Trusting God's Control

“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’ and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’ be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.” (Job 19:23-29 ESV).

 

Job endured the worst of life’s miseries. Yet he modeled for his friends and family how to stand before God in the midst of trials. Job did not curse God as his wife had suggested (cf. Job 2:9). And he did not listen to the bad advice that his friends gave him. One thing was clear to Job: “I know that my redeemer lives.” Job understood that he had a big God who was in control and that one day, when all the suffering was over, he would understand more fully.

 

Job did not pretend he had not suffered. He had lost nearly everything. He lost his family, his health, his good name, his position, and the support of his wife. Everyone looked down on him, assuming he had sinned. His life was miserable, but that did not change the central truth that God was still in control.

 

We are living through days when it may seem as if we are being forced to repeat the tragedy of Job. There may even be those same voices of “friends” telling us that it is a result of our choices in life. Certainly those choices require God to punish us. Shouldn’t we have to pay the price for our sins? If only we were to repent, then surely God would have mercy on us and restore us to a position of well being and abundance. And that is the exact problem of the advice Job received from his friends and his wife. They believed it had to be Job’s fault. God could not let him lose everything unless he had done something so horrible that it demanded such a price.

 

Let me give you a glimpse into the vast mercy of our God. The only thing Job repented of was that he eventually ­demanded an explanation from God. He learned it was enough to trust that God was in control and had a plan for his life. (cf. Job 40-42.) There is much we do not fully understand in this life, and, like Job, we can envision that in heaven one day our understanding will be clear. But, even when things are a mess, we can and must believe that the God of the universe is still in control. He is faithful. His great gift of mercy through Jesus is proof of that. He paid the debt we could never pay, and died the death we deserved. Trust Him!