Job has been a comfort to many who suffer down through time. His dreadful experience challenges our faith in a good and loving God. He lost his wealth, his children, his health and even the encouragement of his wife. After those colossal blows he was heard to say, “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?” Job 2:10 (NIV)
Thus far, Job was submissive to the blows from God. What seemed to push him over the edge was that he lost his sense of God’s presence. This is seen very painfully in our text for today. Job had figured out what he would say to God if he ever found Him. But the problem was that Job truly felt that God had forsaken him because of all his suffering.
Job’s “comforters” had assured Job that he was being punished for some terrible sins that he had committed. Job, on the other hand, believed he had walked well with God and that could not be the source for his suffering. When he said that to the “comforters”, they attacked him all the more about his attitude and sins.
It is so sad that in life when people have a tragedy that others watching assume they have failed the Lord and are thus being chastened by God. God himself boasted about the excellent way Job was conducting his life on earth. The cause of Job’s suffering was not because of sin, according to God.
The one who suffers can feel abandoned by God as they seek to survive under the load of pain they have to bear. Weary people can pray to die as Job did in Job 3. In the Old Testament part of our Bible we read of Elijah and Jonah praying to die because of their circumstances. Death does have an appeal to people in pain. Yet such people usually find they live instead in order to suffer another day.
If you have come to the place where you fear living more than dying, you should seek the help of a good counsellor and fill them in on how you view life. It could be your doctor, pastor, a trusted friend, or other person who genuinely cares for you. But be certain to go to someone who can assist you in getting some council. Job, it seems, had no one to care for him in his misery.
What Job did do that was very good was that he sought to find God and tell God his sorrow. God is pictured in the Bible as being as gentle as a nursing mother, as tender as a shepherd holding a new born lamb. Jesus invites people with burdens to come to Him because He is meek and gentle in heart.
Job continued to seek God in the midst of his troubles and finally found God and was reminded of Who God was. He never was given an explanation for all his grief but he did find in God the resources he needed to cope until his life got back on track.
Come to the One who made you and do not stop persisting in prayer until you are convinced that you have been heard in heaven. Do not forget that God may use some person near at hand to be a guide through the maze of life you face. He places good counsellors, both the professional counsellors and ones who have lived through difficulties, to assist you.
Wherever you get help, you may be assured that the resources of God are more than a match for whatever faces you.
