Trusting God When Life Makes No Sense

Bildad comes to Job with an answer that sounds neat and tidy: God is just, suffering comes from sin, so Job must have sinned. Bildad even says Job’s children died for their transgression. His words are cruel because they bring logic, facts, and reasons to a man who needs comfort. The afflicted need kindness. They need somebody to feel their sorrow, not somebody to explain it away.

Bildad only sees God from one angle. God is just, absolutely. Sometimes suffering does grow out of sin, and people do reap what they sow. But God is also merciful, gracious, sovereign, and beyond human comprehension. God cannot be put in a box. His justice and mercy, His sovereignty and human responsibility, election and the call to believe are all true, even when human minds cannot put all the pieces together.

Job knows that no man can contend with God. God moves mountains, shakes the earth, commands the sun, and cannot be summoned into a courtroom. Job cannot prove his innocence before the Almighty, even though he knows Bildad’s explanation does not fit his life. Job sees the real need: a mediator, somebody who can put a hand on God and a hand on man.

Christ is the intercessor Job longed for. Christ pleads the believer’s cause before the Father because He has already paid for sin. Christ stands beside suffering people like a left tackle guarding the quarterback’s blind side. God’s people still face consequences, trouble, and burdens they cannot explain, but Christ receives them, helps them, and intercedes for them.

Job then does something very real. Job complains to God. He speaks in bitterness, asks why God contends with him, and begs for a little comfort before death. His transparency is not unbelief because he keeps talking to God. God can handle honest words from a hurting heart. Intimacy with God means the heart does not sweep its pain under the carpet.

Faith keeps pursuing God when there are no answers. God sometimes comes through in the way people ask, and sometimes He does not. Hebrews 11 holds both kinds of stories together: great victories and faithful sufferers who did not receive what they hoped for in this life. God’s love remains when His hand seems hidden, and nothing can separate His people from that love in Christ Jesus.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Comfort before explanation in suffering Bildad brings an explanation when Job needs compassion. Suffering people do not first need somebody to solve the mystery of their pain. Kindness enters another person’s sorrow without pretending to know why God allowed it. [31:34]
• 2. God cannot fit inside a box God is fully just, yet He is also full of grace and mercy. Human reason wants one simple answer for every hard providence, but God’s ways are higher than human ways. Faith bows before what it cannot completely sort out. [37:44]
• 3. Christ is the needed mediator Job longs for someone who can stand between God and man. Christ is that intercessor, advocate, and Savior who has paid for sin and pleads for His people. His care does not always remove the trouble, but His presence means His people are never left alone in it. [47:07]
• 4. Honest complaint can still be faith Job says what is really in his heart, even when his words are bitter and confused. His pain does not drive him away from God because he continues bringing his pain to God. Transparent prayer keeps the heart connected to the God whose reasons remain hidden. [54:53]
• 5. God’s love outlasts unanswered prayers Romans 8 does not promise that every burden will be lifted right away. God’s love holds fast through tribulation, distress, loss, and long seasons without change. Faith keeps praying because God may step in at any time, in any way, and ultimately in eternity.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [25:45] - Job, Bildad, and Not Getting It
• [29:34] - Bildad Blames Job’s Sin
• [31:06] - Comfort Instead of Cold Logic
• [34:32] - Bildad’s One-Angle View of God
• [37:19] - The Incomprehensible God
• [43:31] - Job Cannot Contend With God
• [47:07] - Job Longs for a Mediator
• [51:52] - Job Complains Honestly to God
• [54:53] - Transparency and Intimacy With God
• [60:30] - Walking by Faith Without Answers
• [63:09] - Resting in God’s Love

Bible Reading

Job 8:1–22

Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. [25:45] [29:34] [29:40] [30:34]

“For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?

“Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water? While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant. Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish. His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider's web. He leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure. He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden. His roots entwine the stone heap; he looks upon a house of stones. If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’ Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring.

“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

Job 9:32–33

“For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.” [47:07]

Romans 8:38–39

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [01:03:24] [01:03:40]

Observation questions

1. What words does Bildad use to describe Job’s speech, Job’s children, and Job’s suffering in Job 8? What do those words reveal about the way Bildad approaches a grieving friend? [30:34]
2. What simple explanation does Bildad give for suffering, and what does he say will happen if Job is “pure and upright”?
3. In Job 9:32–33, what problem does Job see in trying to bring his case before God, and what kind of person does he say is missing? [47:07]
4. What kinds of circumstances does Romans 8:38–39 name as unable to separate believers from God’s love?

Interpretation questions

1. Bildad rightly believes that God is just, but he treats Job’s suffering as certain proof of personal sin. Why is that conclusion so damaging to a suffering person, even though sin can sometimes bring painful consequences? [36:44]
2. Job knows he cannot contend with the Almighty as equals in a courtroom. How does Job’s longing for “an arbiter” show the need for someone who can represent both God and humanity? [47:24]
3. Christ intercedes for His people because He has paid for their sin. How does Christ’s intercession give hope to believers who still face consequences, grief, and troubles that do not quickly go away? [48:51]
4. Job speaks bitterly and honestly to God, yet he continues speaking to God. How can honest complaint be an expression of faith rather than a decision to abandon faith? [54:53]

Application questions

1. When someone close to you is grieving, struggling with illness, or carrying a heavy burden, is your first instinct to explain, fix, or comfort? What are some simple words or actions that would help you enter their sorrow with kindness? [31:18]
2. Is there a hardship in your life that you have been tempted to explain too quickly—either by blaming yourself, blaming someone else, or assuming you know exactly why God allowed it? What would it look like to trust God’s justice and mercy without putting Him in a box? [37:44]
3. Job longed for a mediator, and believers have Christ as their advocate and intercessor. In what present burden do you most need to remember that Jesus stands for you before the Father and is with you in the trouble? [49:10]
4. What pain, disappointment, fear, or unanswered question have you been holding back from God? What might honest prayer sound like if you brought that matter to Him plainly while continuing to seek Him? [55:38]
5. Have repeated unanswered prayers ever made you less willing to ask God for something? How can you keep praying faithfully while also submitting to God’s timing and ways? [01:02:28]
6. Romans 8 says that nothing can separate God’s people from His love in Christ. Which circumstance named in that passage—or which current circumstance in your life—makes that promise especially important right now? [01:04:34]