The book of Job is, in many ways, a hard book.
The book is hard because it deals with an uncomfortable subject—suffering. And Job suffers terribly. His thousands of sheep, camels, and oxen are taken away from him; his many servants are all carried away by foreign invaders; his ten children all die when a house collapses on them; and finally Job himself is afflicted with painful sores that broke out over his entire body. This is gut-wrenching stuff—not for the faint of heart!
The book of Job is perplexing because it doesn’t give us the answers we want. We want to know why good people suffer, and the book leaves that question entirely unaddressed.
In view of these difficulties, why should you devote yourself to the study of this ancient book? If nothing else, you will be encouraged with the thought that though you may not have “your best life now,” at least it is better than Job’s!
In fact, you don’t need any special reason for studying Job. The book of Job is a part of Holy Scripture; it is God’s “breathed out” word to us—and as such, it is useful; it is profitable; it is beneficial to teach us and to train us so that we would be fully equipped and prepared for all that God wants from us (2 Tim. 3:16‑17).
Which leads us to ask, How is the book of Job profitable? What can we expect to gain from it? Among the many ideas that we’ll be considering in the chapters ahead, the one I want to emphasize as we begin is this: the book of Job will encourage us, in whatever our circumstances, to persevere in faith to the very end.
Job teaches about perseverance. In the only explicit reference to Job in the New Testament, James presents Job as a model to emulate: “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:11). In his profound suffering and grief, Job is brutally honest in his relationship with God. He challenges God to make himself known to him and to give him some reason for his terrible affliction. He protests, he objects, he accuses, he laments, he cries out in his pain, and he even curses the day of his birth. But through it all, Job never turns his back on God—he refuses to curse God and die in despair.
Job perseveres—“You have heard of Job’s perseverance,” James says. Referring to Job’s “patience,” as the King James Version puts it, is too tame, too passive. Job struggles, he fights, he wrestles with God, but he doesn’t give up. Regardless of how he feels, he holds up under an almost unbearable load, as he tries to reconcile before God his experience of intense suffering with the knowledge of his own innocence.
We can learn much from this book to help us persevere in our faith to the end. For the key question of the book is, Will you trust God—will you believe that he is good and worthy of your praise, your adoration, your worship, and your love—regardless of your circumstances? Will your faith in God’s goodness endure when it is tested?
Make no mistake: in some way, your faith will be tested. Jesus spoke of that in his parable about the four soils into which the sower sows the seed of the Word of God. Jesus warns us that some will receive the word with joy. The seed will sprout, and they will believe for a while, but in the time of testing they will fall away (Luke 8:13). Will that be true of you? What will that testing look like in your life?
You may be tested with prosperity. “Wouldn’t that be nice!” you say. Yes, but wealth and pleasure can become like weeds that choke the life of the seed. Prosperity can be deadly to faith when it results in a sense of self-sufficiency and pride or when your faith in God becomes dependent on his blessings. The book of Job challenges that kind of self-serving faith.
Or your faith could be tested with simple distraction. You can become preoccupied with paying the rent or getting promoted at work or with fears about that lump under your skin or handing over the car keys to your teenager. We can be overwhelmed by the cares of this world and all the anxieties and fears that fill our minds. Even the fear that you might become like Job could undermine your faith.
Or your faith could be tested by actual pain and suffering. And this can be the toughest test of all, for nothing can call into question our faith in the essential goodness of God like our suffering. Hardship and affliction can become a trial, an examination, an evaluation. Can God be trusted? Is he really worthy of my worship? In whatever form that testing comes, Jesus says, only those who persevere produce a crop (Luke 8:15).
The importance of perseverance. We can’t overstate the importance of perseverance in our faith. Paul says, “If we endure, we will also reign with [Christ]” (2 Tim. 2:12). In Hebrews we read, “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Heb. 10:36). And again, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Heb. 12:1). James says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). Twice in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says that only “the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matt. 10:22; 24:13).
Simply put, without an enduring faith we are lost. The book of Job is a lesson in perseverance in the face of incredible suffering—inexplicable suffering, innocent suffering. For suffering—especially suffering that seems to come upon us for no reason, suffering that seems to make no sense, suffering that is too random or too evil—that is a supreme challenge to our faith.
On the one hand, suffering can make us angry and defiant before God. History is littered with the anti-Christian testimonies of atheists who point to the reality of pain and suffering as the ground of their unbelief, who curse the God whom they say they no longer believe in.
On the other hand, suffering can dampen and deaden our faith. It can make us lethargic and lifeless in our relationship with God. We no longer look to him as our loving Father. Instead, he becomes a distant caretaker of the cosmic order with no personal concern for a little minion like me. We find ourselves no longer on speaking terms.
But for others, for those with the courage to hold on—their suffering can become a gateway to a deepened faith. As Viktor Frankl, who endured the unbearable suffering of a Nazi concentration camp, observed, “just as the small fire is extinguished by the storm while a large fire is enhanced by it—likewise a weak faith is weakened by predicaments and catastrophes, whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them (Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning).”
We will suffer, you can be sure of it. And in our suffering—whether physically or emotionally—we must learn from Job if we are to endure faithfully to the end.
Excerpted from Wrestling With Job by Bill Kynes and Will Kynes. Copyright 2022 by Bill Kynes and Will Kynes. Published by InterVarsity Press. Used by permission. IVPress.com