The Lord gave, and the Lord has Taken Away

Job 1-3

Why study the book of Job? Aren’t there more practical and uplifting passages that we might consider? And what good can come from dwelling on the question of suffering?

I would say a great deal of good can come from dwelling on what God’s word has to say on the question of suffering. And many eminent minds throughout the centuries have thought likewise;

“Tomorrow, if all literature was to be destroyed and it was left to me to retain one work only, I should save Job.” (Victor Hugo)

“…the greatest poem, whether of ancient or modern literature.” (Tennyson)

“If I did not have Job!… I do not read him as one reads another book, with the eyes, but I lay the book, as it were, on my heart and read it with the eyes of the heart… Every word by him is food and clothing and healing for my wretched soul.” (Kierkegaard)

So why are we studying this book together? Because Job deals with a problem that is common to every single one of us; the problem of suffering.

For thousands of years this book has been an elixir to believers who have fallen upon hard times. What I love about this book is that it’s so real, nothing is airbrushed out or dumbed down; it’s raw and gritty.

And this is why Job is the book that The Modern Church needs for today; because The Church of our day likes the airbrush a little too much. She likes to airbrush out anything that feels a little too negative or too hard, and dumb-down and flatten-out anything she finds too complex or nuanced.

The upshot of this is that the average Church going believer has little or no theology of suffering at all - they just don’t have a grid for it. So when suffering comes they are utterly bewildered.

Others have an overly simplistic theology of suffering that just isn’t fit for purpose and actually ends up causing them great distress when they do suffer.

Common Theories Amongst Believers

It’s never ever God’s will for you to suffer. He has nothing to do with it. He doesn’t ever send suffering, He doesn’t ever allow suffering, He tries to prevent it from ever happening.

Suffering is always the result of sin or wrong belief. (Retribution principle)

Suffering is random and has no real purpose, it’s just the by product of living in a fallen world.

Satan is the one who brings suffering but he can only do so when you come into agreement with him and given him a foothold.

The problem with these views is that they all fail the Job test! God did allow Job to suffer, it was His will for him to suffer, even though He didn’t do it directly.

Job 1:21–22 ESV

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.

Job didn’t say - The Lord gave, and the Chaldeans have taken away. Or, The Lord gave and the devil has taken away. But the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. And to make clear that Job was not mistaken in this statement, the writer records that Job did not sin or charge God with wrong in what he had said!

Secondly, Job’s suffering didn’t happen because he had sinned, or because he wasn’t fully believing on God. In fact, quite the opposite, his suffering came about because he was righteous and because his was upright in faith. This view, that suffering only happens as a result of sin or a lack of faith is extremely damaging to many Christians. (Story about coming out of hospital and visit from J).

John 9:1–3 ESV

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Most of the book of Job is taken up with Job and his friends trying to figure out why he suffered. And this is always the question on the tip of our tongue when we encounter pain; why?! Why me? Why now? We want to know that there is some reason for our pain and that it’s not all just random and meaningless, which is the way it nearly always feels.

What’s suprising is, that God never actually tells Job the reason for his suffering. Why is this the case? We don’t know. But for whatever reason God didn’t see it as necessary to tell Job.

What we do know is that it wasn’t meaningless, God had a sovereign purpose for it - to show his glory through Job.

Romans 11:36 ESV

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

The proper question to ask of the book of Job is not ‘why do we suffer?’ But rather ‘how should we suffer?’

Let us consider how Job suffered...

Was he stoic? Unfeeling? No. He tore his robe, he shaved his head and fell to the ground in grief and agony.

Therefore a Christian response to suffering isn’t to be unfeeling and all ‘otherwordly’. Nor is it to be stoic and give it the stiff upper lip. A Christian response is to give expression to our pain, to experience and exhibit our feelings of agony and grief.

Did his pain cause him to doubt the goodness of God? No. He fell to the ground and worshipped God. What was his worship song in that moment? God’s sovereignty to do whatever He pleases; to give and to take away in his timing the fleeting possessions of this world.

Did he remain positive and upbeat? No he didn’t. In chapter 3, after long weeks and months of a severe wasting disease Job became depressed. He cursed the day of his birth, and wished for death:

Job 3:20–21 ESV

20 “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, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

What I love about this is that God through the Holy Spirit included this moment in Job’s grieving process in scripture. We are human, we are finite, we have limits, we break down, we fall apart some times, scripture is always quick to remind us that we are not God.

Job’s friends must be commended for how they comforted him at this moment - we read that they raised their voices and wept with him, they tore their robes, and they sat with him in silence for 7 days and 7 nights.

His friends came to him, they didn’t avoid him, they weren’t ashamed of him or uncomfortable around his suffering, they were present. They didn’t offer their thoughts and advice, they didn’t compare their own suffering with his, they sat down with him in silence and waited for him speak first.

Romans 12:15 ESV

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

And was all of Job’s suffering and pain caused because he ‘came into alignment with Satan and gave him permission?’ No, not at all. Job hadn’t given the enemy a foothold, and he certainly hadn’t given him permission to do anything to him. It was Satan who sought permission from God to touch Job.

Now certainly, a believer can put themselves in harms way with Satan. It’s true that a believer can give the enemy a foothold, and suffering can come as a result. But that isn’t always how it works.

Remarkably we see that Satan has to get permission from God to do anything at all to Job. Satan is limited, his freedoms are checked by the sovereign will of God, to some extent he is on a leash. He is not free to do all that pleases to the children of God.

In conclusion, what can we learn from all of this?

That God sometimes does allow the righteous to suffer.

And to trust that He has His reasons, even if we don’t get to find them out on this side of eternity.

None of us here would have the slightest hope of experiencing that blessed hope of eternal life were it not for the fact the God allowed His righteous one to suffer. Job points us to Christ, the ultimate righteous man who suffered willingly for our sakes, who through his suffering purchased salvation for countless millions.

Because of Jesus, our suffering is never meaningless, it’s never purposeless, it is redemptive.