Alfred lord Tennyson said Job is the greatest poem ever written. The problem of suffering is not solved in this book, but it does draw back the curtain and give us a greater vision. Job becomes a symbol of all humanity, in that all of us suffer – often in ways that just do not seem fair, that don’t seem appropriate to whatever sins we may have inevitability committed. Job’s story is our story. The book tells us that God is there, God knows, and God promises that it doesn’t all have to be for nothing. All that happens to us does not happen in a vacuum, there is a God who knows all about what is happening. The eternal does not answer our insistent questions; God does not explain, but he does give the anguished spirit such a sense of the divine greatness that questioning ceases in the peace of submission.

The issue in Job is not about the existence of God but about his character. Satan’s attack on Job is really directed against the character of God. And thus, the cross of Jesus, where satan was unmasked before a watching universe for what he really was. A liar, a deceiver and the cause of anguish and suffering. Satan was the progenitor of sin and all that was heaped upon our world. Job’s faith declares in 19:25 “for I know that my redeemer lives and at last he will stand upon the earth.” Not once but twice! The second time to draw the curtain on this world of sin and rebellion. Keep your eyes firmly fixed on both advents.