The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word ‘love’, and look on things as if man were the center of them.
-C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
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Job and suffering may well be synonymous the world over, but God defines things differently. His language is of a higher ascent—sometimes allowing the true meaning of things to develop over time. That’s why it’s important to read carefully all forty-two chapters of the book of Job. Its length is perhaps God’s cue to take a closer look at the rendering of a man who knew how to suffer well.
Since antiquity many have found a measure of comfort when encouraged to compare their heartache to Job’s. A cursory glance at the ordeals he endured uncannily snaps one back into reality and works an ephemeral cure should self-pity ever begin to drip its goo. But the book of Job was intended to say much more than this—God is never long-winded.
Both feet firmly planted on the ground, Job is well aware early on that his great contest with the devil is not some freakish wind that will soon blow over. But the persistence and severity of the testing takes its toll and drags him, in all his humanity, to the gutter where cursing the day he was born and the swollen mire of bitter complaint wins him nothing but a sympathy parade of friends. His wife probably let them in.
Skin-scabbed but still amazingly eloquent, Job is finally addressed by God in chapter thirty-eight and told to be quiet and to brace himself like a man. Job beats his breast in earnest, barely able to whisper a prayer. Once put in his place, he is again told in chapter forty to brace himself like a man. God has a way of getting His point across.
Job’s medal of honor shines in that he never once shook his fist at God. His integrity won the day and defined the man. The latter end of Job’s life is a glorious monument to the fact that God takes pleasure in a man who understands something of Divine prerogative, even when Divine prerogative means taking forty-two chapters to say so.







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