Public interest in high-profile court cases often declines once the outcome is known.

The People vs. Job, however, is a landmark decision that never loses its significance. In one of the most published trials in history we see the eyes of heaven and hell focused on our times of trouble. In the same public record we see our own inclination to play judge and jury with one another’s lives.

Summary of the trial: A self-declared advocate of the human race files a class-action suit against God. According to a prosecutor from hell, the Lord of heaven has resorted to bribery to build a case against the runaway people of the world. The opening arguments of Satan allege that God has bought the loyalty of a man who has remained faithful to his Creator.

As the accuser sees it, Job is no fool. He is the pride of heaven only because he is on the take. He remains faithful because God has built fences of protection around his family, his health, and a business to brag about.

In response to the indictment, God allows the accuser to test Job’s motives with a series of personal losses. Within days, Job loses what others spend their whole lives trying to get and protect. But what drives Job beyond grief to madness is the testimony of three friends who side with the prosecution in attacking his character. Each of them insists that Job is denying the scandal that would explain his suffering. In a series of arguments that escalate in eloquence and anger, Job and friends insult and alienate one another until the Lord of heaven breaks His silence. With a surprise move, God brings the trial to an end with a compelling exhibit of physical evidence.

Let’s take a closer look at why Job’s story has become a timeless case-study for people who are trying to make sense of their own troubles, and of the God in heaven who is allowing them to suffer.

Who is Job? From the details of the story, God’s co-defendant is probably a contemporary of Abraham, the richest man in the East (Job 1:3), and a friend of the poor. No stranger to legal proceedings, Job defends the cause of widows and orphans until the day he finds himself in the middle of his own trial (chs. 29-31).

What are his friends thinking? Three of Job’s friends think they know why he is suffering. They are convinced that “you reap what you sow” in life, and back one another up in arguing for a direct correlation between Job’s losses and some secret, moral failure he is refusing to admit (Job 4:7-8). Over and over they press the same logic. God doesn’t make mistakes. When we suffer, we are getting a return on the bad seed we have planted.

Actually, the friends are theologically correct in much of what they say. They know God doesn’t punish good and reward evil. But when they try to defend God against Job’s complaint of unfairness, they unwittingly become witnesses for the prosecution. Lacking heaven’s perspective, they argue that their friend must be suffering in proportion to a sin he is hiding.

Has God forgotten him? Job’s answer to this question is surprising. Instead of saying, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” he says, in effect, “My God, my God, why won’t You leave me alone?” Rather than thinking that heaven is ignoring his agony, he sighs and gasps, “What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention, that you examine him every morning and test him every moment? Will You never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You made me Your target? Have I become a burden to You?” (Job 7:17-20 NIV).

What Job does not understand is that the court has declared as inadmissible evidence a prior conversation between God and Satan that would explain his suffering.

Then a surprise ending. When God finally speaks, He doesn’t tell Job why He let him suffer. Neither does He blame Satan for what happened. The Lord of heaven doesn’t even thank the three friends for trying to defend the honor of the Almighty.

Instead, in a surprise move, He calls His co-defendant to the witness stand and asks Job questions like, “Where were you when I created the world? Can you understand how I did it? Can you do what I’ve done?” Then God talks about the weather, the ever-changing wind, and clouds that gather waters and then release them on command. With closing arguments that seem to come from nowhere, and then from everywhere, the great Judge of the universe presents a compelling series of physical exhibits.

The implication is clear: “If I am powerful and wise enough to create Orion in the night sky, a wild ox, and an ostrich, can you trust Me in the trouble I have allowed into your life?”

Job’s complaints are silenced. The indictment of his accusers is overturned. The witness of the natural world to the immeasurable wisdom and power of God is enough to bring Job to his knees and to his senses.

And now as we are tested, an eagle soars overhead. A tree pushes roots deep into rich earth while lifting its branches to the sun. A wolf howls. Sheep wander around looking for grass. A full moon lights the night. And The People vs. Job waits to be remembered.

 

Father in heaven, we see ourselves in Job’s trial. Like the devil who accused him, we look at those who love You more than we do and assume that they are on the take. Like the three friends who sided with his accuser, we look at those who are doing worse than we are and assume that they are suffering in proportion to their sin. And sometimes, even in small troubles, we are like Job himself. We get so confused, and so angry. We exhaust ourselves with demands for You to show yourself, until—with Job, we slump in quiet worship before the witness of what You have already done for us, and in us, and around us.