With Friends Like These...

Job has been quite an interesting read. One thing that I had not noticed before was both the good counsel and the bad counsel of Job’s friends. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite are easily remembered for their poor advice and scolding of Job throughout the book. Their dialogue takes up 9 chapters alone. Throughout their portion of the dialogue they insist that what has happened to Job must be the result of some sin. No matter how much Job protested that he was not guilty his friends kept telling him that all of his losses were his own fault. It turns out that at the end of Job that both the friends and Job were wrong. God allows the rain to fall on the fields of both those that follow him as well as those that do not. And, for reasons we do not always understand, God allows the sun to scorch the land of both as well.

But what I had missed before in my reading of Job was that at one point Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar did provide good counsel for Job. I have to admit that the only reason that I saw it was because my Old Testament teacher in Seminary pointed it out to the class. So this time around I was aware of it:

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
          Job 2:11-13

They sat with him…on the ground…for seven days and seven nights. And no one said a word to him because of they understood just how great his suffering was. I realize that there are going to be times when words will need to be said in times of great suffering. My problem is that I tend to like to talk a lot. What I need to remember is that in these occasions that less is more. How willing would I be to sit in silence on the ground and covered in dust for seven days?

Matthew 26:36-46 tells of Jesus going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray just before he was arrested and crucified. He knew what was coming and he went to pray with his disciples. But they kept falling asleep on him. Jesus was not upset at them for not having just the right thing to say. Rather he said, “Could you not watch with me one hour?” Jesus simply wanted his friends to be with him during his time of need. I think that it is very good advice for anyone comforting someone in need.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Controversy of Suffering in the Book of Job

Just a few weeks ago I started a Chronological Bible reading plan. For the most part the beginning of the Old Testament is organized in a chronological order. The book of Job is one of the early exceptions. There is no firm date for the writing of Job or when the events took place. Internal clues such as having a patriarchal setting as well as external clues found in places like Ezekiel 14:14 give a probable dating of around the time of Noah and Abraham. So this particular reading plan had me read the first 11 chapters of Genesis and then skip over to reading Job.

Job is a fascinating and controversial book. For those unfamiliar with the book, Job is a rich and godly man. He even goes as far as to perform sacrifices for his kids just in case they may have committed a sin. Satan and God have a conversation regarding the righteousness of Job and Satan challenges God by saying:

Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.

The book is somewhat about how our righteousness should not be based upon our lot in life. But the major point of the book is that we do not always understand why things happen because we do not have the full picture. God is sovereign and we need to trust in him. There is a curtain being pulled back and we are given a brief (and very incomplete) look at the spiritual conflict that is happening between God and Satan.

One interpretive challenge that I see in the book is that it can seemingly paint this spiritual conflict as being a trivial game of chess where pawns are easily sacrificed. But even though we are given a brief glance behind the curtain we must always remember that we are not given the full context or all of the details of the interchange between God and Satan. There is a much longer history of this conflict and the events of Job (as well as the events in our lives) are only a very small portion of that conflict.

Admittedly it is also a very hard to understand conflict. One bit of understanding that Job does give us is a great foreshadowing of the coming of Christ. Job knows that there is a great Redeemer that will one day come and right all the wrongs.

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
     and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
     yet in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
     and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
     My heart faints within me!
               Job 19:25-27 

I do not fully understand why bad things happen. All I do know is that Jesus offers us the way to make it through them. One day Christ will come and set all things right.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Attributes of God and The Problem of Evil - Updated

(In my rush to finish before heading off to church I forgot to wrap up my line of thinking.)

God can be known through both his negative and positive attributes. Talking about God’s negative attributes is not talking about God’s “bad traits” rather it is explaining something about God in a way that says what he does not have in order to say something about what he does have as an attribute. For example, I have already said that he is eternal and by this we mean that he does not have a beginning or an end. God is also is omniscient—there is nothing that he does not know. God is also omnipotent—there is nothing that God cannot do. God is also fully sovereign over all things. There is nothing that God does not rule over. He sees all things and is ultimately in control of all things. God’s rule and control over the universe is also combined with his intimate relationship with creation. It is this combination that gives us what is called God’s providence; his maintaining and controlling of his plan for humanity and all of creation.

Yet it is very easy for me to forget that God is ultimately in control of everything that happens.

When it comes to the idea of God being in control there are two ends of the spectrum. The first end is that God has strictly determined everything (and I mean everything) that has or ever will happen. If this were the case then, among many other issues, all of our life experiences would be at best a mere illusion and at worst a deception. We either only have the perception of being in control of our decisions or God is deceiving us into believing we have control over them. Neither of these options fit into what we experience in life or what we read in the Scriptures.

The opposite end of the spectrum is that God is not in control at all. He merely set things in action and is sitting back to see what is going to happen. Each and every thing that happens is a surprise to both us and God. If this is the case then things like prayer are completely pointless in that God doesn’t intervene and everything is controlled by mere chance. Again, I don’t see this fitting into what we experience in life or read in the Scriptures.

That God is ultimately in control lands somewhere in between the two ends of the spectrum. He is in control but also allows us the freedom to make choices. God being ultimately in control does not mean that God is a puppet master pulling all the strings. It is good to remember that there is a difference between what God predestines to happen and what God allows to happen. There are certain things that God allows to happen that we just do not understand.

Why does God allow so much evil and suffering in the world? This question leads to one of the most difficult questions that Christians face: The Problem of Evil. Of course, as Brett Kunkle points out, the problem of evil is not just a difficult question for Christians but it is a difficult question for everyone.

The best we can say is that any suffering and evil that we encounter in the world is allowed by God for reasons that are beyond us. Yet in the overall scheme of life, Jesus Christ provides us the ultimate comfort. While in this life what he provides is the salve to get us through, ultimately and eternally he provides the cure for our suffering. One day Christ will return and set all things right.

For further reading/viewing on suffering and the problem of evil consider:

Greg Koukl’s articles A Good Reason For Suffering and How Christians Can Deal With Tragedy

Lee Strobel’s video Why Does God Allow Pain and Suffering?

William Lane Craig’s video Do Pain and Suffering Disprove God’s Existence?

Peter Kreeft’s article Suffering

Attributes of God and The Problem of Evil

See Updated Post.