God's Purpose in Affliction
Fresh insights into the Book of Job
The Book of Job has long been a fascinating study in understanding the spiritual reasons for pain and suffering. If you’re not careful in your study though, you might take away the idea that God has no regard for humankind’s well being, even of those who love and obey Him. You might even begin to believe the lie that God visits pain, suffering, and affliction on His creation simply because He can…or worse…because He takes pleasure in causing suffering.
I have had former non-believing work colleagues tell me they have no interest in the God revealed in the Bible because of the judgments and wrath they read about in the Old Testament. I’ve also read where former Believers have written that Job’s seemingly unfair losses and affliction shook their faith in irreversible ways.
To conclude that God brings suffering to whomever He chooses for no purpose (or for malicious purposes) would be to miss the heart of God and to totally misunderstand His purposes and ways.
So, to better understand God’s purposes in allowing (and even initiating) Job’s suffering, let’s start with some truths about God himself, and then dive into some key learnings about His dealings with Job that reveal His greater purposes.
God is Merciful
Throughout the Old Testament, the overarching theme is that God is merciful. He has good plans and intentions towards His creation (Jeremiah 29:11). His greatest desire is to pour blessings out on all people everywhere (Genesis 12:2-4). Additionally, He is quick to forgive and relent from judgment when individuals and nations humble themselves and turn from sin (Jonah 4:2-3).
You’ll see this exact same demeanor in the life of Jesus, whose express purpose was to reveal what the Father is like (John 14:6-10). Even when they were caught red-handed in sin, Jesus condemned no one (John 8:1-11). However, when directly confronting the religious elitist class of the day, Jesus reprimanded them for their self-righteousness and judgmental attitude toward others (Luke 18:9). Though they were meticulous in their outward show of righteousness, their hearts were not pure before God or their fellow man (Matthew 23:27-28).
The “good” leaders of the day were critical, judgmental, and putting an oppressive yoke on God’s people (Matthew 23:2-4). Jesus did not condone their attitudes or behaviors. In fact, he called them “white-washed tombs”.
Ultimately, God desires mercy over judgment (James 2:13). That is because God himself prioritizes His personal attribute of mercy over His personal requirement of justice. This is the very reason for which He sent Jesus to the cross to pay for the sins of the entire world (John 3:16-17).
It’s also why, when sharing his own resume with Moses, he leads with compassion and ends with judgment.
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands,a forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:5-7
To go deeper in your understanding of God’s compassionate heart, read this blog post on God and the Ungodly.
God Looks at the Hearts of Men
Another important concept that is important to understand about God is that He evaluates mankind not only by their outward appearance or behaviors but also by their inner attitudes (1 Samuel 16:7; Jeremiah 17:10; Proverbs 21:2).
This is most evident in Jesus’ teaching in Matthew chapter 5 where He repeatedly says, “You’ve heard it said in the past (something about an outward action)…but I say (something different about the inner attitude).
For example, Jesus placed emphasis on avoiding anger rather than not committing murder (Matthew 5:21-26); turning away from lust rather than committing adultery (Matthew 5:27-30); and treating our enemies with love and compassion rather than demanding justice (Matthew 5:43-48).
Why did Jesus emphasize the heart rather than actions?
Because all outward behavior flows from the heart. It is what comes out of the heart of man that causes defilement.
But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. Matthew 15:19-20.
Now, with these two truths in mind, let’s revisit Job and the affliction which God permitted in his outwardly “perfect” life.
How Job is Described
In the opening chapters of Job there’s a very clear description of his character:
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. Job 1:1
We also see in verse 5 that Job continually offered sacrifices on behalf of his children on the mere chance that they had sinned against God. By all appearances and behavior, Job was a righteous and upright man.
The Hebrew word for blameless, tām, means one who is morally and ethically pure.
Job’s Response to Affliction
Job’s Response to Loss of Wealth and Death of Children
The reader gets a sneak peek into Heavenly realities in Job 1:6-21. There we see God initiating a conversation with Satan. It is God that gave His express and direct permission to the enemy to destroy all of Job’s possessions and to kill his children.
Verse 22 tells us “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”
Job’s Response to Loss of Health
Job maintains his integrity in the first wave of calamity. The enemy then returns to the heavenlies for permission to execute another round of disaster. Again, we read that God gave His express and direct permission to the enemy to strike Job with a disease, but to go no further.
In the latter part of 2:10, it says, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”
Notice in the first round of calamity, Job did not sin at all, nor did he accuse God of evil.
However after his health was taken, the Bible says he did not sin with his lips.
I believe this distinction is important and points to something going on inside of Job’s heart that was not yet outwardly visible, or revealed through his speech.
For seven days, Job sat in complete silence with his friends in great anguish. Then in the opening verse of chapter 3, the Bible says, “After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.”
The first thing that Job does when he speaks is pronounce a curse. From that point all the way through chapter 31, we read about Job and three of his four friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar litigating the matter of these calamities and why they occurred.
The Wisdom and Insight of Elihu
There is only one person in the group who has true understanding. And that is the young man named Elihu. In chapter 32:2 it reads, “Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.”
Of the four friends that weighed in on Job’s circumstances, Elihu was the only friend that God did not chastise at the end of the matter. From that we can conclude that Elihu’s understanding of God’s character and nature as well as what happened to Job and why God allowed it was correct.
The first thing Elihu noted above in Job 32:2 about Job was that he was self-righteous. Then later in 33:9 he says of Job’s self-assessment, “You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.” Elihu also described Job as speaking wicked things, being rebellious and thinking himself wise while actually being quite foolish. In Job 33:36-37, Elihu said that Job, in addition to talking like a wicked man, also “added rebellion to his sin”. While in Job 35:16, Elihu said that Job “multiplies words without knowledge”.
Proverbs tells us that “when words are many, transgression is not lacking…” and Ecclesiastes 10:14 tells us that a “fool multiplies words.”
Elihu makes it crystal clear that Job has an entirely wrong view of himself (Job 32:12).
God’s Purpose in Affliction
Next Elihu begins to elaborate the various reasons why God visits pain and affliction on people: to warn and save them from destruction!
Specifically, God uses various types of affliction to:
Turn people away from pride leading to eternal destruction:
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds, then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man; he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword. (Job 33:15-18)
Turn people headed toward destruction back to eternal life:
“Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.
We see God’s purposes at work in affliction even more clearly in the following passage (Job 36:5-10).
“Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding. He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right. He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted. And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction, then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity.
God uses affliction to ultimately bring about eternal salvation. That is His only purpose in visiting suffering and affliction on anyone.
His intentions toward mankind are always good.
God is Just and Always Acts with Righteous Intentions
Elihu demolishes the argument that God brings affliction just because He can in Job 33:10-11 and Job 34:21-27:
Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him.
Also…
“For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps. There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves. For God has no need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment. He shatters the mighty without investigation and sets others in their place. Thus, knowing their works, he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed. He strikes them for their wickedness in a place for all to see, because they turned aside from following him and had no regard for any of his ways,
God acts based on the work and ways of a man.
So, if Job was blameless and upright outwardly, what was it in his life that God was applying pressure on to expose?
The sin in his heart!
“But you are full of the judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you;Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction. Job 36:17; 21
Job’s heart was full of distorted views of God, self-righteousness, and judgment on others.
Exposing what was really in Job’s heart so that He could address it was God’s chief aim in allowing calamity in his life.
It took the pressure of total financial collapse, death of all of his children, and a devastating, prolonged illness to bring the truth to the surface, humble Job, and lead him into repentance.
The Choice God Gives in Our Affliction
Next, let’s look at the two outcomes that can occur when affliction comes based on Job 36:11-16.
If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness. But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge. “The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them. They die in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes. He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness.
There are only two choices that one can make when visited with affliction:
Turn to God in humility and repentance to live
Persist in sin and rebellion and die
In the end, Job made the right choice. He repented of his foolishness and presumption, recognized the magnitude of his sins against God, and humbled himself before God.
It’s also notable that God was angry with the three friends of Job, none of whom spoke accurately of God. He made their forgiveness wholly dependent on Job’s intercession. Talk about the table’s turning!
In contrast, God’s anger was not directed toward Elihu, presumably because he was correct in his overall assessment of God’s nature, Job’s sinfulness, and the reasons behind the affliction Job endured.
The End of the Matter
The Book of Job closes with God restoring all of Job’s fortunes in double. The Bible says that God initiated this restoration process “when he had prayed for his friends”. Job’s forgiveness of and reconciliation with those who had sat in unrighteous judgment over him seems to have been the initiating act that led to God bring back everything he’d lost in the process and more!
So, here are my key takeaways from the book of Job,
God’s overarching character trait is mercy.
God’s mercy is primarily directed toward bringing about the salvation of men, even if He must accomplish that through excruciatingly painful circumstances.
God is concerned with the hearts of men more so than their outward acts of righteousness.
The very same perspectives and behaviors that Jesus spoke about harshly to the Pharisees and Sadduccees of his day were the attitudes God unmasked in Job’s heart.
These are the same heart attitudes that God still cares about today. As disciples of Christ, we are all commanded by Jesus to be merciful as God, the Father is merciful (Luke 6:36) and that God desires mercy, not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13).
Finally, let us all remember that our Messiah stated unilaterally that only the merciful will receive mercy (Matthew 5:7).
To put a finer point on it, Jesus’ brother James added that “judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy”. (James 2:13). When all is said and done, if we don’t have love, we have nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Rather if we follow the royal law, to love God with all our heart, mind, souls, and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves then we will please God, for love covers a multitude of sins (James 2:8; 1 Peter 4:8).
If you find yourself in a season of affliction, know that God has a plan and a purpose in it. He doesn’t act randomly and He’s never capricious in His choices.
God does not tolerate sin, especially in those whom He loves. Know that God is applying pressure for the purpose of exposing something in your heart, purifying it, and ultimately gifting you with salvation.
The wisest action when faced with affliction is to examine your own heart, identify the issues that are an affront to God, repent, and then allow Him to restore you fully.
Always practice mercy and leave the judgment of others to the righteous Judge!
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