For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)
This builds on our previous post, Book of Job (Part 1)
A Woman Like Job
Nancy Guthrie is an author in Nashville, Tennessee. She often speaks and writes about suffering, grief, and hope because she has learned firsthand how to lean on God (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) during deep personal losses. Nancy and her husband, David, had a son, Gabriel, who was born with a rare genetic disorder called Zellweger syndrome. Gabriel lived only six months. Years later, they had a daughter named Hope, born with the same illness. Nancy wrote, “We had Hope for 199 days. We loved her. We enjoyed her richly and shared her with everyone we could. We held her during seizures. Then we let her go.” 1
In the midst of their deep sorrow, Nancy and David were helped by 1 Peter 1:3-4. It says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and into a heavenly inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” When King David’s infant son died, he expressed hope of being reunited with his child in Heaven.2 The Lord is perfectly righteous and abundantly merciful, so our little ones who die are safe with Jesus, and we hope to see them again.3
Nancy wrote, “Trusting God when the miracle does not come, when the urgent prayer gets no answer, when there is only darkness—this is the kind of faith God values perhaps most of all. This can be developed and displayed only in the midst of difficult circumstances. This kind of faith cannot be shaken because it is the result of having been shaken.” 4
Lessons from Job
The whole Bible and the book of Job teach that:
- The Lord is trustworthy even when His purposes are hidden from us
- Lamenting and honest grieving are proper for Christ’s believers
- Our ultimate hope is not just relief in this life but resurrection and being with Christ
- We are comforted knowing that Jesus shared in our suffering and conquered death.
Job is a long book in the Old Testament with 42 chapters, 1,070 verses, and about 17,000 words in our English Bibles. Here’s a summary: God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His wisdom, power, and love, and He makes no mistakes in ruling over our lives, even our suffering. We may wonder about His mysterious plan, but He always works all things for the good of His people.5
More Key Verses
Job 9:33-34, 16:19-21 Job said: If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that His terror would frighten me no more… Even now my witness is in Heaven. My advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God. My mediator pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.
Extreme Undeserved Suffering
Job feels like his suffering will never end, and he gets more desperate as the book unfolds. His three friends make his grief worse, suggesting that some hidden sin caused his agony. But they are wrong in Job’s case! God speaks about Job’s innocence 3 times in chapters 1-2 and then again in chapter 42.
- Yes, we live in a fallen world, broken because of human rebellion
- Yes, our own wrongs often bring painful consequences
- But no, every individual’s suffering is not God’s punishment for their own sin.6
If God punished us immediately, none of us would stand; we’d all be consumed; none of us would be alive.7 Praise the Lord, He sent Jesus to be our Savior. Scripture says Job was blameless, a true God-follower, but only a sinner saved by God’s grace. He was stretched past his breaking point. Job’s 10 children were killed, his wife lost hope, his friends accused him, and God seemed a million miles away. Job cursed the day he was born and wanted to die. His endurance was running out, but God was sustaining him, even though it didn’t feel like that to Job. He keeps talking to the Lord, but correctly feels that he can’t win with God on his own. His arms are too short to box with God, so he wants a mediator.8
We Need a Go-Between
We see negotiators used in everyday life. When two nations are at war or disputing, another nation’s leaders can come between them to arbitrate talks and seek to bring peace. Counselors can intervene between two people, or groups of people in a family, church, or business disagreement. Sometimes that mediation works; other times it fails.
In Job 6:19-21, he talks about needing a heavenly witness, advocate, intercessor, and friend to plead with God for him. Job is pointing us to Jesus, who will never fail any of His believers.
Scripture says: There is one God and one Mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people… My dear children, I write this so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 Tim 2:5-6; 1 John 2:1-2)
Though Job did not yet see Christ as clearly as believers do today, his longing was real, and God would later provide exactly such a Mediator. Jesus can place His hand upon God because He is truly God. And He can place His hand upon humanity because He truly became man. Thus Christ alone is qualified to reconcile both parties. (Joseph Caryl)9
We cannot read the New Testament (“NT”) back into the Old Testament (“OT”). But Scripture says that the OT writers received God’s revelation about the coming Messiah, yet did not fully understand it. They knew they were pointing toward a future salvation that would be more fully unfolded when Jesus came.9 Job was an OT believer, trusting that God would send the woman’s Seed (Messiah) to crush the serpent’s head and save him.10 The fulfillment Christ accomplished was far better than Job ever had imagined.
More from Nancy Guthrie
To me, God’s Word is a treasure to be mined. The deeper I go, the more I see its wisdom, the more it authenticates itself, the more it reveals to me the beauty of God’s plan to redeem all things through Christ.
Despite her severe losses, Nancy continued to trust and lean on God for strength, comfort, and purpose. She would surely say with the Apostle Paul, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” (2 Cor 1:3-5)
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we praise You that You have saved us by Your own life, death, resurrection, and eternal aliveness. Now, by Your unfailing love and strength, lead and guide us. Save us from Satanic and human oppressors, foes, and enemies. When we are thirsty, satisfy us. When we are hungry, fill us with Your good things. Sweep away our offenses like a cloud, our sins like the morning mist. We return to You now, because You have first loved us. Take away our fears because You know us by name and we are Your precious children. Amen.11
Notes (various Bible translations, including my own): 1 Holding On to Hope: A Pathway through Suffering to the Heart of God (2002). Nancy Guthrie has developed solid women’s Bible study materials, wanting to help women understand the Scriptures’ larger story, with Jesus Christ at the center. Her work has been commended by D. A. Carson, Sinclair Ferguson, Tim Keller, John Piper, Alistair Begg, and Ligon Duncan. She has been a frequent speaker and writer for The Gospel Coalition. 2 2 Sam 12:23; Mark 10:13-16; 1 Thes 4:13-18; Rev 21:1-5. 3 This is the view of Charles Spurgeon, John MacArthur, Randy Alcorn, J. I. Packer, R. C. Sproul, John Piper, Alistair Begg, and many others. 4 Guthrie, Holding On to Hope. 5 Expanded from Proclaiming the Word: Bible Study Guide by Peter A. Lillback (n.d.), p. 16. 6 Gen 2:5-17, 3:15-24; John 9:1-3; Rom 5:12-21; Gal 6:7-8, James 1:13-15. 7 Ps 103:10, 130:3; Lam 3:22–23. 8 This sentence is based on the Broadway musical, “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God” (1976). The phrase goes back to James Weldon Johnson’s novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912). 9 Joseph Caryl (1602 to 1673) was an English Puritan pastor. He is best known for his Exposition with Practical Observations upon the Book of Job (12 volumes). The work was issued gradually over 23 years. 10 1 Peter 1:10-12. 11 Prayer based on Ex 15:13; Ps 78:42, 106:10, 107:2,9, Isa 43:1, 44:22.