Job 9
C. S. Lewis stated in his book The Problem of Pain, that ‘suffering was God’s megaphone to rouse a
deaf world.’ The definition of suffering is appealing; it gives suffering a
purpose, and a direction towards a greater reality. The problem with the
definition is that is just does not square with scripture.
Consider
the book of Job; Job is known for its blameless suffering. At no instance is
Job’s suffering a mechanism used by God to try to rouse Job from impious
consideration of Himself. In fact it is the exact opposite. Job’s suffering is meant by Satan to induce a curse to God at his very face (Job 1:11).
What
then can we say about suffering? It should be noted that Job’s seeks to
understand the place of suffering in his life, without the knowledge we have in
the beginning of the book. As Job considers his plight there are two conclusions that Job comes to in
chapter 9 as he response to his so-called mate, Bildad. In
Chapter 8:20 we see how Bildad is trying to comfort Job. “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of
evildoers.”
Bildad
is trying to get Job to admit that he must have done something wrong to have
caused this suffering that Job is experiencing. After all that is the way God
works. God is good to the righteous and judges the wicked. In Bildad’s
argument, suffering is punishment for stepping outside the moral order of the
world.
We get a
jolt though when Job responds in verse 1 of chapter 9. “Truly I know that it is true.”
This
cannot be, this contradicts the opening of the book of which Job knows he is
blameless. The rest of the verse puts it in a greater perspective, “But how can a man be in the right before God?”
It is
here we get an interesting connection made by Job worth pursuing. Job agrees that
suffering is connected with right living as Bildad states, and secondly that no
one can stand before the Lord entirely right with God. The implication is quite
clear, at some level we all deserve to suffer as we all cannot stand right with
God!
From verses
5 – 24 in Job 9, we see Job wrestling with the consequence of the proposition
laid out. Astoundingly, Job concludes that God should resign from his place as
judge of the world because there is no apparent reconciliation between the
good in the world and the suffering. Job then concedes that he requires a
mediator to stand between him and God.
Here we
have a great key to understanding suffering. God is just in his ordering and
running of the world, “Behold, God will
not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.” But the if the world
is ordered that all should people should suffer it sure appears that some do
and some don’t. In the case of Job he has suffered far more of the lions share
for his actions. The world therefore is completely discorded. The only way to
make sense of it is to have a mediator between man and God to make sense of it.
And the
great thing we know is, that mediator is Jesus Christ who suffered on
account of all people to reconcile God with humanity. In the beginning of Job
we see suffering used to break Job away from God. In Job 9, Job comes to the
conclusion that his suffering will need a mediator to make sense of it. In
Jesus the mediator, we see suffering used as the means by which a Holy God reconciles
Himself to a people that are not right with him.
We can
conclude quite confidentially from this short analysis that it appears strongly
that suffering actually may be the glue that binds a broken
world. We will explore this idea further.
