Page 17 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

This has been the core question facing humans from the first man
and woman. Is God good? Does he really know what is good and
what is evil? Does he really have our best interests at heart? Satan
has been questioning the faith of humans all along. “God knows
that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:5)”. Ever since that first
decision, we have experienced evil from an evil perspective. Ever
since, God has been calling us to trust in him. “God alone knows
what is good for human beings and God alone knows what is not
good for them. To enjoy the “good” we must trust God and obey
him. If we disobey, we will have to decide for ourselves what is good Figure 7: Scales of justice
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and what is not good.”

Job has done nothing or said nothing that could explain his hurt. He does not deserve what he has
received in pain. The text concurs. “Job did not sin in what he said (2:10).” To this point his faith has held.
The text emphasizes the integrity or blameless character of Job, expressed by one Hebrew word, tam
(1:1, 8; 2:3,3,9). If we identify at all with this man, we are offended by the events of his life. The text says
that he is blameless, yet he has lost everything. This confronts our notions of how God operates, how
God runs the world. We want to ask, “How could such a thing happen?” In the back of our minds, we
wonder if something like this might happen to us. This seems to be the opening frame for the book of
Job. We cannot control the amount or nature of suffering that comes our way. Our relative goodness
seems to play no part. How can this be? How often do these tragedies occur?

Not everybody’s story turns out so well in this life. Benjamin B. Warfield was a
world-renowned theologian who taught at Princeton Seminary for almost 34 years until
his death on February 16, 1921. Many people are aware of his famous books, like The
Inspiration and Authority of the Bible. But what most people don’t know is that in 1876,
at the age of twenty-five, he married Annie Pierce Kinkead and took a honeymoon to
Germany. During a fierce storm Annie was struck by lightning and permanently
paralyzed. After caring for her for thirty-nine years Warfield laid her to rest in 1915.
Because of her extraordinary needs, Warfield seldom left his home for more than two
hours at a time during all those years of marriage.”
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We all know people like this and may have had similar experiences ourselves. Most do not suffer
as much as Job. My own mother was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease when she was carrying me. She
lived five years after my birth and died leaving a husband and two young children, five and eight. I have
not discussed that time at length with my father, except to understand that he grieved deeply. As a five-
year old, I did not understand my own feelings at the time. Looking back, I can remember evidence of a
young boy missing his mother. Our family was Christian. We attended church several times each week.
Did we deserve this tragedy?

20 John Piper, The Purifying Power of Living by Faith in Future Grace, (Multnomah: Sisters, Oregon, 1995),
76.
21 Ibid., 176.
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