Job’s Haunting Questions and God’s Silence

How would you describe life on your best day? How about your worst? I’m willing to guess there would be quite a difference between the two. And yet, there are probably aspects of both descriptions that are true. Life is like that, and our experiences of life are similar. We can vacillate between hopefulness and despair, sometimes on the very same day! Well, we’re not alone as we experience the highs and lows of life. In fact, many saints who lived before us walked this very road. Let’s look at one example from Job when we happen to catch him on a bad day and his outlook on life is pretty grim. Let’s see what we can learn from Job’s haunting questions about life and death.

Here’s an excerpt from the volume on Job by David L. Allen in the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary set.

Hardship, Hopelessness, and Death

Job 14 is the final chapter of Job’s response to Zophar and the closure of the first cycle of speeches. It is composed of four sections: 1–6, where Job outlines the nature of human life—it is hardship and hopelessness; 7–12, where Job speaks of the possibility of hope for a tree that has been cut down but an absence of hope for humanity—death is the end; 13–17, where Job speaks of the illusion of hope—if a man dies, will he live again?; and 18–22, where the naturalistic erosion of land becomes a metaphor for gradual disintegration of all hope for humankind as represented by Job.

Life is Hard

In Job 14:1–6, even though he is responding to Zophar, Job continues his direct address to God begun in 13:20. For Job, humanity is condemned to a brief and troubled life, like a flower that blossoms then withers or like a fleeting shadow (vv. 1–2). Job’s rhetorical question in verse 3 leads to his statement that people must live within the limits God has prescribed for them, so that God has hemmed each person in and loaded him or her down with troubles squeezed into a brief life span. Life is like a hired laborer compelled to serve a harsh taskmaster. Happiness is a tiny island in an ocean of blood, sweat, and tears. Since this is the case, the least God could do is to grant some respite from his overbearing, relentless watchfulness so a person can stumble his way to his inevitable end without undue harassment (v. 6).

Death Comes for All

Job’s despair continues in verses 7–12 with the stark reality that our mortality leads to death. A tree, when it is felled, at least has the hope that new shoots will sprout. But not so with humanity. When death comes, that’s it. A person is like a lake or riverbed that goes permanently dry; death cannot be avoided.

Is There Life After Death?

In one of the most famous passages in the book of Job, Job asks in verse 14, “When a person dies, will he come back to life?” In verses 13–17 Job’s hope is for a resurrection after death. After God’s wrath subsides, Job longs for some semblance of reconciliation with God and resurrection. This is the first time in the book the question of life after death is raised. “Job sees, as it were, a light in the keyhole of the door in heaven which John the apostle saw opened full wide” (Harris). Job’s question is answered by Jesus in John 11:25–26: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Alexander Maclaren expressed it well:

Job’s question waited long for an answer. Weary centuries rolled away; but at last the doubting, almost despairing, cry put into the mouth of the man of sorrows of the Old Testament is answered by the Man of Sorrows of the New.

Job speaks of “waiting” out the days of his “struggle” until his “relief comes” (v. 14). Job uses a metaphor for life as compulsory military service, with the weary soldier fighting battle after battle and finally, exhausted, lifting his eyes to see a fresh squadron of soldiers coming to relieve him. After it is all over, surely God will want his much-afflicted child back, and his sins will be covered over and sealed in a bag of forgetfulness (vv. 15–17). Imagine all your sins stuffed in a garbage bag, tied off at the top, and thrown away. This is what Job longs for in his desire for fellowship with God again.

Job’s Hopelessness

Job’s wishful thinking is once again overshadowed by his melancholy in the final section, 14:18–22. The years pass, our bodies decay, Job is all alone, death awaits, and there is no hope. As the mountains erode and are left in rubble, so God destroys Job’s hope (v. 19). Death separates and ends all communication with people (v. 21). Job’s final thought: “He feels only the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself” (v. 22). Job feels hopeless in the face of his sufferings. God is nowhere to be found.

God’s Silence in Job’s Sufferings

The silence of God to Job’s pleas at the end of this first speech cycle must have been deafening. Job cannot understand why God has not responded to him. Job must have felt like Paul Newman’s character, the convict Luke in Cool Hand Luke, when he calls out to God in the pouring rain during a thunderstorm: “Let me know you’re up there. Come on. Love me, hate me, kill me, anything. Just let me know it!” Or at the end of the movie in the old, empty church scene at night, when Luke, on the run from the law, asks,

Anybody here? … I know I got no cause to ask much, but even so you gotta admit you ain’t dealt me no cards in a long time. It looks like you got things fixed so I can’t never win out…. When does it end? What have you got in mind for me? What do I do now?”

So, what do you do in your life when you go through a period of time when God says to you, “No comment”? Most of us are acutely aware of God’s silence when we need him the most. “Just send me an angel, God, with some word! Say something! Anything!”

God Speaks in Christ’s Sufferings

Although Job can’t understand God’s silence in his suffering, we know that the cross is God’s megaphone (to adapt an illustration from C. S. Lewis about pain as God’s megaphone). The cross loudly proclaims to us God’s love and provision for our sins so that all suffering, whether the result of our sin or others’ sins or God’s will for our lives to glorify him, is answered.

Job’s hopelessness does not have to be your hopelessness. Because of the cross of Jesus, we have hope. Remember—biblical hope is not an uncertain, wishy-washy thing like it is in our vocabulary. “I hope it doesn’t rain.” “I hope I make an A on that test.” “I hope I get that raise at my job.” Such hope is uncertain. But the biblical word hope means “a settled certainty and confident expectation based on the promises of God.” The author of Hebrews describes this hope in Hebrews 6:19–20:

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner.

Because of the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus into heaven, our hope is certain and secure for all eternity. No matter what storms come our way in this life, Jesus is our hope anchor.

God Speaks in Christ’s Resurrection

Job’s hope for a resurrection is met in the reality of the resurrection of Christ. Mary and Martha were distraught at their brother Lazarus’s death. When Jesus arrived in Bethany, he told Martha that Lazarus would one day be raised from the dead. Martha acknowledged that this was true—he will rise in the resurrection at the last day. But Jesus had something more immediate in mind for Lazarus. Jesus told Martha in John 11:25–26,

I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus then raised Lazarus from the dead.

No matter what happens to us in this life, including death, nothing can win the victory over us. The resurrection of Christ guarantees our future resurrection. Job can have hope in his suffering, and so can you and I, because of the death and resurrection of Christ!

Some things are so important to God that they are worth interrupting the happiness and health of his children in order to accomplish them. Jesus allowed Lazarus to die for the sake of his higher purpose in Lazarus’s life. You can always count on two things being true in the midst of your pain and adversity. First, God knows and hurts with you. Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus. He weeps with us over our sorrows as well. Second, whatever God is in the process of accomplishing in our lives through suffering will always be for our best interest. Trust him.

The first speech cycle ends with Job’s suffering unchanged. And worse still, God continues to give Job the cold shoulder.

Reflect and Comment

Do you think Job keeps a good balance between his adversity and God’s sovereignty? Why? How are God’s ways sometimes different from what we expect? How do you explain Job’s vacillation between hope and despair? What, if any, connection do you see between Job’s suffering and that of Christ in the New Testament?

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