If God really loves me, why is He letting me go through this? Maybe you’ve asked yourself that question, and it really comes from the same perspective that Job’s friends had. Both Bildad in chapter 18 and Zophar in chapter 20 are correct, at least in general: the light of the wicked will indeed go out (18:5), and the triumph of the wicked is indeed short (20:5). Job also agrees that God will eventually bring judgment on all those who reject His righteous rule (19:29). So, it’s all too easy for us to assume that if we suffer in this life, that’s proof that God has rejected us or abandoned us, or even that God is bringing judgment down upon us.

But none of that was true in Job’s particular case. Over and over again, he protests that he had done nothing to deserve all his misery, and we know from the first two chapters of this book that he was right. Job was suffering in spite of his righteousness, not because of his wickedness.

And Jesus was in the same situation. The people around Him made the same mistake that Job’s friends made. They assumed that because He was on the cross, He must have been the wicked blasphemer that the religious leaders claimed Him to be. They refused to believe He was the Messiah unless He would put an end to His sufferings and come down from the cross (Matthew 27:40). To most of us, most of the time, suffering is simply inconsistent with God’s favor and God’s blessings.

But Job knew better. He knew God was allowing him to suffer (19:21-22), and yet he knew he was in a right relationship with God. But instead of turning away from God in bitterness, he continued to look to his Redeemer. He continued to hope that, in spite of his confusion and pain, he would one day see God, the God he trusted to make all things right – eventually.

And the amazing truth is that Job’s Redeemer, Jesus Christ, does in fact live. Although He suffered and died, He rose from the dead. And one day, He will come again. He will stand upon the earth (19:25). And on that day, everything Job’s friends said will be true, as He will punish the wicked for all their sin. On that day, all those who suffer unjustly as Job did will be vindicated. On that day, all the dead will be raised, and in our flesh we will all see God (19:26).

But until that day, suffering is an inevitable part of the Christian experience – it’s a feature, not a bug. If Job went through it, and if Jesus went through it, so will we. But through it all, we can cling to the hope of redemption and salvation on the day when our King returns.

Job 19:21-29 (ESV)

21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23 “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”