So far, we have considered what the book of Job teaches about Satan in relationship to God and us, what we can learn from Job’s friends, and some of the wisdom and revelation we see through Job himself. Finally, at the end of the book,
God shows up. Suffering has been a major theme of the book. Specifically, the
suffering of the righteous. Here, at the end, we learn two massively important
lessons about suffering. These lessons are simple. But if we will hold on to
them, they will help us through our own trials. They have helped me.
1. We can Trust
God
I really don’t like it if someone says, “Just trust me.” Some
people are trustworthy most of the time, but in general people are not worthy
of unquestioning trust. But God is.
When God appears to Job we might expect Him to explain to
Job why He has allowed Job to suffer. But God doesn’t do that. Instead, God
points out to Job how incredibly wise and powerful He is. God does this mainly
by pointing to His creation. God reminds Job (and us!) that He made the earth.
He designed it. He also created the sun and stars and designed how it all works
together to bring us day and night. God spends a lot of time pointing out the
magnificence of the various animals He made. One of my favorite examples is
this:
Does the hawk take flight
by your understanding and spread its wings to the south?
Does the eagle soar at
your command and make its nest on high?
(Job 39:26-27 CSB17)
God is basically saying, “I’m obviously way, way, way smarter,
wiser, and more powerful than you. So, trust me!”
The Apostles and the earliest Christians understood this
principle well. Peter and John are arrested by the same group that plotted to
have Jesus crucified. They threaten them and command them not to talk about
Jesus any more. After their release, they gather the believers to pray. They
begin their prayer by reminding themselves that their God (our God!) is the one
who created all things:
When they heard this, they raised their voices together
to God and said, "Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth,
and the sea, and everything in them. (Acts 4:24 CSB17)
We have even more reason to trust God than Job did. God
has demonstrated His great love for us by giving us His only Son to die for us (Romans
5:8). God has proved that nothing can separate us from His love, not even
death, by raising Jesus from the dead.
Often, we will not understand specifically why we are suffering.
But we can and should trust God.
2. Suffering is not the End of the Story!
The book of Job does not end with suffering. “So the Lord
blessed the last part of Job’s life more than the first” (Job 42:12). This is a
picture of what God promises to all of us who trust and love Him. In this world
we will suffer. We may not get material blessings and long life in this world like
Job did. That’s because God has something even better for us. He has promised
us eternal life together with Him in a new Earth where there will be no more suffering
or death.
All of this does not make suffering easy when we’re in the
middle of it. But if we hold on to the great truths that God knows what He is
doing and that it will work out for our good in the end, we can make it
through.
I’ve been really blessed by spending time thinking,
praying, studying, and writing about Job this past month. Of course, there’s
much more that could be said than I’ve shared in four short blog posts. If you
want a little more, I recommend this article by John Piper which helped me when
I was working on this series: How Should I Read the Book of Job.
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