Of all the 66 books in the Bible, Job is the one that most vividly reveals the problem all of us face in life: how to understand suffering. And that problem always resolves itself finally into one great, perplexing, painful question: who is this who hates me? Who is bringing on me this undeserved calamity? Is it God, or is it Satan?
Your mind may have the correct answer, but what about your heart? If you are like I am, your heart in its natural, unconverted state, is "enmity against God" (Rom 8:7), and you're only kidding yourself if you think you are an exception. "Why me?" is the universal question we ask when great calamity strikes us, whether by an accident, or cancer, or loss of a human love, or bereavement. Job is I, and you; he is standing in for us. He couldn't figure out what "sin" he was guilty of that provoked God to curse him so terribly with the loss of everything he held dear, even his basic health.
Job is the first Christian book ever written; there are links that bind him on his dung heap wailing out in despair, "Why?" with Christ on His cross in total darkness wailing the same "Why?" God was forced to stake His throne and the stability of the universe itself on this one poor, weak, human man, Job. God had claimed that Job was true and righteous. Satan ridiculed the idea; he wagered that if God were to permit enormous affliction to come on Job, he would turn traitor and "curse God." And God couldn't back out; one human being in supreme wretchedness was holding the line in this great conflict with Satan, and God had to hold His breath in anticipation of what Job would do.
Today there are"144,000" individuals of "every nation, kindred, tongue, and people," each of whom is so important that he/she is holding that same line all alone, like Job did. And, as with Job, there is a link that binds each one to Christ on His cross asking,"Why Me?"
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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