Why Am I Suffering? Making Sense of Life's Hardships
It’s been quite a season for all of us. We had two full years of a global pandemic that has impacted our lives in one way or another. Some of you have experienced financial difficulties, prolonged sickness, broken relationships, and even the death of someone close to you.
Often adversity and hardship do not make sense. Suffering is difficult and we would prefer to avoid it, but sometimes we can’t.
Sometimes, God allows suffering in our lives to position our hearts so we may see him in a way that would not be possible otherwise.
But when you and I are in the middle of it, we often cannot understand suffering and its purposes or how God may be using that suffering for our good.
Today, we will read the book of Job to gain some biblical wisdom and see our suffering through the lens of Scripture.
Would you pray with me? Let’s ask that God will open our spiritual eyes, that we will be comforted in suffering, and that we contemplate God in his majesty and splendor, grace and mercy. Let’s pray
We will look at the story of Job as it is developed in Scripture. This is an exposition of the book of Job. But we will study it from a high level, to get an overview of the whole book, going over big sections, reading specific passages and applying them to our own circumstances, our lives, our own suffering.
Let’s start right at the beginning of the book. Chapter 1, verse 1
1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
1:8-12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
That’s quite a start! Meet Job: he is a blameless and upright man, he fears God and turns away from evil. In fact, God himself says that there is no one like him on the whole planet. Think about that for a moment. You probably know some godly people around you. Picture the godliest man you know in this church. Put him with the godliest men of the region, the state, the country, the whole world. Put them all in a room. Job would stand out above all of them. There is no one like him on the earth! Wow! That’s quite a compliment!
Then we have an unusual account: a conversation between God and Satan. God says to Satan: “Have you seen my servant Job? He is blameless like no other.”
Satan replies: “Of course! You have blessed him in every way. But I bet that if you take away your blessings he will curse you in your face!”
And God says: “I give you permission to do as you wish with all his possessions. Just do not touch him.” And Satan leaves.
Now this scene can potentially raise a lot of questions. Are God and Satan playing games? Why does God point Satan’s eyes towards his righteous servant Job? Why does God even allow Satan to challenge him and then give him permission to break into Job’s life? Isn’t God supposed to protect Job from Satan? Or what is God’s plan in all of this?
Let’s keep reading so we may gain some understanding. But for now, let me highlight this: in this story, God is in charge at all times. He is the one who tells Satan about Job, he is the one who has been blessing Job all along, he is the one who gives Satan permission to act, and he clearly establishes the limits: “do not touch him”, he says.
What happens next? Calamity falls over Job’s life. In a single day he loses livestock, servants, homes, and all his children. The bad reports come like tsunami waves, one after the other, crashing relentlessly against Job. Can you imagine how he felt? I mean, just picture yourself losing money, possessions and your children, in one day!
How would you react? This is how Job did:
1:20-22 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “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.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
What a remarkable man! Just losing my house would be enough for me to start questioning God. But losing my children … all of them? I would be so distressed, if not charging God in anger, raising my fist against him. But Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
As we move to chapter 2, we find God and Satan talking again. God says in verse 3: “Look at my servant Job… He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” To which Satan replies: “Of course! That is because you have not touched him”.
2:5-6: But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
And so Satan strikes Job with sickness: repulsive, painful sores from head to toe. The sickness is so severe that it knocks Job down to the ground as he lies in agony and pain.
When his wife sees him in such a miserable condition she…
2:9 … tells him: “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”
2:10b And he replies: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job acknowledges here that both blessings and trials come from the hand of God. And although Satan had predicted Job would curse God, and his wife tells him to curse God, in all this Job does not sin with his lips, despite his significantly adverse circumstances.
Consider the severity of his sickness. He is so deformed by the skin disease that his friends cannot even recognize him. Read with me
2:12-13 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. 13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
I’d like to take a short detour from the story. I want to share with you why I had the burden to preach from the book of Job. There are some particular, specific ways that I can relate to this book. Let me explain.
During the last six years I have struggled on and off with significant depression. Some seasons have been fine, some seasons have been difficult for months at a time. During those seasons of depression, I involved my wife, members of my small group and my fellow pastors. I went to my family doctor and got a battery of blood tests. I took a closer look at my diet, started doing more exercise, and pursued good patterns of sleep and rest. I met with a Christian counselor. I read my Bible regularly. I did everything I could think of to shake off the depression, but sometimes all that was not enough. Sometimes depression stubbornly stuck with me.
Now depression can mean different things to different people. So let me explain more specifically what I was experiencing during the lowest seasons that stretched months at a time. Most days I was in a sad, hopeless mood. I felt mentally foggy and slow. I had problems concentrating and executing even the most basic tasks, and therefore I was afraid I would lose my job. I couldn’t enjoy my wife and kids, work, church, or God. There was nothing wrong with any of them, but somehow they could not help me get out of my gloomy state. I felt guilty and worthless, tired and fatigued most of the time. Many nights I could not sleep, and even when I could, I still woke up tired and with no desire to start my day, I just wanted to stay in bed. I was prompted to tears for no reason. Sometimes I would sob all by myself in a dark corner. I did not have suicidal thoughts, but many times I just wanted to stop living… daily life had become so miserable.
So I can connect with the story of Job. The story produces strong emotions when I read, for instance, chapter 3:1.
3:1-3 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job said:
3 “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’
3:11 “Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
3:20-21a “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, 21 who long for death, but it comes not
That is how I felt sometimes. Death felt more appealing than a miserable existence, because it meant dwelling in heaven with my Lord, free from pain and a deep sense of worthlessness.
Now the book gets into a long section where the friends of Job go from listening and having compassion for him to speculating about the root cause of his suffering, and questioning Job’s righteousness.
For instance, his friend Eliphaz tells him in chapter 4 verse 3
4:3 Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands
4:5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.
4:7 Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
4:8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
Can you imagine? How would you appreciate a friend like that? He sees you agonizing with pain both physical and emotional, and he tells you:
“Come on, do not be impatient now, do not be dismayed, be strong! If you are innocent you will not die! But perhaps you have planted iniquity and trouble and this is what you are reaping!”
How insensitive! And yet many of us are like Eliphaz when we try to help the ones suffering.
Job continues pouring out his emotions in the midst of his acute pain:
6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
6:8-9 “Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope, 9 that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
7:3 I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
7:11 Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
This is a real man, with real pain, just like you and me. He has been experiencing distress for days, for weeks, for months! His precious words and cries are recorded in Scripture to portray real pain and real hope, to show us that it is ok to wrestle, to speak of your anguish, to complain in the bitterness of your soul …
Are you sick? Have you lost someone you loved? Have you been betrayed or abused? Are you in pain?
Humbly bring your sorrows, your doubts, your complaints, your pain, even your anger to the Lord. He is not offended by your complaints, he is not hurt by your doubts, he is not unaware of what really is inside your heart, you cannot hide it from him anyway. Run to him, talk to him, cry out to him.
Now Bildad, another of Job’s friends, interjects and tells Job:
8:2 How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
8:4-6 If your children have sinned against him [God], he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
5 If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, 6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.
His friends are trying to help, they are reasoning with him, they are trying to make sense of his circumstances. They even encourage him to plead with God, which is right. But the way they do it is not helpful. They are becoming impatient with Job: “How long will you say these things?” “Why are you complaining anyway? Perhaps your children have sinned against God, and they got what they deserved”
That is not what you want to hear when you are grieving the death of someone you love. I will argue that more than their logical reasoning, what Job needs is friends who would be silent and listen.
In fact, that is exactly what he tells them in chapter 13:4b-5a: “worthless physicians are you all. Oh that you would keep silent”, and 16:2b “miserable comforters are you all.”
What he needed was friends who would truly comfort him, who would be slow to speak and quick to listen.
As I think of my own struggles of last year, I remember people suggesting a myriad of solutions: “Are you exercising? Are you eating healthy?”. Maybe I just needed vitamins, or more faith, essential oils or true repentance. It was confusing, maybe I needed a little of everything. But sometimes I just needed someone to be there, and sit with me and listen. I would run some mornings, hoping, longing, begging that someone would stop me and ask me how I was doing, and I pictured myself just pouring out my soul, my heart, my tears.
Pray that God will give you wisdom to know how to help your friends who are suffering. I do not have a recipe on how to do it right! Each case is different. Pray for wisdom to know when to speak and when to listen, and when to hug and cry and weep with your friends.
Do not despise the importance of simply being there with them, without saying much or anything at all.
This back and forth between Job and his friends continues for several chapters. The friends relentlessly keep questioning Job’s integrity, while trying to defend and justify God for all the tragedies in Job’s life.
As Job defends himself before his friends, he gets confused and frustrated by the circumstances. In chapter 31, he articulates his argument: “if I have done wrong then let me pay for it. But if I have not, why is all this happening to me? If I am in court can the Judge answer me?”
31:35 Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
“Where is my adversary, my accuser? What are the charges? Where is the evidence of my guilt? Why am I being punished? Let the Almighty answer me! Please, God, answer me!”, he says.
At this point, Job is tired, frustrated, confused, and ready to hear and see God.
As we get to chapter 38, God addresses Job. But instead of resolving his doubts, God asks Job some questions that will help Job to see that he really has very limited knowledge and power. He is not God!
38:1-3 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4a “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
38:7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
12 Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place
16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?
22 Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail
31 Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?
33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?
34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? 35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
God gives Job a vision of his eternal and infinite power and greatness.
Job realizes he, in contrast, is very small. So he replies to God:
40:4 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
In light of God’s majesty and greatness Job is speechless and lays his hand on his mouth.
But God is not done yet, here he comes for round two. The Lord tells Job:
40:8 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
10 Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
12 Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand.
14 Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.
Can you condemn God and tell him he is wrong and you are right? Can you adorn yourself with majesty, glory and splendor? Do you have the power to subdue the wicked? Can you send a global pandemic like COVID to humble the pride of men? Can you save yourself?
The answer to these rhetorical questions is a resounding: no, no, no!
Only God can save Job, only God can save you and me.
In these last chapters God gives Job what he needed the most: a revelation of himself, a grand vision of his sovereignty. Job is granted to see God with his eyes:
42:5-6 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
As Job contemplates the overwhelming greatness, omnipotence and unstoppable rule of God, he simply falls down on his knees in humility and awe.
At the beginning of the book, blameless Job had heard of God. But at the end, after pages and pages of turmoil and suffering and pain and tears, God grants Job the privilege to see him in his splendor and to know him in a way that was simply not possible before all those chapters of pain and tears.
Suffering had broken Job and had led him into a place of genuine humility. Suffering had eradicated any trace of self-confidence so that Job’s eyes could be opened to gaze at the majesty of the sovereign God.
God ordains our suffering with divine goals that we may not understand. But suffering is never wasted, is not random, and it has a divine purpose that ultimately only God fully understands. But we can trust him. For he is good and merciful and also omnipotent and powerful.
Job never found out about the conversation of God and Satan, and Satan’s evil plans. But you and I have a larger picture of the story. God allowed Satan to hurt Job, but all under his oversight. What Satan did with evil intent, God masterfully used for the supreme good of Job.
God is in charge at all times. He absolutely rules over Satan, sickness, pandemics, my life and all my tears and pain.
We also can see how God sustained Job through his suffering and ultimately healed and restored him. But even more, God himself was willing to suffer in our place. The Father sent his own beloved Son Jesus, who suffered, cried, bled and died like us, so we may be able to have access to heaven, where there is no more suffering nor pain nor tears.
The book of Job ends with this sentence:
42:17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.
Because he had seen God with his own eyes!
I picture myself asking Job this question, at the end of his life: “was all that suffering worth it?”
To which he may answer:
“It was hard, even now I tremble when I remember that day when I lost everything, including my children, and those long months of debilitating, unbearable sickness and pain. But was it worth it? Yes it was!
God used suffering to prepare my heart so I could see him in all his majesty, splendor, glory, and sovereignty, while being sustained by his grace, mercy and kindness, and ultimately experiencing his healing and redemption. I had heard of God, but then my eyes saw him”.
Oh I pray it would be like that for us. That in our sorrows, sickness, pain and loss, we may be able to see our gracious and merciful God in all his majesty, sovereignty and omnipotence. And that we may find comfort and peace and hope in him.