Job 42:1-7
The story Job has a questionable happy ending. The loss of his sons and
daughters seems too much to be ever compensated. Yet, Job still praises God,
and he gains some new insights into suffering and the nature of God. The first
insight is that God is far more powerful than we can imagine.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this
that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I
will question you, and you make it known to me. “Where were you when I laid the
foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its
measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were
its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang
together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? “Or who shut in the sea with
doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick
darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and
doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your
proud waves be stayed’?
Job 38:1-11 ESV
God takes care of all these things and suffering is inevitable. One
decision cannot change everything. Our suffering might bring relief to someone
else, but the reality is that God is beyond our understanding. His greatness is
much more than we can comprehend. When our prayers are unanswered, we should be
open minded and not limit God in our plans. Rather we should try to find out
what God’s plans are for us in His kingdom.
‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to
me.’
Job 42:4 ESV
The second insight is that we need to listen to God and not the other
way around. God does not always answer our prayer the way we always think.
God's plan for us is not always what we think it should be. God wants us to
know him. It is our unanswered prayers which are affirmations to God's plan. We
should trust and leave up our destination to Him.
The third insight of Job is we need to experience God.
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:5-6 ESV
Job may have heard if God and even understood the theology of God, but
Job had not experienced God. We need to experience God through direct
experience in order to know him. God is a divine being, but we still have the
responsibility to know God and to experience God. Jesus taught us to pray to
God to know him through the experience of depending of God daily.
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your
kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread,
Matthew 6:9-11 ESV
Job knows God and has a relationship with God.
“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the
upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap
the same.
Job 4:7-8 ESV
Job is honest with God and tells him what he really thinks. It is this genuine
relationship with God which makes his complaint not a sin. The same cannot be
said about his friends who do not know God.
“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of
evildoers.
Job 8:20 ESV
Job's friends may know Levitical and Deuteronomic laws, but they do not
know God.
God demands our absolute devotion and obedience, but he is also merciful
and loving towards us. The duality of God can he confounding to us because of
our black and white thinking towards God. Yet, in God’s profound wisdom which transcends
our collective wisdom over the ages, we are at best left speechless when trying
to explain why God lets events happen the way they do. Sometimes, all we can
say is, “I don’t know.”
