Slivers

“Why is light given to him who is in misery,

    and life to the bitter in soul…

Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,

    whom God has hedged in?” (Job 3:20,23, ESV).

Why? Why? Job’s questions echo through the ages. Job, the oldest book of the Bible, the book of questioning God’s wisdom and justice. Why?

Why? It echoes today. Slivers of doubt can inch in. Suffering can shred slivers off of our heart and faith, slowly. Circumstances can sliver-slice away at us.

“For I know that my Redeemer lives….” (Job 19:25)

But yet, Job trust surfaces intermittently. Trust steps in when knowledge fails. Faith steps in when sight fails. Nineteen long chapters of suffering, of doubts and questions. Yet, “I trust.” Job had eleven more chapters to go before God stepped in—Job didn’t see the silver lining. There wasn’t a light at the end of the tunnel when he proclaimed his trust that somehow there was a go’el, Redeemer, for him. There was no sliver of hope in sight.

We don’t trust only when there is a silver lining.  We don’t have faith when we only see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:…I will question you, and you make it know to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:1-3).

The Lord answered, the answer that wasn’t an answer. Job never received his explanation, never got the sentence after the why.

We don’t trust to get an answer. We don’t have faith to have it become certainty.

Instead of a silver lining, we have a God who is present, who himself knows suffering. We have a God who is working even when there is no glimpse of any smidgen sliver of silver. Instead of an answer, we have a God who gives himself—most utterly on the cross.

Above any silver lining, any answer,

HE

IS.

He is trustworthy. And worthy of it all. 

*Are there conditions, expectations, or prerequisites you are putting on your trust and faith?

*What are your favorite verses on trust? Comment below!