The Works of God

As D.A. Carson unpacks the story of Job, he ends with a focus on God’s questions to Job which cover Job 38-41.  Emphases in bold are mine:

God’s chapters are stunning because at the end of the day he provides no systematic answer that will sort out the entire problem of innocent suffering.  All of his rhetorical questions combine to mean one thing: we human beings are not always going to get explanations, but God is bigger than we are and sometimes we just have to trust him.  At the end, Job repents (see Job 42:1-6) – not of imaginary sins that his “friends” think he needs to confess in order to win back God’s favor, but of his rather presumptuous tendency to insist on answers rather than to trust.

God nevertheless insists that Job basically got the account right. Doubtless Job was becoming a bit pushy toward the end, but God’s displeasure is reserved for the three “friends” who think they have God all figured out.

At the end of the story God restores the fortunes of Job. This should not be surprising. After all, at the end of time, according to the Bible, not only will justice be done, but it will be seen to be done. The restoration of Job’s fortunes is a kind of microcosm of the bigger story of world history under God: justice will prevail in the end.

D. A. Carson, The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story, p. 99.

I struggle with that desire for answers over trusting.  Most of us will live without a specific answer to why disability has entered our lives.  The answer is always the same – we must trust God.

But the ending will be certain!  Everything we thought we had lost because of disability will be more than restored because we get to be with Jesus.  Every wrong committed against us (and by us) will either be dealt with through Jesus’ free sacrifice or through eternal suffering.

It will be perfect, and it will be seen.