What Consolation Does God’s Answer To Job Offer To Those Who Are Suffering?

Prior to the coming of Christ, the Old Testament book of Job represented humanity’s greatest possible answer to the problem of suffering. Even today, the book continues to offer many profound lessons for how we ought to approach the trials and ordeals which crop up in our lives, not least because the figure of Job himself points forward to the person of Christ.

But what are those lessons exactly? Can the book of Job be reduced to “Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die,” in Alfred Tennyson’s memorable phrase? Is this all the Old Testament has to offer to people in pain?

Here we must answer in the negative. Although the book of Job has a lot to say about the vast chasm between our understanding and God’s, still there is much more going on in the story.

One of the key takeaways from Job is the clarification that just because we suffer, that doesn’t mean we did something wrong. This may seem like a simple point, but even today we can sometimes lapse into the narrow way of thinking expressed by Job’s three “friends,” as well as their fourth companion, Elihu. Particularly when we or someone we know experiences an unusually severe amount of suffering, in our brokenness we can be tempted to doubt the love of our heavenly Father.

Perhaps we begin to wonder if God is a demanding and vindictive master after all. Maybe He is allowing me to undergo these ordeals as punishment for some sin I committed. Or maybe He knows how badly I messed up in a particular situation, and so He is allowing me to experience the full shame of what I did, just so that He can teach me a lesson.

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