God, Suffering, and the Why Questions - aka the Book of Job

Phillipines post tsunami.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does God allow suffering? If he's all powerful and he's loving, why doesn't he stop bad things from happening? Does God care when I hurt? Why does God allow evil? Where is God when it hurts?

If you've lived long enough and you have any concept of a divine being, then you have probably asked these questions in one form or another. You've probably had people give you some form of answer, or formulated your own answers through reasoning, reading a spiritual book, or talking with people who have gone through similar experiences.

Lately I have been listening via audio Bible to the book of Job. (Listening to the Bible on the way to work is much more beneficial than listening to say, Miley Cyrus on the radio...I'm just saying). Job is located in the Old Testament, the left side of your Bible, right before the book of Psalms. Job was a guy that lived probably around the time of Abraham and Isaac. As I was listening to the book over and over the thought struck me that God has provided, in his Word, divine perspective on some of the deep questions about life, suffering, evil, and life with God. How wonderful it is of the Lord to provide answers to life's deep questions in the Bible, even some 2,000 years before Jesus arrived on the scene.

The Philippines.

So I thought I would write here about the book of Job and see if I could hopefully shed some light on what the Bible has to say about these tough issues. This is the key thing: It is not what I say, what a preacher says, what a book says, what a politician says, or what a philosopher says that gives us understanding about how to understand evil and suffering. We are to get our answers, as in all things, from the Bible. This is the blessing of the Scriptures because in them God has given answers to the deepest questions of man. We may not always like the answers, but the important thing is that God has not been silent. This by the way is a huge challenge for me, as your faithful SoWhatRambling author, (the only SoWhatRambling author, by the way). I know I'm dealing with tough issues here and I want to be faithful and consistent with what God has said. Always make sure you check my thoughts and comments against the actual Scriptures.

Everybody hates this guy..except weird literary people.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that when I'm not writing out blogs about how much my wonderful children drive me nuts, then I am writing about stories from the Bible and what they say. In the Bible blogs I try to stay as true to the Scripture as possible, illustrating and observing what is said. Job is a little harder to read and understand because so much of the book is written in poetic language. If any of you were ever forced to read Shakespeare in college, it's kind of the same thing. (Some of you are saying, "Well, if he was trying to encourage me to read Job he just failed miserably. I hated Shakespeare's stuff.") Me too. But I'm just trying to give you a framework and perspective on how to read the book. Much of the language used is like the monologues in a Shakespearean play. One guy will speak for a chapter, then Job will speak for a chapter or two, and so on. The speakers will use several poetic lines to say something they could have easily said in one sentence. Why do they do that? I don't know. Is this encouraging you to read Job? Probably not. Hey, at least I'm being up front with you. Why should you stay faithful to keep reading Job and my blog anyways? Because I need the money. Every time you come to my blog I get a dollar. Or at least that's what my blog sweatshop manager tells me...

Ahhhhhhh TWIST IT!

Because Job is so long as a book of the Bible I am going to summarize or fly over long portions of the book. Therefore you need to read Job along with me if you want to understand. I recommend doing it via audio while driving, instead of listening to Justin Beiber. If you're listening to Ray Charles, then that's a different story.

Another note about Job. I think this blog about the book of Job is going to be very meditative. In other words, I'm going to be writing out my musings on the book as we go through it. I'm doing it this way for a few reasons. First of all, because of the literary nature of the book it is harder to just observe and illustrate what is being said as opposed to reading through Genesis. Secondly, Job is a hard book dealing with hard subjects. I haven't studied it out to the same degree I have other books of the Bible. I'm approaching Job as somewhat of a beginner. So rather than educating you on what is said in the book of Job, I would rather invite you to travel along side me as I go through it. This way you understand I don't have this figured out, but you can journey along with me as we read through it. Capice?

One more note of introduction. This is a very sad story and a very hard book to understand. It deals with some tough issues of evil, suffering, doubting God, unfairness, etc. In short it deals with real life. So I apologize if I don't include as many funny pictures of half naked Chinese men, (always a favorite), Gumby, or Chuck Norris, (unless absolutely necessary). The reality dealt with in the Bible through Job's life is actually another reason for us to thank God for the Bible because it shows us that God deals with real issues and real hurts in the Scriptures. He doesn't ignore our questions, but rather gives us a divine perspective. For this we should be very thankful.

Gumby and Pokey are ready for Job.