Focal Passage: Job 40:1-8; 42:1-6
I know little about computers. However, what I do know is helpful to me. For example, I know that if I press the power button, the computer will spring to life. Of course, there are times when what I am trying to do will not work. Something is wrong, and I do not have enough information to fix the problem. Is it something I did? Is it something the manufacturer failed to account for?
Job’s life seemed to work well for him. Yet, in a moment, he lost everything. The reader has insight into the heavenly scene where God offers him to Satan for testing, but Job and his companions do not. While his friends implore him to repent of sins he has not committed, Job maintains his innocence. In the end, God never explains himself but rather appeals to His nature and character.
God’s answer to suffering can come through vindication and relief but not always. However, it is forever true that in our pain God offers Himself. There is much we will never understand about the trial, but our knowledge that God is sovereign and just and lovingly works all things for His glory and our good should bring us much comfort. James 1:2-4, 12 calls us to “count it all joy,” because the trials we face will produce endurance and maturity in us and in time the blessing of eternal life.
I don’t know everything about this computer, but the experts who built it do. I cannot do everything I want to do on it. That’s OK. It is here and per the manufacturer’s intention, it is still working for my good.