Revelation Day 17 - When You Don't Know Why

DAY 17
When You Don’t Know Why
Job 1:1-12

Is there a reason for suffering?

The Old Testament book of Job answers this thorny question but not directly. Instead it tells a tragic tale of a righteous man named Job. Job is a good man, a godly man. The opening chapter shows God’s royal court in heaven with angels lolling about when The Satan, The Accuser, wanders in. God brags about Job but The Satan says, “Job is only good to get something good. Take away his benefits and you’ll see a big change.” God says, “Let’s see!” The Satan inflicts terrible suffering on Job who spends most of the book wondering why all this has happened. Eventually God shows up to clear a few things up.

I won’t spoil the surprise but one of the points this book wants to make is this: the world is very complicated and you might be suffering for good reason - but you might not know that reason.

That kind of thinking sits below the surface of Revelation 6. It doesn’t just remind us that suffering exists. It also reminds us that suffering is ALLOWED. “Allowed” implies purpose.

We have to be careful here. “Allowed” is different from “caused.” I can allow my kids to do a lot of things without my wanting it or causing it. On the one hand, there’s no sense here that God wants people to suffer for the sake of suffering. On the other hand, it’s clear these awful things are never outside God’s control. Opening the seals of Revelation 6 doesn’t cause war and sickness. It reveals something about them to us.

The Bible never really explains why suffering exists but it often says in creative ways, “There are good reasons the world is like this, but you’re not God and you don’t know all those reasons.”

At the end of the day, you either believe that suffering is pointless because life is pointless, or you accept that suffering could have meaning because life has meaning. Suffering must exist for some greater good to also exist. Revelation doesn’t really unpack that but it’s worth mentioning. If God exists, if God is good, if God is all-powerful, and if suffering exists, then we have to trust God that suffering can have a purpose. As Paul the Apostle says in Romans 8:28, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

REFLECT
When have you later learned the explanation for something that happened to you that totally changed how you understood that event?

PRAY
Lord, I don’t understand why everything happens the way it happens. I’m not God. But I trust you. Help me to understand when I can and to be patient when I can’t. Amen.