I want us to keep thinking about suffering. Actually, I’d rather not talk about it, but I think it is something that we really have to think and talk about especially concerning how God wants us to think about it as He lays it out in His Self-Revelation, the Bible. Suffering is such a central theme in the Bible that we have a whole book to help us think about it: Job. In this instance, we will only consider the first chapter.
Job comes to us in the context of the Mosaic covenant, i.e. the prevailing thought was that suffering was reserved for those who had somehow sinned against God. Deuteronomy 28 encapsulates this worldview. The first 14 verses summarize for us the blessings that will come to the obedient, “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” (Deut. 28:2) However, the opposite would happen if the people disobeyed, “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” (28:15). This all boils down to the view that the obedient will have material blessing but the disobedient will have curses! But the book of Job comes in and blows this worldview apart.
God initiated suffering?
At the very beginning of Job, we are set up to see Job as a good and righteous man. “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” (Job. 1:1). As we would expect with the prevailing worldview, Job is also set up to be a very wealthy and prosperous man, “There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.” (1:2-3). So far, the typical Mosaic worldview seems to be holding fast.
But that’s as far as the story remains typical. We are then brought into heaven and a conversation between Yahweh and Satan. The LORD asks Satan what he’s been up to and Satan responds that he’s been going around the earth. “And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”” (1:8). It is God who initiates this conversation concerning Job. Job has right standing before God.
The Adversary
Has the Adversary noticed this unique faithful servant of God? Yes, he has, and he has a theory about why Job is so faithful to God, “Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”” (1:9-11). Satan thinks that Job is faithful because of God’s favor and blessing. If God removed His favor and blessing then Job would definitely curse God. God then permits Satan to take away the ‘blessings’ that Job has (1:12) and in one day, Job loses all he has, his possessions and his children (1:13-19)! Job is righteous and upright before God and yet is met by incredible calamity at the hand of Satan, as God has allowed.
Job’s story shows that the Adversary does indeed plot against the saints, but also that this is only within the bounds of what God allows! “And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”” (1:12a) Note that the devil cannot stretch out his hand against Job, until the LORD permits him, and he can only go as far as the LORD permits.
The King
This understanding has great implications for our theology of suffering. Firstly, it reassures us that God is truly sovereign over all things – including suffering. While this world is broken and we are guaranteed of suffering, this world is not spinning out of control. The Great Almighty God is ruling over it, including those parts where the devil seeks to add to our suffering. Whatever comes to us – whatever pain and hardship pierces our lives, it has all been permitted by the God of heaven. This God is not capricious or a sadist, but is working out His good purposes in the midst of a broken world, for the good of those He loves and His glory.
And it appears as though Job viewed the Almighty God through this lens. When all these things befell him, this was his response, “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” (1:20-22)
Whatever comes to us – whatever pain and hardship pierces our lives, it has all been permitted by the God of heaven.
Job truly and deeply felt the pain of his losses. He tore his robe and shaved his head in grief and fell to the ground in sorrow. But that is not all he did. In that moment, we are told he worshipped! He did not think that God had forsaken him or that his calamity had proven that God did not exist. He saw God as being ultimately in charge and him being a creature under His care with nothing to claim. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.”. He anchors himself in the reality of life – we appear in the world naked and with nothing and we shall return to the earth naked and with nothing. Everybody dies without anything whether they had wealth or knew only poverty.
But more than this, Job anchors himself in the reality of God’s sovereignty, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” To Job, God is in charge. He bestows material wealth and He can take it away. He can give children, and He can take them away. Whatever the Yahweh decides to do, He remains the One in authority and deserving of praise!
Can you imagine what it must have costed Job to worship when he knew he would be receiving 10 caskets with his children’s bodies, and more with the bodies of his servants? What it must have costed him to worship when all his wealth had been taken and burned away? Ought he to have been following up on the raiding parties, trying to recover some of his wealth? He falls to the ground in sorrow and worship to the God who had chosen for this to happen. He knew that he was still in the caring arms of this God. The narrator confirms this for us in the last verse of the chapter, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” (1:23)
Secondly, this means that the devil is not independent nor co-equal with God. He is a creature that is under God’s rule. He cannot do whatever he pleases against God’s people. He is bound to do only what his Creator has permitted or allowed. As Martin Luther is credited with saying, “even the devil is God’s devil”. He will ultimately be used by God to fulfill His overarching, sovereign purposes – even as he is used in Job’s own story. We note that things do not go as the devil had expected. When Job lost all the material blessings he had, he did not curse God, but worshipped Him. This occasion proved the genuineness of Job’s faith and trust in the Lord. The Adversary’s purposes proved futile and Yahweh received the glory.
As we think about growing our theology of suffering, we can see Job 1 helps us do three things. Firstly, to throw out any notions of thought that material blessing is an indication of righteousness, and lack thereof, an indication of unrighteousness. The righteous can suffer want of material possessions. Secondly, Job helps us realize that we need to keep in mind God’s sovereignty in the midst of suffering. God is in charge and whatever He chooses to happen in our lives, in the having or not having of things, He remains worthy of our worship and praise. Thirdly and lastly, we see the devil as a creature who answers to God, whose plots require the permission of God and whose purposes for the saints will eventually fall to the ground. God will work good even out of devilish schemes! O for grace to trust Him more!
