Do we live in a well-run world? If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world? The so-called ‘problem of evil’ is at the heart of many people’s doubts about the Christian faith, isn’t it? The reality of both man-made and natural evils in the world causes many Christians to wonder whether God is really good and really can be trusted – if he is even there at all.
So over the next month we will be dipping in and out of Old Testament book of Job. Job forms part of the Bible’s ‘wisdom’ literature, a set of inspired texts written to help God’s people navigate the challenges of life. And Job in particular, is designed to help equip Christian believers for encounters with trials and temptations. It is written to provide God-fearing people with principles to hold on to when we experience suffering of some kind.
As such, the book of Job doesn’t provide a comprehensive answer or ‘solution’ to every evil experienced by human beings – but if we are Christian believers it does offer some good grounds to trust our Lord when life is tough.
Today’s passage re-told
Today’s first reading from Job was a long one, so let me briefly re-tell the story to refresh our memory. It’s a story with five scenes – three set on earth and two in Heaven. Scene one of our story begins in the city of Uz and with a man named Job. We don’t know exactly where Uz was, or precisely when the story is set – but it would seem to be in a land outside of Israel (maybe the neighbouring land of Edom) and a long time ago.
Job is a man who is healthy, wealthy and wise. He has a large family, a household full of servants, and many, many livestock. His wealth hadn’t gone to his head, however – he was not an arrogant, proud or self-righteous individual. On the contrary, he is introduced to us in verse 1 as a man who was “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” Indeed, verse 5 tells us that Job was so anxious to obey God and avoid sin that he would offer an atoning sacrifice after each of his children’s birthday parties – just in case they had “sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”
Here is a man of the highest integrity and impeccable ethics, indeed, “the greatest man among all the people of the East” we’re told.
Scene 2 is set in heaven, isn’t it? We get a glimpse of God’s heavenly court, his divine cabinet meeting, where angels gather before him to report on their work in the world. And amongst these angels appears Satan – a fallen angel whose name means ‘the accuser’ or ‘the adversary’.
In verse 8 we are told that the Lord said to Satan: “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
With those words Satan is slandering Job’s character and impugning his integrity. He is daring to suggest that Job’s love for God is simply because of what God gives him, not because of God’s intrinsic goodness, glory and status. Such a scurrilous accusation cannot be allowed to stand – it needs to be refuted – it needs to be proved demonstrably wrong. The reputation of Job – and the glory of God – are both at stake. So verse 12 tells us that the Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
So in scene 3 we return to earth, and witness calamity after calamity fall upon poor Job. His oxen and donkeys are stolen, his servants are murdered, his sheep are struck by lightning, and his children are killed when a strong wind causes their house to collapse. Orchestrated by Satan, evil human beings and natural disasters combine strip Job of his most precious worldly possessions. Only he and his wife escape unscathed.
Unsurprisingly, verse 20 tells us that Job tore his robe and shaved his head – traditional signs of grief and mourning. But what is a surprise is what Job said next: ““Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Despite all that has befallen him, Job continues to trust God – indeed, he continues to praise and worship the Lord. Job accuses God of no wrongdoing. His faith has endured – Satan’s first test has failed.
And so Satan tries again. Because in scene 4 we return to Heaven, where Satan’s slandering of Job’s character continues. He says to the Lord: “A man will give all he has for his own life. But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and [Job] will surely curse you to your face.” Once again, this assault on Job’s integrity cannot be allowed to stand, so the Lord gives Satan permission to strike Job’s body but must preserve his life.
And this brings us to the fifth and final scene. Back on earth, poor Job is afflicted with painful sores all over his body. Sitting among the ashes of his estate, Job resists his wife’s suggestion that he should curse God and die. Our passage concludes by saying: “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” His faith has survived, Satan’s libelous accusations have been exposed as false – and so our story ends, for now!
Lessons to learn
Scholars debate whether the story of Job is intended to be read as real history or as an instructive parable, a moral tale. But whichever way you read it, it is an inspired text designed to provide us with (at least) some partial answers to the problem of evil.
I’m indebted to the Revd. Christopher Ash – author of not one but two books on Job(!) – for highlighting two lessons that Christians can learn from today’s passage.
Firstly, Satan is the source of Job’s suffering, not God. Our passage is quite clear that the devil, not God, directly causes Job’s suffering. It is Satan’s hand that ultimately lies behind each of the calamities that afflict poor Job. The Sabean attackers, the lightning storm, the Chaldean raiders, the mighty wind and the skin disease were only secondary causes of Job’s affliction – the person primarily responsible was Satan.
We see the exact same pattern in the Gospels – where Jesus frequently attributes people’s ailments to the destructive work of the devil – and where evil acts (like Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and his betrayal by Judas) are attributed to Satan’s malevolent influence.
So as Christians we need to be aware that there are supernatural forces of evil at work in our world – forces that may lie behind many (though of course not all) of the evils we experience: “There‘s a war on, don’t you know?” – a cosmic conflict between the powers of darkness and the people of God.
As we heard in our second reading this morning, the apostle Peter warns Christians to “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” And as the apostle Paul puts it in Ephesians chapter 6: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
So, like Job, we need to stand firm in faith when confronted by any form of evil – we’re to pray for the strength to endure, we’re to ask for the Holy Spirit’s help to resist temptation, and we’re to remind ourselves that the devil’s ultimate defeat is assured – his time is limited.
But how can we be confident that the devil will not have the last word? Well, that brings us to the second lesson from our story today, that God is sovereign, not Satan (x2). As our passage was read, I hope you noticed that Satan could do nothing without God’s permission. He could not lay a finger on Job without the Lord allowing him to do so. When he put Job’s faith to the test, Satan couldn’t go a centimetre further than the Lord let him.
This is all hugely reassuring! It reminds us that this universe is not a battleground between two equal and opposing forces – a force for evil and a force for good. On the contrary, our Creator God is all-powerful as well as all-good. He has Satan on a leash, he has the power to destroy the works of the devil, the ‘good Lord’ will have the last word.
So in the midst of trials and temptations we can pray with confidence – with confidence that our sovereign Lord has more than enough power to sustain us. And with confidence that he has the capacity to one day destroy the devil forever. Because the Bible promises that when the maximum number of people have become Christians, God’s Kingdom will come and the devil will be destroyed.
As we await that great day, when Satan, sin and suffering will all be no more, we would do well to imitate the example of Job in today’s passage. Job had no knowledge of what was going on in Heaven – he was not able to eavesdrop on the conversation between Satan and the Lord. But he was right to trust in God’s goodness, because Satan, not the Lord, was the source of his suffering. And Job was right to keep faith in his Creator, because God, not Satan, is sovereign over this world.
So, as I finish, the presence of evil and suffering in our world may well cause Christians trouble and distress. But through it all we are to trust and pray to our God who is good. We can keep the faith in our God who has the power to sustain us. The sovereign Lord who has the promised to end every evil on the day that Christ returns.