Uncovering The Wisdom Of The ScripturesSample

When Only God Will Do

Scripture: Job 42:5

Not an easy book to read, and often misunderstood, Job is the story of the penetration of God’s grace through layers of doubt, suffering, defiance, indifference, and pious platitudes to the heart of humankind. It’s a story of a man surrounded by religious talk, a man who was suddenly confronted by God and made whole in the confrontation. 

It is not only because Job suffered that he is important to us. It is because he suffered in the same ways that we suffer—in the vital areas of family, personal health, and material things. Job is also important to us because he searchingly questioned and boldly protested his suffering.

Job said that his suffering was God’s fault. Job’s friends said it was his fault. Who was right? 

Certainly not the friends. They spoke general truths about sin, God’s purposes, and his majesty. But it was irrelevant to Job. He found no relief in the jury of his peers. 

But neither was Job right. Did he really want his day in court? He didn’t want the verdict of a judge to vindicate him. He wanted the arms of God to embrace him. 

Job saw evidence for God in the world around him, but he wanted something more. Job’s life shows that the something more he was looking for isn’t to be found in another book, another counselor, another sermon. In short, what Job was looking for is to be found not in an answer but in God. 

Answers have their place, but when the chips are down, when trouble comes, when doubt gnaws, when anxiety threatens, then only God himself will do. He has the power to come to us through layer upon layer of defense, rationalization, unbelief, rebellion, disobedience, and diversion. He can penetrate our suffering, our doubt, and our ignorance, making it possible for us to say, “I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!” (Job 42:5). 

Job got no answer to his questions. He got no explanation for his sufferings. He disregarded the vaunted wisdom of his friends. Though Job didn’t get what he wanted, he did get what he needed—he got God. Job began to live in personal response to the God who reveals. Not secondhand religion but firsthand experience. 

When has suffering brought you close, not to answers, but to God?