Asking God Why

KEY VERSE: “Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy?” —Job 13:24

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Job 29:1-6; 30:19-26

THE most severe part of Job’s experience was his lack of knowledge as to why God was permitting him to be weighed down with such a heavy burden of tribulation, and this aspect of his trouble was worsened by his friends. The world does not understand God’s reasons for the permission of evil. The philosophies of men, like the comfort of Job’s friends, are inadequate and inaccurate.

But through it all, Job’s one concern was to see God’s meaning in his experiences. He said, “Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.”—Job 23:3-5

Job had not lost his confidence in God. He believed that if he could find his Maker, and explain his situation to him, he would receive a satisfying answer. But in his intense suffering and great sorrow he sensed that he had lost contact with his God. Prayer had lost its meaning.

Would not this also be true with us had we not been given so many assurances that we can always, and with boldness and confidence, approach the throne of heavenly grace and be heard and comforted? How wonderfully we are favored by the knowledge that even our unwilling imperfections do not stand between us and our Heavenly Father—that we can always, through the name of Jesus, enter into his presence in prayer and be heard. But Job was not thus blessed, yet through his faith he maintained his integrity. He did not condemn God!

But Job did try to “find” God, to learn from him the meaning of his great trial. He said, “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him. But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:8-10) What a wonderful affirmation of confidence in God! Job could not find God in his experiences, but he was sure that God knew all about him. To paraphrase, Job said, “I do not know what God is doing, but he knows the way I take. He is hidden from me, but I am not hidden from him.”

And Job was also confident that God was merely testing his fidelity, his faithfulness. He compared this testing to the refining of gold—“When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” This also is one of the reasons the Lord now permits his people to pass through fiery trials. Peter wrote of the faithful: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”—I Pet. 1:5-7

Surely we can all enter into the feelings of Job as, in his mind, he reached out in every direction to find the Lord. We can imagine Job asking himself various questions. Could this or that, or something else, be the meaning of what the Lord is allowing to happen to me? But all of his reasoning and considering of ideas did not furnish a satisfying answer. The only definite conclusion he reached was that God was testing him, and realizing this he was determined that he would pass the test, that he would “come forth as gold.”

Today the Lord’s people have an advantage over Job in that God has revealed the meaning of suffering in the Christian life, and it remains only for us to exercise faith to the loving care of our Heavenly Father in order to enjoy peace and tranquility of mind even while passing through severe trials.

Today we also know that as followers of the Master, some of the difficulties we experience are due to the fact that we are his followers; that we suffer for righteousness’ sake, filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. No faithful follower of the Master will ever ask why he suffers. His prayers will be for strength to help him bear his trials, and he will praise the Heavenly Father for the privilege of suffering with Christ that he thereby may prove worthy to live and reign with him.

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