When Experience Clouds Our Perception

The Importance of proper theology amid suffering. (Job 4-7)
"For man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward.
As we journey through the dialogue of Job and his three friends, we are immediately confronted with the paradox of suffering. In chapter 1:10, Satan accuses God of protecting Job by placing a hedge about him to keep him from harm. However, in 3:23, Job feels that God has made a hedge around him to keep him from escaping his troubles. This leads us to the central question that is examined throughout the book: "Why does God bring suffering into our lives?" To answer this question, Job's three friends turn to traditional wisdom and the process of deriving wisdom to address the question of suffering. However, the question goes deeper than just the basis of wisdom; it goes to the most critical question we face: "How do we determine truth itself?" As we face the challenges and complexities of life, along with the conflicting messages that each claims to be true in determining morality and spiritual insight, how do we decide what is true and what is false?
When Eliphaz begins to share his insights, he quickly reveals the source of his truth and the basis of his understanding of life. For Eliphaz, truth is revealed through personal experience. In 4:7-8, in response to Job's lament, Eliphaz draws on his personal experiences and observations from life. As a result, he forms three assumptions in life. First, even the righteous experience God's discipline because we are all sinners. He accuses Job of wrongfully blaming God, for no one is without sin, including Job. Therefore, when suffering comes, it comes upon those who have sin and is part of God's discipline. The basis for this conclusion is his personal experience. This is his second assumption: Personal experience can serve as the basis for determining truth for all. In Verses 12-16, he describes a supernatural vision from God, which communicated to him that no one can stand before God. This leads to this third assumption: Since all suffering is a result of sin, the only proper response is to repent and confess his sin.   However, personal experience can be deceptive, as it can lead to a narrow theology that causes us to judge people and determine truth based solely on our own experiences. As a result, when others suffer, we judge them and their experience by what we have experienced.  
However, Job responds that what is needed in suffering is not condemnation or criticism but compassion. His suffering exceeds his guilt. If his grief and his calamity were placed on a weigh scale, it would exceed the guilt of his sin. Instead of God's protection, he is experiencing God's poisonous arrows. Instead of God protecting him, the terrors of are arrayed against him. This led him to the paradox of faith that even though it seems that God has turned against him, he still turns to God for help and comfort. Even in his pain, confusion, and frustration, he cannot deny God (vs 9-10). Instead of abandoning God, he seeks God to reveal where he has errored and where he has sinned.
As we navigate our daily lives, it is easy to base our wisdom and understanding of truth on what we experience. However, our experiences can lead us down the wrong path because we start to judge others based on what we have experienced. We even begin to judge God.   The story of Job is not just about suffering; it is about how we determine what is true. If we rely solely on our experience, it will lead us astray not only in our response and attitude towards others, but also in our perception of God and His activity. When faced with life's paradoxes, what brings clarity is the Bible, not our personal experiences. Rather than placing the suffering of others in the context of our own experience, we need to put it under the umbrella of God's truth, in which suffering can occur because of our righteousness. We live in a broken world where tragedy happens because the effects of sin mar our world. But our hope is not in the present; it is in the eternal, when God will remove sin and its destructive effects.