The Problem of Suffering

Text: 20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21 saying:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

and naked I will leave this life.,

The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job 1:20–21.

Scripture Reading: Job 1:1–22

Introduction

The story of Job is an ancient one. Some say Job lived during the age of the patriarchs. More than likely the book of Job was written during a time in Judah’s national suffering. The story of Job gives us several insights for living in our own time.

I. Life brings many baffling questions.

A. The story of Job is a baffling one. Reading the circumstances of Job does raise questions. The Lord described Job: “No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.” Job 1:8. Job was blessed with a great family, seven sons and three daughters. He was further blessed with great wealth.

Job became a test study in motivation when Satan proposed that Job served the Lord because it brought great dividends, such as great wealth. God permitted these externals to be removed so Satan could see that Job served the Lord from a good motivation.

In quick succession, blows of adversity hit Job. An Arab tribe stole his cattle. A storm destroyed his sheep and goats. The Chaldeans carried off his camels. A tornado killed all of his children. Then Job lost his health. In all of these losses, Job never lost his faith in the Lord.

The story of Job baffles people. “Why did Job deserve those tragedies? Didn’t it pay him to do good?”

B. Numerous circumstances puzzle our minds. Observing some of life’s situations brings questions to our minds. Why does a child suffer from a brain defect? Why is a young wife and mother killed by a drunk driver? Why is a young physician beginning an exciting career in surgery stricken with leukemia? These and numerous other questions baffle our minds and prompt us to ask, “Why?” The circumstances of life bring baffling questions. Fortunately, the book of Job gives some insight.

II. The world’s thinkers have inadequate answers.

A. The friends of Job did not help him with his dilemma. Three friends of Job—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—heard of Job’s problems and came to visit him. They were shocked when they saw Job. They sat with him in silence for seven days and seven nights. Perhaps the silence provided their best comfort to Job.

When the friends finally spoke, they ceased to comfort Job. Rather, they proposed to have the answer to Job’s suffering. They said Job suffered because of his sin. If he would admit and confess the sin in his life, his suffering would cease.

Later another friend, a young man named Elihu, came to visit Job. His proposal was simple: Job’s suffering was given by God to refine his character like gold in the fire. Thus none of Job’s four friends provided adequate answers for his suffering.

B. Life’s problems do not have easy answers. Not every circumstance of suffering can be attributed to sin. You remember Jesus’ observations of the man born blind (see John 9).

As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him Jn 9:1–3.

He would not explain the man’s suffering in terms of his sin. Furthermore, God does not give trouble only for the purpose of developing character. God may use trouble to develop character, but not every case of suffering can be attributed to this purpose.

There are no easy answers to the baffling problems of life. Simple formulas will not fit some of life’s circumstances. Yet the book of Job does not end in question; it ends with another insight.

III. The Lord has a word for us.

A. The help for Job’s suffering comes with a word from God. Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind. Job 38:1. (Job 38:1). God did not appear in order to take away Job’s sufferings. Rather, he came to be with Job. To teach Job some lessons on knowledge, the Lord interrogated him, asking hard questions: “Were you present at creation? Did you make the sea? Did you ever cause a sunrise? Can you explain rain?” God knew that Job could not ignore these questions. Job needed to see the might of God and the inadequacies of human beings.

B. The Lord speaks to us amid life’s baffling circumstances. What does the Lord say? Does he tell us the intellectual reasons for our suffering? No, he does not give us answers. Instead, the Lord gives us the adequacy of his presence. We must be willing for trust in the Lord to take over when we are confronted by situations we cannot understand.

Conclusion

One Christmas two brothers expected and received new bicycles. Christmas day came, and both started riding and enjoying their gifts. In a few hours, both of them became ill. The older boy became so ill that he had to be hospitalized. Spending the Christmas holidays in a hospital and knowing there was a new bicycle at home did not make him happy.

He asked, “Daddy, why did I have to get sick on Christmas?” The answer was obvious and simple. “Son, a virus exists, and many people are getting sick this way.” Those were the facts. But the boy was not satisfied with the facts, and learning the facts did not help him. However, the presence of his mother and father in the hospital room brought him comfort.

Now do you see? What a person needs amid life’s baffling situations is not an intellectual answer, but the presence of the Lord. Why not let the Lord come into your life?