It is estimated that the chances of getting struck by lightning are one in a million. With those odds, you would be forgiven for thinking that you would never get struck. However, someone has to be that one in one million. It is extremely unlikely that you will get struck by lightning. That unfortunate one in a million will be left asking, “As there were many who defied the odds, Why me?”
Job was one who defied the odds. Job 1:8 says, “The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” However, Job was chosen by God to suffer a series of pains, trials, and temptations. During this time of testing, Job lost everything that he cared for and worked for all his life. He lost his wealth, status, livelihood, and even his family and friends. In the middle of all these losses Job also lost his health.
Out of all the people on the earth, Job had a reason to doubt. He had a just cause to cease from worshipping the God he worshipped all his life. The story of Job tells us that suffering and pain in this life are not always a direct result of sin. Pain and suffering are not always God’s judgment on us. During the days that our Lord and Saviour walked on the earth, he came across a man who had been blind from his birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” (John 9:2). Jesus told them that neither the man or his parents sinned, but he was born this way so that the works of God may be made manifest in him. (See John 9:1-5).
In Job 19:25-26 the Bible says, “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God.” We gain an alternative understanding of suffering when we read the Book of Job. The story of Job gives us reasons to live by faith rather than sight. This is so, because even though Job went through many pains and sufferings he remained faithful to God throughout it all. God saw his faith, trust, and obedience. God did not forget Job and his faithfulness.
We read at the end of the story of Job that he was blessed abundantly by God. Job 42:12-15 says, “The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers.”
Here are some questions to consider.
1. Does your faithfulness to God depend on your circumstances?
2. Does your praise of God depend on your current situation?
3. Does your love for God depend on how much He blesses you?
4. How does the story of Job help you to understand suffering?
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