It is all the same; that is why I say, “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.” Job 9:22
Job’s suffering has caused him to think that living a righteous life makes no difference since both the blameless and the wicked suffer. Before Job’s trials, he wouldn’t have thought this way. He believed along with the rest of his friends that if you do the right thing God will bless you and if you do evil you will suffer. Yet Job finds himself amid deep suffering with the knowledge that he hasn’t willfully sinned against God.
Job’s biggest challenge isn’t his physical or emotional pain, we don’t find Job pleading for healing, but we do find him crying out for answers. His distress comes, not from his pain, but from not understanding the reason for his pain.
Suffering and difficulty will always make us rethink our theology and perhaps this is one of the reasons God allows hardship into our lives. God doesn’t want us living according to a formula where we do right just to avoid problems. God does want us to live righteous lives but not at the expense of relationship.
God wants an honest relationship where there’s no pretence, no showy displays, no hypocrisy. God is more concerned about our motives than we are. If our motives are purely self-seeking and we’re only interested in our own wellbeing, we might find God disturbing our comfortable life.
God is more interested in us being real than being ‘right’ so that our righteous lives are an expression of a real relationship and not an attempt to gain God’s blessings.
Remember, God is looking for a relationship with us not a performance from us.
