A Study in Job part seventeen

Again, it is natural for most who think about life, to want to have an explanation. Who wants to read a mystery without finding out who committed the crime? This was the attitude of the disciples in John chapter 9:

“Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:1-5).

Obviously, the man had been punished with blindness, so who was the guilty criminal? Was it the blind man himself or was it his parents? Jesus said that it was neither. He was blind so that the works of God could be revealed in him, and as we read on in the passage, that was the case. Jesus healed him of his blindness, and he became a witness for healing power of God.

But that’s not the case for millions who are afflicted with all kinds of diseases. They trudge through life in misery, fighting pain and terrible suffering. There’s no miracle from God, and so we are left with the dilemma as to why would God let them suffer. The “dilemma” that is, if we leave out faith in God. If we follow our natural inclination to want an explanation we will have a wearisome quandary. But trust looks past the problem and rests in the knowledge that God is faithful. He knows what He’s doing even if we don’t, and in most of these cases we clearly don’t know. But this is how it should be: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9)—“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding…” (Proverbs 3:5).

Continued tomorrow...