In part one of this series I explained how using the problem of pain as a moral argument against God is self-defeating, since in the absence of God there is no such thing as right or wrong [1], along with how only if some sort of theism is true can suffering result in anything meaningful. This time I want to write about one of the most challenging books in the Bible: Job. People ask from time to time why good people encounter trials, and Job is a very theologically rich book that explores how living a legitimately righteous life will not necessarily spare someone from heartache, bodily agony, and loss. It has relevance in every generation.
In the first two chapters the titular man is tested by God. A consistently righteous person, Job suffers the death of his children, the theft of his camels, and the destruction of his sheep and many of his servants by fire from the sky. All of this happens after Satan accuses Job of only serving God rightly because he has an prosperous life. Soon, his body is covered in sores, his wife counseling him to curse God and die. Several friends of Job first take pity on him, but they eventually come to charge him with some hidden wrong because of the magnitude of his suffering. And eventually God speaks to Job.
Ultimately, God does not give Job an exact explanation of why he experienced the suffering described earlier in the book--God instead gives him a series of questions and descriptions that highlight the finite nature of Job's understanding. Chapters 38-41 present question after question about Job's knowledge of both the physical cosmos and Christian metaphysics. In the end, Job simply repents of questioning God's righteousness, content to acknowledge and accept the fact that God remains good despite the existence of his pain.
This is no mere stoicism that the book of Job teaches, however! Realizing that it does not follow from the existence of suffering that God is not good (for there is no other moral authority besides or beyond God) does not mean that we should just passively accept whatever occurs without emotional catharsis or never entertain serious questions! Sometimes doubts and trials can provoke the deepest growth, the fiercest passions for certainty, and the greatest desires to amend our lives and live rightly. Humans are intellectual and emotional beings, and we are made to grapple with intellectual and emotional realities, however difficult they may be to confront.
It is one thing to wonder what actions are right and which ones conform to God's nature (to discover one is to discover the other); it is another to wonder if God is unjust. The latter is inherently philosophically unsound. I do not merely mean Biblically unsound, but that it defies logic itself. There is an uncaused cause, which I refer to using the word God, and this fact is provable in full by logic alone [2]. The only way that there is even such a thing as right or wrong is if this entity has a moral nature, since there could be no other moral authority, meaning that if the uncaused cause does not have a moral nature then there is no problem of evil to begin with! Hence, it is unsound to wonder if God is unjust. Such a thing is metaphysically and logically impossible. What we can do when faced with suffering is allow it to transform us and make ourselves more righteous, more knowledgable, more firm, and more consistent because of it.
From the book of Job readers can ascertain two truths: 1) righteousness does not prevent all terrestrial suffering and 2) there might be legitimate explanations for specific instances of human suffering that we know nothing about at the present time. Job is never told in the text about Satan's claims about his uprightness, nor is he told that God directly allowed for his sufferings to occur. He never hears why he endured so much loss and grief. And yet, when God answers him without actually providing specific answers, he repents.
The contents of Job can be some of the most challenging information in the Bible to understand and live out.
[1]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-problem-of-pain-part-1.html
[2]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-uncaused-cause.html
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