Revised by Kathryn M. Schifferdecker (4/24)
Answers–helpful or hurtful
Job’s friends come to Job with the intention of bringing comfort. In their effort to accomplish this, they think back to what they have been taught and try various ways to interpret the meaning of Job’s suffering. Two of the main answers they bring are that even good people are not immune from suffering, and that God may use suffering to teach us something. These are common answers, even in our day, to questions about suffering and may be helpful to some people. But the primary answer of the friends to Job’s suffering is to blame him, saying that he must have sinned in order to deserve such suffering. This is not a helpful answer to suffering. Sin does lead to suffering, but not all suffering is the result of sin.
Often, of course, the best way to comfort someone who is suffering is simply to be with them in their grief, which is what the friends do at first (2:13). It is when they try to explain Job’s suffering that they become unhelpful.
CreationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and… More
In the whirlwind speeches, God speaks proudly about creation, and also asserts that humans cannot do what only God can do. Clearly one point being made is that “only God can make a tree.” But there is also something revealing about a God who creates and sustains such a wonderful world. God invites Job in the whirlwind speeches to a place of humility, learning his place in the world. But God also invites Job to see the beauty of the world around him, a world in which God delights.
Crisis of faith
Many have experienced a crisis of faith when terrible things happen to them or their loved ones. They ask how a good God could either cause or permit such things to occur. Job also experiences a crisis of faith and asks such questions. The book does not offer any final answers to these questions, but it does offer some helpful responses, like the form of prayer known as lament. (See “Lament” below.)
Educational value of suffering
Perhaps suffering is intended to teach the sufferer, to bring one back to a proper sense of priorities, to provide warning that to continue sinful behavior may lead to even worse calamities. This is one common understanding of suffering in both Old and New Testaments. It gives a more positive view than to regard suffering only as punishment. Both Eliphaz (5:17-27) and Elihu (36:8-12) try to apply this answer to Job. Of course, the fact that Job has not engaged in sinful behavior makes this an unhelpful explanation of his situation.
God’s Presence
Many find comfort in the belief that God is present with them in their suffering. Job has mixed feelings about this idea. At first, Job wishes that God would leave him alone, get off his back, and not be so preoccupied with the trivial sins of humanity (Job 7:16-21). Later, Job longs for God to speak to him but despairs that he will get such an audience (23:3-10; 31:35-37). In the midst of his despair, however, Job utters a statement of faith that has echoed down through the millennia: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (19:25-27). Job’s hope of seeing God is fulfilled in the whirlwind speeches: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (42:5).
God’s control of all that happens
Both Job and his counselors are certain that everything that happens, both good and bad, is the will of God. God has ultimate control, even when human beings (as in Job 1:13-15) are the ones who cause the suffering. To believe in God as the instigator of all that happens, however, makes it more difficult to trust God when one is in the midst of a series of terrible events. It is a great theological dilemma to maintain that God is in control of all that happens and at the same time grant that humans often act in defiance of God’s will. Finally, God’s “control” in Job is not simplistic, but mysterious, hidden, and complex.
Lament
The Book of Job is full of a form of prayer called ‘lament.’ Lament is common in the Old Testament, especially in Job, the Book of Psalms, and the Book of Lamentations. Lament is the honest expression to God of one’s frailty, questions, grief, and anger. Lament calls on God to fulfill God’s promises and to save the one who laments. In lament, the one who prays calls on God to “close the gap between his reputation and his current behavior” (Jon Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil, p. 24).
Christians, especially white Christians, have traditionally been reluctant to use lament. Jews do not have such qualms and provide a helpful example of the power of lament in the life of faith. Scripture, including the Book of Job, teaches us that lament is a faithful form of prayer; it is also a gift to us in times of suffering.
Life after death
Like most of the Old Testament, Job does not have a strong belief that there is a life for individuals after this life that we can see. Job’s big problem with God’s justice is that good people suffer in this life, wicked people prosper, and there is nothing after we die to make right what was an injustice in this life. In two places, Job seems temporarily to break through this skepticism. He sees the rebirth of a tree stump when watered and wonders why humans cannot be so revived (14:7-17). He also hopes and believes that a redeemerA redeemer is someone who literally buys back, wins back, or frees from distress. The Hebrew term for redeemer (go’el) means to deliver or rescue. It may be a person or God who performs the act of redemption. More will vindicate his good name and that he will see it, even if he has already died (19:23-27). Though these passages do not exhibit a full-fledged belief in resurrection, they do contribute to a trajectory in the Old Testament that leads to the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead in both Judaism and Christianity.
Retribution
Throughout the Bible there is a strong connection between sin and suffering. Many biblical narratives (such as the story of the downfall of the nation of JudahJudah was the name of Jacob’s fourth son and one of the 12 tribes. More) point to the sin of the people as the reason for their trouble (2 Kings 22:15-17; IsaiahIsaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied in Jerusalem, is included among the prophets of the eighth century BCE (along with Amos, Hosea, and Micah)–preachers who boldly proclaimed God’s word of judgment against the economic, social, and religious disorders of their time. More 40:1-2; JeremiahProphet who condemned Judah’s infidelity to God, warned of Babylonian conquest, and promised a new covenant. More 22:1-9). Sinful behavior does have consequences, but, as shown in the Book of Job, not all suffering should be understood as the result of the sufferer’s sin.
Sinful nature of all humans
Job is a tough problem for those who think of suffering as retribution for one’s sins. Job is, obviously, a good man, and yet he suffers. Eliphaz, in particular, solves this problem by declaring his low estimation of all humans (see 4:17-19 and 15:14-16). Since all are sinners, no one can claim to be innocent and immune from suffering as a consequence of sinful behavior. This idea does not explain, however, why some suffer and others do not.
Speaking the truth
Job urges his friends to speak the truth about God and human sin. He is convinced that they are so desperate to defend God’s good name that they are willing to tell lies about Job (13:1-12), thus making what looks like an injustice against Job into an example of God’s justice. Job is vindicated when God, at the end of the book, chastises the friends for not speaking rightly about God or to God (42:7-9). Pious words about God that gloss over the reality of earth’s turmoil and pain are not helpful to the sufferer. Suppression of lament is all too common among religious folk.
Trust
The usual understanding of Job 42:1-6 is that Job now accepts his limits, turns away from his earlier angry statements about God, and puts his trust back in the one and only God. For many, in times of suffering, it is hard to continue to trust in a good, powerful, gracious God. Job’s trust seems to be renewed when God addresses him directly. For present day believers, trust in God may be renewed through an encounter with God in worship, Scripture, creation, and/or in a community of faith.
