For many people, suffering is completely incompatible with a good and just God. How could God claim to be loving and yet let things happen the way they happen in the world today? What sense is there in the seemingly rampant and senseless suffering? The book of Job addresses these very issues. Job asks questions about suffering that most of us would be too scared to ask. I don’t know if there is any feeling that sufferers experience that isn’t represented in this book!

The Job story is a fairly famous one: Satan challenges God, resulting in wealthy and healthy Job losing all his wealth and health, yet because of his perseverance, God ends up giving everything back to him again. A nice neat bible story, great for the kids. But when you actually read the whole of Job, you realise there’s so so much more to the story. Let’s have a deeper look by considering some of the big questions that the book raises.

Will a person fear and love God for nothing?

Satan (the Hebrew word literally translates as the accuser) begins by asking God if Job will still love Him and live righteously if all God’s blessings were removed from him. A chapter later, we find Job completely impoverished and covered with painful sores. Apart from the life that’s still in him (which Job perhaps wishes he didn’t have - Job 3:2), Job has been completely robbed of any and every good thing from God. Job’s life is a living nightmare, and God is completely silent. How would he respond?

Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.

Job 1:21

Don’t think for a moment that Job could still love God because he didn’t think God had sent this suffering. Job understood full well that the God who blessed him was also the God who could curse him (Job 2:10). Job had no answers to his questions, yet he clung to God. Job pounded God with his questions, but never once did he let go of his faith.

Job continued to love God, even though he had no reason to, apart from God Himself. Think about that. Do you love God because of everything He has done for you, or simply because of who He is? Even if you lost everything, would you be content if you only had God?

Why do bad people prosper while good people suffer?

Chapters 3 to 37 (the bulk of the book) are in essence a debate on the nature and purpose of suffering. Job’s friends come onto the scene and offer, rather unhelpfully, their explanations of why Job is suffering the way he is. It’s easy to gloss over these chapters, but you’d be missing a major point of the book.

In summary, this is the argument of Job’s friends:

• God does not let good people suffer.
• Job is suffering.
• Therefore Job is not good (or specifically, Job has hidden sins which he is not admitting).

Now if you think about this, this argument makes a lot of sense. Indeed, if not for God’s condemnation of their words at the end of the book (Job 42:7), we would probably be quoting the words of Job’s friends today as if they were God’s. But make no mistake; they had missed the point.

All that Job’s friends’ bitter words did was add to Job’s suffering, for he knew that this suffering was undeserved. Job knew that no one was sinless (Job 9:2); what he didn’t understand was what huge sin he did that resulted in God’s fierce anger towards him. And so he cried out for justice and an explanation.

There are a few lessons here to be learnt from Job’s friends. A simple and practical one is this: when your friends are suffering and in pain, you can say a lot more if you don’t say anything at all. It’s been suggested that the best thing Job’s friends did was weeping and mourning with him (Job 2:11-13). Often, sufferers don’t really want answers as much as they want presence and love.

Secondly, it could be that the mistake Job’s friends made about God was that they thought they knew everything about Him. Does God punish sinners and bless the righteous? Definitely. But does that mean that that’s the only way we will see God working, here on earth? Are we humans capable of explaining all of God’s actions?

Who is in control?

At long last, God spoke to Job. But not at all as we’d expect. God answered Job’s questions with even more questions.

“Who is this that darkens my counsel
with words without knowledge?

Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.”

Job 38:2-4

The questions that God proceeded to ask Job are worthy of a lifetime of reflection. In essence, God asked Job if he can do everything, or really anything, that God did. God even asked Job if he compares to other beasts that God had created. You see, all Job claimed to want was to understand what was going on. God responded by saying - I know what I am doing, and I am in control. Job wanted the wisdom to understand why he was suffering; God let Job know that His wisdom was perfect. Job wanted answers; God gave His presence. And for Job, that was enough.

God put Job in his place, not because He hated him, but the complete opposite - because He loved him. Job’s suffering didn’t make any sense, but infinitely more important was realising that was that an almighty and perfect God was in total control. Perhaps this was why God spoke out of a storm, a classic picture of chaos and unpredictable destruction. You see, a storm doesn’t negate God’s control; it demonstrates it.

* * *

Knowing all this doesn’t make suffering any less painful. But that was never the point. When other people suffer, will you try give quick fixes and cliché Christian responses, or will you simply stay by their side and offer your presence? When you suffer and hurt, will you push God away, or still cling to Him, pounding Him with questions, but never letting go? Even when nothing makes sense, will you still love God for who He is alone, and take hope in His perfect control?

Will we remember God’s ultimate suffering servant, Jesus, who shared in every pain that we experience, so that we may one day live with God where suffering will be no more?

"Oh, that my words were recorded,
that they were written on a scroll,

that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
or engraved in rock forever!

I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;

I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!

Job 19:23-27

For more thoughts on suffering, check out this article “Should we thank God for suffering? ”