How to Live with the Pain of Your Unanswered Questions

“I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”

Job 42:3

The breakthrough in Job’s life came through a fresh glimpse of the greatness and glory of God. The encounter was devastating. God asked Job nearly 40 questions:

• “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (38:4)
• “Who determined its measurements?” (38:5)
• “Who laid its cornerstone” while the angels sang for joy? (38:6-7)
• Have you ever “commanded the morning?” (38:12)
• “Have the gates of death been revealed to you?” (38:17)
• “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow?” (38:22)
• Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you? (38:35)

Job cannot answer a single question. He’d been a worshipper of God all his life, but now he sees that God is far greater and more glorious than he had ever grasped before. He realises that all of the questions he has about his life are just a tiny fraction of what he does not know. There are more mysteries in God’s vast universe than he could begin to comprehend.

Job had been trying to make sense of the mystery of suffering. But when he saw the glory of God, he found that he was able to live with his pain and his unanswered questions. Job’s friends turned him inward. God turned him upward, and that was when things changed.

Job asked why without ever losing faith, but he was close to the edge. When he saw the glory of God, he realised just how close to the edge he had been, and he said, “I uttered things I did not understand. Therefore, I repent.”

Where are you looking to find your breakthrough?