Bible in One Year: Suffering, Sarcasm and Not Understanding
Just over a month ago a number of the Church here at Firwood, along with thousands of others throughout the country and even across the world, began reading through Soul Survivor’s ‘Bible in One Year‘. It’s been great to hear and join in with various discussions of what has been read throughout this month. If you never started, or even if you did, but have fallen away from it, why not spend some time reading today’s passages and continue from there?
The current Old Testament book in the plan is the book of Job. I love this book. If you like sarcasm and cheeky digs, it’s a great one to read. It’s also great to read if you’ve ever had questions regarding the suffering present in this world, particularly that of your own or loved ones.
We’ve been reading through Job for a number of days now, and only at this point, after thirty eight long chapters, has God ‘opened his mouth’ to speak.
It’s glorious… but it may not be the answer you wanted.
Why is there suffering? Why does God allow it? And why does it seem that sometimes the most wicked suffer least? This is Job’s concern as he speaks to his ‘friends’. They helpfully declare Job to be a liar who is being punished because of something horrible he must have done – perhaps he told some widows to clear off when they came to him in his wealth seeking charity (Job 22:9). According to them, Job should get right with God and then his suffering will end. In fact, not only will his suffering end, but he will become prosperous and healthy again.
They are, of course, way off base in their ideas. God declares Job to be ‘blameless and upright’ from the beginning of the book (Job 1:8), ruling out any idea that Job is being punished for sin.
So what explanation does God offer?
In a speech that may both humble and frustrate, God’s response in chapters 38-42 can be summed up with the following phrase:
You can’t understand.
God points to His own sovereign control over all things, His working in creation and its need for His constant maintenance, thus highlighting, in comparison, Job’s lack of knowledge, understanding and power.
Grrr. That’s not the answer we wanted! Couldn’t it even be explained even a little bit? Evidently not; God declares that we may not always understand the suffering that we go through or see around us, because we have no idea and know way to know how God is orchestrating all things for His glory (Ephesians 1:11-14, 1 Peter 4:13) and the good of those that love Him (Romans 8:28).
It’s the same idea we see put forth throughout scripture; there are things that we will never understand this side of eternity. We discovered this as we read through Ecclesiastes, during which time I posted on a similar subject. In discussing a similar issue of understanding in chapter 9 of Romans, Paul declares that we are but men and cannot hope to understand the mysteries that remain God’s.
However, God doesn’t just tell Job ‘tough, you can’t understand’ and then clear off. In the same breath he speaks of both Job’s limitations and His own power. I am in control, the Father says. And the One who is in control loves us. He is working things to our good, and whilst we may not see or understand how we are getting there, we know the end point and we know Him whom has pledged to get us there.
It seems that the way to continue through the darkest suffering is not to know the fine detailed mechanics, or the ‘why’ of those situations (for who, with one question answered, would not have ten thousand more?), but to know Him that governs all and is that ultimate answer to all our ‘Whys’. Why should we put our trust in anyone or anything less?
It may not be the answer that we want, it is however, the answer that we need.