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Not long ago, I stood by the bedside of a dying saint. This man had been a member of my church for 50 years. He was known throughout the community as a kind and gentle man. He never lost his temper or spoke ill of anyone. For the last six years, he had spent his life in a nursing home, suffering from one ailment after another. As I stood by his bed with his family, his son-in-law looked into my face and asked, "Can you please tell me how God gets any glory for this?"

Our spirituality encourages us to proclaim our victories, but we lament in silence. We have room for a God who is active in our affairs. We even have room for a Satan who is active in our affairs. But we have little or no room for a God who seems indifferent to our suffering. Certainly, we have no room for a God who moves to afflict. But the Scriptures give us such a testimony.

In the first chapter of the book of Job, we are introduced to a man who is a saint in every way. His flocks and children are among the many blessings of God in his life. But one day a dreadful storm blows into Job's life. A messenger brings the news to Job: "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine … and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died" (Job 1:18-19, NASB).

The Hebrew word for wind is ruach, also translated into English as "spirit" and "breath." This same word is used in Exodus, where we are told that the Red Sea was parted by a blast from the nostrils of God (Ex. 15:8). The great wind of God plays a significant role in the life of Job.

Many will protest, "It wasn't God who sent that great wind, it was the Devil!" In general, that's the witness of Scripture: Good things come from God, and bad things from his adversary. When bad things happen to good people, it would be presumptuous, as Job's friends learned, to guess why. Yet Job seems to know the source of his suffering. "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away," he says (Job 1:21). Later, in reply to his wife, he asks, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10). For Job, God is the source of blessing and adversity! When Job begins his lament, he does not address or rebuke "the Devil," he addresses his lament to God.

Consider these words: "For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, their poison my spirit drinks; the terrors of God are arrayed against me" (Job 6:4). Suddenly, we are faced with a God with whom we are unfamiliar. We are accustomed to speaking of "the flaming arrows of the evil one" (Eph. 6:16), but Job presents to us a view of spiritual warfare in which God is the antagonist. "He breaks through me with breach after breach; he runs at me like a warrior" (Job 16:14).

Job cries out toward the heavens, "But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue with God" (Job 13:3). Job is at a loss to understand why God has brought such affliction into his life. But neither his affliction nor his lack of understanding causes him to hide his face from God. To the contrary, he is in God's face! This may seem irreverent, but it's actually a sign of daring faith. Job demands God's attention; he demands that God explain himself. "Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before him" (Job 13:15).

In the midst of Job's lament the winds began to blow again. It seems that another storm is brewing. The dark thunderheads are low on the horizon, and they are blown quickly across the heavens. In their midst are loud claps of thunder and bright lightning. Then suddenly, "the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind" (Job 38:1; ). A great wind that was the source of Job's afflictions is now the place from which God speaks.

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October 2004, Vol. 48, No. 10