Job’s suffering proved an immense faith-proving opportunity. He showed humans it is possible to love God unconditionally even during difficult times.
Tests can sometimes tempt people to do wrong things that endanger their spiritual wellbeing, yet God never puts anyone through such tests.
1. To Test His Faith
Job was chosen to undergo one of God’s most arduous tests. Although his suffering occurred without His approval, He allowed it so Job could show how strong his faith still was even though everything around him had fallen away. Job’s test showed him how faithful God still was even though all appeared lost to him.
Satan attempts to convince Job that he must curse God. Instead, Job asks for a mediator between himself and Him as this shows that Job believed in a personal, direct relationship with Him that required risking his life in order to remain close to Him.
Job is told four reports over the course of one day detailing how his sheep, servants and children have been slaughtered or hurt by robbers or natural disasters; his skin has also become painful due to this abuse. Yet through all this suffering Job still praises God as being powerful and kind while refusing to question His justice or demand an explanation for his misfortunes.
God suddenly interrupts Job’s conversation by appearing from heaven with an abrupt windstorm and speaking directly to Job from His throne room. God poses several rhetorical questions meant to demonstrate that Job lacks sufficient wisdom to comprehend creation’s intricacies and understand His tremendous power alone. God answers Job by showing him He can punish the wicked through various methods with precision, speed, and strength.
Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar’s words may have caused Job pain at times; yet he never cursed or cursed God in response. God was pleased with Job’s response while He was dissatisfied with Job’s friends for providing unwise counsel or advocating unsound theological views.
God may ask us to do things that seem impossible in order to assess whether or not we trust in Him during times of difficulty, and will remain steadfast to Him no matter what comes your way. This type of test is known as the “where” test and can often prove challenging.
2. To Test His Trust
Once Job’s friends – “Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite” – heard about his unthinkable calamities they came to console him but instead were upbraided for being bitter toward God and trying to convince Job that this suffering was due to some previous transgression of his. Job persisted in maintaining his innocence by asserting he could not comprehend why wicked people thrive while innocent ones suffer.
Job desperately wishes for someone to stand as intermediary between himself and God and inform him if there is any wrong doing on his part, yet his friends accuse him of making premature claims about this being possible; their argument being that humans cannot understand God or his ways and expect them to explain what that might mean for Job.
Job’s situation grows increasingly frustrating for him as he desires an outlet to vent his rage at evil in this world and its suffering upon, yet knows this would compromise his integrity if he were accused of placing the blame for his troubles on someone other than God himself. So instead, Job takes action by challenging his friends intellectually in a debate.
At first, Job’s arguments with his friends are civil; but then Job becomes hostile and impatient, accusing them of being “worthless physicians,” giving advice based on lies that has made his condition worse and calling them stupid as beasts in a zoo. Yet Job admits to not understanding God’s great wisdom and states that this treatment of him was undeserved.
After exhausting his arguments, the man turns to God for help and prays for guidance as to why he suffers and whether it is right. Reaffirming his faith in Him despite Satan’s threats of cursing Him out as punishment he passes the second test and eventually receives even greater blessings than before his trials began.
3. To Test His Wisdom
After Job loses his family, livestock and all that he had built up over his lifetime, he cries out to God in desperation for answers as to why this is happening to him and why good people suffer while wicked ones prosper – this was an honest plea for help and understanding from him.
Satan intervenes and convinces Job that Job’s piety can be explained by not losing anything yet – an argument Satan disputes by questioning Job if his possessions become less secure in future. Satan suggests this may explain Job’s behavior but doubts whether his virtue will endure once everything he owns has gone.
God allows Satan to speak with Job, yet He limits its scope of conversation. God does not tell Job who was responsible for his afflictions but instead warns him not to blame Him directly if his symptoms worsened. Though Job did not blame God directly himself, his friends argued otherwise and suggested his suffering must have stemmed from some terrible sin within his life.
Job attempted to persuade his friends that his suffering wasn’t punishment for sin, but they didn’t believe him. Job even called them out as worthless physicians who were peddling lies about his situation. Job came to believe that God wasn’t fair, allowing some to prosper while others suffer inexplicably.
God finally responded to Job’s debate with three friends by emphasizing how Job had made valid points; all three friends had assumed too much about God’s justice and complexity of world; in addition, Job was right in saying their statements were biased by their prejudices and limited knowledge.
God then challenges Job to consider the vastness of His creation. He points out two large beasts he calls Behemoth and Leviathan. Job admits his incapacity to comprehend God’s power and wisdom fully; rather he laments his inability to appreciate a larger picture about what was happening to him – much like someone standing too closely to a painting without fully appreciating its artistry.
4. To Test His Love
The Book of Job reminds us that God deserves our love, reverence and worship even during times of unimaginable suffering. God uses every trial Job endures to demonstrate how much He cares for Him above everything else in this universe – He knows Job’s faith will only become stronger through such trials which is why He allowed them.
God loves all people equally; not just those who follow His will. Scripture states that God does not desire for any to perish (Psalm 116:10) which shows his mercy when people do something they shouldn’t. Even when their actions violate His laws, He forgives and welcomes them back into His family.
Satan believes that God’s mercy for His followers is evidence of weakness; he thinks that if He allows His children to suffer, then they won’t be able to stand up for Him against evil forces. In Job’s story, however, He dares Satan to try his hardest at making Job doubt God while remaining firm in his faith through even difficult trials and hardships that befall him. Throughout it all Job remains strong with faith.
As the story develops, Job’s three comforters (Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite) attempt to convince him that his current suffering is an act of God as punishment for some offense he has done – on the grounds that good and bad acts always cause each other. Their argument relies upon the principle that there is always an obvious relationship between good and evil deeds and subsequent suffering.
Job’s faith proved stronger than his friends’ superficial theology by reminding them there is no correlation in life between righteousness and prosperity, with some ungodly individuals often reaping more reward than righteousness-minded ones. Job’s final speech to his comforters served both to disprove their beliefs as well as affirm his commitment to God.
Job’s trial of affliction led him to discover more than ever about God’s intricate governance over creation. Though he acknowledges he cannot understand all aspects of nature’s workings, Job learned one fundamental truth that ultimately was true: God was supreme and in charge.
