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I take back everything I said,‍and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.

‍Job 42:6

Job lived 140 years after that, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.

‍Job 42:16-17

• Job claimed that God has fallen asleep at the wheel in running the universe, and because of this divine neglect he’s had to endure unjust suffering.
• God’s response is indirect, and it shows how His attention is actually on every single detail of the operations of the universe.
• In fact, God is privy to all kinds of perspectives and details that Job has never even imagined and never will.
• As it turns out, Job doesn’t know as much as he thought, even about the world he lives in and should be familiar with.
• God is intimately familiar with every molecule and creature in His world and knows more about them than Job can comprehend.
• Job never does find out why he suffered and neither do we.
• The goal of the book was never to offer us that information.
• God’s answer to Job does not explain why righteous people suffer, because the universe is not designed to prevent righteous people from suffering.
• Job questioned God’s design, and God responded that Job had insufficient knowledge to do so.
• God asks for trust, not understanding, and states the universe is founded on His wisdom, not His justice.
• The book doesn’t unlock the puzzle of why bad things happen to good people.
• It does invite us to trust God’s wisdom when we encounter suffering rather than trying to figure out the “reasons” for it.
• When we search for reasons, we tend to either simplify God like the friends or, like Job, accuse God based on limited evidence.
• The book invites us to honestly bring our pain and grief to God and to trust that He cares, realizing that He knows exactly what He’s doing.

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Realize that God knows exactly what He is doing, and He makes no mistakes in running the universe. Trust Him.