Our Daily Bread -- When Questions Remain

January 26, 2016

Read: Job 23:1-12
Bible in a Year: Exodus 14-15; Matthew 17

He knows the way that I take. —Job 23:10

On October 31, 2014, an experimental spacecraft broke apart during a test flight and crashed into the Mojave Desert. The copilot died while the pilot miraculously survived. Investigators soon determined what had happened, but not why. The title of a newspaper article about the crash began with the words “Questions remain.”

Throughout life we may experience sorrows for which there are no adequate explanations. Some are catastrophic events with far-reaching effects while others are personal, private tragedies that alter our individual lives and families. We want to know why, but we seem to find more questions than answers. Yet even as we struggle with “Why?” God extends His unfailing love to us.

When Job lost his children and his wealth in a single day (Job 1:13-19), he sank into an angry depression and resisted any attempted explanations by his friends. Yet he held out hope that someday there would be an answer from God. Even in the darkness Job could say, “[God] knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (23:10).

Oswald Chambers said, “There will come one day a personal and direct touch from God when every tear and perplexity, every oppression and distress, every suffering and pain, and wrong and injustice will have a complete and ample and overwhelming explanation.”

Today, as we face life’s unanswered questions, we can find help and hope in God’s love and promises. —David McCasland

For more on this topic, read Why Doesn’t God Answer Me? on discoveryseries.org/hp112

When we face unanswered questions, we find help and hope in God’s love.

INSIGHT: The date and author of the book of Job is unknown. Some scholars suggest that Job lived at about the same time as Abraham and that Moses is the author. When Job’s three friends heard about his sufferings (Job 1-2), they offered an explanation. Over three rounds of debate (Job 4-14; 15-21; 22-27) they argued with Job that suffering is always a result of sin (4:7-9; 8:4-7). Rejecting their explanations, Job sought to find an answer directly from God (23:1-5). At a time when Job needed Him most, God was seemingly absent (vv. 8-9). Yet despite the silence and lack of answers, Job entrusted himself to God’s ways and drew strength from God’s Word (vv. 10-12).

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