In our present dire circumstance induced by the sudden onset of the coronavirus, we may be comforted by the Book of Job to know that we are not the first generation to be swept up in events beyond our control.
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“And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest…Thou liftest me up on the wind, thou makest me ride on it, and thou tossest me about in the roar of the storm” (Job 30.16-22).

BIBLICAL SCHOLARS SPECULATE that the Book of Job may be the most ancient of the Biblical writings. If that’s true, it means that the first inspired book of the Bible was written to answer the first question all people everywhere have of God: how can we believe in a good and just Creator when the world is so corrupted by evil, suffering, and injustice? The answer Job gives is simple: The existence of evil in this world is not dispositive of God’s existence but is ancillary to it. We believe in God because God is.