are a couple of points about suffering in Job:

1. Suffering is allowed by God. We already knew that. What Job adds is that suffering is limited by God. God puts boundaries on it. In a world that has evil in it, suffering will happen; I’m glad there’s someone in charge.
2. God does not condone judgment against those who are suffering. God’s condemnation of Job’s friends, who merely expressed the orthodoxy of their day, is intense. They assumed that suffering only occurred to bad people, and God didn’t agree.
3. We don’t always get answers that satisfy us, but we do have a God who can satisfy.
4. God can and will use his people to help him demonstrate a point. This can be seen in the number of believers who have suffered as martyrs, and whose testimony then brought souls into the kingdom. Believers have been glad to be used in this way. My son was not a martyr, but he died in strong faith and peace, and as a result quite a large number of people have found God. Does this make cancer good? No! But God makes good come out of the bad things that have happened.
5. There’s a blessing coming. Job’s was here. For you or me, it may be in the next world. But God does see what we suffer and he is still “the rewarder of those who diligently seek him.”

I present these ideas in the spirit I mentioned. I can tell you that there were many days and even whole weeks during my son’s illness when I would have taken this very message and tore it into shreds from anger at what was happening. But that was part of my struggle with God that allowed me to come to this point. Peace on this point comes only from one’s own wrestling with God. “I will not let You go unless you bless me!” (Genesis 32:27)

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