Suffering is for Our Good

[Christsfreeservant]

The Story of the Book of Job in a Nutshell

Job was a man of God, a righteous man who was blameless and upright in his ways in the sight of God. For he feared God and he turned away from evil. He was also a wealthy man with many possessions, who had a wife and seven sons and three daughters, as well as he had many servants.

Now Satan presented himself before the Lord one day, and the Lord asked him if he had considered His servant Job, that there was none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who feared God and who turned away from evil. And Satan’s response was basically that Job was an upright and godly man because of God’s hedge of protection that he had put around Job and his house and all that he possessed. And Satan said, “But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

So God gave Satan permission to come against all that Job had but that he was not to come against Job himself. And thus all of Job’s livestock and his servants (all but one of them, for each reported incident, who came back to tell Job what had happened) were killed. And then another servant reported to Job that all of his sons and daughters had also been killed by a windstorm of some kind which struck the four corners of the oldest brother’s house, and thus the house fell upon the young people and killed them.

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:20-22 ESV).​

Then, another day Satan presented himself before the Lord and he and the Lord had a similar conversation about Job as they had had previously. Only this time Satan answered God with:

“Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” “So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.” (Job 2:4-8 ESV).​

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“Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.’ But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:9-10 ESV).​

And then Job’s three friends came to console him, and so they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights in silence, for they saw that his suffering was very great. But then Job began to lament that he had even been born into this world, so great was his suffering and anguish (see Job 2:11-13 and Job 3:1-26).

Then the first of Job’s three friends began to respond to Job, but all three of them accused him falsely of sinning against the Lord as to the reason for why all this suffering had come upon him. And so they had many back and forths with Job on this issue of why Job was suffering as he was. For Eliphaz said to him,

“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?​

Or where were the upright cut off?​

As I have seen, those who plow iniquity​

and sow trouble reap the same.” (Job 4:7-8 ESV)​

So, the implication was that, because Job was going through what he was enduring that it must be because Job must have sinned against God. But that is a false assumption. It is not biblical, not in the Old Testament, and not in the times of nor in the teachings of the New Testament. We are told clearly by Jesus and by his NT apostles that if we are followers of Jesus Christ that we are going to be hated and persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and that we are going to share in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

But Job, through it all, maintained his integrity, that he was a righteous man, and that his suffering was not caused by any known sin in his life:

“As God lives, who has taken away my right,​

and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,​

as long as my breath is in me,​

and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,​

my lips will not speak falsehood,​

and my tongue will not utter deceit.​

Far be it from me to say that you are right;​

till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.​

I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;​

my heart does not reproach me for any of my days” (Job 27:2-6 ESV).​

Now Job did struggle with all that he was going through, and he did question God, at times, in his full discourse of his sufferings, especially since his three friends were bent on accusing him falsely of having done evil in the sight of God as the reason for his suffering. He did question, at times, the sovereignty of God over his life. But when God confronted him about this, Job confessed that he had uttered things that he did not understand, and therefore, it says, that he repented in dust and ashes (see Job 42:1-6).

But in the end of it all, God spoke critically against Job’s friends, for they did not speak of God what is right, “as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7). Wow! For Job did speak much about God that was absolute truth, even if he struggled some throughout all of his suffering with the sovereignty of God over his life. And then God instructed Job’s friends in this way:

“Take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:8). ​

Then Job’s friends did as God instructed them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer for his friends who had not done right in the eyes of the Lord. And following this the Lord restored Job’s fortunes, and the Lord gave him twice as much as he had had before. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. Job lived another 140 years after this, and he died an old man full of days.

And the story of Job is a lesson for all of us who are followers of Jesus Christ that we may, too, be called upon greatly to suffer for our walks of faith in Jesus Christ, and that we may be accused falsely of what we did not do, but that we are to remain faithful and steadfast in our walks of faith and in obedience to our Lord regardless of what evils are done or said against us. And this is a lesson in the sovereignty of God, which is to be trusted, not fought against. For God has his reasons for what he allows in our lives.

I Surrender All

Hymn lyrics by Judson W. Van De Venter, 1896
Music by Winfield S. Weeden, 1896

… Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee. (Mark 10:28)

All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

All to Jesus I surrender,
Humbly at His feet I bow;
Worldly pleasures all forsaken,
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

All to Jesus I surrender,
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

All to Jesus I surrender,
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power,
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

All to Jesus I surrender,
Now I feel the sacred flame;
Oh, the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!

I surrender all,
I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

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