Suffering is usually thought of as something that happens "to" us that we do not deserve. Suffering for the Christian is often linked with persecution for the faith, due to trust in Jesus Christ.
That is part of suffering, and it is not a point of complaint at all to the Christian. However, some suffering we cause for ourselves. Some comes from out of the blue, for no understandable reason.
Long ago a man called Job experienced suffering he did not cause, which came to him due to his trust in God. He lived centuries before the birth of Jesus.
Job experienced almost killing grief due to the deaths of his children and the destruction of his goods and wealth. He lost every child and every product of his labors.
Unknown to Job, these sufferings were conceived by Satan, who taunted God about Job and questioned the strength of Job's faith. In effect, Satan said, "Job loves God when the day is sunny, but he will curse God when unrelenting storms arise."
Satan wanted to prove that Job's faith was breakable and thereby to demean God. God gave Satan his wish, with the limitation that Satan could not kill Job.
Job experienced, then, many sufferings, and the Bible bears the record of this man Job's journey of suffering.
During his arduous and torturous journey under Satan's fiery blasts, Job later was hit with horrible boils and physical wretchedness. His name became a by-word of disgust. During his suffering, Job questioned God, yet never claimed to be perfect. Job wondered why God had allowed his sufferings, but he never claimed he did not deserve them. Remarkable!
Neither suffering nor awareness of his sinful nature caused Job to turn away from God or prevented him from crying out to God by faith. " I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent. Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?" (Job 9:29).
Job cried out to God free of false confidence, self-delusion, or a stoic view. He admittedly cried out with dread. And God saw to it that Job would not suffer in vain. Before Job cried out to God, God was answering that prayer.
To dread is to be in extreme fear or terror. That was Job's case. He was not a stoic sufferer who builds a wall around pain, to numb it out. Job was a man of deep feelings.
Job took every thought, question, and emotion to God. He freely and spontaneously poured out every suffering of loss and of faith under fire.
Yet, at the same time, Job did not use his suffering as a weapon or as an excuse, against God or against others. Remarkable!
Job's reactions are considered to be foolish by those who turn from God. Apart from God, not acknowledging God, who could withstand all that Job suffered without bitterness, doubt, or revengeful desires taking root at the core?
Job never did understand the source of his sufferings, although the results haunted him every day he sat alone or with people who did not understand what was going on.
The book of Job gives a full record of why and how God allowed Satan to test Job. But Job never heard that conversation. He knew only his grief on one hand and His God on the other.
Job eventually triumphed over his sufferings. Even midway through them, he made one of the most powerful exclamations of faith ever:
"I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:25,26).
God gave Job, in the middle of Job's worst times, a prophetic understanding. God spoke through Job the truth that Christ, the Man of Suffering and the world's Redeemer, "shall stand at the latter day upon the earth."
God had instilled in Job, also, by Job's faith, that He would never fail him. Job came not only to believe with his mind but also to know with his heart and experience, because he trusted God, spoke to Him, and eventually learned to listen to God. Job learned for all time what the psalmists wrote about.
One psalmist put it this way: "For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations" (Psalm 100:5).
Centuries ago a timeless record was made of Job's struggles with suffering and faith. Through it and other scriptures, we know that God opens His heart to the world, one person at a time. In suffering, when we are least able to help ourselves, we cry out to God, "Help!" We wait upon Him, and He answers!
He did this for Job, but not overnight. Job's struggling yet overcoming faith encourages people of every generation. God still opens His ears to our cries because He loves us with an everlasting love. Jesus even now is in heaven interceding for all who believe in Him now and for those yet to believe on Him (see John 17).
We write of such things to remind ourselves, as well as to remind others, that suffering's faith response can bring us through suffering's fiery furnace. Job proclaimed: " He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). Let us open our hearts to God and cry out our need.
Whether we cause our or another person's suffering, or whether the present suffering is another of life's mystifying twists or turns, there is no hope but God. God, who brought Job through, is ready to do the same for those who call upon Him sincerely.
2008 Jane Bullard. Scriptures are from the King James Version and the New King James Version of the Bible
Jean Purcell is a book publisher and writer. Her first book was Not All Roads Lead Home under her pen name, Jane Bullard. Her web site is http://www.opinebooks.com and her Writing and Publishing Nonfiction Books blog is at http://janebullard.blogspot.com/ Sign up for the free Opinari Quarterly for Christian Writers, Publishing Professionals, Book Lovers, and Reviewers on her web site.
Thank you Jane for this timely reminder. Like Job, I know my Redeemer lives! This is encouragement and hope in times like these. Thank you for offering a Savior. Blessings to you always. Respond to this comment
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