If you have not read our new e-book on the Bible's book of Job, maybe this short video (clicking on the image above will open the video in a new page) will convince you to do it!  Job: Answering the Question of Suffering provides a surprising and encouraging study of one of the Bible's most fascinating, but least understood books. The video gives a brief introduction to  this book and its important lessons every Christian needs to understand.  Watch the video and maybe you will decide to read the e-book (here) after all!

“Don’t you care, God?” may seem like an extreme question to ask the One who made the world, and gave us life; who often helps us, and heals us, according to his loving will.  But it is exactly the question the disciples asked Jesus at one point.

Most Bible readers are familiar with the story recorded in the Gospels, that on an occasion when Jesus was crossing the Sea of Galilee with his disciples a great storm rose up that threatened to capsize the boat and perhaps drown them. We remember the fact that, despite the storm, Jesus was sleeping in the boat, and the terrified disciples woke him to see what was happening, and said to him, “Teacher, don't you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38).

The fear of the disciples is very evident in this story – especially in the third gospel where Luke records their urgently repeated “Master,” “Master,” as they tried to waken Jesus (Luke 8:24).  But we should remember these were men who made their living fishing on the great lake of Galilee, and this was doubtless not their first storm, so the situation probably was an extreme one.

But notice again the disciples’ question to Jesus: “Teacher, don't you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38).  Implicit in this question are two things.  First, the disciples knew full well that Jesus had the power to help them. They had already seen many of his miracles by that point (Mark 3:7-12; etc.), and knew that he had the power of God.  In that sense, their question was addressed as much to God as to Jesus. 

The second thing we notice about the disciples’ question is that it so often typifies our human reaction when we suffer and wonder why God does not answer our prayers – when we are overwhelmed by our doubts and fears. This all-too-human reaction is seen elsewhere is the Bible – as when the psalmist pleads “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself!” (Psalm 44:23).  It is as though we accuse God of not looking at our situation, or somehow not caring about it.

But Jesus did not berate the disciples for their question. Instead, after he calmed the storm, and gave them a reply to make them think. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40).

It is a question we should ask ourselves, too, whenever we face life’s storms and we begin to fear or falter.  Jesus’ words remind us that even when God seems distant, even when he may seem “asleep,” it does not mean that he is not there, or does not care, and that we simply need to call to him and then to trust him in faith that the storm will end.  As the psalmist also wrote:

“He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind” (Psalm 107:29-31).

God has promised he will finish the work he began in us (Philippians 1:6), and although he does not promise he will stop storms from rising in our lives, he does promise he will get us to our destination.

Atheists have long pointed to the suffering in the world as “proof” that God cannot exist – claiming that if God were all powerful and all loving, he would not let suffering occur.  But to find the very simple answer to this dilemma of why suffering exists, we need only take a step back from the question and ask why do humans exist? 

The Scriptures make it clear that humanity exists because God wishes to share everything he has with his human children (Romans 8:32) – for all eternity (John 10:28).   But as C.S. Lewis wisely pointed out, God will not give eternal life to anyone who will make themselves and others eternally unhappy.  The only way this can be achieved is to have a physical world in which people are born but cannot live forever unless they choose to live in a way that would make them and others happy – and then those people are given eternal life by God (1 Corinthians 15:49–52).

Once we understand this great purpose of human life and see that a temporary physical existence is necessary before we can be trusted with an endless spiritual existence, it is not difficult to see that while we are physical beings, we have to be capable of experiencing pain.  If we were not, we would unknowingly put our hands on burning hot objects, or injure and destroy ourselves in any of hundreds of other ways.  We have to be able to experience pain – suffering – in order to live in a temporary physical world. 

Some may ask, “Wouldn't it be better if people were not born rather than being born into a life with the potential to experience pain or suffering?” But we should ask ourselves if a newborn baby that has to be slapped on the bottom by the delivering doctor – in order for the sudden pain to jolt it into breathing – would choose not to experience years and years of potentially happy and fulfilling life just to avoid that initial few seconds of hurting? 

In exactly the same way, our experience of pain during the relatively brief years of our physical lifetime will be ultimately well worth enduring for the painless eternity we are offered in the life after this one. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18 ).   Paul goes on to explain this in more detail:

"For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us" (Romans 8:22–24 NLT).

So suffering had to be for a short time if we are to live eternally without causing ourselves or others ongoing pain. But we must also realize that in this life we bring much suffering on ourselves – we all sin, and sin inevitably leads to suffering. Other suffering is accidental, or caused maliciously by others. 

But God does not just allow us to suffer and ignore the fact that we do. He understands that suffering may try our faith. But he knows that if we trust him and endure, our faith is made stronger for being tested (James 1:2–4).  He even uses our suffering to help us. God may allow pain to help us turn to him, to examine ourselves, and to become more like him.  Also, we cannot really learn true empathy and kindness by simply deciding to have these qualities – they often come only by seeing how we need them ourselves when we suffer. Paul says this explicitly: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4).  Even Jesus learned through what he suffered (Hebrews 5:8) and was able to become an understanding helper to us (Hebrews 4:15–16).   When we experience suffering, we also learn more of the depth of the love of Christ who endured immeasurable suffering on our behalf.

And there is yet another, extremely important dimension to the suffering that the Christian may endure. From John the Baptist, who was beheaded (Matthew 14:1–12), to Jesus and the early apostles, the New Testament is full of examples of those who suffered righteously. But if we suffer as a result of our faith – through persecution of some kind – then, as Peter wrote, “you share the sufferings of Christ” (1 Peter 4:12). And as Paul reminds us, we will be rewarded for this: “we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).

Of course, even those who are spared persecution in this life encounter suffering in one form or another – we all do. And when we do, we can not only be confident that this is the only way God could make the world for our eventual benefit, but also that God will use the suffering we endure, if we ask him, to guide and grow us now, and to bless and reward us in that future time when he will end humanity’s temporary suffering, and he “will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4 NLT).  Our present sufferings are, indeed, nothing compared with what God plans to give us as a result of them.

The book of Job has such a powerful and memorable storyline that it is possible to focus on the story and miss its point.  At its heart, Job is a book of questions, but sometimes we do not see the questions for the story.

When we think of the book of Job we usually think of the narrative stream of events:  righteous Job; God giving Satan permission to afflict him; Job’s troubles; his discussions with his friends; God speaking to Job; and finally, Job’s restoration.  We see this story-stream, but we don’t always focus on the questions in the stream.  Yet when we look closely at the questions in Job, we can see the underlying lesson of the book much better because the questions in Job actually provide the structural “skeleton” of the story – they are the “bones” which support the body of the narrative, rather than the other way around.

Once the stage is set, the book of Job begins with questions: “Where have you come from?” (1:7), “Have you considered my servant Job?” (1:8), “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (1:9), ““Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?” (1:10). These questions quickly propel us into the story proper, and it is here that Job begins to ask an ongoing string of questions that form the heart of the story.  Notice just some of these questions:

-  “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?” (3:11)
- “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul?” (3:20)
- “Why do you hide your face and consider me an enemy?” (13:24)
- “Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?” (21:7)

When we put Job’s questions together in this way, we immediately see a clear pattern: Job asks “Why?”  over and over again.  In the course of the book Job asks this same question many times as he grapples with his situation. At the heart of Job’s many “Why?s” is the central issue of why God allows him to suffer undeservedly –  a question explicitly stated in his words: “I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me” (Job 10:2 ESV).   

Throughout the central part of the book, Job’s friends also ask questions –  all of which are aimed at Job himself.  But, one after another, Job – rightly - discounts the speeches of the three friends and returns to his unanswered questions of “Why?”

Finally, at the climax of the story, God himself steps into the scene with questions of his own –  introduced with the words “Brace yourself like a man and I will question you and you shall answer me” (38:3, 40:7).

Throughout four full chapters God then pummels Job with some seventy questions of his own, (Job 38-41).  When we look carefully at God’s questions, we see a pattern, also. God does not ask “Why?” Instead, God proceeds to ask Job  “Where?” “When” “What?” “How?” “Which?” and “Who?” along with questions such as “Can you…?” “Have you?” “Did you?” and so on.

But God is not really asking Job for answers to all these questions – he does not give him the opportunity to try to answer them. They are rhetorical questions God knows Job cannot answer.  But God’s questions make it clear that Job doesn’t know the answers to the when, where, what, how, and other aspects of God’s works.  The clear point of God asking Job every type of question other than “Why?” is that of a rebuke to Job: why does he question why God does what he does and allows what he allows, when he clearly does not understand any of the aspects of God’s works regarding the inanimate and animate elements of creation.  In other words, God asks Job:  Why question the “why?” of my will when you cannot comprehend the “How” and any of the other aspects of what I choose to do?  That is why, when God has finished questioning Job, the patriarch exclaims:

“You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (Job 42:3).

Job came to realize that if he is not qualified in any way to comprehend the basic aspects of God’s creation and sustaining of all there is, then he certainly was not qualified to pass judgment on how God directs the events of human lives or allows what he does allow.
  
This was Job’s epiphany, his moment of understanding at the conclusion of the book’s dialog when he says to God: “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:4-6). Job realized that although he had not done wrong, he still had no reason to question God’s wisdom and judgment in allowing his suffering.
​
The questions found throughout the book of Job reveal the true nature of Job’s situation and God’s purposes.  It is in the questions in Job that we find the answers to the underlying message of the book.