“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.” | Job 42:2–6
Last Sunday (this is a bit late), I preached on Jesus walking on the sea in the midst of the storm and I spent some time on the issue of God’s sovereignty in the midst of chaos. Any time we talk about suffering and God, it is wise to spend some time in the book that uses this as its premise. The book of Job pulls back the curtain and shows us that even when evil is being enacted by Satan, it is always fully under the authority of God.
The other thing that Job so wonderfully describes to us is the human struggle to understand this. When people think of the content of Job, they often think of the first and last few chapters. In between setting up the problem and God giving His answer, are 30+ chapters of human beings trying to make sense of suffering. The conclusions that they come to range from repent (suffering is a punishment for evil) to reject God (any God that would allow this is not worth worship). In the face of all of these answers, Job holds tight to the mystery. None of the answers he or his friends can come up with make sense of all of the variables, so instead of getting lost in what he doesn’t know, Job holds fast to what He does know:
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. | Job 1:21b
God’s sovereignty (absolute control of all things), and God’s goodness are the framework that Job uses to persevere in the midst of what he doesn’t understand. What God has revealed is more powerful to him than what God has not. We need to learn to follow this example. We are so used to having an answer to every question, that we have a hard time imagining problems that can’t be solved. If all of the smartest people in the world can’t come up with the answer, we assume that there must not be one. If God is unwilling to explain Himself to us, it must be because He has no answer. Yet, God has given us an answer.
In chapters 38-41, God gives Job an answer, though it isn’t the answer we are usually looking for. God, with every opportunity to lay out a lengthy description of why suffering exists and exactly what plan He has for the allowance of evil, instead uses these four chapters to remind Job that He is God. As God, there are things that are too big and too noble for mere mortals to be able to ponder. God’s answer to Job is, remember who you are and remember who I am. This answer is an encouragement to Job. Being able to say: I don’t know is a great freedom. GK Chesterton describes this freedom, saying:
Indeed the Book of Job avowedly only answers mystery with mystery. Job is comforted with riddles; but he is comforted. Herein is indeed a type, in the sense of a prophecy, of things speaking with authority. For when he who doubts can only say, ‘I do not understand,’ it is true that he who knows can only reply or repeat ‘You do not understand.’ And under that rebuke there is always a sudden hope in the heart; and the sense of something that would be worth understanding.
Job can say: ‘I don’t know’ to God, because God has already assured Him that there is something He doesn’t know. The reality of a plan that is too big for us to comprehend and a good God who is at the helm orchestrating it, brings a sense of peace no human answer can. It makes the strength of our peace based not on how much we know, but how well we know He who has promised to make all things new.