In the long, sleepless nights of life’s grief, you look for comfort as much as answers. When facing senseless tragedy, loss, or chaos, people have turned to the book of Job for millennia.
But Job famously never gets answers to his suffering.
If you’ve never read it, you likely know the story. Job was a righteous and blameless man with a large family and significant wealth.
Behind the scenes, Satan challenges God, saying that Job only keeps his faith because of God’s blessings. God allows a test.
Within a few minutes, Job gets word that his herds have been wiped out and almost all his servants killed. Three survivors inform him that his wealth is gone. Then the gut punch—the final messenger tells him that all ten of his children died when a storm toppled the house.
Job mourns, but he famously says:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job 1:21
He responds with poetry and beauty in his grief.
Not satisfied, Satan challenges God again, and God allows the accuser to inflict Job with pain and sickness.
The next twenty-nine chapters are the most epic rap battle in history. In stunning poetic form, Job laments his situation and pleads his case. He curses the day of his birth, begs for relief, and demands justice. His friends respond by gently suggesting he might have sinned, and that everything will be aces if he just repents. With every cycle of Job’s defense and their accusations, the heat turns up, and by the end, they’re accusing him of the “Big Sins.”
When God finally shows up, He doesn’t answer any of Job’s questions. Job never finds out about the heavenly wager. Nor is he given any other reason for his suffering. It’s humbling.
But tucked in the speeches, we readers find good answers for God allowing pain, especially from the unannounced fourth man, Elihu.
Discipline: God uses pain not just to punish sin, but to keep us from moving further toward destruction.
And if they are bound in shackles,
And are caught in the snares of misery,
Then He declares to them their work
And their wrongdoings, that they have been arrogant.
He opens their ears to instruction,
And commands that they return from injustice.
Job 36:8-10
You’ll find discipline an important theme in the New Testament, most famously in Hebrews 12:4-11.
To get our attention and push us closer to Him in our pain. God’s desire for pain and discipline is that we would bring it to Him and let Him walk us through it. Pain cuts deeper when we try to go it alone.
He rescues the afflicted in their misery,
And opens their ears in time of oppression.
Then indeed, He induced you away from the mouth of distress…
Job 36:15-16a
Hosea 5:15 puts this purpose explicitly in God’s words. “In their distress they will search for Me.”
God’s sovereignty and glory: Job himself admits that he suffers under God’s irresistible will.
But He is unique, and who can make Him turn?
Whatever His soul desires, He does it.
For He carries out what is destined for me,
And many such destinies are with Him.
Job 23:13-14
God’s sovereignty is most important, though least comforting to many. While the most encouraging example of God allowing suffering to show His glory is the man with congenital blindness in John 9, it was still a painful blessing for that man to receive.
These answers to suffering are all tucked into the text, though they are hard to find in a quick once-through of Job.
But they’re head answers.
Job offers heart answers that speak to our spirits—even as we struggle to pin them down with our minds. That’s why Job comforts us in sorrow, even when we don’t catch what’s above. Here are the two biggest answers for my heart from Job.
God transforms mourning to beauty.
He cares about our suffering and pain. Job captures life’s physical, emotional, and spiritual agonies with raw passion, but also heart-wrenching poetry. God decided to put it all into Scripture for our benefit—pain and beauty—no holding back.
It shows us we’re never alone in suffering.
It reveals how deeply God understands.
It calls us to the One who loves us most.
Isaiah 61:3 promises beauty instead of ashes for those who mourn when the Messiah comes. I see Job’s artistry as a bit of proof He can do just that.
God’s presence is answer enough.
God’s speeches to Job are mostly a series of questions teasing out how much higher He is than we can comprehend. It’s humbling for Job. He repents and is completely restored. Job’s chaos ends in a display of God’s power that makes human pain and grief seem insignificant.
When God shows up in the storm, Job’s questions cease.
Jesus’ disciples asked questions like Job as they battled a storm in a tiny boat. Their master slept through it. Then they woke Him and asked, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38). With a word, Jesus stilled the raging sea.
Like Job, the disciples were then terrified in the presence of the Lord—even as He eased their trouble. The questions that seemed so important before were replaced with the awe-ful query, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (v. 41)
Finding Your Own Answers
If you’re going through a tough spot—or anticipating one—I highly recommend Job. But don’t go into it looking for answers to your situation.
Look for the One who’s bigger than all the trouble and all the questions.
He’s the answer we need.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
~ Jesus (John 16:33)
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In addition to Imago Dad, Brandon Wilborn writes fantasy with spiritual themes. His current project is a series for young readers about a dog with an imagination that highlights the classic virtues of our Judeo-Christian heritage. But he’s already got a couple of fantasy books and stories available at BrandonWilborn.com