Answering the ‘Why’

My Bible study has taken me to the Book of Job. I studied Job last year and it’s still fresh in my mind so I contemplated skipping it entirely. Besides that, I don’t like reading Job. It’s not on my favorite Books of the Bible list. It’s an emotionally hard book to read. Not only does it deal with suffering but it’s riddled with questions I have no answers for and ones I’d rather not think about. Then there are those passages that make me uncomfortable and squirmy, like when God allowed Satan to test Job.

It’s difficult reading about the deaths of Job’s kids, his farmhands, shepherds, and servants, knowing God allowed it. I’m okay with the loss of livestock and crops, those can be replaceable. Sheep, oxen, donkeys, and camels could be purchased again. Rebuilding isn’t going to be easy but it’s doable. People, however, can never be replaced. So the idea God allowed the deaths of those people is baffling. 

I don’t like it. It goes against my understanding of God’s nature. God’s a good and just God. A God of love. He’s full of mercy and compassion, yet He allowed Job to suffer. How do you reconcile those two opposing traits? How do I justify the goodness of God when He allowed such atrocities to occur in Job’s life? This question isn’t only limited to Job’s life, it’s also the most frequent question after tragedies especially when there are innocent victims. Why would a good God, a God of love allow it? 

The most popular answer is: We live in a fallen world. This wasn’t what God planned. Suffering, pain and death weren’t part of His blueprint but Adam and Eve chose poorly and we’re living with the consequences of that decision. It’s a good answer but perhaps not what people want to hear. It could be because it’s not the question they’re asking. 

Identifying emotions is hard. Blaming God is quicker and less painful. But buried deep within that question is fear. The fear that God doesn’t care.

The ‘Why did a good God allow this to happen’ question stems from deep-rooted fears and insecurities rather than understanding the nature of God. We’re wondering if God has abandoned us. Does He see us? Does He feel our pain? Did we do something to offend him? Ultimately, we’re scared that God doesn’t care.

Coincidentally, the answer to that question is found in Job 35:13 NLT ”… it is wrong to say God doesn’t listen, to say the Almighty isn’t concerned,” because He is.

God still cares and nothing can ever separate us from His love. He’ll never be indifferent and He’ll always remember our fragility (Ps 103:13-14). 

So although the Book of Job poses more questions than answers, I’m going to read it again. Maybe my struggle isn’t with God but my own latent fears. 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Romans 8:35-39 NIV

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