Yet I Will Praise You: The Life of Job

Why do bad things happen to good people? This is a question I think everyone has struggled with at some point. Suffering just doesn’t make sense. You try so hard to live a good life, and you are rewarded with heartache. We deserve more. We deserve better. Don’t we? Let’s take a look at a man who could relate to injustice.

Job is described as “blameless and upright; [he] feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1).  He was “the greatest man among all the people of the East” (1:3).  Here we have a good guy, a great guy—the greatest guy. Job lived a prosperous life, but he was humble and put God first.

Satan went before God, and God asks him where he’s been. Satan says he’s been roaming the earth. Then, God replies, “Have you considered my servant Job?” (1:8).

Satan argues that Job’s faithfulness is only attributed to his charmed life: “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” (1:10-11).

So, God gives Satan the go-ahead to do whatever he likes with Job’s possessions. He just can’t physically harm Job himself. And Satan takes full advantage of this power. He wipes out Job’s livestock, servants, and all ten of his children.

Job responds in three ways. First, he tears his robes. Next, he shaves his head. Finally, Job falls to the ground in worship and says, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (1:21).

The first two responses I get. Job is grieving. These were standard expressions of mourning in Job’s day and age. But worship? I don’t know about you, but when I lost my baby girl, praising God was not one of my initial responses.

So, how could Job have responded in this way?

Job walked closely with God and recognized His sovereignty. He realized that he was not entitled to anything. God did not owe him anything. Everything Job had belonged to God, including his children. Job trusted that God would see him through every circumstance. His response to these agonizing trials was not natural, rather his relationship with a supernatural God led to a supernatural response.

Back to our story—because Satan was not done yet. Satan comes again before God. Same questions, same replies. But this time Satan is allowed to inflict physical pain on Job. He’s just not allowed to kill him. Satan afflicts Job with painful sores all over his body. His wife suggests he curse God and die. Job again responds in a surprising manner: “He replied, ‘You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?’”

Job is discouraged and curses the day he was born. His friends come and sit with him in silence for seven days and seven nights. When they finally speak, they accuse him of having sin in his life, and of not knowing God. They tell him that his suffering is God’s discipline, and claim that, if Job would repent, his trouble would come to an end. But, Job maintains that he has not done wrong and asks to plead his case before God.

“Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him;
I will surely defend my ways to His face.”
Job 13:15

Job is frustrated with his friends’ advice and encouragement. I think we all can relate. People just don’t know what to say in a tragic situation. They might be well-meaning, but their words often cause more pain. It could be accusatory remarks or just trite sayings that hold no meaning for the grieving. Job calls them out saying, “I have heard many things like these;
you are miserable comforters, all of you!”

Job is mentally and physically destroyed. He seems a shell of who he once was. Job is at his lowest point and feels abandoned by God. His words sound so familiar to my once broken heart: “He tears me down on every side till I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree” (Job 19:10).

Despite his sorrow, Job does not lose hope. He stands on what he knows to be true of God and chooses to trust in the character of God despite his circumstances. This isn’t to say that Job put on a happy face about it. Job was miserable. He’s very real about his emotions and the pain he’s experiencing, but Job holds fast to his faith in God.

“My days have passed, my plans are shattered. Yet the desires of my heart turn night into day; in the face of the darkness light is near… I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
Job 17:11-12, 19:25-27

And finally, after crying out to God—begging to hear a word from Him—God answers him. In chapters 38 and 40, it tells us that “the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm.” Dark times do not mean that God is not present. We often feel God’s presence most when we are in a storm, when we are in desperate need of Him.

In His response to Job, God reminds him of Who He is—Sovereign, Creator, and Father. Nothing escapes God’s notice. He presents Job with rhetorical questions that brings everything back in the right perspective. 

“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn? Do you count the months till they bear? Do you know the time they give birth?”
Job 39:1-2

God is in the details. He values life. While Job did receive these reminders from God, he was not given the reason for his suffering. But Job’s need for the “Who” exceeded his wish for the “why.” God, Himself, was enough for Job. And here we come to the ending. God does not end Job’s story is despair:

“After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.”
-Job 42:10, 12, & 13

So back to my original question. Don’t we deserve more? The answer, my friend, is no. We don’t deserve anything. But God, out of His immense love for us, continues to extend grace and redemption to us. Job experienced overwhelming loss in all areas of his life, yet he maintained his faith and hope in God.

You may feel abandoned and destroyed, but God is not done writing your story. For those who have placed their trust in the Lord, the story does not end in despair. He loves you deeply and will restore you. This restoration may not come in the form of earthly success, wealth, or the blessing of children here on earth, but we can be confident that through Christ, this restoration will be lacking no eternally good thing.

May we all claim Job’s words as our own:

“My feet have closely followed His steps;
I have kept to His way without turning aside.
I have not departed from the commands of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.”
-Job 23:11-12

Will you choose to echo this exultation of the Lord? Blessed be His name! In plenty and in wanting, in sunshine or darkness, through times of pain and suffering, blessed be His name!

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Stephanie Blanks is married to Matt and has four children: Lyston (9), Kinley (who went home to Jesus in 2011), Levi (6), and Leighton (4). Stephanie works at the Chamber of Commerce in her small town of Hondo, TX. She enjoys singing in her church praise band, running, reading, and spending time with her family at the lake. You can read more from Stephanie on her blog.

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