Reading… and Thinking

“Why do the wicked live on growing old and increasing in power?…
“Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger?…
“One man dies in full vigor, completely secure and at ease, his body well nourished, his bones rich with marrow. Another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having enjoyed anything good. Side by side they lie in the dust, and worms cover them both.”

– Job 21:7,17,23-26 (NIV)

If you’ve never read Job, you should. Among other issues, it deals with the age-old issue of the seeming injustice of someone suffering greatly, even though he has done nothing wrong. Job’s friends come to comfort him, but in their worldview, they cannot conceive of such suffering being anything other than punishment for great sin.

Many books have been written about Job. The book presents a number of puzzles, and not surprisingly, there are greatly differing views about how to understand it. I believe that a lot of the disagreement is the result of people reading their own views into Job, rather than letting it speak for itself. In other words, a lot of people make the same mistake as Job’s friends.

A lot of people (including some who consider themselves authorities and have a lot of letters after their names) ignore God’s own comments about Job. The book begins by introducing Job: “This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” (1:1) Then God says of him, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” (1:8) At the end of the book, God says this to the leader of Job’s friends: “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (42:7)

Certainly Job had some spiritual growing to do. So do I, so do you, and so does every other man and woman! But we need to remember that Job’s growth was that of a man whose faithfulness was such that God already held him up as the example believer in his generation. Even through his terrible ordeal, God says, Job continued to speak of God what was right.

The only New Testament reference to Job echoes God’s assessment. The apostle James says: “As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” (James 5:11) James holds up Job as an example of faithful endurance, steadfastness, perseverance, even through the most difficult of circumstances. God has promised that He works only good for those who love Him, and that no trial will be unbearable. (Romans 8:28, 1 Corinthians 10:13) Job believed this! And he came through it.

In chapter 21, part of which is quoted above, Job confronts the major issue head on. Does God repay people in this life? Are the righteous prosperous, and the wicked caused to suffer? Job’s answer is emphatically NO. In fact, he says, the wicked are very often the ones who prosper. And in the end everyone, righteous and wicked, those who have enjoyed life and those whose lives were miserable, all end up in the grave.

Is this just? Job does not charge God with wrong, although he gives expression to his bitterness about his own suffering. As God testifies in the last chapter, Job speaks what is true about God.

It would, of course, be terrible injustice if this life were the end of the story. But it’s not the end! Job believed in resurrection, and he believed that ultimate vindication would occur then, not in this life. “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (19:25-27)

Of course the ultimate example of undeserved suffering is the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus learned from Job, as he did from all of the Old Testament. Certainly it was the same hope that carried both Job and Jesus through their trials. We’re told that Jesus “for the joy set before him endured the cross”. (Hebrews 12:2)

The end result of Job’s suffering was the salvation of his friends, who previously didn’t understand God. At God’s direction, they repented, and asked Job to pray for them – he did, and they were forgiven. The foreshadowing of Christ’s work is clear. The end result of Jesus’ suffering is our salvation. (See Isaiah 53:10-11.)

Was it just for Jesus to suffer? We must look to the end result, as Jesus himself did. The joy set before him was sufficient. He believed in resurrection, believed in a glorious Kingdom to come, where all accounts would be balanced, and believed that his suffering would save a multitude of God’s children.