An Exchange of Patience
A Clearer View of Enduring Trials
Job 29
“Give me the patience of Job!” I utter this phrase with a heavy sigh and dramatic eyeroll. It means I’m worn out and overwhelmed. I need endurance to face my hardship with resolve instead of a meltdown. I want to draw from Job’s experience.
I appreciate that biblical Job wasn’t silent in his patience. In fact, he sounds off at length: to God, to his wife, to his friends. Job had much to complain about, of course, more than any of us ever wish to face. I don’t blame him for venting, and in fact I’m thankful. He gives voice to the best and worst of my own tirades against what I deem unjust and exasperating in my life.
Struggling Under the Emotional Load
I tend to process my tangled thoughts verbally. My husband often exhibits “the patience of Job” by allowing my rants to flow out over him. He listens as I struggle to sort through the unrefined thoughts pouring out in an emotional flood. He kindly waits as I wring out the last drops. Then, with a calm temperament and intimate knowledge of me, he helps me find a realistic and balanced perspective on what is really going on with my feelings. I trust him, so he can guide me to reject false assumptions, temper overreactions, and point me to what is true. We sift through the puzzle pieces together, discarding the decoys and putting together the big picture.
The Eclipse of Sorrow
The Bible book of Job also takes its time to sort through the intense shakeup of Job’s life—loss of possessions, family, reputation, and health. Getting to the big picture, God takes on humanity’s hardest question: Where are you, God, when I suffer and don’t understand why?
Pulling at one thread of Job’s multi-layered story, I find a lesson to help me when the temptation to drown in sadness or weariness overwhelms my ability to grab on to a hopeful lifeline. I notice that a misplaced focus can lead to judging God’s motives in a way that misses what God offers in my trials.
When pain continues day after day, it tends to eclipse everything else in my field of vision. Similarly, in an expressive section of the book of Job, he spends a whopping 25 verses lamenting for “the good ole days” and idealizing what he has lost. For example:
“Men listened to me with expectation, waiting silently for my advice. After a word from me they did not speak again; my speech settled on them like dew. They waited for me as for the rain and opened their mouths as for spring showers. If I smiled at them, they couldn’t believe it; they were thrilled at the light of my countenance.” (Job 29:21-24)
Overwhelmed by feelings of loss, Job magnifies his past. His sorrow colors everything he’s lost in the best of lights, with all the dark tones filtered out. The same distorted spotlight also affects his view of God’s actions:
“If only I could be as in months gone by, in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone above my ahead, and I walked through darkness by his light! I would be as I was in the days of my youth when God’s friendship rested on my tent, when the Almighty was still with me…” (Job 29:2-5a) [Emphasis mine.]
False Assumptions
Under the influence of mourning, Job assumes God has moved away from him. He presumes God blesses as a reward and disciplines with affliction. (A common view in his culture.) He evaluates his trials to mean God has removed his protection (“watched over me”), his intimacy (“friendship”), and his presence (“still with me”). Job judges God’s actions as an assessment of his behavior and character. Ironically, he’s right, but he draws the wrong conclusion as to God’s verdict and why.
Job’s limited viewpoint caused him heavier sorrow. Not only did he grieve his earthly losses, but he also felt forsaken, believing God had withdrawn himself. On top of grieving, he felt abandoned, misunderstood, and unjustly punished.
“In suffering and loss, God does not move farther away from Job, he moves closer.”
Focused only on his loss, Job’s narrow view missed that God may utilize trials for other purposes—even to deliver good. Although unknown to him at the time, God worked to exalt and honor Job by highlighting his virtuous character—revealed, purified, and strengthened through testing. God displays Job as an example before heaven and the world. He multiplies Job’s testimony for generations to come. In suffering and loss, God does not move farther away from Job, he moves closer.
The Story from God’s Viewpoint
Although Job did not clearly understand the happenings in his life, he chose patience in his trials. He continued to seek answers for his heart questions from the God he loved and knew to be just. He hung on to let God lead him to a clearer view.
Finally, the story of God’s patience toward Job reveals the core of his relationship with us. He willingly descends from majesty and sovereignty to respond to our deepest need. He bears our rash accusations. He sits alongside us as we pick through the ash heap of pain and loss, trying to make sense and find peace. He waits for our vision to clear. God remains present—ever compassionate, but always truthful. In days of heartache, he refines us and lifts us up. He prepares us for the goodness and strength waiting ahead. And no matter how it looks in the moment, God moves closer to us when we suffer, not farther away.