Why do most people set out to read the Book of Job? In my experience, it’s to find encouragement during times of suffering. However, while this end goal may be obtainable, I’d argue that venturing into this beautiful book or pigeonholing it as a treatise on suffering alone does great injury to its other major theme, namely the sovereignty of God.

Suffering is a catalyst.

In the case of Job, God was the one who offered him up to Satan for testing. While Satan’s intentions were truly evil – he wanted to prove God an unworthy sovereign – God’s were truly noble. God knew that Job would pass Satan’s attacks, right up to the point of physical death. In the end, it was God’s sovereignty that was pronounced as victor – Job’s suffering a mere vehicle in His proof.
Job, like many of us when under duress, began questioning God. This is always a mistake. In fact, it’s grotesque. Man likes to puff out his chest, posturing his version of righteousness, as if all should listen, including God. And when he’s done, he likes to step back, cross his arms, and announce some kind of victory. Job toed this very line, which led to the crescendo of his story as captured in the book after his name.

Then Job answered the LORD and said: “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”
-Job 40:3-5

While lamenting over his suffering, Job had forgotten the most important thing of all. If he was being attacked for no apparent reason, his sovereign God had ordained it. Of course, his friends were no help to him in gaining this perspective, accusing him of ‘getting what he deserved’. Somehow Job managed to cling to his faith, as he first described it to his failing wife.

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.

Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
-Job 2:9-10

Deep down, regardless of what proceeded from his mouth thereafter, Job never lost his faith in the sovereign will of God; it’s what separated him from his wife and friends. He knew what every believer today ought never forget, that God reserves the right to do just as He pleases, always. He’s never deceived, nor does He consult with mere man as to which path He ought to take. In other words, there’s no contingency planning in God’s decree.

At the end of Job’s story rests one of the great treatises on the sovereignty of the holy God of the Universe, from the mouth of God, Himself. God graciously gives us, by proxy of Job, a clear reminder of who’s will is absolute in this world (hint: it’s neither ours nor the angels).

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

“Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below.

Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.
-Job 40:6-14

It’s the words in v14 that really give the entire Book of Job its truest value (I say this book isn’t about suffering as much as it is about God’s sovereignty; for what is suffering but an artifact of God’s will to do as He pleases to achieve His own purposes?). God’s salvific plan depends upon His sovereign will to choose those whom He saves – this was His message to Job in v14 as it is to us this day.

If we suppose to usurp God’s sovereign will to choose as He pleases, arguing our case as to upset what He has already ordained, then we ought to take on the full responsibility of saving ourselves (this to our own doom).

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
-Romans 8:18

You see, suffering, the reason many endeavor to read the Book of Job, pales in comparison to understanding the glory of God, as He is seated in the highest place, sovereign, willing and able to save. We like to lament in our suffering, often using events we cannot understand or wish to evade as the impetuses for questioning God’s sovereignty. We may rightly relate to Job’s wife and friends in their weaknesses; but, who among us can say we are “blameless and upright” (Job 1:1) like Job, in possession of a faith that, while stirred by temptation to shatter into the four winds, would withstand being tested by Satan, himself? Who, then, among us can argue with Job’s final conclusions?

Then Job answered the LORD and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.  ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;

therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
-Job 42:1-6

Job had God’s endorsement, knowing the end from the beginning, that he would not fail his testing. However, the theme of this book, the sovereignty of God, is often overlooked because of the center stage action, that of suffering. The lesson is that God does as He pleases, no matter man’s ability to comprehend His motivation. The fact that most so-called “Christians” miss this point is an indictment on the condition of contemporary churches. It seems all too commonplace to relate to Job’s suffering but not his respect for God, as most dive into the middle of the book but neglect reading how the story ends. It’s the end that gives the middle definition and clarity.

Sadly, most Christians I’ve met associate Job with suffering rather than his incredible fear of the Lord, which, according to God’s Word, is “the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10).

The Book of Job asserts God’s sovereignty over His accuser, Satan (and all such creatures). Job’s suffering was merely the vehicle God chose to put His glory on full display. As His beloved Son stated while under incalculable suffering, “Thy will be done!”

The most important takeaway from the Book of Job isn’t that there’s hope for those suffering; rather, it’s that if God wills it, you shall be delivered.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins