You Have Heard of the Complexity of Job
Nate Brooks
The book of Job starts out like a crisp thriller. There’s an argument between God and His Adversary, followed by the instantaneous plunge of the main character from the pinnacle of prosperity into a dystopian nightmare. From the ashes, he affirms his loyalty to God, and his circle of close friends comes from near and far to…well…make bloviating speeches at him across the next twenty-odd chapters. So much for the Job-as-thriller concept.
As a child, I would read the first three chapters of Job, then skip to the part where Yahweh shows up to speak to Job, then close out with the last chapter where all is restored. Skipping twenty chapters of speeches and counter-speeches made for a much more coherent and fast-moving story. It also made more sense of it, as even Job himself seemed to rapidly undulate between truth and error in confusing ways.
The Speeches Are the Point
Over time, I’ve learned that skipping over those terribly non-linear speeches in the book of Job is to miss the point of the book. Chapters 1-2 are simply the prologue for its main drama. Job asks and answers a crucial question for us as human beings living in a world beset by evil and struggle. The book of Job is a long-form answer to the question, “How do godly people respond to dark, unrelenting trials?”
Few characters in the Bible are as impeccably credentialed as Job. He was the best of us, a man Yahweh Himself described in glowing terms: “There is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:8). The prophet Ezekiel places Job alongside Noah and Daniel as pillars of righteous faith in the Old Testament (Ezek. 14:14-20). Job is not a man who shuffles through life, tangentially related to God. He is the best of us.
Job’s Responses
Job’s immediate response to calamity seems befitting of his place at the head of the line of faithful men and women. His first words have shaped the responses of godly men and women throughout history facing similar disasters. “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). However, Job’s total response to his sufferings hardly stays within this tidy two-sentence slogan. Across the next twenty chapters, we get a deeper look into Job as his sufferings endure without any promise of resolution.
Consider the following concepts and words that pour out of Job in his speeches:
1. Job longed to die and wanted desperately to do so.
May the day I was born perish. Why was I not stillborn; why didn’t I die as I came from the womb? Then I would be at rest. Why is light given to one burdened with grief, and life to those whose existence is bitter, who wait for death, but it does not come, and who search for it much more than for hidden treasures, who are filled with much joy and are glad when they reach the grave? I prefer strangling—death rather than life in this body. I give up! (Job 3, 7).[1]
2. Job was deeply concerned that he might deny the Lord in his suffering.
If only my request would be granted and God would provide what I hope for: that He would decide to crush me, to unleash His power and cut me off! It would bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One (Job 6).
3. Job despaired about the future.
What strength do I have that I should continue to hope? What is my future that I should be patient? Is my strength that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze? Since I cannot help myself, the hope for success has been banished from me (Job 6).
4. Job often spoke as though he found no comfort in the Lord.
He batters me with a whirlwind and multiplies my wounds without cause. He doesn’t let me catch my breath but fills me with bitter experiences. When catastrophe brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent. Let him take his rod away from me so his terror will no longer frighten me. Then I would speak and not fear him. But that is not the case; I am on my own. Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have died and never been seen. Are not my days few? Stop it! Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little (Job 9, 10).
5. Job spoke of God as his adversary and the cause of his troubles.
Surely he has now exhausted me. His anger tears at me, and he harasses me. He gnashes his teeth at me. God hands me over to the unjust; he throws me to the wicked. I was at ease, but he shattered me; he seized me by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target; his archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground (Job 16).
6. Job mourned the loss of his life plans and lost all hope.
My spirit is broken. My days are extinguished. A graveyard awaits me. My days have slipped by; my plans have been ruined, even the things dear to my heart. Who can see any hope for me? (Job 17).
7. Job charged God with wrongdoing while also seeing God as his only hope.
It is God who has wronged me and caught me in his net. I cry out, “Violence!” but get no response. I call for help, but there is no justice. He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined. Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for God’s hand has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does? But I know that my Redeemer lives. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh. I will see him myself; my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me (Job 19).
You Have Heard of the Complexities of Job
The character of Job calls us to consider the complexities of deep suffering. Many of these words from Job seem unfaithful, the kinds of words that should not grace the lips of those who affirm God’s goodness and sovereignty. And yet he is held up as a paragon of virtue not merely before his suffering but in the midst of it. As we noted before, Ezekiel chooses him as one of three men that embody righteous faith. And in the one mention of Job in the New Testament, the Apostle James sums up the character of Job in one adjective. It’s not “imperfect” or “streaky” or “tenuous,” but one of durability and strength: “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job” (James 5:11, ESV).
Even within the book of Job, we see Yahweh’s own affirmation of Job. Yahweh corrects Job from the whirlwind, but then has a strikingly positive conclusion about the overall content of Job’s speeches. Speaking directly to Eliphaz, Yahweh declares, “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. Now take seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. Then my servant Job will pray for you. I will surely accept his prayer and not deal with you as your folly deserves. For you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” Twice Yahweh affirms that Job has spoken the truth about Him. Not in every detail to be certain, but our pure and holy God looks at Job’s quavering and faithful and furious and bewildered speeches and says, “This is the truth about me.”
Conclusion
We started off this article by noting that the book of Job is an answer to the question, “How do godly people respond to deep, unrelenting suffering?” We are wise to remember that people who are pervasively troubled by the blackest of circumstances may exhibit all of these responses and still be thoroughly righteous. Things that appear as crises of faith are often not crises of faith but products of human frailty. Human responses to deep darkness are rarely a straight line but a scattered, bewildered, inconsistent string of dots. God is well-pleased with those who are shaken, scattered, and bewildered. He loves all those who are His, who place their hope alongside Job in the unshakable fact that “my Redeemer lives.”
Questions for Reflection
Which words from Job do you find most troubling to hear on the lips of a godly man? Why?
How does God’s affirmation of Job serve to challenge your thinking about Job’s speeches?
What areas of Job’s complex response to pervasive suffering challenge you as you care for those who suffer?
[1] The writing under each point is Job’s words strung together from various verses in the noted chapters. Scripture from the CSB translation unless otherwise noted.