Innocent Suffering - Job 8-10

 Job 9:28-31 (ESV)

28 I become afraid of all my suffering,

for I know you will not hold me innocent.

29 I shall be condemned;

why then do I labor in vain?

30 If I wash myself with snow

and cleanse my hands with lye,

31 yet you will plunge me into a pit,

and my own clothes will abhor me.

Innocent Suffering 

The story of Job has to always be read and understood in the context and lens of the first two chapters and the last chapter.  Failure to read it from that context is a failure to really know what the rests of the book is unfolding for us.  In the first two chapters we read that Job was righteous and innocent.   We discover in that narrative that Satan simply wanted to make a point to God and Job was his tool.  In the last chapter we read that all three of Job’s friends were wrong in their advice to and condemnation of Job.   Job is vindicated in the end.   He still went through extreme loss, heartache and pain.   Yet, God restores Job in all ways, plus!   But, in the middle of the book we have dialogue as we see above.   Job is answering the statements and acquaintances of one of his friends.  That friend (Bildad) simply stated that the innocent don’t suffer, you, Job, are suffering, so you must not be innocent.   Bildad had no place in his philosophy of life for “innocent suffering.”  He could not wrap his brain around that.  Nor could Job.   Nor do most people.  The common thought in life is good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.   Bad things happening to good people and good things happening to bad people seems out of the realm of our thinking.   Yet, the entire book of Job’s story is to teach us that point.   God does allow innocent people to suffer.   Before we condemn that, we must first recall that God sent His Son, Jesus, to suffer for all mankind.   So, to say God does not allow the innocent to suffer is to deny the plan of God in Christ.   We have to also remember, that even though God stated Job was righteous, no man is without sin.   God must make us righteous.   So, when we say that God allows the innocent to suffer, we can’t truly say, “Man is innocent and does not deserve to suffer.”   That statement is just not true. God does allow the innocent to suffer.  Job in the above passage struggles with his innocents and, along with Bildad, simply believes he is being punished because of his guilt.   Yet, by God’s own plan in the first chapters we read that is not so.  God does, however, allow the innocent to suffer.  When we look at others who are struggling with disease, loss, pain and suffering, we ought not condemn them and/or judge them.  They may not be Job, but they may be innocent.  Their suffering simply may be God working in their life something He wants to use for His glory in the end.