Suffering II
After Rob Smith's helpful summary on the connection between sin and suffering (see earlier post), he then took us through the book of Job. As we skimmed through the book, I was struck by Job's question to his wife in chapter 2.
Remember, he's just lost most of his wealth and all ten of his children, and he's also in a great deal of physical pain. Yet he says to his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). In other words, “God gave us our wealth and our children and our health in the first place. He has now taken them away. We must accept whatever God does.”
Two things occured to me as I pondered Job's response:
- Kudos to Job for his faithful trust in God. Suffice to say that his response at this point is probably different to what mine would be if I was in his situation!
God sends both good and evil (the ESV footnote suggests the word translated as ‘evil’ might also be translated as ‘disaster’). It's not that God actively gives us good things but only passively ‘allows’ bad things; Job's words in 2:10 attribute his suffering directly to God, even though we know it is Satan's doing (cf. 1:12). This idea is immediately confirmed in the same verse: ‘In all this Job did not sin with his lips’. The same idea has, in fact, already appeared in this chapter, after the first round of disaster struck Job:
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? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job 2:3–5, emphasis mine)
It seems even Satan knows his actions are under God's active control.
The idea that disaster comes directly from God also crops up elsewhere in the Bible, for example Isa 31:2; Amos:6; Zech 8:14.
This second point presents a problem for those who preach ‘prosperity now’ for God's people. If, as many of these preachers claim, God is only interested in giving us the ‘good life’—blessing us with wealth and material possessions, getting us promoted at work, helping us to go from being the ‘borrower’ to the ‘lender’, etc.—then what do we make of these passages in the Bible where God is clearly causing his people to suffer? What do we make of the suffering experienced by countless faithful Christians all around us? What do we say when a person's suffering continues unabated despite much prayer?
We have no answer to these questions, unless we accept that suffering is part of God's plan for his people.