24When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds it judges. If it is not he, then who is it?
Job asks the age old question: If God is all powerful, all loving, all compassionate, then why does injustice happen? This question is still asked today by those who are suffering and those who see suffering. And here is Job asking the same question over three thousand years ago. So why doesn’t God come and right the wrongs, bring justice where it is needed, healing where sickness ravages, wholeness instead of brokenness? Why? I wish I had ‘the answer’ to this question. Part of what Job struggles with, we all struggle with, believer and non-believer alike. There is something in us that knows some things are just not right, and we scream wanting “Justice!” But from where does this “Justice!” scream arise? Who put this scream there? If we are just advanced pond scum, where would such a scream originate? If life itself is accidental, how can the concept of justice be upheld when everything is the result of an accident, a random unguided act. Justice demands an external system of constraints dividing justice from injustice. Accidents don’t produce this sense of right and wrong. So, Job sees what has happened to him, hears his friends begin to point their fingers at him in blame, and Job asks the question of “why.” He doesn’t pretend to know the answer, he just asks the question out of his deep sorrow and pain. When asked from this starting point, there is no answer that will satisfy, no answer that will silence the questioner. But his friends try to answer and that is a big mistake.
The Arnold Journey 