What reassures you and gives you comfort when your life just doesn’t make sense? Job thought he wanted understanding. He spent the greater portion of this book asking God to explain why he was suffering so much. But when God finally showed up, He didn’t answer any of Job’s questions. God never did tell Job about the conversation with Satan that started all of Job’s problems (see chapters 1 and 2).

So, what was it that finally satisfied Job? It wasn’t God’s answers, but God’s presence. In verse 5, Job admits that previously he had only heard about God. But now that God had revealed Himself to Job, now that Job had seen God, He was satisfied. In fact, he was embarrassed that he had ever questioned God in the first place.

So, what about us? After all, God has revealed Himself much more clearly to us than He ever did to Job. God has already come to us in the Person of Jesus Christ. God has already demonstrated His self-sacrificial, unconditional love for sinners like us on the cross. Moreover, God has demonstrated His power and authority over death by raising Jesus from the dead.

In other words, while Job only had a hunch that he would be raised from the dead and that he would see his Redeemer one day (19:25-26), we have seen God work out His plan of salvation. For Christ has already redeemed His people. And in the resurrection of Christ, God has given us the greatest reason to hope that we too will rise from the dead one day (I Corinthians 15:20).

So, in the midst of our suffering, is the presence of Christ good enough to comfort us? Will we rest in the love and rely on the justice He has already revealed to us? Or will we go on insisting that we understand everything? Will we trust in ourselves rather than in God?

Job 42:1-6 (ESV)

Then Job answered the LORD and said:
2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”