When ‘Why’ Goes Unanswered
I consider Job 4:1 to be one of the saddest verses in all of Scripture. It begins, “Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said . . . .”
One would expect—or at least hope—the verse would instead read, “Then God answered and said . . . .” In chapter 3, the righteous man Job uttered a heart-wrenching complaint about the horrid state of his life after the unimaginable loss of all his wealth, livelihood, children, and health (Job 1—2). Considering his enduring distress, Job’s lament in the first 10 verses of chapter 3 consists of various wishes for the impossible. To summarize, Job contemplated, If my life entails this much suffering, it would have been better if I had never been born. Who among us in times of suffering cannot relate to Job’s yearning?
Suffering in Silence
While Job’s wishes are heartbreaking, the series of unanswered questions “why” that complete his lament are more disturbing. He asked, “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul?” (vv. 11, 20). If life is to be composed of such bitterness of loss, grief, and constant anguish, he pondered, why does such a life see the light of day? Job searched for a logical explanation for his distress. He needed a divine answer to the “why” of his gut-wrenching misery, but he received none.
This is why Job 4:1 is so pitiful. The man identified as God’s servant in each of the preceding chapters asked the sincere and ever-present question “why” concerning human suffering. Even the Bible’s readers yearn for God’s response. Surely, the God of the universe could explain that a divine wager was being played out; and Job—the protagonist—had no idea of the responsibility he shouldered in this heavenly drama (1:8–12; 2:3–6). But Job’s “why” was met with divine silence.
Instead of hearing God’s explanation, we hear a mere man’s. The eloquent but flawed Eliphaz offered not a hint of solace to ease Job’s suffering. The ever-present, heartrending “why” remained unanswered for Job.
The question remains unanswered for us as well. As the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously stated, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Enduring Endless Pain
I can relate to this need to understand the “why” of life and suffering. In 2010 I was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia (TN), a chronic nerve disorder that causes severe, debilitating pain. TN is considered the second worst pain known to medical science (cluster headaches are first). It is considered more painful than kidney stones and childbirth (although my wife questions this conclusion after giving birth to five children). TN is nicknamed the “suicide disease” due to its unpredictable and intense pain and the lack of successful treatments to cure it.
My ailment causes severe nerve pain in my face, anywhere from my eyebrows down to my chin. The affliction resembles an electric shock and generally lasts a few seconds, though these jolts can come in rapid succession. While it is difficult to put pain into words, I describe the sensation as a lightning bolt exploding on my face. If your dentist has ever inadvertently hit a nerve in your mouth with a dental instrument and the sensation lifted you off your seat, the agony you can recall approximates one TN jolt. I sometimes experience scores of these jolts in an hour. While the disease normally affects only one side of a person’s face, I experience the pain on both sides.
The trigeminal nerve, the largest facial nerve, is composed of three branches that cover a large area of the face. Any contact with this nerve can cause me agonizing pain. A cold wind or even air conditioning can trigger TN jolts. Eating, talking, drinking, touching my face, or even receiving a kiss can be excruciating. The simple vibration of Sunday morning worship music, regardless of volume, sets off thunderbolts of pain in my face.
There are no medications designed specifically to treat TN. While I have been prescribed various medications, none have been effective. The gold standard for TN surgery is microvascular decompression (MVD), a brain surgery that attempts to separate the arteries that compress the trigeminal nerve around the brain stem. I have undergone three of these surgeries to relieve my affliction, including one with renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Even with the best surgeon, best technology, and best care, all my MVDs and subsequent procedures have failed to eliminate my TN pain.
Each day proves a significant challenge in dealing with unpredictable, unavoidable anguish. So, I understand Job’s desire to comprehend the purpose of a life of suffering.
Overcoming the ‘Why’ and Trusting the ‘Who’
While I appreciate Job’s yearning to know “why,” I think the question is misplaced. Even if Job 4:1 read, “Then God answered Job and said . . . ” (emphasis added) and God then explained His wager with Satan regarding Job, I believe (if Job was anything like us, in our less-than-holy-state) a divine explanation to the initial “why” would have been followed by an immediate, visceral “why me?”
I don’t believe grasping the “why” of suffering helps anyone deal with chronic pain. In this case, Nietzsche was simply wrong. Knowing the “why” of life’s troubles is not helpful or needed. It simply leads to more “whys.”
Instead of searching for the “why” of my suffering, I have opted to rest on the “who” of my suffering. While God kept silent in Job 4, to the chagrin of Job and his readers, He dramatically entered the dialogue from the whirlwind in chapters 38 to 42. While readers might anticipate that Yahweh would now answer Job’s “whys,” He refrained from addressing the question. Instead, God’s initial response to the “innocent” sufferer was not an answer to the “whys” but a poignant indictment: “Who are you?” (cf. 38:2).
This initial question began to reorient Job to his place in God’s created order. Then Yahweh overwhelmed him with more than 70 rhetorical questions: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (v. 4). “Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?” (v. 36). “Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?” (40:2). Job’s continued silence indicated his inability to explain or do anything the Almighty asked of him. These interrogatives demonstrate that Job—and all mankind—lacked the wisdom to order the world or even one’s own little corner in it.
It took Job a few chapters to realize he lacked wisdom to understand that Yahweh is God and he was not. But he eventually got there (42:1–6). Once Job realized that Yahweh can be trusted to order our lives and even our sufferings, he was finally content not to understand the “why” of his life but, rather, to know more deeply the “who” of his life. Since God has the wisdom to know and oversee all He asked of His servant, Job decided he could trust God with the unanswered “whys” of his intense suffering.
I endeavor to live my life with trigeminal neuralgia, a constant and unwanted daily companion, with this same attitude. I do not need to know the “why” of my TN struggle; I just need to know Yahweh—the “who” of my life. To rephrase Nietzsche, “If a man knows the who of his life, he can endure anything.” Knowing personally a sovereign God who has wisely ordered this universe and my life—and setting aside the “whys”—is enough for me.
