"Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were graven in the rock for ever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then from my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
Job 19:23–27 (RSV)
The Book of Job is about suffering and the silence of God. Job never knows why his life has collapsed. His children are dead. Most of his servants murdered, his flocks and herds taken, and his health is a memory. All this happens, and Job has not even a guess as to why.
Job had lived a pious, righteous life. Everyone considered him among the blameless few on earth. He was humble in his faith and generous in his charity. All he has appearing to be as nothing when tragedy strikes. Job is left in great sorrow, sitting on an ash heap, mourning the wreckage of his life.
Even his friends turn against him. 'You must have done something to receive such misery. How have you offended God that He should bring such a fearful judgment on you?' It was common thinking that when evil befell a person, it was the punishment of God. Thus, Job must have sinned against God.
Job does cry out to God, "I hate the day I was born! I should have died and not see these days! Why are you far off, Lord? Why do my days drag on without relief or a word from You?" Who would blame Job? He lived his life in the Lord, and now all he has from God is silence.
We would bear the judgment and wrath of God better than the silence of God. The horror of the absence of God crushes us under the brokenness of life is a trial we would never choose. We would be tempted to listen to those who say there is no God because of the silence.
Job does not surrender to despair. Yes, his heart is breaking. Yes, he cannot begin to comprehend what has happened or why. He has reached the point where he either will surrender to the darkness without God or confess hope against hope that God is greater than the silence.
'I know my Redeemer lives,' is a consolation that untold numbers of believers have confessed as they too faced soul-crushing loss. C.S. Lewis, in his book, The Screwtape Letters, has a senior devil warn a junior devil:
"Be not deceived, Wormwood, our cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do our Enemy's (God) will, looks round upon a universe in which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."
Our Redeemer lives. He has shattered death, undone the sickness of sin, and banished the despair of the devil. Our hope is in Him, even in the silence, our hope is in Him.