“The waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction
assailed me. . . . This God — his way is perfect.” (2 Samuel 22:5, 31)
After the loss of his ten children owing to a natural disaster (Job 1:19),
Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of
the Lord” (Job 1:21).
At the end of the book, the inspired writer confirms Job’s understanding of
what happened. He says Job’s brothers and sisters “comforted him for all the
evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11).
This is heavy, so we better get use to it. This is the God of
the Bible and we will not bring Him low in order to appease your limited human
understanding of Him.
Remember reading about all those massive disasters that occurred
in 2017? You can be sure there will be
more in 2018. What are we to make of them? Not just the huge ones that manifest
in earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes and tornadoes, but the train
wrecks, car accidents, and yes, even those nasty and disgusting terrorist
attacks.
This has several crucial implications for us. What are the lessons for us to think about concerning
the calamities in the world and in our lives? Like the massive disaster that
occurred December 26, 2004, in the Indian Ocean — one of the deadliest natural
disasters on record with 1.7 million people made homeless, half a million
injured, and over 230,000 killed.
Lesson #1. Satan is Powerful; God is ALL Powerful!
Satan had a hand in Job’s misery, but not the decisive hand. God
gave Satan permission to afflict Job (Job 1:12; 2:6).
But Job and the writer of this book treat God as the decisive cause. When Satan
afflicts Job with sores, Job says to his wife, “Shall we receive good from God,
and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10),
and the writer calls these satanic sores “the evil that the Lord had brought
upon him” (Job 42:11).
So, Satan is real. Satan brings misery. But Satan is not ultimate or decisive.
He is on a leash. He goes no farther than God decisively permits.
Here is the bottom line – God can prevent all calamities if He
chooses. Moreover, no calamity occurs without God’s specified intention. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that Satan
and his demons do in this world are only done with God’s direct permission.
Listen closely – Satan does not have a free will to choose to do whatever he
wants done. God, and God alone gives
Satan permission, the power and resources to do the evil in the world.
Remember, Satan is not the cause of evil and calamity, God is. “Shall
we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)
You say, “Pastor Rich, are you saying God is the cause of evil?
If so, then that makes God responsible for creating evil and it makes Him evil
Himself!”
I admit, it is hard to balance this in our finite brains. But
one thing is certain on my end, I will not try to attempt in reconciling
passively God allowing evil to occur and at the same time diminish His
sovereignty. God is light and in Him is
no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). Even
though God is the cause of evil, there is no darkness of evil with Him. In God’s
sphere of existence, He can be the cause of evil and at the same time not have
evil within Himself – not even in the smallest way.
God is supreme beyond comprehension. We just don’t know how it
balances satisfactory on this side of heaven. We can try as best within the boundaries
of the Bible – it is good cognitive exercise for us and it enables us to really
seek God and His unfathomable ways. But never be afraid of believing that God
is all powerful and has total control over every molecule in the universe. The
Bible knows no other God and we must embrace Him with all of our hearts!
End of Part 1
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