*Scripture: Job 13:1-12 (NKJV)* 1 "Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it. 2 What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. 3 But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. 4 But you forgers of lies, you are all worthless physicians. 5 Oh, that you would be silent, and it would be your wisdom! 6 Now hear my reasoning, and heed the pleadings of my lips. 7 Will you speak wickedly for God, and talk deceitfully for Him? 8 Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God? 9 Will it be well when He searches you out? Or can you mock Him as one mocks a man? 10 He will surely rebuke you If you secretly show partiality. 11 Will not His excellence make you afraid, and the dread of Him fall upon you? 12 Your platitudes are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay."
* Devotion* Job wanted desperately to know the reason why he was suffering. His friends gave him a stock answer: "You suffer because God is just, and you are sinful." In reality, that answer was only a small part of the reason and useless by itself, because Job's friends were no less sinful than Job was, and if God were to treat them as their sins deserved, they would be in agony together with Job. We who are privy to God's dealings with Satan in chapter 1 know the reason why, at least in part. But Job did not know it. Looking back on history, we can see how God has made Job the example to countless saints in their own afflictions, teaching them patience and trust through his book. But Job did not know that. Similarly, the man born blind from John 9 spent decades of his life in darkness while those around him speculated that it was either his sin or his parents' sin that led to his blindness. It was not until Jesus came that he learned God's purpose--that God might be glorified through him, and that he might come to know the Son of God. "You suffer because..." Be careful how you finish that sentence, whether it is for yourself or for someone else. God surely has a reason and a purpose for the suffering of His dear children. But unless He has revealed in His Word what that purpose is, you dare not assume an absolute answer. You do not have to know the reason why. God knows, and that is enough.
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