Almost everyone asks “Why me?” when suffering strikes. The book of Job raises more questions about suffering than it answers. In Job 38 God avoids the question entirely. Fine-sounding theories about suffering by Job’s friends are dismissed by God with a scowl. Job contains no compact theory of why good people suffer, but it does give some excellent insights.
1. God did not directly cause Job’s problems.
2. Nowhere does the book of Job suggest that God lacks power or goodness.
3. Decisively refuted: that suffering always comes as a result of sin.
4. God did not condemn Job’s doubt and despair, only his ignorance.
5. No one has all the facts about suffering.
6. God is never totally silent. (point made by Elihu)
7. Well-intentioned advice may sometimes do more harm than good.
8. God refocused the central issue from the CAUSE of Job’s suffering to
his RESPONSE.
9. Suffering, in God’s plan, can be redeemed, or used for a higher good.
Job, a suffering innocent, set a pattern of redemptive pain eventually fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life but endured pain and death in order to win a great victory.
Thousands of years later, Job’s questions have not gone away. God did not answer all Job’s questions, but his very presence caused Job’s doubts to melt away. Job learned that God cared about him, and that he rules the world. It was enough.
Also contains following articles:
CT, Jan 19, 1979, “A Classic Study of Pain” (review), p. 480.
CT, Mar 16, 1984, “Why Did God Let It Happen?” (article), p. 22.
Discipleship Journal, #32, 1986, “The Haunting Question” (article), p. 48.