Why do righteous people suffer?
Throughout history, people of all cultures have wrestled with this question. It manifests itself in many ways, from modern arguments about the Problem of Evil to the Biblical texts themselves.
I spent a good part of this summer reading Job, the book of the Bible that addresses this question most directly. It was my first time studying through the book on my own; though I was familiar with the plot of the story, I hadn’t yet dug into it for myself.
The general outline of the book of Job is as follows: God permits another spiritual being, “The Accuser,”1 to inflict great hardship and suffering upon Job, a man described as “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). The bulk of the book is a series of dialogues between Job and his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu. Job’s friends’ theory is that God is punishing Job for some form of disobedience, while Job maintains his innocence.
Then, God appears “out of the whirlwind” to set the record straight, reminding Job of the complexity of the world and his sovereignty over all of it. Job repents and the story ends with his fortunes being restored twice over.
As I read Job’s story for the first time, I took note of the observations I made throughout. Here’s what I found:
1. Take suffering seriously
After hearing about Job’s suffering, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar travel to be with him. For the first seven days, they sit with him in silence.
Then, Job starts the conversation—and he makes no attempt to mince his words.
In chapter 3, Job begins his first lament, cursing his own existence and the day of his birth. It’s not easy to read. When his friends respond, they immediately begin offering solutions, each concluding that Job must have been disobedient to God to merit such suffering.
Throughout the next 28 chapters, Job and his friends go back and forth, Job describing the depths of his suffering and crying out to God, and his friends listing all the sins he may have committed to deserve such a fate.
I’m a fixer, so I can empathize with Job’s friends who just want to reason him out of his suffering. In fact, it seems like a very modern way to go about things—surely there’s a diagnosis, a past trauma, a scientific theory that can explain things. And sometimes there is. There’s certainly a difference between the suffering that Job experiences and the consequences that many other Biblical characters (and people today) must face.
In Job’s story, though, we know that’s not the case. And, even if it was, I hesitate to endorse the path Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and later Elihu, represent.
The book of Job has made me reevaluate the fast-fix approach, with the goal of trading it for compassion. As I’ll discuss below, suffering doesn’t always make sense. The best we can do as brothers and sisters to individuals who suffer is to point them lovingly and prayerfully to Christ, taking their concerns and experiences seriously along the way.
2. There’s not always an answer
There are many puzzling things about Job’s story, but perhaps the most frustrating is the seeming lack of an answer for why any of this happened in the first place.
Readers know that Job’s suffering came as a result of a conversation between God and the “sons of God,” a sort of heavenly council of other spiritual beings. During the conversation, one of these beings, the Accuser, suggests that Job is only a righteous man because he has been blessed by God. So, God grants the Accuser the ability to take everything but Job’s life away from him in order to test that theory.
Job, though, isn’t privy to this conversation. Moreover, when God finally shows up and speaks to him directly at the end of the book, he doesn’t give Job a download of all that information. Job is simply given the opportunity to repent—which he does, both for himself and on behalf of his friends. Then, all he lost, from money to livestock to children, is restored.
Notably absent from all of this is an answer: Why? Why did God allow the Accuser to inflict such suffering on Job? Why Job, and not someone else? Why did he restore Job’s fortunes in the end? On all of these questions, God is silent.
Though it’s not necessarily comforting, it seems as though one message the writer of Job is communicating here is that there’s just not always an answer. I’m sure even now you’re thinking of a “blameless and upright” person in your life who’s been faced with suffering that’s unfair at best and tragic at worst. Job doesn’t provide an answer to the “why,” but it does provide reassurance that God is present, he is listening, and he desires for his children to call upon him in all circumstances.
3. God’s glory is great
Perhaps the most exciting part of the book, at least for me, started in chapter 38 when God speaks to Job at last.
He shows up in a great storm, an unmistakable and stunning display of power, and begins his own line of rhetorical questions.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!”Job 38:4-5a
(Even if you don’t read the rest of the book anytime soon, I highly recommend taking some time to read chapters 38-41—they will certainly inspire worship, humility, and awe.)
God’s response to Job starts before creation with the “foundation of the earth” and takes a dazzling tour through the natural world, illustrating his power and omniscience by reminding Job of the complexity of the created world—and the fact that he, God, oversees it all. From the sea to the weather to the wildlife that inhabits the earth, God understands it deeply, intimately, perfectly.
The message is not lost on Job. He responds,
“I know that you can do all things,
And that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”Job 42:2
God’s message is equally potent for modern readers. Yes, we understand more about the complexity of the world today than Job’s contemporaries may have. But that understanding amounts to nothing more than “words without knowledge” (38:2) if we neglect or forget God’s role as the creator, designer, and sustainer of the whole thing.
Now, LMK:
What part of the Bible are you working through right now? Let’s chat about it in the comments!
And a recommendation:
I rarely begin reading a new book of the Bible without first watching the BibleProject companion video for it, and Job was no exception. There are several design patterns that I wouldn’t have noticed if they hadn’t been pointed out for me through this video:
They have videos like this for every book in the Bible, plus tons of other content that talks about other Biblical themes. I also discovered this second, slightly shorter video about how Job fits in with the rest of the Wisdom literature in the Bible:
This is typically translated as "Satan," but my Bible (and likely yours as well) has a footnote also translating the term as "Accuser" or "Adversary." I prefer to use those titles to avoid confusion, as the name “Satan” has many associations that may be distracting.