In Night, the seminal autobiographical novel about his experience in Nazi concentration camps, writer Elie Wiesel says this: “Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come. As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.”
Because it deeply resonated with his own experiences with tragedy and suffering, Wiesel publicly lectured on the book of Job throughout his career as a professor and Nobel Prize-winning author.
As I was researching Wiesel’s work on Job, I remembered reading Night in middle school. Then, I had a second thought, one that made my stomach drop and my eyes flood with tears. I realized that one day, my daughter is going to read Night. One day, she is going to find out about the Holocaust. She’ll read about about slavery and Jim Crow and 9/11. She’ll find out about war, famine, genocide, opioid overdoses, and school shootings. One day, she will learn about suffering. And even harder still to imagine, one day, she herself will suffer.
Where will God be when she learns about these things? And can I trust Him not only with my own suffering, but with my precious baby girl’s?
When my heart wavers and falters on the edge of faith, brought on by suffering and fear, I know I cannot stand on my own feelings. I must stand in faith, which is a gift of the Spirit, and I must pray unceasingly for Him to strengthen it. I must stand on the unwavering, infallible Word of God. Here is what it teaches me:
1) God is just and good. He controls the wind and waves, the leviathan and behemoth, and every living creature.
2) His Son Jesus, who is God incarnate, knew suffering here on earth, just as we do. But the suffering He endured was infinitely greater than anything we might bear, as He took on the weight of the world’s sins.
Suffering belongs to all of us, through all time. One of the gifts that comes with reading Job through the lens of the New Testament is knowing that his story of suffering is our story and that Jesus came to secure true righteousness for all who believe in Him.
God’s justice is absolute. In the depths of suffering, it is no wonder we question it. God speaks to Job, “Would you really challenge my justice? Would you declare me guilty to justify yourself?” (Job 40:8). Would we?
We can trust God with our suffering because He is the Creator and King of everything. But we can also trust God with our suffering because Jesus suffered, bearing all of our sorrows to the cross.
He himself bore our sicknesses,
and he carried our pains;
but we in turn regarded him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds (Isaiah 53:4–5).
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42 thoughts on "God’s Second Speech"
Our God is all powerful
I trust the King of Kings.
Lord, grant me to opportunity to give you glory in all my circumstances!
Even through my suffering i will trust in god!
Lord i praise you!
What stood out to me in this devotion was the verses on wisdom. I felt the conviction that we often think we know and we don’t seek God for wisdom. I felt like those verses were a challenge to recognize just how ignorant we are. And that God wishes to gift us with wisdom generously but that we have to seek it with an open heart. We have to acknowledge that what God shows us could threaten our own preconceived ideas. We have to be willing to admit that we are wrong and that our understanding is so far from the wisdom that God can give us.
God doesn’t ignore the innocent and the oppressed. His justice is perfect, no matter what the situation looks like from the outside.
As I reflect on this and the recent Easter celebrations in the midst of Covid-19, I chew on the suffering that Christ took on the cross. He suffered the depths of hell so that we may never suffer if we put our faith and trust in Him. He knew our suffering but also the suffering that we will not experience yet was meant for us.
Amazing how in Mark it says Jesus is asleep in the storm. It’s makes me step back and realize that when I feel God being silent in my sufferering, it’s cuz he’s resting. And if the captain of my life is resting and not worried about it why should I? Be ye not fooled by Gods silence.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Yes. It reminds me of the scripture from Exodus 14:14 that I love. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
Sometimes it is hard to not do and just trust. Especially in times of heartbreak, heartache and trouble.
Great worship!
“The whole creation groans [awaiting deliverance]”. So much suffering and grief in our world. We are not spared the sorrow. But we have a Savior who suffered as we suffer … and then He suffered FOR us in a way that we can never comprehend. He knew our grief and He redeemed it for His glory. And so, when I cannot understand, I can trust that He has never failed me and He never will.
As I was reading the supplemental scriptures today, I was a little confused. Specifically James 1 — it says “For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind, that person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord…”
Job absolutely had his doubts and his faith was being tossed all around, yet God still came through. So I asked myself why James 1 doesn’t reflect the way Job acted. What am I missing here?
Then, I realized now that we have Jesus, we can come to God BOLDLY. Job lived in a time where no one knew about Jesus. That changes everything.
The disciples’ faith wavered while they were on the boat but Jesus showed them why they can and should be confident in Him.
This was so powerful. Thank you for reminding me of God’s goodness today.
Every now and then, God’s initial speech to Job sounds so harsh even though I know how the story ends. Maybe it’s just where I am spiritually, or how I read it- since I wasn’t there in person to hear what tone God actually spoke this with.
I put myself in Job’s shoes (though I’m not the righteous person that he was) in my suffering and pouted that God didn’t come deliver me in the most glorious way I envisioned, or acknowledged my faith in suffering. A lot of “how can he do this to me?” And “Why?”s as if I was somehow entitled, when HE didn’t HAVE to do anything. Didn’t have to be merciful to me, didn’t have to shed his precious Son’s blood to save me, didn’t have to answer the details of my personal prayers in the grand scheme of his kingdom. He is God, the Creator of these beasts who is sovereign, who is not wrong just so I can be right.
Yet He chose to turn my heart to Him, chose to soften my heart and offer me eternal life.
Job… Is still hard for me to read every time. Uhh, their speeches are just too articulate for me ^^;; but I love being able to see the mercy of God – What is man, that you are thinking of us?
I know some were upset the way God answered Job, but read the last chapter. You will feel better. (Job 42)
I am going trough a lot right now. This reading really spoke to me today! It’s what I needed ❤️
This was needed today. When God’s answer is slow to come, or seemingly not at all, I struggle and I doubt. I doubt that I heard Him correctly, I wonder if He has forgotten me, I doubt that He is fighting for me, I wonder if He will answer at all. I have been wrestling with Him for the last several months and I’m still waiting for beauty to come from the ashes. I don’t know what He is doing or how this story will go, but I keep claiming over and over in faith that He is good at being God and He can be trusted. Easy to say, hard to live out.
Lisa: I feel you!!! I wish for God to say those exact same things to Job. I want Job to be praised and vindicated! I am asking God why His response was what it was, and not what I wanted it to be. I have to remember He is good. He is just. I long for the day when every knee will bow at the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That will be a day of vindication for us all… and maybe Job.
I do love this book, Job, but what I really wanted to hear God say is “Look Job, you are faithful and just, and Satan asked to test/try you, hoping you would fail and turn away from me. Your suffering has nothing to do with sin and punishment, and everything to do with your steadfast faith. Even in all of this mess, you have remained steadfast, and I’m so proud of you. You passed this awful test, and I’m not going to let the enemy have his way any longer. Well done, Job.”
But that isn’t what God says. And I wonder why? I wonder why a loving Father would come back to Job with “who do you think you are?!?” instead of lifting him up and praising his steadfast faith?
God is just. God is good. God is love. And God is going to do what He thinks best. He is sovereign and He is GOD. I am not. I suppose the fact that He he responds at all is quite something, but it leaves me wishing for a different kind of response.
Anyone else?
Yes…I can’t help but feel like it’s a little harsh and unloving after all Job has been through. I think it’s just showing me how I’m really not the comfortable with God being God and me not.
I think God was just reminding Job of his absolute power. But I agree with you, it’s kinda harsh. Anyway, thanks, Lisa, for reminding me that “suffering has nothing to do with sin and punishment and everything to do with steadfast faith”.
DINOSAURS.
I’ve spent a lot of time today wondering if Leviathan was a sea-dragon. And since we still don’t know what REALLY is way down in the ocean, could he still be there? How amazing would that be?! (if you’re not on a sailboat or something).
i thought of a dragon bc of 41:21!
Wow! Christiana, what a testimony. Thank you for sharing. ❤️
I remember clear as a squeaky clean window the day I … ‘declared God guilty’, not to justify myself, but what this fallen world had done to my life, my heart..
I needed a scapegoat for the heartache and suffering I was experiencing, I needed a fall guy.. and who/where was the last person, the last place I looked for help, for assurance, for hope..
God.
Right now, today, and in a different time and place of heart and soul, that question brings me to tears, hurts my heart, and i have sorrow…
I know differently now. With eyes wide open, I absolutely know differently now..
PRAISE GOD!
PRAISE GOD!
Here’s the thing…
As someone who didn’t truly understand,but kept hearing “God is good” and “He will answer your prayers,”.. “you only have to ask”. When you ask, when you plead, with your whole being, on your knees ask, and the outcome is not whst you wanted… or asked for, you flip. I lost the plot. I ranted and I raved, I accused. I blamed and I don’t say this proudly, I disrespected God..ouch. what an awful person I was…
But God..
He still sent His son to die on the cross for me, knowing I would be this not so nice person in that season.. that person who would show no regard for His power, His Majesty, His Sovereignty.. Ahh,
Job 40:8 Will haunt me if I let it.. But for God..
I let my suffering, my heartache, my sorrows overwhelm Me, but trusting God with them, over the years has been peace giving, heart calming, hope reviving..
I am not perfect..by a loooooonnnnnggg shot ( I certainly need to take a lesson out of Jobs book), but heres the thing.. by God’s grace and sacrifice, i am learniing to lean and trust and hope and believe that He knows. He knows. He knows the sorrow the heartache the struggles because His Son carried them to the cross..Amen.
I’ve rambled.. but God knows..
Happy Thursday Sisters.. with love…
Amen, amen!
I have read these passages several times over the last few weeks or so during this time and find them really intriguing. God’s majesty and greatness seem so overwhelming and grand compared to my small speck of a being. It makes me wonder “so why would he care about me then?” It also brings to mind the relationship that David and Job had with God. When does questioning why something bad has happened cross the line? They cried out to God in their suffering. I have a hard time accepting the justification of suffering as the sovereignty of God. How to reconcile God’s justice and love together? How can the deaths of millions of people during the Holocaust, especially children ever be okay? Hard stuff this morning!
It hit me hard to think of kids’ suffering…my daughter is 3 and learning to read. She was reading this with me, and tears came to my eyes. It is hard to picture her or my 6 month old son hurting over something. I don’t want to even imagine. But Jesus loves them more than I do… He has them and won’t ever let them go. He will protect & avenge them, and I do not need to fear. His justice is perfect. For this I’m thankful!
Tricia, Thinking and praying for you yesterday, today… May our God be with you and your family.
This was needed reading for me; struggling and yes, worrying unfortunately as my Mom has been very ill, is recovering and will likely go home from rehab in a week or two. Is that the right thing? What if she falls, gets sick, isn’t safe, someone breaks in the house…the list goes on and on. Am I doing right by my mom? I don’t know why God isn’t lowering signs down on s string so I know if assisted living is best and which one and will she have enough money…..but today I read that which I already knew….I’m not in charge, and thankfully so and I need to get back to the business of faith not fear, belief instead of bawling my eyes out
❤️
Angie thank you for your comment…the thought “He loves me enough to respond at all” brought me to tears. So true,so real. We get caught up in ourselves. Thank you Jesus for loving me even though I don’t truly understand your love.
❤️
God repeatedly asks Job “Can you…” and “Who can…” The answer to both is obvious. Job is out of his league on both counts. Recognizing and accepting the sovereignty of God in the midst of suffering is no small thing and yet it is the wisest, most helpful thing to do. God’s character is inseparable from His sovereignty – so we know that all He does and all He permits emanates from His goodness, His justice, His love. That gives us comfort. We may not understand but we can persevere. He sees. He cares. He holds. He will work it all out. God begets good.
If I am honest, when I suffer, I do not want God to come and tell me about how He is in charge of the weather or even about massive, powerful animals He has created and commands, I want Him to fix things for me. Now. Or at least sooner than later. I don’t want to suffer.
Maybe God’s response isn’t about being in charge of the weather, or big, scary animals, maybe it is about the fact that though He is in charge of them, He loves me enough to respond at all.
When the disciples woke him during the storm, He immediately calmed the sea. But, then came the penetrating questions, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” And, those are the questions for me also. Why am I afraid? Sunshine or rain, hippopotamus or dragon-like sea monster, God is God. He is faithful. Do I still have no faith?
It is a choice. Praise God, it is a choice. We can trust Him. He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, pure and holy, to die on Calvary’s cross, for my sin. For your sin. When we choose God we are covered in the forgiving, redemptive blood of Jesus. His righteousness alone covers us. We are His. We have a choice first for a redeemed relationship with the Father, and then moment by moment to trust Him. In His strength and power alone I can, I will, trust Him.
Amen. Selah
Wonderful insight this morning!
❤️
So good!
He is not finished with me yet.
Thank you, Father, that You shower me with new mercies every morning and that You see that like Job, I think, and act and speak like I know more than you when I attempt to justify my thoughts, words, and deeds. But just as you reveal my sin to me and I start to eat myself up for failing again, Lord, You remind me of your great love and forgiveness. You remind me that you will still do a good work in me. You bless me beyond measure! Amen