Dealing With Prolonged Suffering | Job Series

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At some point, every thinking person is faced with this question: If God is the Sovereign Creator, who loves his creation and desires what is good for it, why is there so much suffering in the world? Are certain things beyond his control? Or does God for reasons known only to him, permit suffering?

We all go through challenges and suffering at one time or other in life. It’s one thing to experience a sudden tragedy—like the loss of a loved one or the discovery of some dreaded disease in your body. It’s quite another thing to experience the relentless misery of that loss and that experience week in week out, month in and month out or even years afterward.

I have seen people who have lost their loved ones, have taken the blow so well, but later to crumble under circumstances in pain, tears, and grief.

Soldiers have been known to get a leg blown off by a land mine and run on the raw stump back to safety, but then cry like a baby at the pain of surgery and healing.

What To Do When Misery Drags On for Months?

It is one thing to bear a sudden tragedy. It is quite another to suffer its pain for weeks and months and even years afterward.

So how do you deal with prolonged suffering in your life? That is why the book of Job is so relevant for us even today.

In one afternoon Job had lost his ten children and all his wealth. Shortly afterward he was afflicted with a horrible skin disease. Job went and sat in ash piles. In both these tragedies he kept his faith and revered the sovereign hand of God. Job conquered at that moment.

Job 1:21 “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Job 2:10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

He affirmed the absoluteness of God’s control over all things, and he bowed in submission to these heavy blows.

But Job’s faith and reverence were not rewarded by a quick healing of his disease. God did not turn around his condition immediately. He had to face misery for months.

Turn with me to Job 7. Job 7:2-3 2Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid, 3so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.

Job’s Misery Had Dragged On For Months.

So the question now arises: Why? Had not Job shown that God was his most precious treasure, even more precious than health? God’s honor had been upheld. Why does not God now restore the fortunes of Job? Why not now skip to chapter 42 where the good ending comes? What is going on from chapters 3 to 41. He won the battle in Job 1 and 2.

The answer is that Job and we have much to learn about suffering and about God. There are those in the world who are enduring suffering month after month. We have an answer here as to why sufferings sometimes prolong looking at Job’s situation.

When Job was suffering from his loss and disease, his three friends came over to share his grief.

Job 2:11-13 11When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. 13Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

Three Cycles Of Conversation

For the next 29 chapters, we have the conversation from Job’s three friends as to what they have to say about his suffering and the responses of Job. They are giving counsel to Job. There are three cycles in the conversation. Three times Job’s friends speak, and three times Job respond.

But today our question is: what does the author of this book want us to learn from the speeches of Job’s three friends and from Job’s responses to them as he endures month after month of misery?

The First Cycle Prompted by Job’s Outburst

The thing that prompts Job’s friends to make their speeches is Job’s outburst in chapter 3.