Job 3:20–26 - Why Does God Let Suffering Continue? (Session 7)

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 3:20–26, Reasoning Through the Bible continues through Job’s lament as he asks one of the deepest questions in all of human suffering: why is life given to someone in such pain? This session explores Job’s longing for death, his repeated “why” questions, and what believers should make of suffering when God seems silent. 

This study explains the difference between honestly asking God why and sinfully demanding that God explain Himself. It also addresses Job’s feeling that God has shut him off, the irony of that complaint in light of the larger story, and how suffering can distort perspective when pain becomes overwhelming. The discussion also touches on modern questions about euthanasia, despair, and the value of life in the image of God. 

This episode reminds listeners that Job does not know what is happening behind the scenes, yet God has not abandoned him. The book of Job continues to teach that there is more going on spiritually than sufferers can see, and that God remains in control even when life feels chaotic and full of unanswered questions.

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 3:20–26 explained 
•  why Job longs for death 
•  is it wrong to ask God why 
•  suffering without answers 
•  asking God versus demanding answers 
•  euthanasia and the value of life 
•  Job feeling shut off by God 
•  trusting God when life feels dark 
•  God’s control in the middle of chaos 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

A Child’s Question Becomes Job’s

SPEAKER_01 0:16

When my children were small, they would very often come to me and ask, Daddy, why? Any given situation, it seemed like they would be asking why. Well, I learned that very often I couldn't give an adequate explanation because sometimes they wouldn't understand why and would just keep asking. Well, today we're going to meet a man in the scriptures that ask his father why. We're going to have a chance to see what God answers. We're in the book of Job, and Job has had great tragedies happen to him. And today he's going to start asking why. If you have your Bible open to Job chapter 3, we saw in chapter one that God was in complete and total control, and he lowered the hedge around Job and let Satan attack him. The same thing happened in chapter two. God lowered the hedge a little more, and Satan attacked him still. And in chapter three, we've seen Job expressing his misery and his emotional pain. So, Steve, can you start in Job 3 20 and read through the end of the chapter?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Why is the light given to one burdened with grief and life to the bitter of soul, who long for death, but there is none, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, who are filled with jubilation and rejoice when they find the grave? Why is the light given to a man whose way is hidden and whom God has shut off? For my groaning comes at the sight of my food, and my cries pour out like water. For what I fear comes upon me, and what I dread encounters me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, and I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

So here Job is longing for death. He says that in verse 21, long for death, but there is none. He's groaning and crying. He's saying that these groans are what he is eating and drinking. And he starts to ask why. That's going to be one of the themes throughout this book. So, Steve, is it natural to ask why in a tragedy?

Reading Job’s Lament In Chapter Three

SPEAKER_00 2:29

It absolutely is natural. And this won't be the first time that I think you ask that question because it is going to be over and over again. Job doesn't know why things are happening, but that doesn't mean that they're not happening for a reason. We know what that reason is, or at least part of it, because we know the narrative of the story. But here Job is, he's innocent and he's had a good relationship with God and still does have one, but yet all of this catastrophe has come upon him. I think it is natural. If you love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and you love your neighbor as yourself, as we're told that's the royal law now that we are to uh live by. If you're abiding by that and you have these types of tragedies that come on you, then I think it is natural for a person to ask why. Why is this happening to me? Why is this going on? And they're searching out to God for answers.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

I think it is natural to ask why. The human condition just sort of naturally moves in that direction. God, there has to be a reason. Why is it? So that of course is a natural question. The next question I think is a little different. The next question would be: is it right? Is it proper for us to approach God and insist that he tell us why?

SPEAKER_00 3:56

I don't think it's appropriate for us to insist that he tell us why. I think it is okay for us, though, to petition him and ask him why.

Is Asking Why Natural In Pain

SPEAKER_01 4:05

And I think that's exactly it. And we're going to see it throughout the course of this book. It's natural for a human to ask why is this tragedy happening? What isn't okay is to approach God and demand and put demands on God and say, God, you are the issue here. You have to answer to my questions of why. That's where I think Job gets a little bit out of line. And that's where I think God chastises him towards the end of the book. So that brings up these why questions, though. And I think as a category, something I've noticed over the years is that whenever we see someone ask a question that starts out, why does God, and you can fill in the blank, we have a question that really cannot be answered. Because we will very often never know why God does things. And for most things, he doesn't tell us why. He doesn't tell Job why in this book. In many cases, like my explanation of the small child, even if he did explain why, we wouldn't accept it and we might not even understand it. So very often, when somebody comes up with a why does God do such and so, then you're asking a question, one, that probably won't ever have an answer. And two, even if it did, then we might not understand it or accept it. So very often, those are questions that we should not let why does God type of questions rattle our faith. We shouldn't let that shake us to our core because very often we're just not going to get a why answer. And God does things that we just don't understand. We are finite, he is infinite, the finite's never going to understand the infinite. We're children of God, and we act like children very often. We cannot understand God's reason and very often do not accept them. We just keep asking why. Therefore, God usually doesn't grace us with the reason. But back to the text, verses 20 and 21 are asking, why is life given to a person who wants to die? And I think that brings up a modern question. There are people in the world almost every day that are suffering. Any moral human would have feelings for that suffering. And some modern societies approach these suffering people and say that euthanasia is the answer, that euthanasia is the solution to the problem of human suffering. They would justify it by pointing to these suffering people and say, well, you know, if this was an animal, we would graciously put them down. We wouldn't let them continue to suffer. So different cultures, at least in our modern times, have done active and passive ways of letting people die through euthanasia. And Steve, I have some rather strong thoughts on that, but should I toss to you?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

What are your thoughts? Euthanasia is like many things that have taken place through the centuries and eons that start off with a noble cause and a good thought behind them and reasoning behind them why it's something that should be done. When you think of that good reason, usually it is, like you said, it's at the end of somebody's life. They're in a terminal state. Their quality of life is one that's just not good at all. Maybe they're bedridden, maybe they're in some type of a coma or something like that. So that is something that is the noble cause. However, like other areas through the years, also, then it begins to creep into parts of the human life that aren't at the end of their life or terminal, mental disease or bouts of depression or other things. And the people are younger. They're in their 60s or their 50s, they're still functioning, they're still able to get around. But for some reason, they don't want to live anymore. And we have that today in other countries that allow people that are fully functional in other ways because they don't want to live anymore, to assist them to the other side. And these are younger people. So that's where the bad part, so to speak, of euthanasia comes in. And also governments for different reasons want to assist people because they think that the population is too much and there's going to be issues with too much population. Therefore, we need to reduce the population. And the more people that want to go to the other side on their own, the government is more than happy to assist them in that. I think the bottom line is not even to open the door of euthanasia, even though it's something that might start off with a noble cause so that we don't have to have this debate for younger people and other people that aren't in a state of late term of their life.

Asking God Versus Demanding Answers

SPEAKER_01 9:13

In the subjects of euthanasia, while I understand the motivation to relieve human suffering, I don't think anybody wants to prolong suffering. But the practice of euthanasia is a very dangerous practice for a number of reasons. One is that suicide is immoral. And setting up a method for someone to commit suicide is an immoral and sinful thing to do. One of the reasons why I think it's very dangerous, euthanasia may help some people in the dying process. It relieves some pain and suffering. It opens the door and makes mistakes. And I think, Steve, that's what you were alluding to. It opens the door for governments and people to just make mistakes. Yes, some people's suffering can be stopped, but the chance of people causing the death of an innocent person is just too great. Our culture has moved towards death, and mistakes are being made. We just read the news, you'll see it. People that would otherwise want to live and can be cured of diseases are being actively killed through this mechanism that was set up just to relieve human suffering. And just from a biblical point of view, God always moves towards life while our culture in the world always moves towards death. And moving towards death is not a good thing. Modern medicine has pain medications and medical devices that have been able to do amazing things. And I think the greatest issue why we don't treat people like we would a farm animal is because people are made in the image of God. And we don't put down people like we would put down a farm animal. So that's what brings up this topic. Here is Job is wanting to die. He's bringing up the subject of death. His wife had already told him, curse God and die. He's asking, why am I still here? Why am I still on this earth to just continue this suffering? And again, Job spends over 30 chapters in this state of suffering, and we don't see the blessing until the end. Even then, the book of Job has helped many people. If his life would have been ended after chapter two, then all of the benefits wouldn't have been seen. If we look here at verse 23 in this chapter, Job asks, quote, why is light or why is life given to a man whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in? He's asking, why is life given to me? Steve, what is the irony of this complaint by Job? He's saying, why is life given to a man whose way is hidden or hedged in? I find that ironic.

Why Questions And Finite Perspective

Euthanasia And A Culture Toward Death

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Well, that brings up the issue of perspective. Job's perspective right now is one of tragedy. That's why he is positing his life and wanting to go on further because he doesn't know what is going to happen even later. You just brought that up, Glenn, which I think is a great part, is that when people go through tragedies or they go through bouts of depression or such, they don't know what's going on down the road from their life or what's going to happen. Many times they look back on it and they see that point of their life as one that is a valley, but at the same time, they see where the valley could contribute to where they are in their life at that particular time. Here in verse 23, Job is at that point where he thinks that God has hedged him in or shut him off, brought all this tragedy, and Job is the only one that's going through any such tragedy. And he's saying, why is it that his life is being spared whenever he has been shut off from the rest of the world, and all the tragedy is focused on him? When in reality, he really doesn't know what all is going on. And it's his perspective that he's been shut off, but really he hasn't been shut off. And we're going to find that out as we continue to go through Job is that at the very end, as you talked about, he gets a blessing. He has some restoration at the very end of this. So verse 23 is a very small picture of the grander scheme of what is going on. And it's in the midst of Job asking why he has a perspective that I think is a wrong perspective regarding God and his relationship with God.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

That's exactly it. He has a kind of weird, twisted view of what's going on with God and Satan. And I think that's part of why this book is here is to teach us that in 323, Job thinks, God shut me off. And I think it's phrases like that that is why towards the end of the book, God comes in and says, quote, who has darkened counsel with words without knowledge in Job 38, too? God comes in at the end of the book a little bit angry and saying, Job, you don't know what you're talking about here. And he asked Job a series of questions. Job is asking God a series of why questions, and he's pressing God, like you should give me answers. And I think that's why God comes in and says that he's a little bit angry with Job. In verse 25, Job says, There, what I fear has come upon me. There are some teachers that teach that the Bible as a whole guarantees health, and that if we just have enough faith, then we're never going to get sick and we're always going to be healed of problems. They would point to Job 325 and say, see, he feared he was going to get sick, so therefore he got sick. If he would have had faith, then he never would have gotten sick. And my friends, did you read chapter one and two? Because that's exactly what it does not say. It says Job was blameless and feared God. God said three times in the first two chapters that Job was blameless, upright, and feared God. So God says it's not Job's fault. He's just making a groaning in the situation of somebody that is in great pain. I think we can take that for what it is.

Job’s Hedged In Complaint And Irony

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah, as we've been talking about this whole session, is is it natural for somebody to be asking, why is this tragedy happening to me? The same thing here. I think it's natural for somebody that is in great pain and suffering to also not lash out, but just to express their feelings. And that's what Job is doing here. He's expressing his mindset at the time. What is going on? He's outwardly expressing what his body is feeling and the pain that he is going through, along with that is the question of why. Questioning what is going on, why is it taking place? I know that we've emphasized that in this session, but it's something that is prevalent in these particular verses. So, what do we do with it? Well, we take it as it is, what it says on the face of the text as it is, and we work through it from the standpoint that number one, like we've mentioned, Job is not aware of what all has taken place between God and Satan. He doesn't know what is going to happen in the future. He is living in the moment. So I don't think that we should condemn Job for asking these questions. I don't think that we should look down on him. We should have some empathy for him. But what we should take out of this is that whenever we come up on these particular types of situations in our own lives, that we just need to trust God and know that he does know what's going on. And whatever it might be, that as it says in Romans 8.28, he will work whatever situation that's going on to the good for the person who loves him and trusts him. This is what's going to happen with Job in this story. And I think that we should just take that away from what's going on in these verses. Job doesn't know what's going on altogether. He's stuck in this tragedy that he is experiencing. He's asking God why. And we can also, I think, Glenn, take solace in the fact that God is hearing Job and he's listening to what Job is saying. He hasn't abandoned Job through any of it. So that's one thing for sure that we can't take away from here is that God has abandoned Job. And then one last thing as we head towards the finish of this session, Job here, as we just talked about in verse 23, is asking, why am I having life whenever God has shut me off? God has not shut Job off. Satan has done it. All of these inflictions are coming from Satan, not God. God is allowing it, yes, but God is not inflicting it on Job. And I think that's the flaw in the teaching that you just brought out of the health and wealth prosperity gospel that they say if you speak negative things, or if you don't stay positive and stay away from the negative things, then God is going to take retribution on you. You're going to get sick. This is going to happen. That's going to happen. And they themselves many times attribute it to God's punishment for people not being positive in their life. That is not what's happening. And we need to keep that perspective of what's going on. It is Satan inflicting these things on Job, and it's not God that's doing the inflicting. And a last thing I'd like to bring out, Glenn, is that this is a special case of Satan personally inflicting this on Job. This isn't, I think, a norm. And I think people take a look at Job, and anything that comes bad in their life, or many things that they might experience in their life, they attribute directly to Satan. And I think that is misapplied, meaning that Satan is not omnipresent and he's not omniscient. He is not God. In fact, he's not even a God. He is an angel. He is a created being and created by God Himself. Now, Satan has some influence on the world, and the world in general will oppress people, especially if ones that get caught up in worldly things, but it's not Satan directly inflicting punishment on people on a day-to-day basis. I think that is also something that's been misapplied and that we need to keep it in perspective. Not everything that we come against is directly by Satan. I think Satan isn't always interested in us individually. However, the world is an enemy of God, as we're told in 1 John, and that we shouldn't have anything to do with the world because the world has nothing for us compared to what God has for us. What are your thoughts on that?

Satan, Suffering, Trust, And Closing

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Well, I agree. One of the messages of the book of Job is that there's more going on in the spiritual realm than we realize. There's more going on with God than we realize here on earth. In Job's instance, yes, there was this issue between God and Satan, but there could be others as well. Many times we just don't know why things happen. I mean, there's times where I've done things that that caused my own suffering. I was foolish on something or or caused something. But a lot of times things just happen and we don't know why. But the message of Job is clear is that in chapter one and two, we see order, we see God in control, we see everything flowing well. God's not upset, he's not worried, he's not wondering what's going to happen next. And on the earth, we see chaos. Confusion, misunderstandings, we see death and destruction. And I think that is one of the key messages of the book is that just because we see confusion and we see ourselves being in a position of suffering and experiencing a lot of pain, it doesn't mean that God's out of control and God's not mad at us. And it's not my fault. It's just the way the world works sometimes. And because God does things that we don't understand, then he doesn't always explain himself. But the good news of Job is that in the end, God is in control and God does reward things in the end, and that we aren't faced with just life is full of misery and then we die. No, God's in control, he's on the throne, things are going to work out in the end, and we can take comfort in that. With that, we'll go ahead and stop here. Next time, be sure and tune in because we're going to meet the first of Job's friends, and we're going to find out he really wasn't much of a friend because he's going to say some very eloquent things, but also some very hurtful things. And we'll see that next time on Reasoning Through the Bible. Thank you so much for watching and listening.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

May God bless you.