Suffering 8
Job and His Friends by Ilya Repin, c 1869 |
In the last few weeks we have examined
the meaning of the word “suffering” in the Scriptures, and looked at how God
goes before us in His own suffering. Today and next week, I want to turn my
attention to the greatest non-divine object of suffering in the Bible, namely,
Job.
As a regular reader of the Bible for decades,
I have read through Job numerous times. However, as I got older, I became
increasingly frustrated with the fact I did not understand it very well. Thus
it was that several years ago when I began preparing this series I set out to
study the book of Job. When I do long-term preparation it generally
involves three things. First, I read the book repeatedly, out loud, preferably
all in one setting. Second, I read commentaries about the book. Third, I read
books on the major themes touched on in the scriptural book I am studying.
With Job, I did all three of
these. Because Job is a fairly complex book, it helped me to print the
entire thing out, and to color code it based on who is speaking. Job was one
color, God another, Satan another, Bildad another, etc. That helped me very
much as I sought to understand the flow of thought in the text. I also gathered
several commentaries on Job, and several books on the theme of
suffering. Slowly, it began to come together. In these two posts, I am not
going to tell you everything I learned about the book of Job, but I do want
to give you several key observations I have made along the way.
We see that Job did indeed suffer, and
suffer deeply. It is my opinion that Job’s children were living contrary to the
Lord. (Job 1.5) That brought suffering. He lost his oxen, asses, sheep,
and camels. (Job 1.14-17) That brought suffering. He lost his children. (Job
1.18-19) That brought suffering. He lost his health. (Job 2.7) That
brought suffering. His marriage was deeply damaged. (Job 2.9-10) That
brought suffering. His friend’s sincerely yet errantly attacked his integrity.
That brought suffering. He lost his reputation. That brought suffering. And in
his pain God was silent. That brought suffering.
If suffering is rooted in loss, then Job
suffered more than anyone else I have ever heard of. From what I can gather, of
all he had acquired – spiritually, emotionally, physically - there were only
three things he did not lose. He did not lose his integrity. Of course, I would
argue integrity is not something you can lose; you can only give it away. He
also did not lose his faith. Likewise, that is not lost so much as given away.
Nor did he lose his life.
Everything else he had, everything, he
lost. He lost most of it suddenly. He lost most of it without any rational
reason he could point to or understand, nor could anyone give him an adequate
explanation for why it had happened. Furthermore, his support system – his wife/friends/God
– only caused him additional pain in the midst of his deep suffering. Is it any
wonder he responded badly?
Job’s response, which I have just
described with the adverb “badly”, is worth noting. In order to do that, I am
going to include more Scripture than I normally would with a blog post; I
appreciate your patience with me here.
At first, Job remained firm in His trust in Jehovah.
Job
1:20–22
20 Then Job arose,
and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and
worshipped,
21 And said, Naked
came I out of my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return thither: The Lord
gave, and the Lord hath taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.
22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
He also rebuked his wife when she verbally expressed her frustration with God.
Job
2:10
10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
By implication here, Job realizes it
is neither fair to Him nor right to always expect God to pour out unending
blessing in this life.
Over time, however, Job’s attitude
toward his suffering begins to deteriorate. I noticed something similar in
myself when dealing with covid. At first, I expressed faith, sought to follow
my conscience in obeying both God and the government, and took things in
stride. But as the weeks became months my attitude went downhill. Job and I are
not unique in this. For the most part, it is sadly normal for spiritual people
to respond well at the first sudden onset of suffering in their life only to slide
into anger, questioning, and accusation toward/with God later.
Thus it was with Job. Soon enough, he is expressing his own frustration with God. Why will God not answer him? Why will God not explain Himself? What is the point of life if it is only to live in the never-ending misery it had become?
Job
3:20–23
20 Wherefore is light
given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul;
21 Which long for
death, but it cometh not; And dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 Which rejoice
exceedingly, And are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?
This frustration with a silent God, a God who was mysteriously afflicting great pain on him, leads to his lament. He still trusted God, but that God was silent, and refused to either explain or eliminate his suffering, nor would God grant him the meagerest crumb of comfort. Then what is the point? There is no hope, no strength to endure, no help – life is sheer misery.
Job by Leon Bonnet c 1880 |
Job
6:8–13
8 Oh that I might
have my request; And that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
9 Even that it would
please God to destroy me; That he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
10 Then should I yet
have comfort; Yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; For I
have not concealed the words of the Holy One.
11 What is my
strength, that I should hope? And what is mine end, that I should prolong my
life?
12 Is my strength the
strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?
13 Is not my help in me? And is wisdom driven quite from me?
Eventually, in an inevitable development, Job arrives at the place where he thinks it would have been better for him to have never lived in the first place.
Job
3:11
11 Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
What is key to understand here is that this not merely suicidal ideation. This is an indictment against the God who created Him, protected Him, provided for Him, blessed Him, and now apparently tortures Him. This is his great sin. In Job 1 he is without fault but by the end God is reproving him harshly. Why? In asserting that God was being unfair to Him, either in allowing His suffering or not explaining His suffering, Job is saying that God was wrong. Job's position is that God is actually unrighteous, which is an awful indictment of God. Yet in all of this, Job still believes in God, even argues for the theological point that God is aware of what is happening to him. Indeed, God is omniscient; He does not ignore us. Believing this, however, only makes it worse for Job. God knows of his misery – and is doing nothing.
Job
7:19–21
19 How long wilt thou
not depart from me, Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
20 I have sinned;
what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a
mark against thee, So that I am a burden to myself?
21 And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, And take away mine iniquity? For now shall I sleep in the dust; And thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.
The result of this landslide of
suffering in Job’s life was complete isolation, a result that is all too common
in our more modern day experience. Suffering involves loss, and that loss metastasizes.
It does not remain contained within the strict confines of the area in which
the loss was actually experienced. Like a contagion, our losses begin to mount,
and as they mount we become increasingly isolated.
Think with me, for a moment, of what
happens in the life of a pastor who commits adultery or embezzles from church
accounts. He loses his integrity. He loses his job. He loses his meaning for
life, his purpose for existing. Most of the time, he loses his friends. He
loses his church. He often loses his family. And he suffers much damage in his
relationship with the Lord. What a landslide of isolation!
While you can and perhaps should argue
that pastor’s suffering is self-inflicted, you cannot argue that Job’s
suffering was self-inflicted. It was God permitted and satanically inflicted. Though
that was true, Job ends up isolated anyway.
Due to their theological ineptitude and their attacks on his integrity, he ends up isolated from his friends.
Job
6:14
14 To him that is
afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; But he forsaketh the fear of
the Almighty.
…
Job
16:2
2 I have heard many such things: Miserable comforters are ye all.
Even if our friends do not condemn us
in our loss as his unjustifiably did, they often disassociate themselves from
us. Even when they do not disassociate themselves from us, they do not in any
way understand what we are enduring. They cannot, for the simple reason they
have not endured what we are enduring.
Some years ago, I stood waiting in my
church foyer for the last person to leave so I could lock up. I had already
turned the rest of the lights in the building off, and we stood pleasantly
conversing in the foyer. As the last person turned to go, they casually threw
out a remark that devastated me. I mumbled goodbye, stumbled up the stairs to
my darkened auditorium, and wept all alone on the back row of that vast, quiet,
dark room. No one knew I was there weeping. If they had, they would not have
understood why, nor could I possibly have explained it. That individual’s remark
had unintentionally pierced a protective barrier I had erected around some painful
facts in my heart. I sat on the back row, emotionally bleeding out, with no one
the wiser. I was all alone. Except Him.
In addition to becoming isolated from his friends, Job also felt cut off from God. When a lost man experiences pain, he seeks solace in whatever he can find, his bottle, his pills, his therapist, etc. The carnal man is largely similar. The spiritual man, however, turns to the Lord. Which only makes the silence of God, the lack of response or explanation or comfort from God all the worse.
Job
9:13–18
13 If God will not
withdraw his anger, The proud helpers do stoop under him.
14 How much less
shall I answer him, And choose out my words to reason with him?
15 Whom, though I
were righteous, yet would I not answer, But I would make supplication to my
judge.
16 If I had called,
and he had answered me; Yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my
voice.
17 For he breaketh me
with a tempest, And multiplieth my wounds without cause.
18 He will not suffer
me to take my breath, But filleth me with bitterness.
…
Job
23:3–9
3 Oh that I knew
where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!
4 I would order my
cause before him, And fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know the
words which he would answer me, And understand what he would say unto me.
6 Will he plead
against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.
7 There the
righteous might dispute with him; So should I be delivered for ever from my
judge.
8 Behold, I go
forward, but he is not there; And backward, but I cannot perceive him:
9 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:
Often, the Lord graciously comforts us
in our suffering. We are reminded of previous experiences of loss, and how God
blessed us through them as we trusted Him. Friends gather to offer genuine
solace. Music moves us, reminding us of God’s greatness and goodness. The peace
of His creation soothes us. We read the Word, and the Spirit ministers a balm
to our heart. We hear the Word preached, and the Comforter again does His best
work in us.
…but sometimes, there is no balm.
Sometimes there is only silence. All the things that have previously ministered
comfort to our aching heart are entirely out of reach. We are tantalized by the
comfort others flaunt for their inferior grief, but nothing touches our heart.
We sit on the back row, emotionally bleeding out, invisibly so to those around
us, apparently. The darkness is so thick it can be felt. And even God is silent.
When God is silent we are in hell.
Yes. Just, yes. I felt the burning sensation again while reading this, recalling the stages that I went through.
ReplyDeleteInsightful...honest...real Christianity. It takes a bleeding heart to be there to relate it.
ReplyDeleteSpoke to my heart. I know of nothing worse than the silence of God!
ReplyDelete