Read Job 17:1-16

“Yet the righteous will hold to his way, And he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.” — Job 17:9

Job continues praying to God in the midst of his suffering, while also having to withstand the pitiless assaults of his friends who accuse him that he suffers because of some hidden sin he committed. This, of course, was not true (see Job 42:7-9) and was presumptuous in every way. Job’s friends knew how to comfort a man about as much as a bear knows how to comfort a lamb.

Thus Job remains in perplexity. He feels as if the Almighty has made him an adversary of God without reason, and a byword of people without cause. Nonetheless, Job by faith turns to God continually in prayer for mercy and relief. Job refuses to let go of the integrity of his heart before the Lord, but to hold fast to righteousness and to the strength of having clean hands, which meant a good conscience.

“Yet the righteous will hold to his way, And he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.” (Job 17:9)

There was another man in Scripture who had much the same attitude and similar experience as Job. He was anointed by the Spirit and righteous in his love of God, yet he was exiled without cause from his kingdom and suffered at the hands of his own friends. That man was David — a man after God’s own heart.

“He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Psalm 24:4–5)

Both Job and David, of course, were as sinful as any of us, but their heart for God was as big as the ocean and their desire to walk in righteousness was as strong as a lion. In this manner, both of them had clean hands and used adversity in their lives, no matter how severe, to grow stronger and stronger in God. This was their reward.

“The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God.” (Psalm 18:20–21)

Adversity and suffering will prove a man and test his heart, whether their soul is truly longing after God. Lovers of God, though beaten down without cause, will lift their heads to the skies and hold to his way. He will get up again. But lovers of self, when distress comes their way, will shrivel up like a flower left out in the scorching sun and lose their constitution. Their hearts will harden against the Almighty.

“For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.” (Proverbs 24:16)

If you have ever wrestled with God and been perplexed with how He has allowed you to suffer, you are not alone. All men are afflicted and all people face calamities — some of which may never be explained in this life or the next. But one thing is certain, affliction is God’s instrument for your good.

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.” (Psalm 119:71)

Afflictions, adversity, and trials will come to all men — to the righteous and unrighteous alike — because of the broken world we live in. Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that God is the author of our brokenness and our fractured world. He is not. Afflictions must come, but woe to the man without God whose afflictions are for no purpose. Praise be to God that your afflictions are being guided by the tender hands of the Almighty. If you must suffer through a storm, then you are suffering in the shelter of His wings. He makes beauty from our ashes and white garments from our stains. Be as Jacob was on that dark night when he wrestled with God. The Lord wounded him, and yet even still, Jacob cried out, “I will not let You go!”

“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:8–10)