Job: God's response

The key to God's response to Job's questioning about his suffering is in the first sentence (notably, a question, of a series of questions):

'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?' (38.2)

The friends have accused Job of speaking without knowledge repeatedly (though they are guilty of the same offence), and Job's assertion of his blamelessness is based on his knowledge of his own situation. But the point is, Job doesn't have the knowledge to understand God's actions. The reader, via the prologue section where Satan is given permission to afflict Job, already has knowledge of Satan's testing of Job that he himself does not have. God's repeated questions to Job firstly reflect Job's questioning of God, and secondly draw Job's attention to all the things in the wider universe, beyond simply his own suffering, that he does not understand: from the foundations of the earth (38.4), the boundaries of the sea (38.8), the dawning of each day (38.12), the constellations (38.31), the calving of the does (39.1) and the callousness of the ostrich (39.13-18). The point is, there is so much going on in the world that we don't even consider, let alone affect or govern. Part of our sense of entitlement to know and understand now why suffering has come into our lives is rooted in our proud desire to be 'like God', just as Eve was tempted back in Genesis 3. But, just like the unfathomable details of creation, these things are beyond our knowledge - because we are not God!

Job has demanded justice from God, and complained that his righteous living should have protected him, but God shows him that he can't comprehend justice on a global scale: 'Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low... Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.' (40.12-14) Job has to embrace his dependence on God, because then he will know the joy of salvation.

Job is humbled and awed by the Lord's revelation. He confesses and repents: 'I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted... Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me; which I did not know.' (42.2-3)

The conclusion of the book shows that God gave Job 'twice as much as he had before' (42.10). His community is re-established as his three friends are humbled and need Job's mediation (ironically as they perhaps sought to be mediators for Job themselves). The ESV study Bible notes that Job ends up receiving comfort primarily through his matured relationship with the Lord. Job's comfort does not lie in getting the answers to his questions about his own suffering and the wider concept of justice, but in knowledge of God's character, the security that everything is in His hands.

Job: Elihu's role

As I was working through the book of Job, I was grappling with what the role of Elihu was meant to be (see chapters 32-37). Commentators seem reluctant to applaud his words to Job, as the book itself doesn't give much comment on whether they are right (though God's vindication of Job suggests Elihu is not 100% on the mark). However, he does bring a new dimension into the discussion, which so far has been about why God could bring such suffering on Job when in his own eyes he was blameless. Elihu feels that Job has become too self-preoccupied in his perspective on his own suffering, and he may well be correct in this. What profit has come from the long debate Job has been having with his friends? Certainly no peace.

Elihu's intervention reminds Job he is just a man, and 'God is greater than man' (33.12). Although Elihu perhaps misinterprets Job's words as him claiming to be sinless (which his making offerings would contradict), I think he does have a certain level of discernment and wisdom in his counsel. He says firstly that to Job's complaint he has no answer for his suffering, that God is speaking all the time and uses suffering to discipline man and remind him of his mortality (ch 33). He describes a man brought to the point of death and redeemed; his joy is therefore great (33.27-28). The suffering has worked good in his life by bringing him to a place of praise and gratitude. Given that Job doesn't die, but is later restored, this pattern plays out in his life and may show us some meaning behind it.

Elihu also gives some statements of truth which serve to remind Job -and the reader- of the core truths about God's character that suffering has made Job question: 'Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.' (34.12) He also reminds Job that God doesn't owe us anything -in fact, He could make everything perish if He wanted to, and it would be comparable to our own sense of right to knock down and rebuild our own house if we wanted to.

With his statement that 'His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees all his steps' (34.21), it reminds Job that God wasn't looking the other way when all this tragedy came upon him. This ties in with the beginning of the book where God brings Job to Satan's attention; He sees Job in his loyal faithfulness.

Elihu also points out (perhaps similarly to Eliphaz in 22.2-3) that God does not profit from Job's righteousness. 'If you are righteous, what do you give to Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?' (35.7)

In chapter 36 a host of lyrics from the Psalms are used to reinforce the central message: it is worth trusting God and serving Him because ultimately those who do not 'perish' and 'die without knowledge' (v12). For a man of God, his story is that of the Psalmist's: 'He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness.' (v16 - see Ps 4.1, 18.19, 31.8, 118.5, 23.5 and 36.8) As a side note, quite a few of the Psalms really sum up Job's journey and story such as Psalm 4 'You have given me relief when I was in distress. the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him. Be angry, and do not sin... Offer right sacrifices,and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.'

Elihu urges Job to remember that though he may be righteous, he is still just flesh. God is God! And so above us, beyond our comprehension in every way. I find these lessons helpful and instructive, even if Elihu isn't completely 100% accurate in his assessment of Job's situation.

'Behold, God is great, and we know him not;
the number of his years is unsearchable.' (36.26 - see Ps 90.2, 102.27)

'The Almighty—we cannot find him;
he is great in power;
justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.' (37.23 - see Ps 99.4)

Job: seeing Christ as the answer

Ultimately, Job's suffering is only given an answer with the meaningful suffering of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

Job is brought to the point where he realises the 'otherness' of God. He understands something of the divine mystery, and he feels keenly the gap between him and his Creator.

'For He is not a man, as I am, that I might answer Him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us.' (Job 9:32-33a)

Job needs a mediator, and so do we. The Bible clearly tells us that we find the mediator we need in Jesus Christ:

'For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim 2:5).

It is a wonderful thing; Jesus makes the sacrifice once and for all for sins (Hebrews 10). He died for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn 2:2) and made the propitiation that no one else could. Think about it: if Job, even Job, with all his righteousness, had died on the cross, what would have happened? Would the sky have turned dark and rocks split open and the dead been raised? No. There would have been no atonement, and no resurrection. Only Jesus could fulfil this role uniquely as the mediator because He was both God and man, and in sinless perfection, He could bring us to His Father.

In a stunning glimpse of gospel-clarity, Job sees that resurrection is needed to solve the mystery of suffering: 'For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth.' (Job 19:25)

Only God has power of death (Job 38:17). Christ's victory over Satan will ultimately answer all the human frustrations of suffering and injustice. Redemption in Christ gives a final answer to Satan's accusations by justifying the ungodly (Rom 4:5).

'He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them... He did this (offered sacrifice) once for all when He offered up Himself.' (Heb 7:25-27)

'For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.' (1 Cor 15:22)

We have only ever known this world to be full of suffering and death since Adam fell; Jesus offers the only solution to our fallen human condition. In sending Jesus, God wasn't pressing the 'pause' or even the 'stop' button on the world's suffering; He was entering into it Himself to deliver us eternally. The rest of our earthly life will continue to be marked with suffering as part of our mortality, but we can be made right before God through Jesus Christ and spend an eternity in His perfect new creation where there will be no more tears (Rev 21).

Jesus is not only our mediator, but our friend. He is acquainted with sorrow (Isa 53:3), and He gets how we feel, and He is not lacking in compassion for us:

'For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.' (Heb 4:15-16)

His nail-marked hands hold ours as we walk through life with all its shadows and pain. Each step takes us closer to seeing Him face to face in an eternity without suffering.

Job: finding the end of yourself

God seems to use suffering in our lives to make us see the limits of our own strength. Look at Job: he was a righteous and wealthy man. But the danger of this is that you can too easily trust in your own resources and character as a protection from trouble. Job discovered his righteousness did not bring him immunity from suffering, and this is the big theological problem of the book: Job's friends reason (and with good Scriptural foundation) that God is just and will bless the righteous, therefore Job must have sinned to bring about this calamity. The reader -and Job- knows this is not the case, and yet how could God still bring about this suffering?

In a good sense, Job's friends' knowledge of the truth (that God is good and will punish the wicked) gives reassurance in the topsy-turvy time of trial that the righteous will be blessed and the wicked will be cut off. But their understanding is limited, and their theology doesn't have room for innocent suffering, ultimately experienced in the cross of Jesus.

However, even though Job is right in speaking of himself as innocent before God, he still needs to acknowledge God's right to be God. God doesn't owe us anything. The things Job has lost were gifts in the first place. Even in our piety, we can't save ourselves; we need a mediator. Job needed to realise that his sacrifices weren't enough; he couldn't make his own atonement, let alone for others. His suffering drives him to realise his own neediness, as he says 'Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?' (Job 6:13).

When God does something we don't understand, the temptation is to give up on the divine plan and see God as a human adversary who doesn't do things logically or rationally (see the imagery in Job 16). In suffering, you are forced to see the 'otherness' of God. You understand more that you don't understand Him. God is just, but His justice is deeper than straightforward rewards and punishments in this life.

'My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart' (Job 17:11).

Job reaches the end of himself, but then begins a journey to seeing the hope of resurrection.

Job: the voice of grief

This year one of my resolutions was to work through the topic of grief and how to deal with it from a biblical perspective. It's been a journey! And I started with Job because it's a pretty good place to start when thinking about the Old Testament stories of grief. He loses almost everything he has, from his children to his possessions to his health (see Job 1-2). But he finds his way to the place of praise: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)

It's hard to worship God through suffering - this is why Job is tested in this way. He does worship, but not without questioning, as the book continues. It's not an easy journey for him.

As you read through Job's speeches, you get a real sense of what I call the 'voice of grief'. These are words which reflect the sense you get when you're grieving that you'll never be happy again. Read Job 7:
'Has not man a hard service on earth,
and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle
and come to their end without hope.

“Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will never again see good.' (v1-7)

I love the way that Scripture gives us an honest depiction of gut-wrenching grief here. This sense of everything being empty, and a restless frustration, is perhaps a necessary part of the all-consuming stage of grief. However, these ideas can become lies the enemy uses to keep you in despair. When tragedy occurs, Satan sees an opportunity to bring people into bondage. Endings always bring new beginnings, but Satan strives to keep us out of the new place God has prepared by keeping us in the past. It's too easy, in your hurt, to question God and let this become a barrier. We can start to think God isn't good and can't be trusted. But James 1:17 affirms that God is good and He can't be anything else. We don't have answers -we know 'in part' (1 Cor 13:12)- and trust will always require us to accept unanswered questions. (See Joyce Meyer's teaching 'Overcoming Grief' here).

Some thoughts on the book of Job

The wisdom of Job's friends

In the past I have always been taught to disregard what Job's friends say to him because they are mistaken in assuming that God is punishing him for his sins with the suffering he has to endure. Whilst the book makes it clear that Job was righteous and therefore the terrible things that happened to him were not because of any sin he had committed, I have been really struck that other things his friends say do contain helpful truths, backed up by other parts of Scripture:

Don't lose heart when trouble strikes: let your reverence for God give you confidence (4.5-6)
Know that resentment and jealousy destroy people, so don't fall into these traps when bad things happen to you and you look at other people's lives and start wishing you were in their shoes (5.2)
Know that God does great things beyond our understanding (5.9) This is really the core message of the book, because it is God's own answer to Job later on.
God may wound, but He also bandages. He keeps his people from evil (5:18-19) Rather than meaning He stops his people ever coming into contact with evil, I think this means He helps us to stand whenever evil comes.
God doesn't twist justice (8.3)
Remember that the hopes of the godless [that is, those who have no thought of God, just live their lives without thinking about Him or giving Him time. It doesn't necessarily mean wicked people] evaporate. They are leaning on a spider's web. They cling to their home for security, but it won't last. (8.13-15)

Job's friend makes a prophecy which does come true by the end of the book: 'If you pray to God and seek His favour, if you are pure and live with integrity, He will surely rise up and restore your happy home. And though you started with little, you will end with much.' (8.5-7) And again: 'God will not reject a person of integrity, nor will He lend a hand to the wicked. He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.' (8.20-22)

The gospel in Job

Job's problem is essentially the gospel problem: how can men approach God? He needs a gospel solution. The advice of his friends on its own is not enough ('prepare your heart and lift your hands to Him in prayer. Get rid of your sins and leave all iniquity behind you' 11:13-14); he needs Jesus to get rid of sin for him! Job recognises that he needs a mediator to come between him and God (16.21), even though he is righteous, because he is just a man. Just dust. Even if we never sinned (which is not the case), it wouldn't be our right as humans to know God and be in relationship with Him. It's a gift.

But let's take this further. Even if we never sinned (again I stress this is not the case!), it wouldn't be our right to enjoy blessings and privileges from God - like children, a home, wealth, possessions... Just like Job had at the start of the book, then lost when God allowed Satan to test him.

The warning of Job
The sober message of Job is that those who trust in the Lord are not exempt from tragedy. If your situation is like Job's in his days of glory, this book gives a warning to you. At any time, God could take it all away. It's His prerogative, and He would still be righteous and just if He did, because we don't deserve all the blessings we have. Read Chapter 29 and see if you identify with Job's enjoyment of being able to bless others (v13) and his respected position where everyone listens to his advice (v21,25). I was really struck by this! It feels like a warning not to become arrogant in this or attribute these gifts to your own merit or as something you deserve. I'm not saying Job did, but he really struggled when God took those things away and suddenly, he was the one who needed to be blessed by others (and unfortunately, he had friends whose advice wasn't always the most sensitive or helpful!). It was very humbling for him. It's an inspiration to see how he still chooses to worship and he catches glimpses of the gospel's solution in the midst of his suffering:
'Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await the release of death.' 14.14
'For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.' 19.25-27

The key to Job's problems is not to know all the answers, but to know that in this life we have suffering, but in eternity we will be freed from all death and pain forever (Revelation 21). That's why we can trust God now, because He's made promises which He will keep. Jesus has dealt with our sins on the cross, so that our death will not be final: like Him, we will be resurrected and given glorified bodies to serve God forever in the new creation. (1 Thess 4, 1 Cor 15)

(Just as an end note, I've been really challenged recently by the story of Keith Green and the testimony of his wife, Melody. He was killed in a plane crash with two of their children when he was just 28. That is such a terrifying thing to go through and yet she has still trusted God and has an incredible ministry. There are so many examples of Christians today who are going through such tough times, like Job did. And God is still faithful!)

How can I trust the Bible? #2

How can you trust the Bible when it's so unscientific?

I've been asked this question so many times.

The idea that the Bible is unscientific probably comes from people's perception of the Genesis account of creation in six days, which contradicts their evolutionary science education.

There are several different Christian responses to the whole question of creation-evolution, and I don't want to tackle that issue now. Firstly, I want to combat this common stereotype that the Bible is 'unscientific'.

Christians believe that the Bible is the 'Word of God'. This means that although men wrote it, the words they were writing were given to them by God. They were 'inspired' by the Holy Spirit. God ensured that what they wrote was free from error.

Now God is the biggest, greatest Scientist in the universe! He INVENTED science! He created this incredibly complex universe and all its natural laws and delicate eco-balances come through His design.

So it's unsurprising that the Bible contains various comments that reveal an awareness of science far beyond its historical era, pointing towards God's authorship behind the human writers.

Look at Job 38:31: 'Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?'
Only in the last 30 years have we discovered what this verse means- scientists found that Pleiades is a loose cluster of stars, whereas Orion is a tight cluster. God thus is speaking to Job about His formation of the stars, something Job would not have understood but was led to write down.

Job 26:7 states 'He hangeth the world upon nothing', a bold statement regarding the gravitation of the earth that means it doesn't have to be supported by anything physical. At the time, ancient Greeks believed the world was held up by Atlas, and the Muslims believed the world was held up by a bull. The Bible was right.

Isa 40:22 says that earth is spherical: 'He sits upon the circle of the earth'.

And to top it all off, Job 38:14 states that the earth is spinning: 'The earth takes shape like clay under a seal'. What does that mean? Well, a Hebrew seal was a cylinder that you rolled along the parchment- it rotates on its axis. Here is a perfect picture of how the earth moves through space.

Luke also shows that the earth has different timescales, a concept unknown to the people of his day. Luke 17:24-25- 'I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.'
Jesus is talking about His Second Coming, and we know there will only be one Day of the Lord. But what do these verses say? Two people are in bed, sleeping- it must be night time. But two women are going about their daily work in the daytime. Thus this shows that when Jesus returns, half the world will be in daytime, and half in night time.

These are just a few examples of how the Bible makes scientific statements that are way ahead of its time. But really, you need to read it for yourself to see how amazingly practical a book it is. Unlike the Qu'ran, which is a collection of Mohammed's sayings, the Bible is a collection of 66 inspired books, which vary in genre from history, poetry, letters and law. You need to be aware of these differences in style when you read it.

This book, 'Dig Deeper' by Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach, is really helpful in explaining how to read the Bible: