It began without warning. At this point it had been 48 hours since I started to feel ill. It was still dark out. I had gotten up multiple times that night to visit the restroom. Stubborn, I had thought I could handle whatever my body was taking me through. Everyone gets sick here, it’s part of missionary life. I didn’t want to call attention to myself. Finally there came a point where I knew I needed help. I was over heated, sweating, my ears hot, dizzy and I started blacking out as I walked up the concreate stairs to our room. That’s where I flicked on the lights and called for help, as I fell down with ease at the floor of the door. My roommates jumped out of bed and came to my need. Just over a few hours later, when morning came, I was at the hospital for dehydration due to food poisoning. I had been given an IV for a little over 6 hours.
I had asked God why the drama? Constantly being here in sickness. What is the point to all this? If we don’t ask ourselves this questions in certain moments in our lives we almost always miss what God is calling us to realize. Suffering comes in many forms, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Is there a point to it all? I hope so. Suffering is necessary. It is more than necessary, it is essential. It was essential when Christ died for us on the cross, and it is still essential today. He suffered great, it was undeserving, but it was for a cause. Let’s go back to that point. Jesus himself, the Holy Son of God, who was sinless and mighty, loving and ultimately blameless endured the worst and most embarrassing of punishments, death and then a descent in to hell. But we know why He had to do it, unselfishly so that we would be saved. But what about all the times we suffer, all the times we see suffering and ask God why?
John the Baptist, always a faithful servant and prophet of Jesus Christ, suffered a distressing death and was beheaded. The Apostils gave their life to follow Jesus and brought His story to the unreached and most of them were prosecuted and mortared. Paul, one of greatest Bible characters and writers of the Great book spent most of his life in prison, falsely accused. There are many more, and many more to come. The story of Job is another, I have always been drawn to this book. For those who are not familiar with it, it goes something like this:
“In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons, and three daughters and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen ad five hundred donkey, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man around all the people of the East.” (Job 1:1-3.)
One day while Satan was “roaming throughout the earth” (Job 1:7) He said to God “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands…but now stretch out your hands and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The Lord then said to Satan:
‘Very well then, everything is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” (Job 1:10-12.)
After this Satan went to Job and caused great strife in his life. His oxen and donkeys were taken from his hands, his many servants were killed, his flock of sheep burned, his camels stolen, all of his sons and daughters dead with the fall of the house. Then again the Lord was in conversation with Satan:
“Have you considered my servant Job, there is no one like him; he is blameless and upright; a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.” (Job 2:3.)
After this Satan again challenged the Lord’s word and Job’s faithfulness. This is when Satan left the presence of the Lord and ‘inflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.’ (Job 2:7.) When we encounter hardships, most of the time we do not know why we must suffer, and question how could this be a part of God’s will? How can great suffering like rape, murder and massacre be a part of God’s will? How can poverty, disease and disaster be a part of God’s will? And why do those who do so much good receive so much trail? These are all questions whether as a believer or not, we ask ourselves.
First, we shall remember that God is love. God cannot produce evil. But like in the story of Job He may allow certain evil to enter our lives for a reason, and a good enough reason for our always faithful God. Evil can enter our lives in two ways. One, by the Devil and his servants. Two, by our own flesh and our own sin. As is says in Job, “Satan answered the Lord ‘[I have been] roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.’” (Job 2:2.) After Satan has released his wrath upon Job, without taking his life, Job goes into a dark period of mourning and curses the day he was born. “His wife said to him ‘Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!’ He replied with a question to her “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?’ In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” (Job 2:10.)
Second, sometimes like in the story of Jesus Christ, God will shine light on why it is He wants to take us through this suffering. However, much like the story of Job, He won’t, instead He will only ask us to trust that He is always good and always for us. Knowing this He still wants to take us through our suffering without understanding the ultimate question of why, and without questioning God. “Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
‘Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? I will question you, and you will answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me if you understand… Surely you know…Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness?”(Job 38:1-9.)
God then continues to speak to and question Job in chapters 38 to 41. When God’s speech ends, Job admits that he has spoken without knowledge, without understanding. “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 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 42:1-3.) At the end of the conversation, the Lord ‘blessed the later part of Job’s life more than the former part.’ (Job 42:12.) After this Job lived a hundred and forty years; an old man and full of years.
The story of Job is amazing. It is one of suffering and blessing, a story where one man’s faith is put to the ultimate test. It is one of natural human questioning, and ultimately one where we see God’s authority. In the end God still did not tell Job why he was going through his suffering nor the reason for it, even though he had been only a faithful servant of the Lord’s. In fact, God did not even tell us why. There is a reason far greater than a bet between Satan and God. God however does teach us in Job’s story of this:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, as the heavens are higher than earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isiah 55:8-9)
Most of the time we do not need to know the reason for our suffering, we just need more trust, trust that there is a reason that only may God know, and that he may choose to reveal it or not in the correct timing according to His will. So next time when we are tempted to question why in the midst of our suffering, and when we see suffering on the faces of others think of how God answered Job. Importantly so, we must believe that ‘no matter how unjust something may seem, even when it seems to have come from Satan himself, by the time it reaches us it is God’s will for us and will ultimately work for our good.’ (L.B. Cowman.)
Amen to that.
