The Book of Job

One of the hardest books to read in all the Bible is the book of Job. It's a massive, epic poem full of repetition, unfamiliar imagery, and difficult questions. It takes an unflinching look at human suffering with all the grief, rage, and questioning that entails. It manages to embody both our complete inability to answer hard questions and our certainty of how we think the world works.

I think that one of the issues people have when they come to the book of Job is the wrong expectations. We are often told that Job is a book that answers the question "Why do good people suffer?" We open it during our times of grief and pain looking for answers, searching for God's own answer as to why he allowed such things to happen.

The book of Job doesn't answer those questions.

Job isn't trying to answer why. In fact, the point of the book is that we often can't know why. Job is a serious, heartfelt examination of suffering and our unsuccessful attempts to make sense of it. More than that the book of Job is a book about who God is.

Job is not the main character of the book bearing his name. God is. Job, along with his friends, are trying to work out just who exactly God is and how he runs the cosmos. The friends, who represent human attempts at wisdom, are certain in their answer; the universe runs on God's strict justice. The righteous are rewarded and the wicked are punished. Since Job has so clearly been punished by God, he must have sinned a grave sin.

Job, on the other hand, is questioning this simple interpretation. He knows for a fact that he hasn't done anything wrong, but still he has been punished. Job begins to wonder if God is really as just as is claimed. Perhaps God doesn't care or even delights in punishing the innocent?

As Job questions God from his pain and his friends repeatedly attempt to simplify the universe, and this cycle occurs three times taking up most of the book, we eagerly await to hear what God will say. How will the Almighty answer Job's challenges? What will he say to this righteous man who lay suffering?

Well, we eventually see God respond, but he doesn't answer the questions of Job. God instead questions Job about the cosmos, from the foundations of creation to the smallest animal to legendary monsters. This isn't God showing off or giving Job a verbal spanking, as I think we often interpret it. Rather this is God reframing the entire discussion.

Job and his friends have been focused solely on God's justice. They assume, even Job, that the universe must run on some strict sort of justice. The friends think it's working just fine and it's Job who needs to wake up to it. Job is confused as to why it seems that this just system as broken down. After all, he is innocent.

God does not mention justice, but instead reframes the entire conversation around wisdom. In order to understand and execute perfect justice one must have all the understanding and information. Job and his friends all think they have all the info. God is telling them they don't. 

The universe, God reveals, does not run on strict justice but is actually organized according to God's infinite wisdom. By his mighty power God wisely orders the cosmos from every drop of rain to the stars in the sky. It is a complex and vast system that we humans simply cannot fully understand or see the whole picture.

The question of the book of Job is not "Why do we suffer?" The question is "Do we trust God's wisdom?" At the end of it all the basic point God is making to Job is "Do you trust me?" Job does trust in God and submits to his wisdom.

The book of Job is not a great place to go when we are in the midst of suffering. I'd recommend the Psalms or Lamentations for that. Those places have the unfiltered, raw emotional language that help us work through our pain. Job is the place we go before we suffer. It is there to train us for the time of suffering.

The question it trains us to ask is "Do I trust God?" When the pain comes and grief overflows, we will always be asking "Why?" in some form or another. Job trains us to accept that we may not get an answer to that question and trains us to trust in God no matter what.