While attending a faith-based school in seventh grade, my teacher gave us students the option to choose a book of the Bible to read each morning. I suggested we read the book of Job. Our teacher's face revealed shock and dismay, yet the students voted and agreed with my choice. So, for the next 42 days–to the chagrin of our teacher– we read a chapter a day from this unique book. I confess that at 12 years old, I had never read Job, and yet I found it fascinating.

The book of Job offers a mature perspective on suffering. It describes Job as blameless, upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. In the first chapter, Satan comes before God and accuses Job of walking with God only because of the divine hedge of protection around him. Satan surmised that if the protection were lifted, Job would curse God.

The Lord allowed that hedge to be partially removed. Job’s property and livestock were destroyed, and even more devastatingly, his children died when a wind caused the house they were in to fall on them. Later, Job also broke out in painful boils. Still, this was Job’s reaction to his circumstances as recorded in Job 1:20-22:

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

Notice how Job’s reaction to death and destruction was to worship. Later in the book, he continues: “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him....” (Job 13:15)

Job’s three friends are unhelpful throughout the book until a fourth, younger friend, Elihu, comes onto the scene. He has some good things to say about the goodness and majesty of God in chapters 36 and 37, but it’s in chapters 38-41 where the Lord Himself speaks. God tells of how He created the earth and rules it justly and compassionately. Exercising great wisdom in his response to the Lord’s words, Job says: “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You…” (Job 42:5). After Job prays for his friends, the Lord restores his losses, giving him twice as much as he had before. Satan was wrong: Job’s heart remained pure even during his time of suffering and questioning God.

Israel has suffered for over two years, enduring war and trauma. The Jewish people are enduring antisemitism worldwide. What can they (and we) learn from Job’s life in our trials? In short, in the midst of the pain, it’s okay to have questions. At the same time, a righteous response is to fall on our faces in the place of worship, running to God rather than away from the One Who created the Universe. May Israel and all of us be able to come through trials, echoing Job’s testimony that instead of just hearing about God, he came to know Him. Similarly, may the Lord restore double of all that was lost in His love and power.