Welcome to the third instalment of our exploration of the book of Job. A book of the Bible that explores the question of how to make sense of suffering. In my last post, I looked at the question “Is life worth living?” in light of the suffering and trials we face day after day and year after year. We saw that God’s presence and work in our life gives value and dignity to our experiences regardless of how they feel in the moment, and the God who never fails has promised to bring us out of those trials like gold being refined in the furnace.
Job’s Friends’ Big Assumption
Today we look at the biggest assumption of the book of Job: Bad things happen to bad people. Or, putting it as a question, “is suffering caused by sin?” This is a foundational question for the book of Job, the gospel message, and human experience as God has created it. This assumption and the questions that surround it haunt our lives and can leave us in some dark places if we do not properly understand the role that sin plays in our suffering.
Let’s start by looking at how Job’s friends put it:
Job 4:7-8, “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.”
Job 5:3-4, “I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling. His children are far from safety; they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.
Job 8:4, “If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.”
Job 15:20-21, “The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
I could go on and on. This sentiment is the foundational assumption that Job’s friends are presuming on Job in his situation. The critical question is, are they right?
What They Got Right
As I said in the introductory entry for this series, not everything Job’s friends say is wrong. Their words are often too simple, especially in the context of a suffering friend. In examining the claim that “bad things happen to bad people” his friends get some things right.
First, God demands punishment for sin. Genesis 2:16-17,
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Also, Exodus 21:12,
“Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.”
God is a moral God, he sets up laws to help us judge between right and wrong. Even in the Garden, when everything was “very good”, there was a law to restrict Adam’s actions. We were made to do good, not evil. God is the one who decides which is which. Job’s friends acknowledge that God desires people to do good, not evil and there are punishments for sinful behaviour.
Secondly, Job’s friends are correct that sin has consequences.
The difference between punishment and consequences is worth noting. Consequences are a judicial act in response to sin, meaning, there is a response codified for the situation. In the example from Exodus above, the law says if you murder someone, you are to be put to death. Consequences, on the other hand, are natural and rational outcomes resulting from one’s actions. Smoking is not against the law, but it does have the consequence of increasing your chances of getting lung cancer. The cancer is not a punishment for the sin of neglecting your health, but a rational consequence of those actions. The distinction is important because, while the punishment of our sin was taken away by Christ’s suffering on the cross if we have faith in Christ, the consequences of sin remain. Punishment is moral, consequences are rational. Consequences are also part of living in a fallen world. People get sick, businesses go bankrupt, and the consequences of Adam and Eve’s failure have been rippling across creation ever since that very first day.
Job’s friends rightly recognize God’s righteous punishment of sin and the natural consequence for sinful behaviour.
What They Got Wrong
As mentioned above, the most consistent error that Job’s friends make is the oversimplification of the truth. This challenge has always nipped at the heels of Christians. Rightly dividing the Word of Truth is hard work. For Job’s friends to say “bad things happen to bad people” they make an oversimplification that all suffering is punishment. They leave out the fact that the world has been broken since Adam and Eve ate the fruit. They forgot that, while God is in control, we are all under the rule of sin until we take full possession of our inheritance in Christ. Death has no power over our eternal destiny in Christ, but its effects make the road narrow, hard, and trying. Job’s friends have also lost sight of how extensive sin is. They speak to Job as if sinless living is possible. They demand he confess his sins so that everything will be made right and forget,
“Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
Even in his servants he puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like the moth?”
– Job 4:17-19
Living a life free of the effect and stain of sin is impossible. So, there cannot be a direct line between self-righteousness and blessing. If there was, none of us would be breathing. And the introductory narrative, the Devil’s sinister attack on Job, would be meaningless. Let us look at two examples from the life of Jesus as illustrations: The man born blind, and the crucifixion.
The Man Born Blind
In John 9, Jesus and his disciples walk by a man who is known as having been born blind. His disciples ask a question of the man as they pass, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? (John 9:2)” As you can see, this assumption is consistent with the argument of Job’s friends. This man is blind, blindness is suffering, therefore, this blindness must be a punishment for sin, either his own or his parents. This question not only misses the point but dehumanizes the man. Jesus responds accordingly, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Not only does Jesus see the man behind the disability, but he makes this blind man a conduit for the glory of God.
The narrative continues and the blind man is called before the Pharisees to testify to his healing. When he makes no excuses for Jesus’ power and glory, they cast him out of the synagogue. The man returns to Jesus, worships him, and Jesus commends his actions and the man’s testimony with these words, “For judgement I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” It is not any sin that makes a man blind, but a failure to see the glory of Jesus Christ that is true blindness.
This episode from Jesus’ life teaches us that suffering and trials are used to refine us and glorify God. The man’s blindness resulted in his eternal salvation, and Job’s suffering resulted in a more thorough understanding of who God is. It was a rough road to both of those ends, but God was glorified and the men were sanctified.
The Crucifixion
The ultimate refutation of the “bad things happen to bad people” argument is Christ himself.
Isaiah 53:5 – But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The entire chapter of Romans 5 is an argument in how the consequences of one man’s sin (Adam) are cancelled by the action of one Man’s righteousness (Jesus), by his death and sufferings at the hand of God for us, in our place. The perfect son of God, without stain or blemish, willingly endured unimaginable suffering, in our place, so we would only know peace, love, and joy in God, rather than justly being given wrath, judgement, and condemnation.
A Better Job
The temptation to equate suffering with sin is all around us. We so desperately want a clear explanation for every trial we face. Most of those questions, however, will wait for eternity. In Christ, every trial and season of suffering is a tool God uses to refine us, not punish us. Every punishment for a Christian’s sin was paid for by Christ on the Cross. There is nothing left over. Consequences remain, but our suffering is redeemed for the glory of God.
Christ is a better Job. The truly righteous man who suffered though his innocence was plain to show the light of the gospel of the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus’ entire earthly ministry is a refutation of the argument, “bad things happen to bad people” because Jesus was perfect and suffered completely. And, by being united to him, our sinfulness, suffering, and trials are redeemed for God’s glory. We once were blind, but now we see, to the glory of God the Father.
