The One Year Bible: The Problem of Pain

 

"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."

                                                                                             --Westley, in The Princess Bride

Someone who has shown tremendous grace under pressure and a steady hand in spite of challenging circumstances is said to have the "patience of Job."  Indeed, Job is remembered for his patient longsuffering in the face of tremendous loss and pain.  But when I read Job, I don't find him to be all that patient. Job spends most of the book that bears his name protesting the unfairness of his suffering.

This week's reading was entirely back and forth monologues between Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad, and the week ends with the entrance of a mysterious fourth a person, the fiery and much younger Elihu.  The format is pretty straightforward.  Job complains about how unfair his suffering is, and how he has done nothing to deserve this.  His friends respond with variations on the theme that God is just, and therefore Job must have absolutely done something to deserve this, and his suffering is the punishment for that sin.  

My Favorite Verses:

• "If a man dies, will he live again?  All the days of my struggle, I will wait, until my change comes. Thou wilt call, and I will answer Thee; Thou wilt long for the work of Thy hands." Job 14:14-15 (NASB)
• "I could say the same things if you were in my place.  I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.  But if it were me, I would encourage you. I would try to take away your grief." Job 16:4-5 (NLT)
• "But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and He will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see Him for myself. Yes I will see Him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!" Job 19: 25-27 (NLT)
• "By His breath the heavens are cleared; His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent. Behold these are the fringes of his ways; And how a faint a word we hear from him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?" Job 26:13-14 (NASB)
• Chapter 31, which is the end of Job's final defense (after this only the mysterious Elihu will speak, and then God Himself). Here Job lays out all the ways in which he has not sinned. It's an interesting insight into what constitutes living righteously and contains echoes of everything from the Ten Commandments to the Beatitudes to the parable of the sheep and the goats.  You get a strong sense of what God considers important in our conduct and in our relationship with with our fellow man. A lot of it has to do with how we treat those society is inclined to neglect.

Fun Fact:  Eli-Who?   

Elihu is an interesting character.  He just kind of "appears" at chapter 32 out of nowhere.  He says he was listening silently all along, so perhaps he was so quiet that the author of Job failed to mention him being there.  Some scholars believe the Elihu's lengthy diatribe was actually inserted into the book later on.  Others suggest that Elihu might have been the author of the book of Job himself.  At any rate, there is something different about him though this is not immediately apparent in what I read this week.  At first, he sounds not much different than Job's other friends.  He chastises the older counselors for failing to properly correct Job and assures them that he will do the job they failed to do. But what he has offered so far doesn't sound much different from what the others have said.  We'll see if that changes as I finish Job next week.

What Stuck With Me

Don't lecture people in pain.  The last thing hurting people need is advice or a lecture.  It's the one thing Job asks for over and over from his friends, that they would just stop lecturing him.  He points out that it is easy to critique someone else's struggle when you are not in it.  The best thing we can do is offer love, not answers.  Honestly, I'm weary of the truth-tellers, the folks always ready with an answer for everything (and I concede I've been that person more than I care to admit).  

Life is pain.  Be careful that you don't end up selling something. It's not that Job's counselors are  wrong.  There is a lot of truth to be plucked from their arguments. They're just wrong about Job. They are wrong in this context.  They want a simple, one size fits all solution to the problem of pain and there isn't one. We would do well to be cautious about rushing to God's defense, as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar do.  Zealous defenders of the Lord often end up doing far more harm than good. In our eagerness to prove that God is just and good, we can end up denying uncomfortable realities and instead hawking a feel-good, simplistic "truth" that in end doesn't help when life takes a hard turn.

"Well sometimes my life just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small

So hold me Jesus 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart

So hold me Jesus 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace"

                         -- Rich Mullins "Hold Me Jesus"