The Spiritual Life #58 - The Suffering of Job

Thinking on Scripture with Dr. Steven R. Cook

The Suffering of Job

Job’s suffering began abruptly, without warning and without explanation, when God permitted Satan to test his integrity. Though Job was “blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1), divine sovereignty allowed undeserved suffering as a means of glorifying God and refining Job’s soul. Zuck wisely states, “The Book of Job addresses the mystery of unmerited misery, showing that in adversity God may have other purposes besides retribution for wrongdoing.”[1] Satan challenged Job’s motives, accusing him of serving God only because of prosperity (Job 1:9–11). To silence the accusation, God removed the hedge of protection and permitted adversity to strip Job of his possessions, children, and health. Job’s wealth, family, and comfort were gone in a day, and his body was reduced to pain and decay. Yet even in shock and sorrow, Job responded with doctrinal stability: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). His reaction reveals that spiritual maturity is measured not by prosperity but by the capacity to think divine viewpoint under pressure. Zuck states:

• "It is truly remarkable that Job followed adversity with adoration, woe with worship. Unlike so many people, he did not give in to bitterness; he refused to blame God for wrongdoing (cf. Job 2:10). Job’s amazing response showed Satan was utterly wrong in predicting that Job would curse God. Devotion is possible without dollars received in return; people can be godly apart from material gain. Job’s saintly worship at the moment of extreme loss and intense grief verified God’s words about Job’s godly character."[2]

As the suffering prolonged, Job’s emotional and physical agony intensified. The silence of heaven pressed upon him, and his so-called friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar) added psychological torment through their false theology of retribution. They insisted that Job’s suffering was punishment for secret sin, reflecting human viewpoint reasoning divorced from grace. Job defended his innocence, yet his soul wavered between confusion and faith. His lamentations revealed an inner struggle between human viewpoint self-pity and divine viewpoint trust. The conflict of the soul is where doctrine must move from theory to reality. Job learned that faith must rest on who and what God is, not on temporal blessings or human understanding. Suffering exposed the inadequacy of human rationalization and forced Job to focus on the immutable character of God. It was a suffering for purification.

When God finally answered from the whirlwind, He did not explain the reasons for Job’s suffering; He revealed His own infinite wisdom and sovereign control. Confronted with God’s majesty, Job recognized the smallness of his finite perspective and confessed, “I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me” (Job 42:3). This was a display of humility. Job’s faith had matured from knowledge about God to experiential confidence in Him. Job said, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You” (Job 42:5). According to Zuck, “This thrilling view of God, probably spiritual insight, not physical vision, deepened his perspective and appreciation of God. What Job now knew of God was incomparable to his former ideas, which were really ignorant.”[3] God restored Job’s fortunes, but the true reward was not material, but spiritual transformation. Through suffering, Job became a trophy of grace, proving that mature faith endures not because of what it receives, but because of whom it knows.

Steven R. Cook, D.Min., M.Div.

[1] Roy B. Zuck, “Job,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 714–715.

[2] Ibid., 721.

[3] Ibid., 774.