Job -- The Suffering Prophet: "God's Sovereignty and Human Suffering" (2)

Reflections on the Book of Job (2)

God’s Sovereignty and Human Suffering

The story of Job is so compelling to us because it deals with a reality with which every Christian must wrestle–God’s sovereign control over every area of our lives. We have no problem accepting that God determines how tall we will be, whether we are born male or female, who our parents are, and what nationality we will be. We readily accept the fact that God determines what gifts and skills we will have, as well as whether or not we are born to means or poverty. We accept the fact that God determines the circumstances of our lives–including our height, skin color, health, length of life, and those calamities which may befall us. We accept these things without question because they are taught in Scripture and jive with our experience and common sense. God’s people nod in agreement to the assertion that “God is sovereign.” At least we nod in agreement until God does something we may not like or do not understand.

As Christians, we believe in original sin. All people who enter this world are guilty for Adam’s sin as well as their own (Psalm 51, Romans 5:12-19). Therefore, whenever someone suffers, the easy answer as to why they suffer is to go to our theological default setting. Why do people suffer? We suffer because we are sinners. We are being punished for what we have done.

But this is not what happens to Job. Job, we are told, is a righteous man, and blameless before God and his fellow men. Yet he suffers the loss of everything. He loses all of his possessions. All of his children. He even loses his health, becoming a miserable wretch covered with ugly sores.

At the same time we read that Job was blameless and upright, that he feared God and shunned evil. It is Job’s own wife and closest friends who self-righteously point out to him that his suffering has come about because he must have done something to cause God to punish him. The story of Job is the story of the suffering of the righteous, not of the wicked. This is why this remarkable book strikes such a chord with us. Why do we suffer when we have done nothing to deserve it?

This question confronts us head on as we reflect upon this book. It is common to suggest that the Book of Job is really an answer to theodicy—supposedly, in this book we find an answer to the nagging question as to how a good God can allow evil and the suffering of his creatures. To this very important question we often hear the following answers. Some attempt to solve this problem by simply denying that God is all-powerful. Others contend that God voluntarily limits his sovereignty so as to allow humans to exercise their freedom to its fullest. Others asset that God is within time, and is therefore truly limited as to what he can actually do about evil. God can direct evil, he can respond to it, or stay one step ahead of it, so as to minimize its consequences. He will even reward those who suffer. But ultimately, God is unable to control evil, because he is truly limited. “Oh, yes, God will win in the end,” they say, but in the meantime, this is how life is, filled with inscrutable ups and downs. This passible, time-bound God suffers with us. He is empathetic. He learns with and from us as we work out the meaning of our own suffering. Mutable, he adjusts his plans along the way and strives against evil in and through our actions. And maybe, just maybe, if we co-operate with him, things will turn out all right in the end. But this approach obviously fails, because this finite “god” is not the God of the Bible. He is nothing but a figment of the sinful human imagination.

Another answer offered to the question of why a good God allows evil is to say that God is sovereign over all things, including evil, but that God is not necessarily good. Although reluctant to put the matter so bluntly, in many ways, this is the impersonal “god” of Islam, or even what is commonly called “fate.” Of course, the question which lurks behind this approach to the problem of evil is that God has a dark side, that he manifests himself as either a God of love or a God of vengeance, as he wills, and we never know which it will be. Surely, this is why our contemporaries get very nervous when we as Reformed Christians talk about God’s sovereignty and speak of things like election and predestination. People tend not to like or want a God who is too sovereign. They cannot control him, manipulate him, or figure out what he will do next.

People also fear God’s sovereignty because deep down inside they fear that a sovereign God cannot be completely good. A number of evangelicals tell us that the absolutely sovereign God of the Calvinists cruelly sends millions to hell without people having any say in the matter. He even causes people to suffer. [1] Unless such people establish a prominent role for human freedom, they have no explanation as to why one believes and another doesn’t. They recoil in horror because they think that Calvinism’s sovereign “god” is actually cruel (and perhaps demonic). But this answer fails too because it cannot address the biblical data which clearly teaches that God foreordains whatsoever comes to pass (Psalm 115:3, Ephesians 1:13), but is in no sense the author of evil (James 1:13, 17). [2]

The third possible answer to the question as to why a good God allows suffering is to affirm that people are sinful. So, if someone suddenly suffers, it must be because they have done something wrong which brought about God’s judgment upon them. The ancients believed that God was sovereign and that people were sinful, but linked these two things together in such a way that the degree to which someone suffered was the consequence of the degree to which they have sinned. This is the view held by Job’s wife and his friends. This is a view held by many people today, including some of our own friends and family. This not only dismisses the problem raised by theodicy, “how can a good God allow evil?” but provides the faulty theological categories through which Job’s friends attempt to comfort him in the midst of his suffering. Why is Job suffering? He must have done something wrong. Since God punishes sinners, and since Job is suffering, (the logic runs) so too, Job must have provoked God to anger through some particular sin. Job must be getting what his deeds deserved. The counsel? “Repent, Job, and your suffering will come to an end.”

Is the Book of Job an Answer to Theodicy? Not Really

But the Book of Job was not written to answer the question of theodicy. This is not a book of apologetics, designed to give an answer to the problem of evil. This is a book for God’s people, many of whom he will call to suffer. We must not miss the obvious. Job was a righteous and upright man. According to the prologue of this book, Job did not commit some horrible sin which provoked God’s punishment. In light of Paul’s instructions in the Book of Galatians (6:7-10), we know that Job did not sow to the flesh. On the contrary, Job sowed to the Spirit. Therefore, Job was known for doing good, especially to his own family. Job was a righteous man, so much so that God brought Job to the attention of Satan.

Therefore, the question raised and answered in the Book of Job (perhaps not to our satisfaction) is not that of the typical theodicy; “how could a good God allow evil?” Rather, Job wrestles with that question which every believer has asked at one time or another, “why do the righteous suffer?” Why is it that someone like Job, who believes God’s promise and whose righteous conduct was clearly a fruit of his faith in YHWH, suffer such loss and misery? And by extension, we ask “why do any of us suffer, especially, if we, like Job, are blameless and upright, in that we love God and shun evil?” It is the suffering of the righteous–not the problem of evil in general–which is addressed by the story of Job.

The great irony of the story of Job is that the reader knows why all of this is coming to pass, while Job has no idea as to why God allows all of these horrible things to happen. The reader knows what Job does not, that God has summoned Satan, pointed Job out to him, and then said to the Accuser, “have you considered my righteous servant Job?” “There is no one on the earth like him.” Satan sees this challenge as a great opportunity. Through trial, loss, and affliction, Satan can demonstrate that people love God only insofar as God blesses them. Neither can Satan resist the opportunity to afflict the man who is the apple of God’s eye. Take away Job’s possessions, his loved ones, and his health, and God’s plan to entice people to love him will be exposed for what it is–divine bribery. When he figures it out, Job will curse God in the end.

And so, Satan reasons, Job is not really righteous. His righteousness is ultimately self-serving. Job obeys God because God blesses him if he does so. Satan dares to ask God, “Let me take away the blessings and see if Job still loves you.” Job’s supposed “righteousness” will be shown to be nothing but self-interest and, therefore, “sin.” God’s demands for righteousness and the dispensing of covenant blessings and curses will be exposed as a quid pro quo. Satan does not know that this Job prefigures the greater Job, the suffering servant, who will crush Satan under his heel (Genesis 3:15).

Once Satan takes up the challenge, God permits his arch-enemy to remove all those things which God is supposedly using to bribe Job so he acts righteously. And Job must pass the test. This righteous man must endure this unspeakable ordeal without knowing how the story will end. The reader knows why Job’s ordeal comes about, but Job must rely upon his faith in YHWH’s goodness, even in the face of overwhelming evidence and what appears to be wise theological counsel to the contrary. Job knows that God does not retributively punish those who obey his commandments. Job knows that God does not punish blameless and upright people. And Job knows that he has demonstrated righteous and is upright before the Lord. Job must believe to the bitter end that God will do what is right and that somehow and in some way, God will vindicate Job in the end. The reality is that blameless and upright people suffer. So Job (and the reader) must struggle to understand why.

In the next installment, we will meet the man around whom this amazing story centers.

To read the first in this series: Job: The Suffering Prophet (1)

To read the next in the series: Who Was Job? (3)

_____________________________

[1] See, for example, Hunt’s self-serving caricature of the Reformed faith in: Dave Hunt and James White, Debating Calvinism (Sisters Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, 2004).

[2] See my essay, “Human and God’s Purpose: Some Thoughts on the Doctrine of Divine Concurrence,” in Modern Reformation (September/October 2002).