Job was a good guy, strong active member, great family, did everything right, very blessed and extremely generous and kind. The change in his circumstance was so dramatic it caused his friends and family to question his righteousness and his worth. For Job his integrity was resolute, but as his suffering continued and deepened he too started to question. These questions changed his life!
No matter who you are, at some point you think you have it figured out. Life seems to make sense and be working in your favor. Like calm spring days these moments can seem endless. Then everything changes, a storm comes and the world is turned on its head. The home you grew up in implodes; your health takes a tumble, someone dear to you dies, your finances change, your relationship crumbles, and all you are left with is questions.
It is hard to have answers unless you first have questions, and unless you really want to know, you will not appreciate the answers enough to truly let them change you.
Job’s suffering and subsequent questions lead him to some very special understandings: he exclaims “For 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).
But more important; his questions and the answers they brought lead him to great personal change. He remarked “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6)
Maybe suffering (as Job puts it) is the mechanism God uses to refine our poor theory into rich experience. May we not be afraid of it!
