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Job 2:9 – When Suffering Becomes Personal
When the reality of suffering becomes personal we can doubt the love of God. We need to not doubt the reality of something else – the hatred of Satan. Satan hates God and therefore hated Job. Satan’s hatred led to the suffering of innocent people, parents, children, friends and servants. Evil persisted on earth, while hate prevailed in hell. Job’s wife, who lived, became livid with hate for God and said, “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9).
Eliminating suffering is impossible. Explaining suffering while believing in God is difficult. Experiencing suffering while believing in God is confusing. Elevating ourselves above suffering without God is impossible. Because I cannot eliminate what I cannot explain, I choose to elevate myself above the experience and become defined not by what I suffer, but by my belief in God.
Didn’t Jesus die because God loves us? Isn’t divine pain the greatest explanation of all suffering? “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, now will He not also with Him freely give all things? (Romans 8:32)
And again, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35). The answer is, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
Let difficult times draw us closer to love and drive us further from hate.
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