4 Observations from Job's life
Ah, the book of Job. Does anyone actually enjoy reading the book of Job?
When someone tells me they are really enjoying their quiet times in the book of Job you can bet I’m secretly judging them.
Don’t get me wrong. Chapter 1 and 2 - very interesting. There’s a lot there.
The last 2-3 chapters? Fascinating. God brings His sovereign wisdom to the conversation and brings everyone to repentance.
But everything in between? Man, I really struggle. We’re a fly on the wall for a conversation that goes round and round and round with passive aggressive one liners at the guy who’s having a really tough go of it.
It’s the book we often go to when we’re suffering yet most of it feels profoundly unhelpful for our suffering.
If you can’t tell, I just finished reading this book last week and I’m happy to say I’ve moved over to the Psalms.
Yet as excited as I’ve been to move on to my favorite book within the wisdom literature, I can’t stop thinking about Job. If you’ve ever been given a life changing diagnosis, you know you can relate with Job. But there’s something striking about Job’s experience that I think all of us can relate to.
What do we do when we’re desperate for God to answer our prayers yet He’s nowhere to be found? How are we supposed to wrap our minds around that?
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve looked at the story in Mark where a father brings his son to Jesus and Jesus brings healing to the son. It’s a miraculous story and gives those of us who have suffered some level of hope that God might bring us healing as well.
But, what happens if our healing doesn’t come? What happens when we pray, and pray, and pray, and nothing seems to change? What happens when our prayer of honest confession, “I believe; help my unbelief!” seems like it’s being ignored?
I don’t know about you but I’ve gone long stretches praying about pretty important things in my life and God might as well have been in a different universe. Fun fact: He was because He owns them all and He’s omnipresent.
It seems that this is where Job finds himself. He’s in the most desperate place he’s ever been and God is nowhere to be found. This reality stands in stark contrast to the story we looked at last week. The father who brought his son to Jesus was face-to-face with God. Job is pretty sure God has forgotten him in the school pick up line.
So what can we learn from Job’s story on what to think when God isn’t answering us in our desperation? Let’s consider a few observations.
The heavenly realm is complicated, but God is good.
There’s not a person among us that can read chapters 1 and 2 of Job and not stop to ask the question, “What in the world is going on here?”
God. Satan. A cordial conversation? God grants Satan’s request? Wait, God’s trying to prove a point to Satan at Job’s expense?
What?
I’ve read those chapters several times and I can’t wrap my mind around it.
What I do know is that it happened. It’s true. And because it’s true it has massive implications on how we view our own suffering and the sometimes felt distance of God in our lives. There is so much more going on in the heavenly realm than we can understand. However, there are a few promises that will never not be true that can bring us comfort with this complex reality of the God/Satan conversation.
God loves us and has displayed His love for us in Christ by giving us salvation.
God has ensured through the work of Christ that those of us in Christ will never die.
God hates death and “takes no pleasure in the death of anyone” (Ezekiel 18:32)
God works all things out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. And that ultimate good is that we are made more like Jesus. (Romans 8:28-29)
God’s not a chump. He is forever Holy and all powerful. God defeated everything Satan lives for (sin and death) at the Cross and Empty Tomb and will one day crush Satan’s head and defeat Satan himself forever.
There are so many more promises we could look at, but this interaction with Satan doesn’t change how God thinks/feels about Job and I think we see that later on in the book.
Our friends and church community may not understand.
I often interact with people who are experiencing some sort of anxiety and depression. Some of them have brought their friends into that but they are disappointed by their friend’s responses.
Their friends end up being hurtful rather than helpful, quick to frustration rather than patient, and quick to speak rather than quick to listen.
Sound familiar?
It makes sense, though. When we’re desperate like Job, nothing on this earth will be able to satisfy us. We won’t get the answers here. We need supernatural help and supernatural intervention. That’s one of the themes of the story we looked at last week. Jesus says, “This kind can only be driven out by prayer and fasting.”
So yes, we let our friends and church community in on our suffering and desperation. But no, we don’t expect their wisdom, guidance, and counsel to fix our problems.
Even the wisest counsel can only be so sufficient for us. I’m always intrigued by Elihu’s counsel to Job. He makes his entrance in chapter 32. He says a lot and God doesn’t rebuke him. But Job doesn’t respond to him either. So, was it helpful? Maybe, but nothing changed in Job’s heart until God spoke to him directly.
In our seasons of desperation we need God to speak to us directly, too.
Job’s confusion about God wasn’t because of the suffering, the suffering exposed his confusion about God.
Jesus says, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45)
If what Jesus says there is true, that means everything that came out of Job’s mouth over the course of this book was already in his heart prior to the suffering.
This piece is fundamental for us to understand. A lot of times, we believe the reason we think, say, or do something is because of what is happening to us in that moment. Jesus says the opposite, though. If we’re thinking it, saying it, or doing it, it’s because it’s been lodged deep down in our heart and our situation has exposed it.
So the suffering and the lack of God answering prayer didn’t cause Job to be confused about God. Job already had misunderstandings about how God operated and the suffering exposed that.
The middle chapters of the book Job gives full vent to his frustration, confusion, uncertainty, desperation — all the while accusing God of malpractice. What Job is doing is exposing that deep down in his heart, at his core, he believes that a just God would never let innocent people suffer.
That’s a thought I’ve had too. The problem is, that’s not true. If a just and right God never let people suffer, why did He Himself suffer at the Cross? Was Jesus not innocent? He was perfect!
God allows Job to give full vent to what was in his heart so that God could address Job’s heart. Job would have agreed with everything God said in the final few chapters if God starts sharing that in Chapter 3. But Job was humbled before God at the end of the book because he realized how far off he was in what he believed about God at a heart level.
You and I have a lot to learn from Job here. Sometimes we like to keep our frustrations bottled up inside because we’re not sure how God would feel about us being that up front with our frustrations. But God meets Job in his letting out his frustrations. Job confessing all the lies that are built up in his heart sets the stage for his ability to genuinely worship God later in the book.
For those of us in a season of waiting and/or suffering, perhaps the best place for us to start is to begin confessing all our thoughts, feelings, and emotions to God in prayer - even if we’re not sure our Theology is correct. He can handle it and He’ll meet us there with His loving presence and gentle rebuke.
There is future redemption headed our way.
Job’s life is completely redeemed at the end of the book. His family is larger than before. He has more money than before. Things are, overall, far better than even before the suffering started.
This is an easy place for the prosperity gospel to creep in.
Our flesh wants to believe, “Well, maybe if I can just make it through this suffering everything in my life will be 10x better on the other side!”
And here’s what I’d say. Maybe that’s true! But what’s certainly true is that in Heaven all things are made right and perfect.
Some of us may experience tremendous blessing on earth, but God never promises that. What God promises is a future redemption in a New Heaven and New Earth where every tear is wiped away and every wrong is made right.
So what do we hold onto during our suffering? That God will make all things right one day. And one day we’ll be part of His future Kingdom that isn’t stained by sin and death. There’s no suffering, no pain, no crying. Only perfection.
That promises of a future redemption is what Paul was talking about when he said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)
I’m certain there are many more observations we can see in the book of Job, but these are good for now. If you’re experiencing a time of suffering - or an extended time of unanswered prayer - I hope these four observations are helpful for you.
Next week we’ll take a look at how to be a good friend to the one suffering.
See you next Wednesday.
Photo Credits: Adrian Swancar