Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.
JOB 13:15
The book of Job tells us the story of a man of great wealth who, in a terrifying series of events, loses everything — his children, his money, even his health. Sitting in the dust, surrounded by friends who have come to help him probe why such things have happened to him, Job laments his losses and asks the great existential questions: “How many wrongs and sins have I committed? What has been my offense? Is there any hope for me?”
Job’s friends speak up, offering him the world’s wisdom, which is no help at all. Finally God speaks — but even he does not answer Job’s questions. Instead, he merely says that he is God, the great I AM, all-powerful and all-knowing, and that Job has no reason or right to question him. Job humbly repents — and God chooses to restore all that Job has lost, and more.
In the entire story, God never finds it necessary to explain himself. We will never understand, this side of heaven, why bad things happen to us and those we love. Nor will we understand so many unexplainable tragedies in this world, from war to famine to human trafficking to earthquakes. But this doesn’t mean that we should stop trusting God, who has proven again and again that he loves us. We, his creation, have no right to tell God how to express that love. We can know, for sure, that his choices will not be our choices.
Is God unfair? Unjust? No, in fact, our very definitions of justice derive from God. Is he silent? He may choose not to speak to us directly; the psalmist often speaks of God’s silence. And yet he has given us his Word, full of his messages to us, messages of love and reassurance.
Remember this: While there is breath in your lungs, there is hope — the promise of a new day. The key is that we continue to trust God even when everything screams for us to doubt his goodness. I don’t know what you may be going through right now, but God does. He knows. He cares. He tends.
MOMENT OF REFLECTION
What questions do you have for God? Write down the three most pressing and surrender them to God as an act of trust.