Reading: Job 1-2
Those who love God are not exempt from trouble or suffering.
‘Bad things happening to good people’ seems to defy our sense of justice, suggesting that God has become remote, distant or perhaps indifferent.
These two quotes sum up the initial chapters of Job. Job is a book that seems to throw up more questions than it answers. The main theme is suffering.
Job through no fault of his own loses wealth, children and his health. The common held belief of the day was that suffering was linked to sin. If you were righteous, upright, good, then suffering would not come your way. The conundrum here was that Job was all of the above, Job was a righteous man.
So why was Job suffering?
Job chapter 1 links his suffering in one sense to Satan, we read that Satan asked for Job to be tested (verses 9-12). There are some important lessons for us here and it’s not that Satan is behind all suffering, but rather that being righteous does not shelter us from life’s calamities. The righteous and the unrighteous both face tragedy and sorrow.
This chapter also tells us that God allows suffering and tragedy – as i mentioned earlier, Job throws up as many questions as it answers.
We live in a fallen and sinful world as Christians our faith must shine even brighter in the midst of such tragedy.
I’ve lost both of my parents in the last 18 months. My mum for the last few years of her life suffered from Alzheimer’s. Whilst my dad was bedridden for the last year of his life, but still possessed an active mind.
When I was asked how I would cope by a colleague at work after my mum died, I told him I had a strong faith in God (like Job). It would be tough, but God would get me through.
As Job stated in verse 21 ‘blessed be your name’.
Matt Redman sums this up in this song Blessed Be Your Name, based on that verse:
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Moving on to Chapter 2…
This seems to be a lesson in trusting God in the midst of adversity and the blame culture in which we live. Job’s wife (still alive to add to his suffering perhaps!) exhorts Job to curse God (verse 9), in other words to blame God.
This goes against the heavenly culture that we were born into when we committed our lives to God. I have learnt from the experience of my parents deaths, that in tragic times we need to press into God and not blame him or turn our backs on him.
Yes it’s ok to express your heartache, your anger, your grief but ultimately Job knew only faith in God would get him through.
