TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OUT OF LIFE

Life is unfair. The righteous suffer while evil men prevail. Justice is capricious as life appears to unfold in random fashion; Innocent children are victims of war and flood, while piggish dictators ravage their people for personal gain. Good people get cancer and the brutish often live in wealth and enjoy good health and old age. [Ecclesiasties 3:11; 7:15, 8:14, Daniel 4:35; Job 11:7-9;33:13 Romans 11:33-34.]

It is easy to conclude, if God is good, then He must be weak. Otherwise He would stop the suffering and injustice. If He is strong and soverign, then He is cruel and indifferent for allowing the carnage to continue. The story of Job however shatters such thinking.

Job is a prosperous man. He has many children, he has wealth. He is a land owner. By all the standards we have established on earth, Job would be considered a blessed man. The account of Job states that one day, satan was conversing with God, and accuses Job of following God because he is so blessed in life. So, God gives satan permission to take everything that is Job's except his life. Job loses his health, his children, his wealth and the source of his income. Job's friends gather around him and argue that it is because of Job's sins that this has happened. In the end however, Job is given a double portion of all that was taken.

Think about these conclusions;

God reserves the right to use us for His glory according to His will. Exodus 9:16 Job 40;8 Isaiah 45:9; 64:8

Job demonstrates faith when the circumstances are grim and the suffering unimaginable. Job 1:20,21. See Job 1:22 and 13;15.

Job's well meaning friends assume that righteous people are the ones who prosper and that sinful men have tribulations.

Suffering deepened Job's retationship with God. Job 42:5.

God does not owe us an explanation for His actions.

In all of this Job's true blessing was a closer walk with God.