I Have Something Job Didn’t Have
I will be honest with you guys, there are certain books of the Bible that I do not enjoy reading. Genesis has me pulling my hair out, Judges leaves me nauseous, and Revelations is like reading through a fever dream at some parts.*
But there’s a certain book of the Bible that I genuinely have no idea what to do with. Even to the point of me going, “what is the purpose of this book in here? Is he even allowed to say that?!”
Job is not a fun read, nor is it a satisfying read. I find that when I read through that book, the wrestlings that I’ve fought through just come back up to the surface again, and I am left without a satisfactory answer. Because there’s no satisfying answer at the end of Job. Job asks his questions, but God doesn’t come and answer them. In fact, he comes back with his own questions for Job!
And that’s a piece of the puzzle there too—we have been conditioned by the culture that we live in to seek emotionally satisfying answers for everything. (2) We want the answers to our problems to come in happy little packages that satisfy every question of our hearts, every “why did this happen to me?”, every “why did God let this happen”, every “why did God do this to me?”. But the plain truth of Job is that there will come moments where suffering happens and we will never know or understand why. And we may never find an answer that will satisfy us this side of heaven.
Because one truth of this world is that we will all suffer. Suffering is one of the great unifiers. It unifies us all with one another, and with creation. (3) Death, disease, evil deeds, all come and touch us even if we had nothing to do with them. And that’s what makes Job even more painful is that his suffering was undeserved.
Job is the story of a blameless man who suffered unjustly, And God allowed it to happen.
It makes no sense.
I was sitting in my car, and I had my own Job-like session with the Lord. I asked God some hard questions. I railed against things that made no sense, that he has still not answered for me, that I’m still not satisfied with. And inevitably that fury died out, the tears dried up, and all the words I had pent up were aired. And I thought of my friend Job, and I realized something.
I have something that Job did not have.
“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
and he will stand upon the earth at last.
And after my body has decayed,
yet in my body I will see God!
I will see him for myself.
Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
I am overwhelmed at the thought! (Job 19:25-27)
Job is the story of a blameless man who suffered unjustly, and God allowed it to happen.
The Bible is the story of a blameless man who suffered unjustly, and God allowed it to happen.
Jesus Christ suffered for us so that no one will ever have to suffer as He did. And he suffered for us that no one will ever again have to suffer as Job did either.
Hear me out.
I am not saying that none of us will ever suffer again, that’s blatantly not true. But what I am saying is that the death that Jesus died on the cross for us so radically changed things for those who enter into his covenant, that the path of suffering we walk on will never again be the same path that Jesus, nor Job walked on.
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)
Jesus was forsaken so that we would never be forsaken, even in our times of deepest despair and pain.
When Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, he left with us a Helper. Job had his friends who tried and failed to comfort him. But I have the Holy Spirit who dwells within me, who comforts me as no human could in times of sorrow and grief. Who intercedes for me according to the exact will of the Father (Rom. 8:27), who gives me good counsel and godly wisdom for every situation, every circumstance.
The cross of Jesus once and for all closed the gap between myself and the Father. He is not just a formidable, inscrutable God who speaks out of the whirlwind. He’s my “Abba”. Who loves me, and walks with me, and talks to me. Who rejoices with me, and delights in me, and sings over me. (Zeph. 3:17) I will never look at the Father in the same way that Job looked at God, because it was Jesus Christ who came and bridged that separation between us once and for all.
I have a bridegroom who loved me so much that he gave himself up for me. Blameless and innocent as he was, he gave himself up to redeem my guilt and my shame. And this bridegroom of mine will come back one day and wipe away every tear from my eyes. And death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for those former sufferings will be no more. (Rev. 21:4)
And until that day comes, he’s walking every step with me.
Every hill, every valley. Every trial, every victory.
I have something that Job did not have. I have Jesus Christ.
