A few weeks after a difficult miscarriage, I wrote in my journal, “I don’t see any reason for this. I thought I was trusting the Lord fully. It seems like an irredeemable loss, a waste of something that could have been so good, and it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Suffering is hard and complicated. The ache may be physical, emotional, spiritual, or all these at once. We often won’t understand our pain in this life.
At the same time, God’s Word teaches us much about suffering that can help us in our own sorrows or as we minister to others. In Yet I Will Hope in Him: Walking Through Suffering with Job, pastor and TGC council member Andrew Davis wrestles with the problem of pain as it’s addressed in the book of Job. “If you have walked in a specific sorrow for some time and have some lingering questions, doubts, and fears about what it all means,” Davis writes, “no book in the Bible is as profound [as Job]” (7).
Yet I Will Hope in Him shows us why we still have reason for hope in God amid our deepest pain.
Why, God?
My husband once overheard someone tell a hospice patient that if he had more faith, God would’ve made him well. Placing the responsibility for death directly on the dying man was out of sync with biblical teaching, and it made a tragic situation more painful. A biblical perspective on suffering helps us understand God’s tenderness and grace, even in painful circumstances.
The ache may be physical, emotional, spiritual, or all these at once. We often won’t understand our pain in this life.
Job offers readers a unique behind-the-scenes look at the ways sin, Satan, and suffering are connected . . . and also disconnected. While suffering is sometimes a direct consequence of a particular sin, Davis argues, “the book of Job severs the automatic link between specific suffering and our sinfulness” (101).
At some point, almost everyone asks for a reason for pain and suffering. Job points us to principles that provide partial answers, some of which come through negative examples. For example, suffering can give us wisdom and compassion for others. Davis shows how our suffering can help us comfort other sufferers. Job’s friends give us an excellent example of what not to do.
Additionally, while Job’s initial response to suffering was exemplary, the wearying effects of extended suffering forced him to reckon with God in new ways. He never received a full explanation, but as readers we get a behind-the-scenes view of God’s sovereignty. It’s an integral part of the Bible’s portrait of the way God’s sovereign purpose can bring us back to him. Though we may not know the exact reason for our anguish, Davis argues, “the answer is to draw near to God in times of trouble” (95).
Reasonable Hope
Amid suffering, most people have specific desires. Sick people want to be healed. Grieving people want relief from their pain. Parents want their children to be safe and well.
These are all reasonable things to hope for. It’s good and right to ask God for them. We’re not meant to live as if this world doesn’t matter. Davis argues, “Striving for earthly hopes, goals, and achievements is essential to a healthy life in this world” (28). Yet our desires make us vulnerable to loss and disappointment. Our longing for the goodness of God’s creation opens us up to suffering.
This is why the book of Job points us to hope in God’s character. God shows Job his care for every detail of the natural world. If God superintends the birth of mountain goats, the exploits of wild donkeys, and the strength of horses, then surely he also cares for all his people, including Job (Job 39). In loss and disappointment, we can trust God’s care.
We see a much bigger picture than Job did of the grand story God is writing for humanity. Job saw God’s eternal power on display in the created order. “But we know that comforts of God the Creator are small in comparison to the comforts of God the Redeemer,” Davis observes. So, yes, we should absolutely cry out to God in our sorrow, laying our hearts open for him and trusting him to meet us there. Because the resurrection is true, God will ultimately make all things right.
Thrill of Heaven
Five months after that miscarriage, I was pregnant again. My son, who likely wouldn’t have been born if my lost pregnancy had gone full term, will test for his driver’s permit next month. He’s taller than I am now, but he still hugs me every night. His existence isn’t an answer to the “why” of suffering in this world, and it doesn’t work out this way for everyone. But his unexpected life reminds me every day that God’s ways are higher than mine (Isa. 55:8–9).
A biblical perspective on suffering helps us understand God’s tenderness and grace, even in painful circumstances.
Suffering is a universal human experience. “At some point in your pilgrimage to Heaven,” Davis writes, “you will need the book of Job” (1).
Yet the lessons Job gives us are best learned either before or after the tides of sorrow overwhelm us. Davis observes, “If your agonies are extremely fresh and you are reeling from the news of your losses, . . . the comforts you so desperately seek might well be found in another place” (8). When we’re suffering, we should run to Christ’s promises of comfort first.
Christ’s suffering points us toward the joy of heaven, when the troubles of this earth will be a memory. Davis argues, “Part of the thrill of Heaven will be our eternal education in the glory of God. And part of that will be understanding God’s full purposes for our earthly suffering—purposes that are many and complex” (115).
When Job was hit with pain beyond what most of us will ever experience, he responded with both grief and hope. Davis helps us understand the message of Job as he writes with both pastoral care and precise theology. Yet I Will Hope in Him reminds us that the hope Job found in God is still available to us, and through Christ, our hope is multiplied.
The Gospel Coalition