ChancePoythress

Disasters and Suffering 45
similar conclusion. When God’s confrontation with Job at the end of the
book (Job 38–41) reminds Job of how puny his power and knowledge are,
he confesses his own limitations:
Then Job answered the Lord and said:
“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
‘Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:1–6)
Like Job, we should move in the same direction. We should take to heart
what God tells Job in Job 38–41, and also what Job 1–2 tells us about our
limited power and knowledge. Like Job, we should admit that we do not
know enough to see why God is doing what he is doing.
We will still have to suffer. We may still go through Job-like experiences,
in which God’s plan seems inexplicable. Worse, it may seem to limited
human judgment as if God is acting cruelly or spitefully or unjustly.
The book of Job comes to aid us in such circumstances, by reminding us of
our limitations as well as God’s greatness.
THE SUFFERING OF CHRIST AND OUR SUFFERING
We should not leave behind the case of Job without reckoning with its
forward connection to Christ. The book of Job does not by itself give the
fullest answers about suffering and disaster. It looks forward to a future
time of salvation (Job 19:25–27).
We should observe that, though Job was not sinlessly perfect, he was
fundamentally in the right, while his friends were in the wrong. That is, his
friends wrongly claimed that Job must be suffering because he had committed
some particular grievous sins of which he should repent. Job rightly
claimed that their accusation was not true. Job was not suffering because of