A while ago, I came across a book written by Philip Yancey entitled, “Why – the question that never goes away.” His subtitle is, “What is God up to – or not – in a world of such tragedy and pain.” My first thought was, “I’ve got to get that book and read it.” It’s a question I, as a pastor, constantly get asked.
In last week’s column, I suggested a reason God sometimes allows suffering to happen is because it’s His way of getting us to notice Him. I said there, “As pastor, I have seen that over and over again in my 50 years of ministry: in the midst of great suffering, God shows up and deals with the problem of the suffering by removing it, often in answer to prayer.” It shows us that He’s there and He’s real.
But today, I’ll go on a second reason why God allows suffering. And that is because He is watching us as we suffer as to how we choose to respond to it. If He permits suffering to come into our lives and we go all ballistic and angry at Him, then it shows our faith in Him is small and weak.
But if, on the other hand, when I experience pain and through it, I keep my eyes on Him and keep trusting Him, then it gratifies Him immensely.
There’s one whole book in the Bible that teaches this – the Book of Job. Job was a wealthy man with a large family who lived about 2000 BC. All is fine and well with him, until one day, in three separate incidents, Job loses all of his possessions. Shortly after, a windstorm happens and all ten of his children are killed. A while later, he’s covered with painful boils all over his body.
The Bible says that when all of this happened, Job did not “sin by charging God with wrong doing.” Instead, he said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
But do you know while all that was happening on earth, in the Heavenly realm, there were two very interested observers? It was God and Satan.
The Book of Job tells us all the suffering that happened to Job started with a conversation initiated by God. When Satan came to give God his regular report of what he was doing (as he has to), God asked him if perchance he’d noticed His servant Job. Of him, God said, “There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
Satan’s quick response was that that was easy to understand. God had poured out all these goodies on Job. No wonder he loved God! “But,” suggested Satan, “take those goodies away and I tell you, he’ll curse You to Your face.”
So a contest ensued to see how Job would respond. Would he continue loving and worshipping God even though he’d lost all his goodies? (which was God’s position.) Or would He turn away from Him? (which was Satan’s position.) And then the tragedies struck Job’s life.
Now you already know the outcome.
What Job did and said in the midst of his suffering portrays a man wrestling and struggling with his losses (the middle part of the book describes this.) But we see him coming out at the end on the side of faith and trust in God. As Job himself put it: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
The book ends with God’s blessings being poured out again on Job – twice as much wealth as before and another 10 children.
Been suffering recently? God is watching you closely, to see how you are responding. Is it with anger and bitterness at Him?
Or with faith and continued trust?
