Megan Evans, Women’s Ministry Director, LHBC

Job 19:25 (CSB)

But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he will stand on the dust”

I can’t imagine losing everything dear to me like Job did.  Few people can truly say they have lost EVERYTHING.  This upright man lost all of his wealth and belongings, his household and children, and even finds his own health in crisis.  

Two words have echoed throughout time and I find myself wondering as well,  “Why God?” Why must there even be suffering at all?  Surely he didn’t deserve such treatment.  Does he? Does she? Do I? 

As one of the oldest books in the Bible and part of the wisdom literature category, we have much to learn. For example, we can’t forget who God is when we see or experience suffering.  God will never leave us nor forsake us.  He never stops watching over us.  God never stops being all-powerful and all-loving.  We have to remember this while we read about Job and think upon human suffering.  God sees and hears what you and I experience and we can’t lean on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5), but we can lean on the strength and security of Christ’s hand that holds ours and bears the pain with us instead. 

This question of “why” can drive us to the Eliaphazs, Bildads, Zophars, and Elihus of today.  They’ll tell us what they think and might even dapple statements with enough of God’s Truth to make it believable, but at the end of the day, there is only one All-knowing God.  These friends of Job offered much needed company and a listening ear, but then piously felt compelled to explain what their human heart could not understand:  It must be you Job, what did you do?  What did you forget to do?  

We are fixers, aren’t we? Maybe we should be worshippers instead (oh Lord, help me get here). In place of answers, sometimes we just need to bask in the presence of our Sovereign God.  

Where does our true help come from? It’s not in scrolling and texting, and it’s not even certain in well-meaning conversations among friends.  Even these are fallible.  Our true help comes from the Lord, and when we cling to the Maker of heaven and earth, His true peace and wisdom permeate our circumstances.  

We don’t have to like our situation and we can be real with God, but we can also cling to how the story (Job’s, yours, and mine) ends.  Job nails it in a prophetic moment of clarity when he says,  “But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he will stand on the dust” (Job 19:25).  Praise God! 

I so appreciate seeing the raw and vulnerable side of Job and it also warns me to not let my feelings take the wheel, but to steer into the steadfast nature of the Lord. Job ironically hoped his story could be etched in stone so that one day maybe his name could be cleared or somehow his suffering could be avenged and redeemed, but praise God it already was (and so is ours) in Christ Jesus.  

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Father God, you are all-wise and all-powerful, and even in the moments I can’t understand, like suffering and injustice, help me remember that I can trust YOU.  You are a good God, and you are a good Father.  You still love this beautiful broken world and in Christ you are making all things new.  Praise be to your matchless Name that one day all suffering will end and only your glory will remain.  In Jesus Name, Amen.