I spent the past five Sundays preaching on the book of Job. Job is a fascinating book and a difficult book. Job's experience is much more relatable than it appears at first glance. I don't know too many people that have lost all their children (plus all their possessions) at one time. But we are familiar with the experience of suffering, of struggling with pain and hardship that we don't understand. We know the pain of wondering why we face such troubles and how God could allow this to happen. And, as one of my wise seminary friends told me, suffering on any of level can feel like it fills us entirely.
Our friend Job doesn't just accept his suffering. He cries out with brutal honesty to express his pain and protest that he doesn't deserve all this. Job feels he has no choice but to conclude that God is behind all of his pain, and so he begs and pleads and finally demands that God answer him. And God does answer. But God's response is frustratingly beautiful and beautifully frustrating. God never explains why Job has gone through all that he has. The thrust of what God says is, to paraphrase a couple of my seminary profs, I am God and you are not. My world and the way I run it are too big and complicated for you to understand. But I understand it all. You can trust me. And you must trust me.
This response seems to be enough for Job. Job is both honored and humbled that God would talk to him. Job knows that God has been listening. Job is satisfied to know that God hasn't rejected him. And then God says that Job is His servant and proves it by listening to Job's prayers and by restoring Job's possessions and giving him new children. The book of Job leaves us with this hope: God listens to and doesn't reject His servants, and God can bring restoration after even the worst suffering.
But for us, this response can be hard to take. Sure, Job was restored, but it can be hard for us to believe that things will work out for us, that God is really trustworthy. Here's where we need Jesus. All of Scripture needs to be read with a focus on Jesus, but that seems especially true with the book of Job. God in effect tells Job to trust Him because He's God. But Jesus shows us so much more clearly who God is. Jesus shows us that God loves us so much that God Himself would join our suffering in Jesus Christ. Christ understands our suffering because He is as human as we are. And Jesus suffered for us to bring about our restoration. Jesus died and rose to break the power of sin and death and suffering. We can be confident that God listens to our prayers because His beloved Son, Jesus, brings our prayers before God. When we suffer, Christ is present with us through His Holy Spirit. And Jesus promises us that He is coming back to fully do away with all of our brokenness and pain. Jesus shows us that God is trustworthy because Jesus so clearly shows us that God is love. Jesus shows us so clearly that God uses His power and wisdom on our behalf. Through Jesus we have the hope of restoration, even though we die.
When it comes to the suffering and brokenness and pain that fill our world, we cannot fully answer the why question, as much as we would like to. God doesn't give us easy answers. But instead of why, we can talk about who Jesus is and what He has done. This is the hope and comfort that Job points us to. This is the hope and comfort that we can and must share. Our pain and suffering are real and difficult. God cares about these things. He shows us by giving us the book of Job, and He shows this most of all by giving us Jesus.
Grace and peace,
BMH
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