Introduction
When we are
experiencing pain, grief, or suffering we tend to ask lots of questions:Why am
I having so much pain? Why did my loved one have to die? Why isn’t God
answering my prayers? What did I do to deserve this? Where is God in all of
this? A well-known television preacher was trying to answer these questions and
is reported to have said the following:“I want you to know that God has
nothing whatsoever to do with suffering and death. All pain, suffering, and
death is the responsibility of the devil.” Do you agree with that statement? No
doubt this preacher meant well in trying to vindicate God, trying to defend God
before people who might be angry at Him because of suffering and death. But I
believe he was very wrong in his explanation. There is nothing wrong with our
trying to defend God against the attacks or hard feelings of others, but we
must do it according to the truth of His Word. The truth of the Scriptures is
that God has everything to do with pain and suffering.
Why?
Why does God
allow pain and suffering? And why is it important for us to know why? Our
questions relate primarily to the meaning and purpose of our pain. If we know
there is a meaningful outcome, it will be far easier for us to endure the pain
and suffering. I sometimes wonder how it is that so many women in the world
purposefully try to have more children after having to endure the discomforts,
morning sickness, and sometimes much worse of nine months of being pregnant,
and then experiencing the intense labor pains associated with childbirth. I
believe the answer lies in their expectation of experiencing the fruit of their
labors—the anticipated joy of having a baby—that makes it all seem worthwhile.
The
Olympic Games
Consider the
Olympic Games. Why would any man or woman want to put up with the long hours,
the grueling training, the pain, and the risk of injury to train for the Games?
Is it not because of the hope of being crowned, or receiving a medal, or
enjoying a moment of fame? Or for some who may have little hope of winning a
medal, it is the glory, the national recognition of simply being privileged to
compete in the Games. So when we are experiencing pain and suffering, we ask
"Why? What is the purpose in it?" because we want to know that our
suffering is going to result in long-term benefit to ourselves or others.
Job—a
Case Study
Let us take up
a case study of the patriarch Job—a man renowned for enduring pain and
suffering. Here is a synopsis of Job 1 and 2:
1. Job was a
God-fearing man (1:1).
2. He had many
children and was prosperous (1:2,3).
3. The Lord
took the initiative, asking Satan about Job (1:6-8).
4. Satan
responded, “Of course Job fears You! You have bribed Job!” (1:9-11).
5. Job suffered
the loss of his children, possessions, and health (1:13-19; 2:7).
Who was
responsible for Job’s loss? God? Satan? the Sabeans and Chaldeans? To some
extent all four shared in the responsibility. God allowed Satan freedom to do
these things to Job. What about the Sabeans and Chaldeans (1:15,17)? These two
groups could not say, “The devil made me do it,” or “God told the devil to make
me do it.” They no doubt had been looking at Job for a long time. Perhaps they
had even attempted to plunder Job’s possessions but God had protected Job and
his property up to this point by putting a “hedge about him and about his
house” (1:10). What is a hedge? An example may be found in 2 Kings 6:15-17.
When the prophet Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the Syrian troops,
they found themselves surrounded even more closely by an army of angels
protecting them. Once God removed the hedge around Job, all Satan had to do was
whisper into the ear of one of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, “Why don’t you try
Job again.” On the one hand, they were responsible before God for their own sinful
practices. On the other hand, God used their innate sinfulness to work out his
own purposes with Job. We see the same thing with respect to Nebuchadnezzar.
The Lord refers to the king of Babylon as “My servant” (Jer. 27:6). God made
use of Nebuchadnezzar’s sinful pride and ambition to apply a whipping to the
nation of Israel who had turned away from God. If we get robbed, the robber
will have to bear the consequences of his sinful actions before God the judge
of all; but at the same time, it is possible that the Lord removed for a brief
time, for reasons He knows best, the hedge of protection He had put around us.
In Job 2, the
Lord again took the initiative concerning Job. Satan complained that God did
not give him enough room to work with Job the first time around. Satan says,
“Touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse Thee to Thy face”(2:6).
Was Job
Treated Fairly?
Let us step
back a moment. Here is a controversy between God and Satan and poor Job seems
to be caught in the middle. Some might ask, “Is it fair for man to be
made a pawn in such affairs between God and Satan? What did poor Job do to
deserve such loss and suffering?” We must be very careful about asking
questions beginning with, “Is it fair?” or making statements, “It’s not fair.”
Let us rephrase the question:“Did Job deserve that God should continue
to give him great prosperity and good health?” And then we must ask:“Do I
deserve that God should bless me and prosper me continually? Does God owe
me anything?” Read carefully now; I am about to make perhaps the most important
point of this entire article:IF WE GOT WHAT WE DESERVED, WE WOULD ALL
BE IN THE LAKE OF FIRE AT THIS MOMENT, INCLUDING UPRIGHT JOB. Job had some
sense of this. He says, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall
I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name
of the Lord” (1:21). Again he says when covered with boils, “Shall we receive
good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?” (2:10). Dear brothers
and sisters in Christ:Do you realize how immensely blessed each one of us is?
God has been so merciful to us! We tend to take His mercies for granted. So
when He occasionally withholds His mercy from us, when someone or something
dear to us is taken away from us, we may get angry at God as if we deserve
to have that precious person or thing. I DON’T DESERVE ONE SINGLE THING IN THIS
LIFE! The only thing I deserve is eternal separation from God because of my
sins! Often when the gospel is preached we are reminded that none of us
deserves the wonderful salvation that God offers to us. But it is more than
this. None of us deserves ANYTHING! All that we have and are is a result of
God’s grace—favor shown to people who deserve the opposite. “Not by works of
righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us”
(Tit. 3:5). If we don’t deserve the greatest blessing of all—God’s eternal
salvation—then surely we don’t deserve any lesser blessing.
Are We
Treated Fairly?
Have any of my
readers ever said or thought, “It’s not fair!”? As children, did you ever say,
“It’s not fair! Billy’s piece of cake is bigger than mine!”? As teenagers, did
you ever say to your parents, “It’s not fair! You let Susie stay out till 11:00
and you only let me stay out till 10:30!”? As adults, have you ever said, “It’s
not fair! Mr. Jones has not been with the company as long as I have and he has
been promoted above me!”? When we say or think, “It’s not fair the way I have
been treated,” we are essentially saying, “I deserve to be treated better.” We
need continually to remind ourselves, I DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING! That was one of
the lessons God was teaching Job and one of the lessons He wants us to learn
when He tests us and brings us into pain and suffering. This is why the apostle
Peter exhorted his readers, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). This is why the apostle Paul
exhorted young Timothy, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). We need to grow in the realization that
all we have and are is a result of God’s grace—demerited favor—toward us.
Instead of complaining about the things that go wrong in our lives, we need to
be reminded by the occasional set-backs we experience of all the things that
have gone well in our lives, by the grace and mercy of God, and all the things
that will go well with us for eternity. "For our light affliction,
that is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17).
A Lesson in
Righteousness
and
Mercy
Read Matt.
20:1-16. Here we have a lesson concerning righteousness and mercy. Was it
unrighteous for the master to give only a penny to those who had labored all
day? No, because that is what they agreed to be paid. But what about those who
got paid the same amount for less work? They were recipients of the master’s mercy.
They received more than they deserved. That is how God deals with all of
us each and every day. He gives us more than we deserve. And how much do
we deserve? That’s right, WE DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING! The master says, “Is it
not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is your eye evil because I
am good?” God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (Rom. 9:15).
Job Brought
Glory to God
Up to this
point Job vindicated God:“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” (Job 2:10). Job
did not curse God as Satan had said he would. Job therefore brought great glory
to God by his patience in putting up with his great loss and pain and
suffering. His patience is especially noted in the New Testament:“You have
heard of the patience of Job” (Jas. 5:11). Job brought glory to God by
declaring God’s sovereign right to do what He wants to do with His created
beings. Here is one reason God allows pain and suffering:it gives His people
an opportunity to bring glory to Him by the way they respond to that pain and
suffering.
Another
Kind of Pain
As long as Job
was by himself, he handled his suffering very well. But now we have three more
characters coming on the scene—Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and
Zophar. They had come to mourn with Job and comfort him, and initially they did
weep (2:12). But then they sat down with him seven days and nights and none
spoke a word unto Job. Sometimes we may find ourselves in a situation where we
have gone to comfort a friend or relative, and we cannot find any words to say.
All we can do is sit and hold that person’s hand and perhaps listen to what
he/she has to say. Sometimes this may be the best way of comforting the person—just
being there. Maybe this is what Job’s three friends were doing. But their
speeches to Job in the subsequent chapters suggest that their silence meant
something else to Job. I believe Job detected looks of disapproval and
accusation on the faces of his three friends, even before they opened their
mouths. Job 16:4 suggests that they were shaking their heads at him. Have you
ever had the experience, perhaps with your wife or husband or your parent or
child? You detect a certain look on that person’s face and you ask, “What’s the
matter?” And the other responds, “Did I say anything was the matter?” “No, but I
can read it on your face.”
I believe Job
could read on the faces of his three friends exactly what they were thinking.
And what was that? As manifested later by their speeches to Job, they were
thinking that Job must have committed some terrible sin in order for God to be
punishing him so severely. Was their thinking “off the wall” as we might say?
Were they expounding principles that were contrary to what they knew about God?
No, not at all. It is generally believed that Job lived around the same time as
the patriarch Abraham. Job and his three friends surely knew the story of God’s
destruction of nearly the entire human race in the great flood because of their
wickedness. It may have been in the lifetime of Job and his friends that Sodom
and Gomorrah were destroyed because of the people’s wickedness. And on the
other hand, they surely knew the story of righteous, godly Enoch being taken
straight to heaven without dying. So the principle that these three friends
were espousing, that man’s suffering is proportional to his sin and his
prosperity and blessing is proportional to his righteousness, was not out of
line with what they had learned at that time concerning God’s dealings with
man. The only problem was that man’s sin and man’s righteousness are not the only
factors that bear upon his suffering or prosperity. The three friends were
totally wrong in applying those general principles to Job.
I believe Job
realized what his friends were thinking and he began to feel sorry for himself.
The only thing worse than suffering and not knowing why, is having your
so-called friends tell you that you must be a really bad sinner because of your
suffering. Job knew he was a righteous man who tried in every way to please
God. The condemning looks of his three friends may have started him thinking,
“What right does God have to punish me so severely? I surely do not deserve it,
as my friends seem to think. What could possibly be God’s purpose in it?” And
so Job, not knowing the purpose and meaning of his great suffering, cries out
at the beginning of chapter 3 and curses the day of his birth. (Note that he
does not curse God, though he comes close to it.) He cannot take it any more.
He wishes he were dead, or that he had never been born! What follows is over 30
chapters of dialogue between Job and his three friends plus a younger man,
Elihu, who comes on the scene later on. The three friends try to get Job to
admit to the great sin of which he must be guilty. Job all the while protests
his innocence. Then he begins to complain to God (chapters 29-31). Note that
Job and his friends start out rather mildly, but progress to caustic and biting
words against each other (compare 4:2-7 with 22:5-9). Just so with us, disputes
that begin over small things can quickly escalate to something ugly. That is
why those who play the role of peacemakers, who seek to restore others who are
“overtaken in a fault” must do their work “in the spirit of meekness” (Gal.
6:1).
Physical
Pain versus
People
Pain
Let me insert
here the observation that God’s people—like Job—often are able to handle
physical pain and suffering much better than the bad behavior of other people.
We tend to think of the physical sufferings as being from the Lord, but when people
hurt us with their actions or words or insinuations or the disapproving looks
on their faces, we easily take offense. Our human pride is wounded. We feel a
need to defend ourselves. But these “people trials” are allowed by God for our
benefit as much as the trials of physical pain and suffering. Such trials
provide a very good and sobering means of helping us to see the immense amount
of pride that lurks in our deceitful and desperately wicked hearts. So when we
are experiencing a trial as a result of a difficult person in our lives, it is always
well for us to examine ourselves whether there is pride in our hearts that
needs to be judged.
God’s
Perspective
Job rehearses
the many good and righteous deeds he performed throughout his lifetime
(chapters 29 and 31), suggesting that God should be rewarding him rather than
causing him such pain and loss. He implies that he is more righteous than God
(35:2). He cries out, “Oh that one would hear me! Behold, my desire is that the
Almighty would answer me” (31:35). God never tells Job why He has caused him so
much pain and suffering. Rather, God responds to Job by saying in essence:
“Job, do you presume to tell Me how great and wonderful your works and good
deeds are? Let Me ask you some questions before I answer yours”:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? … Who shut up the
sea with doors? … Have you commanded the morning since your days and
caused the dayspring to know his place? … Have you perceived the breadth of
the earth? … Who has begotten the drops of dew? … Can you … loose the
bands of Orion? … Did you give goodly wings unto the peacocks? … Does the
eagle mount up at your command? … Shall he who contends with the Almighty
instruct Him? He who reproves God, let him answer it. The Job answered the Lord
and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay my hand upon
my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yea, twice, but I will
proceed no further” (38:4,8,12,18,28,31; 39:13,27; 40:2-5).
Job is starting
to get the picture, but God is not yet through with him:“Will you condemn Me,
that you may be righteous? Have you an arm like God? or can you thunder with a
voice like Him? … Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine” (40:8,9;
41:11). In other words, God is saying to Job, “Who are you, Job, that you
should be telling me about your works and good deeds. I think something
is backward here!” Job responds, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the
ear, but now my eye sees Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes” (42:5,6). Among the other purposes of God’s testing of Job, we see that
there was a root of self-righteousness and pride and self-importance in Job
that needed to be uncovered. He “was perfect and upright, and one who feared
God and eschewed evil” (1:1). But we also read that “Job … was righteous in
his own eyes” (32:1). He had to come to see himself from God’s perspective. Job
was “the greatest of all the men of the east” (1:3). But he had to learn the
immense power and greatness of God and his own littleness in comparison. And
Job did learn these lessons, repenting before God in dust and ashes. Job had
also spoken sinfully and impatiently to his three friends; even though they
were wrong in their accusations against him, he had to humble himself to pray
for them (42:10).
The Fire of
Purification
God took a man
who was already perfect and upright before his fellow men, one whom his fellows
admired and looked up to. And God put Job through the fire of pain and
suffering to purify him even more. A goldsmith does not take random
pieces of rock and melt them down to see if there is any gold in them. Rather
he takes that which already gives every evidence of being gold. He then heats
the gold until it melts in order for impurities to rise to the surface. The
goldsmith skims off the impurities in order to make the gold more pure. Just
so, our trials and sufferings often have a purifying effect upon us. The
psalmist prays, “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults” (Psa. 19:12). Trials of
pain and suffering may help to uncover within us pride or hidden faults that we
were not aware of. “You greatly rejoice … that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with
fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6,7).
We already
referred to gold that is refined by heat. The quality and value of clay pottery
likewise is directly proportional to the degree of heat applied to it. The
finer pottery that is decorated in different colors may have to be fired
several times, once for each different mineral used to give it color. Diamonds,
on the other hand, are pieces of carbon that have been subjected to intense
pressures. Diamonds in the rough are then cleaved and cut to produce facets
that reflect light in an optimal manner. So nature teaches us that the finest,
most beautiful jewelry and pottery comes only from intense heat, pressure, and
cutting. Likewise, the finest, most beautiful Christians tend to emerge from
intense trials and sufferings.
God chastens us
“for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:10). “All
things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the
called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). And what is that purpose of God
for His own? The next verse tells us:that we might “be conformed to the image
of His Son.”
Benefits
from Suffering
In summary,
there were several kinds of benefits that came out of Job’s sufferings. First,
God was glorified in that Job did not curse Him as Satan had predicted. Do we
love and appreciate God so much that we value the opportunity presented to us
by pain and suffering to bring glory to Him? Second, Job was purified through
the suffering; he learned more about himself (especially his pride and
self-righteousness) and God; he learned to see himself in his proper
relationship to God—God’s intrinsic greatness and his own smallness. Third, God
commended Job for speaking right things about God (42:7,8). Fourth, and perhaps
least, God blessed Job in the end with far more material possessions than he
had at the beginning as well as with long life (42:12-17).