Today, we have an incredibly thoughtful and detailed question from a concerned dad.

It's anonymous.

Pastor John, my 14-year-old daughter, read through the book of Job for the first time this

year and is really struggling with how God has portrayed in that book.

She has heard all of her life that God is loving and just and cannot understand why God would

allow Job and his children, wife, and servants to suffer such devastation.

She's deeply disturbed by the fact that God pointed Job out to Satan intentionally,

thus drawing his attention to this righteous man, allowing Satan to take away nearly everything

Job had, and for what purpose merely to prove a point to Satan and to the host of heaven

that Job's reverence for God was unshakable.

How would you explain to a girl who understands the gospel intellectually but who may not have

had it applied to her heart yet?

To her, it seems that God was arbitrary and almost cruel to allow Job and everyone around him to

suffer to prove a point or to perfect a man who was already more righteous than most of us.

She wonders about the collateral damage to Job's wife, including her faith, who suffered the

loss of everything Job did with the exception of her personal health. It does not bring her much

comfort to think that following God could result in such devastation. I've talked with her

about the fact that death and suffering is part of our human existence since the fall and is a

direct and indirect result of sin. We've talked about the fact that it was Satan's cruelty that

was the actual instrument of suffering, although within the sovereign will of God. And that this

life and his suffering here on this earth is nothing compared to glory and eternity. We've

also talked about how God himself has suffered on our behalf and bore our sins on the cross,

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