Job: The Mystery of Suffering

By Rick Bayer, April 19, 2020

Book of Job

God is not nice, God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake. Rabbi Abraham Heschel

God uses hardship in your life as perhaps the primary way to get you to love Him with all your being

20 "I cry to you, O God, but you don't answer. I stand before you, but you don't even look. 21 You have become cruel toward me. You use your power to persecute me. 22 You throw me into the whirlwind and destroy me in the storm.

Job 30:20-22

Perhaps it is better if God never tells any of us the whole of our life story Francis Anderson

Questions for Personal Studying or for Discipleship Group Zoom Meetings

Is your approach to the problem of suffering more like a secularist (God is non-existent or cruel) or a moralist (must a be a reason)?

Like Rick, do you struggle with this idea of God permitting Satan to wreak havoc in Job’s life? What answer do you arrive at that satisfies you?

Rick said that God allows suffering in your life as the primary way to get you to love God more freely and fully. Do you agree with this? Has this been your experience?

How will you ensure that you will not be one of those many people who walk away from God and faith when hardship comes? How can you D group help you in this?