There is a tension between the book of Job and the basic message of Deuteronomy; that message being, if you do good you will be blessed and if you do evil you will be cursed. Job’s life experience did not fit the book of Deuteronomy; He was suffering, but it was not because he had broken God’s law. It looked to Job’s comforters, who subscribed to suffering being the consequence of sin, that Job must have sinned a lot, and they told Him so. Job demonstrates to us that good people can suffer “bad” through no choice or actions of their own. There is truth in Deuteronomy, there is blessing for right choices, there are negative consequences for wrong choices. There is truth in the book of Job; there is suffering in life that has no connection to our choices. Hold to the hand of God, no matter the nature of your suffering; those hands have nail scars in them caused by His suffering. Feel the scar and keep going.
Dear Jesus, thank You for suffering with us and for us so that we can be victorious in all of our suffering. Amen!
