The book of Job is long and complex, and it covers a range of emotions. Through it all, Job is pleading for an audience with God, to learn about the reasons why he is suffering.
In the end of the book, Job receives an audience with God, but it doesn't go the way he expects it to. Rather than have a courtroom like setting where Job can plead his case with God, Job is confronted with God in the fullness of God's majesty, and God begins to describe to Job how God was active when the foundations of the earth were laid.
In the face of such overwhelming greatness, Job's questions shrink down, and Job realizes that perhaps God's understanding is greater than his own.
Like Job, we're all pursuing God, and we all encounter hardships. Like Job, we all have big questions about why some things happen, and life often doesn't make sense. We're wondering about the reality of suffering.
Scripture tries to give us an eternal perspective, so that we recognize that our sufferings happen in context -- and in light of eternity, our sufferings are not as tragic.
So we can continue to ask our big questions... but let us recognize that this side of heaven, we may not get the answers we're searching for. May the reality of God's presence give us comfort and assurance that our trust is well-placed and that God is big enough to conquer the things that oppose us.
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