Job and the Sovereignty of God in Suffering

Imagine you woke up one morning to a tornado destroying every material possession you ever owned. You escape narrowly with your own life. But all of your pictures, your computer, your money, your home, and everything else is gone. As you search through the pile of rubble that used to be your home, you find each one of your children is dead. Just a few days later, you break out in a horrible rash and boils begin to form all over your skin. You have no money to afford hospital treatment and the only thing you can find to tend to your sores is a broken peace of pottery. The only family you have left, your spouse, doesn't comfort you but instead tells you to "curse God and die."

I have spent the past month pouring over the book of Job. It's pretty astonishing to think that God allowed Satan to take away Job's possessions, children, and health. As much as I try to imagine what that would be like and what my response would be if it happened to me, I can't really fathom it. Even though I can't fully relate, God has been gracious to teach me so much about suffering through the book of Job and through the help of six really incredible sermons by John Piper on Job.

Here is a few things I have learned from Job about suffering, God, and His sovereignty:

1) Suffering is not tied to man's unrighteousness. Prosperity is not tied to man's righteousness. Job 1:1 introduces Job as a man who was "blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil." From the very first verse of the book it is clear that suffering is not always (or maybe not even usually) meant as a punishment for evil. There is nothing in Job's life that would warrant the incredible suffering he endures. While this may seem clear to us, Job's friends miss this truth about God's sovereignty over and over again. His friends claim that Job has not really sought God the way he should or that he must have unknown sin in his life. Yet Job insists over and over again on his innocence and insists that God is not an angry Judge. Job knows Job will judge Him fairly in the end and writes "For I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God..." (Job 19:25-26). Ultimately, the prosperity gospel is turned upside down in the book of Job. There is clearly no way to claim that God will always blesses the righteous and always punish the wicked. In fact, it is often just this opposite in God's economy. Yet righteous sufferers in this world can hold fast to the truth that one day they shall see God and worship Him for eternity!

2) God allows Job to suffer to show that He is the Greatest Treasure. While it is Satan that inflicts Job with pain, there is no doubt that God allows his suffering. Satan claims that Job is only loves God because He has blessed him so much. John Piper argues that God could have said, "'I don't need to prove anything to you or anybody else. I know the heart of my servant Job and that is enough for me.' He could have, but in this case he didn't. God chooses to get an open victory over Satan for his own glory. A test will show that in the heart of Job God himself is more highly esteemed than any possession or any family member." God wants his people to cry, "The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life" (Psalm 63:3). In Job 23, Job writes, "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold...I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food. But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does" (Job 23:10&12-13). Job stumbles and doubts and struggles but he ultimately chooses to treasure the Lord more than he treasures anything else and in the end he knows that he will be refined in the fire and come out as gold!

3) Suffering is not pointless. While it is true that the righteous may suffer and the unrighteous prosper, it is not pointless! God's children to not suffer at the hand of an uncaring and docile God. On the contrary, they suffer in the presence of a loving, merciful, and compassionate God who is intimately involved in the lives of His children. John Piper writes, "Suffering is not dispensed willy-nilly among the people of God. It is apportioned to us as individually designed, expert therapy by the loving hand of our great Physician. And its aim is that our faith might be refined, our holiness might be enlarged, our soul might be saved, and our God might be glorified."

4) It is essential to develop a good theology of suffering now, while you are in the light. The reality of life in a broken and sinful world is that almost all of us will experience a major crisis at some point in our lives. It may be the sudden death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or an unexpected cancer diagnosis. We must prepare for how we will view God in the midst of suffering now by cultivating a right view of His character. It is necessary that we also prepare those we shepherd to not only not curse God in the midst of suffering, but to praise and bless His name when all is taken away.

5) Be very careful how you counsel others in the midst of suffering. How often do we subconsciously assume the prosperity gospel to be true? When someone comes to us in the thick of suffering, how often do we assert that they must be suffering as a consequence of sin due to some habitual or unknown sin in their life? I say this carefully because I recognize that it is extremely important to help others take responsibility for their sin, to repent, and to turn back to God. Yet in the midst of crisis, the book of Job shows us that often the best thing we can do is to cry with our friends and point them to a loving, good, and sovereign God.

When my crisis comes, I pray that I would say along with Job to God, "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted" (Job 42:2). Just as Job's fortunes are restored to him at the end of the book, I know that I will one day be fully restored upon the day of Jesus' return. "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (Job 4:16-18).