The Purpose of Doubt

What is remarkable about the book of Job is that it is in the Bible at all. Job demands answers of all the most troubling questions of mankind --- why does evil seemingly go unpunished? Why do the righteous suffer? Why does God delay in setting the swift and ferocious date of judgment? Why is God silent in the face of our oppression and struggle?

If one were concocting a religion, one would certainly concoct a God with ready answers. And one would probably not allow a Holy Book to include the questions Job asks in the first place. Why invoke discerning questions if one has concocted a fraudulent God? It would be too easy to doubt him or unmask him.

I thought of this as I was walking Honeybun. She is doing fantastically well. One would never know she had been unable to walk at all three days ago. She wants to walk her usual mile or two. However, her apparent healthy gait is currently due to medicine masking the pain, and a drug infused energy. Were I to walk her further, I fear I could do damage, as the healing is not real. Until time and rest have truly healed the inflamed area, the meds are only dampening her perceptions. They are in a sense, a false God. To live her life based on this false God could harm her. A good vet would be certain I understood the true nature of her problem, and while much less rosy and carefree than the current happy dog on heavy meds would lead me to believe, reality is the only way I can be of lasting benefit to her. As soon as I ask questions about the effects of the drug, the true nature of her "healing" is uncovered. Right now the underlying problem is still there. Questions and scrutiny eventually reveal truth.

So Job asks questions. Hard questions. The Bible not only doesn't ignore Job's timeless concerns, but allows us all to hear these difficult cries of his heart. If the Bible weren't true, this would be a risky enterprise. Why raise doubt, or show that even God's most righteous advocate had doubts?

God does not answer Job till the very end, and even then, He doesn't really explain Himself. But there is a striking moment even as Job is wrestling with his dismay, anger, misperceptions, and doubts. For a moment, he emerges from all that despair and makes a jarring statement that he is confident "after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." For that moment, clarity of eternity and God's purpose bursts through the fog of suffering. Later, when he hears God's voice, he is comforted not with answers, but knowing God is worthy of trust and Job finds comfort in that knowledge. His doubts are laid to rest.

For many of us, trust and faith do not come easily. We need to examine, question, and sometimes rant against forces we don't understand. Doubt is only dangerous when God reveals Himself (and all creation reveals God!) and unlike Job, we turn away and refuse to see Him.

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Job 30:26 NIV
[26] Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.

Job 9:32-35 NIV
[32] “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. [33] If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, [34] someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. [35] Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

Job 19:25-27 NIV
[25] I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. [26] And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; [27] I myself will see him with my own eyes---I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!


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