When the Going Gets Tough

Counting It All Joy

Choosing to be joyful in the midst of hard times is definitely easier said than done –at least for me it was. One thing I’ve learned is God wants us to be honest with Him about our pain.

That’s why when I think about people in the Bible who persevered through tough times and came out on top, my mind instantly goes to Job.

Honestly, this was my least favorite book of the Bible because it revolved around suffering and I am not a fan of unwarranted hardships or trials.

The Book of Job

The book of Job begins by describing him as a perfect and upright man who was very prosperous and successful. Then the scene switches to God’s heavenly courts, where His angels come to present themselves to Him. Among God’s heavenly beings appears Satan, who when questioned, tells the Lord he has been roaming the earth and taking note of everything that was going on. The New Living Translation version states: 

“Then the Lord asked Satan, ‘Have you noticed my servant Job? He is blameless…He fears God and stays away from evil.  Satan replied, yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is!” –Job 1:8 NIV

Here, we see God brought Job to Satan’s attention, and the devil, who is also known as the accuser, tells God Job only loved Him because He protected him and blessed him with much wealth.

 “But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face! Satan challenged God. All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically,” the Lord responded.” –Job 1:11-12 NIV

Satan: The Source of All Suffering

After Satan left God’s presence, he sent a band of raiders to steal Job’s cattle and murder his servants. The devil also rained down fire from heaven to incinerate Job’s sheep and shepherds and sent a second band of raiders to steal Job’s camels and kill the rest of his workers.

If that was not bad enough, Satan also signaled a powerful whirlwind to strike the house of Job’s oldest son while he and his other siblings were feasting. The Book of Job is a very tough reading to digest. On the surface level, it can seem like an upsetting sequence of events since it appears like God gave Satan permission to torture somebody who did all the right things.

After all, it was God who brought Job to Satan’s attention. Personally, that specific verse intrigued me, because Christianity teaches us that God protects us from the enemy and wants us to have and experience good things. Needless to say, for the longest time, I could not wrap my head around the fact that God not only permitted that kind of suffering for a righteous man but also instigated the series of unfortunate events in the first place. The first time Job is tested he pronounces:

  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may his name be praised.” –Job 1:21 NIV

Satan is Relentless

As a result of his faithfulness, he is credited for not sinning by blaming God for the sudden calamity that befell on him. But get this, Satan appears before the Lord a second time and God brings Job to his attention yet again.

“Then the Lord asked Satan, Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me to harm him without cause.

“Satan replied to the Lord, ‘Skin for skin! A man will give up everything he has to save his life. But reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!’ ‘All right, do with him as you please,’ the Lord said to Satan. ‘But spare his life.’ So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.” –Job 2:3-6 NIV

After the second set of misfortunes fall on Job, his own wife urges him to curse God and die. Still, with unwavering conviction, Job tells her she is speaking as if she were foolish, insisting people should accept bad things from the Lord just like they embrace His blessings. Job is then visited by three of his friends who try to justify his adversities by accusing him of sinning against God.

Naturally, Job, who was confident in his innocence, defends himself and in the process, questions God’s justice as he laments over his situation. After a long dialogue between the men, the Lord finally shows up in a whirlwind. Instead of answering the questions Job put to him concerning justice, He reminds Job that He is the Creator of the world with wisdom that surpasses all human reasoning. 

After God speaks, Job apologizes for challenging Him by questioning the logic behind his justice. The part that really gets me is the fact that God turns around and condemns Job’s friends who seemingly expressed an accurate depiction of God.

They were the ones stating no one was smart enough to give the Lord advice and pointing out His sovereignty and omniscience. But at the end of the entire ordeal, the Lord turned around and said:

“After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves.  My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” –Job  42:7-8 NIV

Conclusion

If we were to evaluate the situation from a human standpoint, this story would not make much sense. If Job had spoken the truth about God, why did he apologize at the beginning of Job 42?  While the answer may not be clear, one thing is sure. Even in the middle of Job’s suffering he did not denounce the Lord his God or lose faith in him. 

I believe God considered Job’s response to his suffering righteous since he was unwilling to curse or blame Him for the onset of his troubles. Not only that, even in the peak of Job’s testing, he was honest enough to bare his whole heart to God with jarring questions, instead of pretending like he wasn’t hurt.

Moreover, after God reminded him that His thinking was way beyond human reasoning, Job was willing to humble himself and accept that as a response to his questions about God’s justice, despite the fact that it didn’t directly address any of his queries. 

I bring up the story of Job because in counting all of our trials and tribulations as joy, we should not be oblivious to the discomfort and pain we are feeling. God doesn’t want a ritualistic relationship where we follow scriptures blindly because it’s something we are supposed to do.

In addition, He is not interested in a shallow relationship where we just repeat a bunch of pretenses we’ve heard about Him. This approach will not ease our pain and will only drive us farther away from Him when we don’t get the outcome or answers we want. 

On this journey to freedom, it is okay to feel hopeless at times. But instead of allowing bad emotions to take root in your heart and decrease your faith, bring them to the Lord in prayer. He can handle your tough questions and despair.