Perspectives on Suffering and Evil IV: God’s Hidden Wisdom             (Job 42:1-6)                 2009.09.13                               Pastor Richard Yu

        I have been trying to build a Biblical framework to help us deal with the difficult question of suffering and evil (which is frequently asked by believers and nonbelievers alike), and to train our mind and heart to be better equipped to face sufferings. I have also suggested that this framework on which to think through the problem of suffering and evil consists of at least six Biblical perspectives.

        We have covered three thus far; now I’m moving on to the fourth perspective – the hiddenness of God’s wisdom. I’ll look at this perspective from the place of innocent suffering – that is, when people suffer for no apparent reason, or when people suffer not because of some wrongs or transgression in a personally accountable way. In that situation we must learn to recognize that there’s a gap between divine wisdom and human wisdom and thus we must trust God despite of the circumstances.

        Job’s story involves important reflections on many life issues. But the key issue most likely concerns the tremendous gap between God’s wisdom and human wisdom.  Because of sin, which renders our mind ineffectual; and even because the surpassing greatness of God, we can’t always see life issues clearly. There is a hiddenness, an inherent mystery about life and God.

        This hiddenness came through the cycles of arguments concerning God’s disposition towards human actions in Job chapters 2 to 37. Job’s friends had a clear framework of human wisdom – a predictable system which they trusted. They believed that God always prospered the righteous, and always punished the wicked. They were convinced that prosperity was a sign of righteousness, and calamity a sign of sin. So if one suffers, he/she must have done something wrong that brought about the suffering. However, what happened to Job didn’t seem to fit in this framework.

        Job was blameless and upright and wealthy; he feared God and shunned evil. Unbeknown to him, God allowed Satan to attack him. With all sorts of calamities fell on his household, he lost all his properties, children, almost all of his servants; his wife turned against him; and he was afflicted with painful sores the soles of his feet to the top of his head. But through it all, he did not sin in what he said by charging God with wrongdoing.

        Job insisted on his personal integrity while questioning God. His friends, on the other hand, insisted that he must have done something wrong (even the things he did not remember) to have brought this kind of suffering upon himself; and that he must confess all of his sins so that God would restore him with blessings again. In this fashion the argument went on and on for over 30 chapters. All this time Job was suffering, listening to bad advice from his friends, and asking God all sorts of questions.

        Then finally, beginning with chapter 38, God speaks. But he does not answer any of the questions directly; instead He asks a series of rhetorical questions pointing to his creative power and his unfathomable wisdom. In the end Job says, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. . . My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (42:3, 5-6).

        Job recognizes his own insignificance in the face of God’s greatness. He sees this fundamental divide between God’s wisdom and his own wisdom. Job therefore repents of the attitude that he thinks he knows enough to judge God. His vision of God is now so splendid that he understands it really didn’t matter what had happened to him.

        We know Job suffered innocently, for God himself says Job suffered “without any reason" (2:3). As we encounter innocent suffering, don’t be like Job’s friends to simply put God in a nice, neat theological system where God is obligated to act according to some fixed principles; and don’t be too quick to judge God when we do not see Him act according to our expectation.

        In the midst of all his suffering, Job never gave up on God. He complained and groaned and questioned and wrestled with God, but he never gave up by accusing God falsely. There are times in our lives when, for unknown reason, God is silent and seemingly absent in our sufferings, and the experience of His silence can be disorienting and painful. At such times, there are real dangers to our faith – we are vulnerable to feeling forsaken and to reacting with wrong thoughts about God and wrong attitudes toward Him. At such times, it is important to refuse the temptation to judge God too quickly, but keep trusting. This is where Job ends up. And this is the place where we too must end up – trusting not in reasonable, acceptable answers to our pain and suffering, but in God Himself!