“Why is God allowing me to suffer through this? Why?” I’ve heard this many times at the bedside of patients and family who seem to suffer one calamity after another – sicknesses and health issues that have stolen away their quality of life forever. It’s a question I hear nearly everyday and it’s one I anticipate with every condolence call; with every death visit; with every code blue that shouts through the hospital intercom. Why? Why would God let this happen? And as the minister and chaplain, they look at me, the one representing God. What does God have to say about their suffering?

It is a question we all will eventually face and in these severe trials and hardships our faith is tested. Do we still trust in God? How do we make sense of what is happening to us in relation to the Bible and our Christian faith?

Yes, it is bad – death and suffering is horrible. I don’t want to make light of it; I don’t want to cheapen it; I don’t want to minimize it. I know I can’t do this because Christ didn’t suffer a little – he didn’t lightly experience death. He experienced it as deeply as the person before me is experiencing it – in fact far more because he paid the consequences of sin that caused all these calamities, sickness, and tragedies. I want to show compassion as deeply as I can so that they might have a taste of the compassion Christ had in becoming familiar with their suffering. Christ is more compassionate than I; more empathetic than I ever could be. He Himself bore this very suffering so that it might be defeated.

In deep pain, I’ve heard many sufferers cry out and voice their doubts, anger, frustration, and fearfulness but in an act of astounding faith I hear them say nonetheless, “I’m not mad at God,” “I love God” and “I still trust him, somehow.” In these times, I often go to the book of Job because their prayer is exactly Job’s prayer – after he loses everything.

Job is a righteous man – wealthy and healthy and blessed with a beautiful family. He worships God and intercedes on his family’s behalf everyday. He is blameless and God brings attention to Job’s astounding character when the Accuser arrives in heaven. The Accuser scoffs at Job and claims that he only follows God because he blesses him with many earthly gifts. Take those gifts away and Job will show his true character and motivations. God then allows the Accuser to cause unimaginable suffering for Job in order to prove his integrity. He loses his family, his prosperity, his great reputation, and his unbroken communion with God. After this tragic turn of events, God is silent and Job doesn’t understand why this has happened to him. The big question becomes whether or not God is worthy of praise even if all his gifts and blessing are taken away.

In this sermon series, we are plunged into a terrifying tragedy that brings out hard questions. Why do we suffer? How do we comfort the suffering? How does suffering happen if God is truly sovereign? How do I live out my faith in the middle of intense and blinding suffering that doesn’t seem to have a clear purpose? Would God allow suffering to befall blameless servants of his?

The story of Job explores these questions and in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ we find a hope and guidance for how we might endure this suffering and understand it in light of biblical truth. We welcome you to explore these questions in our sermon series:

Righteous Suffering: A Study of Job.

Week One: The Reasons We Suffer

Week Two: How to Respond to Suffering

Week Three: How Not to Counsel the Suffering

Week Four: The God Who is Sovereign in Suffering