by Bill Robinson<\/p>\n
“Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; and how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?<\/em>” (Job 26:14 NASB).<\/p>\n The book of Job is poetry, and this line closes Job’s hymn on God’s power over the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the forces of nature (Job 26:5-13). The text as it stands puts the words in Job’s mouth, and the sentiment matches his own confession at the end, “things too wonderful for me, which I did not know<\/em>” (Job 42:3). Some interpreters, working from the disordered feel of Job 24-27, assign parts of Job 26 to Bildad, but that’s a proposal about arrangement, not a change in meaning. Either way, the verse says the same thing: the most magnificent things we can observe about God are the outer edge of him, a whisper of a voice whose full thunder no one can take in.<\/p>\n That is the point of this summary. Scripture does not give us a complete explanation of suffering. It gives us something else: enough knowledge of God’s character to trust him where explanation runs out.<\/p>\n The book’s own structure teaches this. In Job 1 and 2, the reader is shown the heavenly scene. Job never is. He suffers without the information we hold, and when God finally speaks from the whirlwind (Job 38-41), he answers with questions about creation, not with the explanation from Job 1. Job’s response is not “now I understand” but “I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes<\/em>” (Job 42:6). And then God says of Job, and against the three friends who had explained everything, “you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has<\/em>” (Job 42:7). The men with the tidy theology of suffering were wrong. The man who wept, protested, and refused to accuse God was right. That is a direct statement of the text, and it should shape everything we say to the grieving.<\/p>\n The rest of Scripture agrees. “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 29:29). “My thoughts are not your thoughts<\/em>” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Jesus was asked about the Galileans Pilate killed and the eighteen crushed by the tower in Siloam, and he refused the inference that the dead were worse sinners than the living (Luke 13:1-5). Asked whether a man was born blind because of his sin or his parents’, he rejected both options (John 9:1-3). So when tragedy spares one and takes another, we don’t conclude that God valued one life more. The Lord himself forbids that reading.<\/p>\n What we do know is considerable. God is good, and He works for good in those who love Him even through what is not itself good (Romans 8:28; Genesis 50:20). He is not distant from pain. Christ “tasted death for everyone<\/em>” and was “made perfect through sufferings<\/em>” (Hebrews 2:9-10). Present affliction is real, but it is “momentary<\/em>” against the weight of glory (II Corinthians 4:17), and creation itself groans toward redemption (Romans 8:18-23). Job’s endurance is held up as the example, and “the outcome of the Lord’s dealings<\/em>” shows him “full of compassion and merciful<\/em>” (James 5:11).<\/p>\n Scripture does not treat suffering as a puzzle God owes us the solution to. It treats it as the place where faith is tested and where God’s character, not his reasons, is what holds us. Where the Bible is silent on the particular “why,” we should be silent too. Silence there is a finding, not a gap to fill.<\/p>\n The humility Job 26:14 teaches keeps us from two errors. We won’t accuse God, and we won’t accuse the sufferer. We can say plainly, “I may not understand everything God is doing or allowing, but I know enough about him to trust him.” And with the grieving, the text calls us not to explain but to sit down in the ashes with them (Job 2:13; Romans 12:15), to comfort with the comfort we’ve received (II Corinthians 1:3-4), and to point them to promises that don’t depend on our having the answer. What we see of God is the fringe. What we’ve seen is enough.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bill Robinson A Summary from Job 26:14 “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; and how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?” (Job 26:14 NASB). The book of Job is poetry, and this line closes Job’s hymn on God’s power over the heavens, the earth,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[182,188],"class_list":["post-98042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-suffering","tag-trials"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31874,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-support-conscientious-objection\/","url_meta":{"origin":98042,"position":0},"title":"Do you support conscientious objection?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you or your church support selective conscientious objection and conscientious objection? Answer: Registering for the draft is a government law that does not violate any teaching of God. \"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1296,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-boy-girl-relationships-not-advisable-at-a-young-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":98042,"position":1},"title":"Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age Answer: Youth is a time of impatient desires. They want the things available to adults, but adulthood seems so far away. The typical teenage boy enters puberty around the age of 11. The typical teenage girl enters puberty around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37138,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-lost-the-surprise-somewhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":98042,"position":2},"title":"We Lost the Surprise Somewhere","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I remember watching Mayberry RFD and related shows most of my childhood. Poor ignorant Gomer Pyle who worked as an auto mechanic was a notable character. But I can still recall my shock when I found out that Jim Nabors, who played Gomer, could sing --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Gomer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-sin-to-take-out-insurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":98042,"position":3},"title":"Is it a sin to take out insurance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it a sin to take out medical insurance or legal insurance? Are we rather expected to put our faith in the Lord to take care of those things? Answer: We were taught to pray, \"Give us this day our daily bread\" (Matthew 6:11), but God still commands us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61889,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-book-of-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":98042,"position":4},"title":"The Book of My Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Job 19:23-27 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each week the paper publishes its list of top selling books \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the books are biographies, fictional stories, or fiction placed in historical settings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hope that others will also purchase the books, if for no other reason than curiosity. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many author\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6988,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-passages-that-refer-to-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":98042,"position":5},"title":"Are there passages that refer to THE Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been studying the Lord's supper issues and one of our main concerns is about a second offering in which only a few partake, for the reasons you listed in your article (not doing it together). We have been questioning the idea of everyone taking it a second\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98045,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98042\/revisions\/98045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Interpretation<\/h2>\n
Application<\/h2>\n