Though he slay me, I will hope in him.
– Job 13:15
What a statement. Job in the middle of his suffering, let’s say it again, He says about God, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.”
Job 13:15 is an incredible example of unshakable hope in God.
He’s experiencing the effects of suffering in his life and the loss and the tragedy he’s walked through and the physical suffering he’s enduring. And he knows that ultimately God is sovereign over all things, even the worst things, not in a way that God is charged with wrong. This is part of the mystery of God’s sovereignty and the reality of evil and suffering in this world. But we remember in Job 1 and 2, that Job blessed God, and did not sin against God by charging God with wrong, with doing anything unrighteous. And yet he knows he’s experiencing suffering and tragedy in this world. And in the middle of it and the depth of it, he says, “I will hope in God.”
He knows that God is sovereign over all things and God is right and righteous and just, and God is good, and this is the only foundation he has to cling to. Amidst all the questions in his mind and his heart, amidst all the wrestling and confusion he believes, he trusts, and he hopes in God. And I just want to encourage you, when you walk through tragedy, when you walk through suffering in this world, cling to the hope that you have no matter how dark it gets, and no matter how confusing it is, the hope you have in God.
Job 13:15 reminds us of one crucial reality: we can trust the Lord.
Don’t try to comfort yourself with those things that are not true, namely, that God is not in control, or that God is not just, or God is not righteous or God is not loving. Many times, when we walk through suffering or tragedy in this world, we can begin to question those things.
Is God in control? Or, is He good? Is God loving? Is God righteous? But as soon as we go down those roads, we find ourselves standing on sinking sand because we will lose all our hope. If God is not sovereign, if God is not good and righteous and loving and wise, then we have no foundation for hope in this world. This is the reality though of our God. We can hope in him.
We can hope in his sovereign goodness, his sovereign wisdom, and his sovereign love, and he has shown us that he is worthy of our trust, ultimately, by sending his own son as a substitute sacrifice for our sins, to forgive us of our sins, to restore us to him. And he has raised him from the dead. Death is not the end for all who trust in Jesus. Suffering and tragedy are not the end for all who trust in Jesus.
This verse reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Though we are slain in this world, we can hope always in him. This is Romans 8, “If God is for us, who can be against us? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, separate us from the love of God? No. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Nothing, neither death nor life, neither angels, nor demons, nor the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor death, nor anything else in all creation can ever ultimately separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”
So we pray. God, our hope is in you. All of our hope is in you. Amidst whatever we’re walking through right now in this world, amidst whatever we may walk through in the days to come, our hope is in you. We praise you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for our sins, for rising from the grave. God, we praise you for your victory over sin, Satan, and death. We praise you that all who trust in you will experience eternal life with you, not just in the future, but even now.
Oh God, we praise you that when we walk through suffering, we have a rock to stand on. You are our rock. Lord, you are our peace. You are our strength. You are our hope. You’re our everything. You’re our life, oh God, and we worship you. We pray for the people around us who don’t have this hope.
Prayer for the Eluthassan People
We pray for people around the world who don’t have this hope. God, help us to spread the hope of Jesus with the breath that you’ve given to us today… And ultimately, to all the peoples of the world. Lord, we pray for the Eluthassan people of India… 50,000 of them speaking the Malayalam language who have little to no knowledge of the hope of Jesus. No known Christians among them.
God, we pray for the spread of the hope of the gospel to the Eluthassan people. Please, God, cause brothers and sisters in India to spread the gospel to the Eluthassan from outside of India. God, help us as your people to work for the spread of your hope to people who don’t have it… To people who have never even heard it in the world. We pray all this according to your word in Job 13:15. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
