Who Caused Job’s Trials?
“The LORD said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’ Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.”
Job 1:12
The words are scarcely out of God’s mouth when Sabeans massacre Job’s servants, lightning kills sheep and shepherds, Chaldeans slaughter camels and herdsmen, and a desert wind collapses a house on Job’s children. How tragic! Yet in a nutshell, Job’s saga teaches us everything we need to know about God’s sovereignty.
What caused Job’s trials? At the most basic level, natural forces did—natural low-pressure systems that could have been explained in scientific terms. At the same basic level, evil people caused Job’s trials—those greedy raiding parties needed no prompting; they devised their own wicked schemes. At a deeper level, Satan did—the Devil turned around after leaving God’s presence, and before we can blink, carnage is everywhere. Satan no doubt had something to do with instigating those roaming cutthroats and sponsoring those terrible storms (although the storms were a natural phenomena and the pillagers acted in a way natural to violent men, the Bible says Satan engineered it all).
So who or what caused Job’s trials? At the deepest level, the decree of God did. Satan asked permission to stir things up, but God signed the authorization papers. Yet at the same time, the Devil acted freely, no one forced the hand of the Sabeans or Chaldeans, and nature got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. God’s decrees made room for Job’s trials, but God didn’t cause them. God exploited the deliberate evil of some bad characters and the impersonal evil of some bad storms without forcing anyone’s hand.
God permits all sorts of things he doesn’t approve of. Why? So that we might say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face” (Job 13:15). Can you say with Job “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord”?
Lord, I don’t understand how you can bring ultimate good out of the Devil’s wickedness, or how you exploit storms and disasters to suit your own purpose, but like Job, I put my trust in you.
Weak Woman, Strong God
Dr. Sutherland joins the podcast to share how God has sustained her through suffering and taught her to rely on his strength in her weakness.
