By Dr. Jim Barnette
Professor, Samford University
Senior Pastor, Brookwood Baptist Church
Why Am I Suffering?
Job 11:13–16; 23:8–12; John 9:1–3
Suffering is often erroneously considered a consequence of disobedience to God. (Job 11:13–16)
Job’s “friend,” Zophar, is convinced the reason Job is suffering is because Job has sinned. Therefore, with no sense of sympathy or compassion, he advises Job to repent. Then, Zophar believes, Job would automatically be restored. The darkness and gloom would vanish, and all would be sunshine and happiness.
Zophar’s cold response shows how little he has heard Job’s heart. We understand Job’s outburst, as we have had such moments during times of hardship and grief. In Job’s pain, we find his humanity, and we are reminded of our own.
Earlier, Job’s friend had declared that only God is wise (vv. 5–12). However, Zophar seems to have considered himself an exception — only he and God have the truth.
Zophar tells Job to stretch out his “hands” toward God. To have wrongdoing in one’s hand is a common idiom for guilt (see 1 Sam. 24:12; 1 Chron. 12:17–18).
Putting sin away from one’s hand implies a reordering of the will, since the hand was a metaphor for power and control.
Even the righteous experience suffering. (Job 23:8–12)
Job desires a trial through which he can be vindicated for his stated griefs. However, this trial is blocked by what he deems the elusiveness of God. Job has looked everywhere for Him. Job notes the four directions he has sought God during this time of trial. “Forward,” “backward,” “left hand” and “right hand” can also be rendered: east, west, north and south. In the Old Testament, directions are described on the assumption that one faces the rising sun. So east is “forward,” west is “backward,” north is “left” and south is “right.” Job is stressing that he has looked everywhere for God and cannot find Him. Of course, God is not to be “found,” as God is everywhere. Psalm 139 is a marvelous exposition of this reality that shuts down any claim that God is absent at any time or anywhere.
Verses 8–9 suggest Job has been looking for God in the created universe. But God is not to be identified only through His creation. A fuller revelation of God has come through His history. All the more, Jesus is the definitive self-revelation of God in our world. We need not be terrified by the hiddenness of God. God is always revealing Himself, seeking us out in our life-stories. And in His Son, the God who sometimes seems hidden revealed Himself clearly and unmistakably.
Jesus affirmed suffering is not always related to personal sin. (John 9:1–3)
After leaving the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus spotted a beggar who had been blind from birth. This was the first miracle of healing by Jesus in John’s Gospel where a person had been afflicted from birth. For centuries many Jews believed suffering was a direct result of a person’s sin or the sin of the person’s parents. Jesus refused to assign blame to the man or to his parents. Instead, he introduced the opportunity to minister to a person in crisis. Jesus did not teach that God made the man blind so Jesus could perform a miracle. What Jesus taught was the man’s blindness offered a moment of ministry that would demonstrate the power of God in Jesus’ life.
A visit to Jerusalem makes one appreciate the blind man’s journey to the pool of Siloam after Jesus rubbed the mud on the man’s eyes. Today, a walk from the location of the temple to the pool is a good 20 minutes at a strong pace. No doubt the man who was yet to see clearly would have made a more challenging trek from temple to pool. His awkward pilgrimage to the miracle of sight reveals his own desperate faith in the One who can bring sight to all of the spiritually blind.
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