Job had been suffering for a long time, and he got to the point where he judged God based on how He treated him or what he thought God was doing. This idea of judging God based on what he does can be shown in the following way: When God sends bad things or lets the death of your beloved children happen, you say, “Why did you do that?” “Look at what God is like. He is unjust! He is unfair!”
This is how Job started to see God after he had been suffering for a long time. He was judging God based on what he could see. But as his knowledge and understanding of God grew, Job’s mind and heart changed. He stopped judging God’s actions based on what he could see and started judging God’s actions based on what he knew about God’s character.
- Judge God by the knowledge of His character and not his character by his dealings.
— David Eby
In the middle of his protracted suffering, Job was able to exclaim, “I don’t understand what God is up to in this terrible tragedy that has befallen me, but I don’t need to understand what God is doing in all of these things because I know God and He cannot do anything that is unjust. He cannot engage in any unjust behavior. He can’t do anything that isn’t for my benefit and His glory.”
Job’s hope in God was based only on God’s inherent perfection, which is revealed in his word, and not on what Job thought or saw God doing based on his own observations.
This is the account of how God saved Job — with good theology!
