Did God bring this suffering into my life? Profound Insights from the Book of Job
- Dr. Wes Moore
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- 4 days ago
- 33 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
A believing friend’s wife, who is only in her mid-thirties, was recently diagnosed with brain cancer. I called my friend as soon as I heard to find out what was going on, encourage him, and pray for him.
At some point in the conversation, I said, “God has brought this trial into her life to bring about good.”
He interrupted me before I could elaborate. “Now, let me stop you right there,” he said. “Cancer happens because we live in a fallen world. God has nothing to do with it. He would never do something like that. He loves us too much.”
Merely implying that God has any role in bringing about the suffering of his people, especially something as devastating as cancer, is utter heresy to many believers, the moral equivalent of calling God the Devil. His love and goodness overrule this possibility. He responds to our suffering, but he has nothing to do with it coming about.
Is this correct? Is God’s involvement in suffering limited only to what he does after it occurs, or is he actually the initiator of our difficulties? And if he initiates, how do we understand this in light of his love and goodness?
One of the most profound treatments of suffering in the Bible is found in the book of Job. This nearly-forgotten volume recounts the experiences of a servant of God named Job who lost his children, property, and health in rapid succession and was forced to grapple with why a just, loving God would allow it.
The book provides deep insights into both the nature of human suffering and the Creator’s role in it.
In this article, we want to analyze Job to determine if God indeed does bring suffering into our lives or if his role is only to help us after it occurs. To that end, we will review the following:
An overview of Job’s experience
The primary cause of Job’s suffering
Why God brought suffering into Job’s life
Understanding God’s role in suffering
Responding to God’s role in suffering
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An Overview of Job's Experience
Job hailed from the land of Uz, an area to the east of Canaan, and was an extremely righteous man. The Bible said he was “blameless and upright, [one] who feared God and shunned evil” (1:1). He was so righteous, in fact, God said there was “none like him on the earth” (1:8).
He was also a man of material and natural blessings. He owned thousands of animals and an extensive staff of servants, and his family included seven sons and three daughters (1:2-3). The combination of his lavish prosperity and deep integrity made him one of “the greatest of all the people of the East” (1:3).
At some point, Job’s life became a point of interest far beyond the land of Uz. During an appearance of Satan in Heaven, God and Satan discussed Job’s life and blessings.
Satan expressed frustration at the degree to which God had protected him. In 1:10, he said, “Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.”
Satan then challenged God to test Job’s fidelity. In verse 11, he said, “But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
God accepted Satan’s challenge and granted him the authority to do whatever he wanted to Job, except take his life (1:12 and 2:6).
Satan was zealous for the task. Through the instruments of wicked men, fire, wind, and disease, he killed all of Job’s children, most of his servants, and the lion’s share of his herds (1:13-18), and he struck his entire body with debilitating, painful boils (2:7-8).
And, while Job did not initially curse God as Satan said he would (2:9-10), he did spiral into a period of intense mourning, depression, and doubt (all of chapter 3).
The remainder of the book details a series of conversations he had with four friends who had come to comfort him, and then with God himself, about the ultimate cause of his afflictions.
Chapters 4-31 recount an extensive argument he had with three of his friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar), chapters 32-37 detail the words of the fourth friend (Elihu), and chapters 38-42 provide God’s direct statements to Job and the final resolution of his situation.
Job Chapter Breakdown
Chapters | Content Covered |
|---|---|
1-3 | God and Satan discuss Job, Job loses everything, Job mourns the day he was born |
4-31 | Job debates his situation with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar |
32-37 | Elihu rebukes and instructs Job |
38-42 | God addresses Job; Job's situation is resolved |
The Primary Cause of Job's Suffering
So, who brought about Job’s suffering? There really are only three options: the sin-cursed world, Satan, or God. Let’s analyze each of these in turn.
The Three Possible Causes of Job’s Suffering
My friend would suggest all of this happened as a result of living in a sin-cursed, fallen world. Now certainly, death, loss of wealth, and disease exist because of the fall of Adam and the curse of death God placed upon humanity in the garden. However, the book of Job itself never attributes Job’s experience to the fall.
What about Satan? Is he the one ultimately responsible? After all, he is the one who brought evil men, fire, wind, and disease directly to bear upon Job’s life. While the book clearly articulates Satan’s role in Job’s suffering, interestingly enough, it never gives him credit for what happened.
No one in the book—including Satan himself—says “what Satan did to Job,” “how Satan tormented Job,” or anything to that effect. To the contrary, everyone points to God as the ultimate cause. In numerous places, the book boldly and unapologetically names the Creator as the one responsible for Job’s misery.
Don’t believe me? Consider the following as proof:
Job's comments
At the end of chapter 1, just after his children and servants were killed, Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (21). Here, the Lord is the one giving and taking.
After his health had failed, Job said to his wife, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (2:10). The good and adversity mentioned here have God as their source.
In 19:21, Job declares, “The hand of God has struck me!” Job sees God’s hand creating the blows, just as Satan did in 1:11 and 2:5.
Satan's comments
When trying to get God to strike Job’s family and possessions, Satan said, “Stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has” (1:11), and when trying to gain permission to strike Job’s health, he said, “Stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh” (2:5). It is God’s hand that strikes Job, not Satan’s.
God's comments
In his second conversation with Satan, God said, “You [Satan] incited Me against him” (2:3). God sees himself working here, not Satan.
The author's comments
At the very end of the book, the author notes how Job’s family and friends had come to “console and comfort him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him” (42:11). This adversity was brought about by the Lord and no one else.
God’s role can also be seen by noting who mentioned Job first in the conversation between God and Satan in Chapter 1. Most people would say Satan did, but that is not the case. The discussion went like this:
6, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
7, And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
8, Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”
What do we see here? We see God, not Satan, clearly introducing Job into the conversation. If God had not done this, Satan would never have challenged God to test Job, and he never would have received permission to attack him.
All of this pain and misery would have been avoided if God had simply not mentioned Job’s name. But he did, and as God, he knew exactly what he was doing and what would transpire because of it.
The primary cause of Job’s suffering, then, was God.
God as Primary Cause: A Conclusion Supported Throughout Scripture
Someone immediately objects, “But that only applies to this one example in Job. The Bible overall does not say God is behind all our trials.” Actually, it does. Let’s take a look at some examples of this teaching in Scripture.
The Law
Our examples from the first five books of the Bible begin with Joseph. Joseph suffered tremendously at the hands of his brothers. He was sold as a slave, falsely accused of a crime, and imprisoned in a foreign land. But behind all of this, he saw the proactive work of God.
In Genesis 45:5-8, he addressed his brothers, the very men who had sold him into slavery. Notice who he identifies as the ultimate cause of his trials:
But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.
And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God.
Three times in these four verses he says God sent him, not his brothers.
He speaks to his brothers again in Genesis 50:19-20. There, he says, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
He does not deny his brothers’ role in his experience, but he sees past them to the direct work of God in his life.
In Deuteronomy 32:39, God ascribes to himself the power to and practice of initiating trial, suffering, and even death: “Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.”
The Psalms
In Psalm 38 and 39, David identifies God as the one disciplining him through adversity. In Psalm 38:1-2, he wrote, “O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure! For Your arrows pierce me deeply, and Your hand presses me down.”
And in Psalm 39:7-11, he explained why he had not complained about the trial he was enduring: “I was mute, I did not open my mouth, because it was You who did it. Remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand.”
All told, David describes his adversity coming through God’s arrows, God’s hand, and God’s plague.
Psalm 119:75 provides one of the most direct connections in the Bible between the suffering of the child of God and the direct hand of God. The writer declares, “I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.” Here, he explicitly states that God had afflicted him.
The Prophets
Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the entire Southern Kingdom in 586 BC, Jeremiah penned the book of Lamentations to mourn what he had seen and experienced. In 3:27-33, he commented on the source of his sorrow:
It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God has laid it on him; let him put his mouth in the dust. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and be full of reproach.
For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
A few verses later, he continues:
Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? (3:37-38)
Some years before, Isaiah understood the destruction of the Southern Kingdom and the subsequent return of the people through the lens of God’s direct action. In 45:7, he records the Lord’s words: “I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.”
The prophets also saw God’s active involvement in the destruction of the Northern Kingdom. In Amos 3:6, the prophet wrote, “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?”
Hosea sounded a similar tone in 6:1 of his writing when he said, “Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.”
The New Testament
The New Testament directly attributes the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ to the hand of God. In Acts 2:23, Peter declares that Jesus was “delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God [to be] taken by lawless hands…crucified, and put to death.”
Later in 4:27-28, he returns to the theme in prayer to God, saying, “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.”
And who could forget the sober statements of the writer of Hebrews regarding God’s painful discipline upon his own. Consider his words from 12:5-10:
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” …
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
The Hebrew believers were being persecuted by the Jewish religious authorities, not God, but the author says the Lord had chastened them, rebuked them, and scourged them.
Interestingly, Jesus indicated he did the same thing in Revelation 3:19 when he said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.”
Bigger Questions
It is difficult to avoid the truth that God is in the background, orchestrating and managing trials for his people. But this creates a whole list of other questions. Why would God do this? How do we reconcile this with the fact that he is good and loving? And how should this impact how I view my own suffering?
The remainder of this article will take up these questions. Let’s begin by considering why God brought suffering into Job’s life in the first place.
Why God Brought Suffering Into Job's Life
The depth and severity of Job’s suffering gives even the most devout of believers pause. God allowing a single loved one to die is one thing, but for him to permit the sudden loss of seven children, numerous employees, wealth, and health is quite another.
Yet we know God, and somewhere inside we know he has a good reason for everything he does, including what he did to Job. So, what is it?
The reason God sent such suffering into Job’s life is that he saw things in Job that needed correcting. As righteous as Job was, he was not perfect. God, who sees into every corner of the heart, had identified error within Job so strong and well-hidden that extreme measures were needed to root it out.
Where Job Fell Short
An analysis of the book reveals two errors within Job. The first was the sin of pride and the second was a set of misconceptions regarding God’s character.
The Sin of Pride
Job’s integrity, wealth, and renown had caused a strain of pride to build in him that God could allow to go no further. Over time, he had elevated his estimation of his own righteousness and diminished his estimation of God’s.
The intense trials he faced, and the doubts they created within him about his Creator’s actions, caused him to openly question God’s integrity.
He even challenged God to appear with him in court so he could argue his case. Here are several examples of Job doing this:
Job 9:32. He hints at this first here: “For He is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him, and that we should go to court together.”
Job 10:1-2. In the next chapter, he explains what he would say, “I will give free course to my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; show me why You contend with me.”
Job 13:3 & 23:3-7. By chapter 13, he is no longer disguising his request. “But I would speak to the Almighty,” he declares, “and I desire to reason with God.” In 23, his prideful delusion had gone so far he believes he would actually prevail against God in court.
Think about the ego it would take to believe your sense of righteousness and judgment could exceed the Creator’s. Imagine the hubris needed to convince yourself you could prove God wrong in a court of law.
And yet this is precisely what Job did. The text even says this expressly in 32:2, “Then the wrath of Elihu…was aroused against Job…because he justified himself rather than God.”
Trial Revealed Job's Sin
It is important to note here that the trial did not create this arrogance; it simply revealed it. Under the protection of God’s blessings, Job had not faced a situation where his pride would be revealed so clearly. There was no reason for him to rise up against God when God had so highly favored him.
But when those blessings were stripped away, his reputation sullied, and his reservoir of strength eliminated, what was truly in his heart was made known—he had come to believe he was near God-like in his righteousness.
And this is why God set his suffering in motion, to cause that pride to come out into the open so it could be seen for what it was and corrected.
God's Correction of Pride
And correct it he did. At the end of the book, God actually appears to Job. He does so out of a storm (38:1). Curiously, he begins his comments, not by challenging Job for questioning his righteousness, but by providing example after example of his majesty over creation.
He begins by noting that he “laid the foundations of the earth” and has dominion over the oceans (38:16-18), light (38:19), and stars (38:31-33). He then describes his supremacy over the animal kingdom (all of 39), including the Behemoth (40:15-24), the largest land animal he created, and the Leviathan (all of 42), the largest sea creature.
God's Approach to Humbling Job
Action | Text |
|---|---|
Appear directly through a storm | 38:1 |
Demonstrate his dominion over the oceans, light, and stars | 38:16-18, 19, and 31-33 |
Demonstrate his supremacy over the animal kingdom, including Behemoth and Leviathan | 39, 40:14-24, and 42 |
Mock Job's age and understanding | 38:4, 18, and 21 |
At various places, he even paused to mock Job. In 38:4, after he asked, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” he quipped, “Tell Me, if you have understanding.” In 38:18, he repeated the challenge: “Tell Me, if you know all this.” And in 38:21, he taunted, “Do you know it, because you were born then, or because the number of your days is great?”
Job Humbled at Last
It was a beat down of cosmic proportions. God’s regal presence and thunderous oratory battered Job until he was barely able to speak.
At the midpoint of God’s comments, he acknowledged, “Behold, I am vile” (40:4), and when God’s rebuke was complete, he confessed, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:5-6).
The man who said he would give free course to his complaint manages only 130 words when faced with the immortal Creator, and all of those were words of repentance, contrition, and self-loathing. On the contrary, it was God who had free course in this matter, uttering more than 2,500 words from his seat as Judge of the Earth.
Misconceptions about God’s Character
This trial also brought out errors in Job’s understanding of God. This was not a sin that God was trying to root out, per se, but it was clearly his design to manifest Job’s theological errors and correct them. At least five can be identified from the book.
Firstly, Job had an insufficient view of God’s power.
This can be seen in God’s response. As mentioned previously, the Lord repeatedly pressed the issue of his sovereign, unchallenged power over the entire creation, including the earth, the animal kingdom, and the heavens.
Job did not miss the point. When God’s comments had ended, Job responded by saying, “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You” (42:2).
Perhaps Job’s trials made him wonder if God had the power to stop what had happened to him or to heal him from the trauma he had experienced. By the end of the book, he harbored these doubts no longer.
Second, Job did not fully comprehend the complexity of God’s plans.
His words in the latter half of 42:2 just quoted hint at this. He said, “I know…no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.” This is an interesting statement, given what he had been through. The first part, “I know You can do everything,” fits nicely with the theme of humbling him. But why mention his purposes?
Job’s complaints reveal a questioning of God’s plan. “Why are you doing this?” he likely said in his heart. “I don’t see any reason you would do such things to me.” His mind could not work out why God would act as he had, so he concluded God had made a mistake in doing what he did.
God’s response pointed to the incredible complexity of his dealings with his creation. He speaks of his design of the laws of the heavenly bodies (38:33), the physics of light (38:23), the means of flight (39:26), and the consciousness of the human mind (38:36). He also highlights his unmatched ability to humble every proud man and grind every wicked heart into dust (40:9-13).
This undoubtedly shed light on Job’s situation. Though God did not mention him specifically, the implication was clear: “I have deep, intricate plans for my creation and my enemies; I have the same plans for you, so trust me.”
Job also had a less than adequate understanding of God’s perfect moral integrity, including his justice.
In 16:11 and 17, he complains, “God has delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over to the hands of the wicked. … Although no violence is in my hands, and my prayer is pure.”
Job's Misconceptions
Misconception | Text | Quote |
|---|---|---|
God's Power | 42:2a | “I know that You can do everything." |
Complexity of God's Plans | 42:2b | “I know…no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.” |
God's Perfect Moral Integrity | 16:11 & 17 | “God has delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over to the hands of the wicked. … Although no violence is in my hands, and my prayer is pure.” |
Both Elihu and God mention this when rebuking Job. In 34:5, Elihu says, “For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, but God has taken away my justice.’” And in 40:8, God asks, “Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?”
Elihu explains why Job is wrong in this. In 34:10-12, he says:
Far be it from God to do wickedness, and from the Almighty to commit iniquity. For He repays man according to his work, and makes man to find a reward according to his way. Surely God will never do wickedly, nor will the Almighty pervert justice.
God follows in 40:11-14, where he highlights his perfect record of punishing the wicked and saving the righteous. He declares,
[Can you] look on everyone who is proud, and humble him. [Can you] look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low; tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, bind their faces in hidden darkness. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you.
Whatever God had done to Job, it was most certainly not unjust.
Development Through Suffering
The lesson of Job is unmistakable—God uses suffering to develop his people. But does the rest of Scripture support this? Absolutely. From start to finish, the Bible is consistent in its declaration that one of God’s favorite tools in the development of his people is trial.
In many cases, the metaphor of fire is used when discussing the subject. The book of Malachi presents one of the most memorable uses of this metaphor. In chapter 3, he reveals a prophecy about the coming of Christ, a time when he will sit as a “refiner of silver.” Verse 3 reads:
In ancient metal working, metal ore would be placed in a cauldron (a large pot) which would then be heated over a fire. As the ore melted, the impurities (the non-precious parts of the ore) would melt and float to the surface.
A man called “the refiner” would sit near the cauldron and scrape off the impurities as they came to the top. He would also turn up the heat as needed to further refine the metal.
As the process went on, he would peek into the cauldron to judge the purity of the product. When he could see his reflection on the surface, he knew it was as pure as it could be and his job was complete.
This is the process Malachi describes in his writing. The silver is the people, the refiner is the Lord Jesus, and the fire is suffering.
This method of perfecting believers is spoken of in many other places. Consider a few examples:
Isaiah 48:10 reads, “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”
Zechariah 13:9 says, “I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.”
Psalm 60:10 notes, “For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined.”
Even Job recognizes this process, though he does not yet see how it applies to his situation. “But He knows the way that I take,” he declares. “When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
In Hebrews 12:5-11, the New Testament presents suffering as God’s instrument of development, as well. Verses 5-6 are particularly relevant: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”
What other writers called “fire,” the author of Hebrews calls “chastening,” a word meaning “training and instruction,” and “scourging,” a term for the brutal beating Christ endured before his crucifixion.
This scourging is to allow believers to be “partakers of [Christ’s] holiness,” in other words, to be made to mirror his moral and spiritual perfections. (More about this later in the article.)
Understanding God's Role in Suffering
Now, let’s move on to the deeper questions this truth draws out. Saying God is behind our trials may seem to contradict the Bible’s teaching about God being good and loving, as well as its clear declarations that he is not the author of evil. How do we deal with the tension in these ideas?
Primary vs. Instrumental Causes
The first distinction that needs to be made is the distinction between primary and instrumental causes. A primary cause is the ultimate driver of an action; an instrumental cause is the means by which the action is accomplished.
Think about how this paragraph is being written. In a sense, the keyboard is the cause. It is sending the electrical impulses of the letters to a computer, which then records them in a file. But is that the real driver of these words?
No, I am. I produced the thoughts that these words communicate and then typed into the keyboard. In this scenario, I am the primary cause, and the keyboard is the instrumental cause.
Primary & Instrumental Causes Defined
Cause Type | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
Primary | The ultimate driver of an action | Writer, Painter |
Instrumental | The means by which the action is accomplished | Keyboard, Paint Brush |
This is what we see in Job’s situation. The means by which Job’s children are killed, his wealth stolen, and his health destroyed is Satan; he takes the direct actions that lead to Job’s suffering. However, he is only an instrument.
Behind him, as we have seen, is God, the ultimate driver of the situation. This is why Job would say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away” (1:21), that he must “accept adversity from God” (2:10), and the “hand of God has struck me” (19:21). This is also why the author concludes that “the Lord had brought [adversity] upon him,” not Satan (42:11).
Examples of the Primary/Instrumental Cause Dynamic
We see this primary/instrumental dynamic in the examples used earlier when discussing the Old Testament showing God as the primary cause of trial. Here are several:
Joseph in Genesis 50: Notice how Joseph refers to both the primary and instrumental causes when addressing what his brothers had done to him: “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Here, we have both “you,” the instrument, and “God,” the primary.
David in Psalm 38. There, he says “[God’s] arrows pierce me deeply” and his “hand presses me down” (2), but later he identifies the instrument of these divine afflictions: “those who…lay snares for me,” who “seek my hurt,” “speak of destruction,” and “plan deception all the day long” (12).
Jeremiah in Lamentations 1:5: Jeremiah mentions both the agents responsible for Jerusalem’s destruction, her human “adversaries” and “enemies,” and the ultimate cause of her punishment, the Lord: “Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; for the Lord has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.”
Is God unrighteous to do this?
But is this immoral? Is it wrong for God to use instrumental causes who are evil or whose actions are evil? Is God playing some kind of moral hide and seek here, getting other people to do his dirty work so he can claim to be “holy”?
Moreover, how could a loving God do such a thing in the first place? Trials entering our lives by chance is one thing; God being the driving force behind them is quite another. Let’s take up these questions now.
A Righteous God and Evil Instruments
How do we explain a holy God using a wicked instrument? What we must see here is that even though God is using them, their actions are fully their own.
In the case of Job, Satan’s response to God’s question—from challenging him to hurt Job to attacking Job once he had gained permission—was what was in his heart to do. God did not have to put it there.
In fact, it is clear from the context that Satan had already tried to harm Job. When God asked him, “Have you considered my servant Job” (1:8), he responded by noting the hedge God had placed around him (1:10).
How could he have known there was a hedge if he had not tried to break it? God simply used what this free agent already desired to do to accomplish his purposes.
Free Choices Under God's Control
It should be noted, however, that even the free choices of rational beings are under God’s full control. Proverbs 21:1 states this unequivocally: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” Here God is controlling the will of the most powerful men in the world, kings.
The Bible gives excellent examples of this remarkable ability of the Creator. In Ezra 7, God used this power to bless his people, working in King Artaxerxes to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Ezra writes, “Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart” (27).
In 2 Chronicles 25, he used this power to discipline them. When Amaziah, king of Judah, received counsel not to go to war with Israel, he rejected it, leading to his death and Judah’s defeat.
The text gives the reason for this choice by the king: “But Amaziah would not heed, for it came from God, that He might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought the gods of Edom” (25).
God is also ultimately responsible for the good works his people choose to accomplish. Paul noted this in Philippians 2:13 when he said, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” So, we have God at work inside of us, guiding our will so we will act in accordance with his.
Verses Showing God's Control of Free Choices
Verse | Text |
|---|---|
Proverbs 21:1 | The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. |
Ezra 7:27 | Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart. |
2 Chronicles 25:20 | But Amaziah would not heed, for it came from God, that He might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought the gods of Edom. |
Philippians 2:13 | For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. |
But doesn’t this make us puppets? No. God can guide human and angelic responses without ever violating their inward desires. This is a transcendent power only he has. Ultimately, we cannot fully understand or explain it, but the Bible nevertheless reveals it to us.
A Loving God and Sending Trial
How do we understand the fact that the God who loves us would cause us to suffer? How do we reconcile these apparently contradictory teachings? Before I answer this question, I need to remind you of a few truths that provide needed context.
The Broader Context of God’s Acts
First, God has the right to do whatever he wants with his creatures.
As Arthur W. Pink said, “God is God in fact as well as in name.” He is the Supreme Being, the Creator, and as such he can do whatever he pleases with what he has made.
Paul taught this when he referred to us as clay and the Lord as the potter. “Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” he asked in Romans 9:21.
Jeremiah used the same analogy when arguing that God had the right to destroy Israel for her sins or relent if she repented. Consider his words from Jeremiah 18:5-11:
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
“The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. “And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.
“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”’”
God invites our questions and patiently bears with our complaints, but we must never forget that we have no actual right to challenge what he does with us. If he decides to send trial into our lives, he has ever right to do it. Case closed.
Secondly, the blame for the existence of suffering falls upon us.
Our father Adam sinned with full knowledge of the consequences, and each of us follows in his footsteps every day. As a result of this sin, God has righteously and justly levied a punishment of moral, natural, and physical death upon us. If we had not done what we did, there would be no evil in existence in the first place. All suffering ultimately comes back to us.
The Important Context of God's Use of Suffering
Context Point | Explanation |
|---|---|
God has the right to do whatever he wants with his creatures. | As Creator, God is perfectly justified to do as he pleases with what he has made. |
The blame for the existence of suffering falls upon us. | The suffering God uses would not even exist if we had not sinned. |
We all deserve greater misery than we experience. | Because we have earned the punishment of hell, we should see our earthly suffering as less than we deserve. |
We are all already going to suffer, and we are all already going to die. | The types of trials God sends our way are common to our life experience. |
As a result, we all deserve greater misery than we experience.
When we evaluate our suffering, we start from the wrong vantage point. We assume we are entitled to complete happiness and joy, a life free of anxiety, pain, and worry. From there, we look down at our present situation and bemoan how far from this ideal we are. But this is not the true nature of things.
In point of fact, we have earned the lowest hell, an eternal life of misery and pain, because of our sin. Sin is a crime against God, a crime for which the punishment is never ending. And because we all have sinned, we are all rightly deserving of that punishment.
The proper way to look at our trials, then, is to look up at them from hell. Given what we truly deserve, the things we suffer here are light and reflect the mercy of God already given us.
Finally, consider this: We are all already going to suffer, and we are all already going to die.
God’s actions do not occur in a vacuum. It’s not like if he did not send suffering our way, we would live forever in utter bliss.
Because of Adam’s sin, and subsequently our own, we live in a world of suffering and walk around with a death sentence over our heads.
In reality, Job’s children were going to die one day, his wealth would likely fade, and his health would eventually fail. The things God brought into his life would eventually befall him anyway. This is true for us, as well.
It is against this backdrop that God steps upon the stage. To understand his actions properly, therefore, and to overcome the confusion those actions engender, we must always keep this backdrop in mind.
When these truths are properly accounted for, it becomes clear that God’s use of trial in our lives is an act of love.
Trial as an Act of Love
In the face of a world rightly engulfed in suffering, God steps in to make it his servant. Instead of allowing it to destroy his people, he forces it to bless them. Even death must bow before his majestic power and purpose. But how?
Consider the two ends of suffering.
First, there is death. Some trials do not have a happy ending in this life. God’s people get cancer and never recover, endure car wrecks that are fatal, or experience work accidents that lead to the grave.
Second, there is restoration. The trial is intense for a period but eventually passes. The chemo works, the wreck only breaks a bone, the accident simply leaves a scar. The clouds pass, and the sun shines again.
One may think that only the second is a true act of love on God’s behalf. But that is not the case. In both instances, he demonstrates the great love he has for us. Let me show you how.
In restoration, we see his love in two ways. Most obviously, we see it in the blessing of restoration itself.
Think of Job’s situation. When God’s purpose in the trial had been accomplished, he gave Job more precious children, restored his fortune, and gave him back his health. The Bible even says, “Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning” (42:12).
Types of Joy Following Trial
Type of Joy | Source |
|---|---|
Temporary Situational Changes | The end of the trial, when the burden has been lifted and thanksgiving abounds |
Lasting Spiritual Changes | The permanent changes in us that create Christlikeness and additional fruit-bearing capability |
We have all experienced this, whether in a minor trial or a great one. The pain fades, the debt is paid, the loved one returns from the hospital. The hand of God lifts from our backs, and we feel a sense of overwhelming joy and thankfulness.
But the deeper joy is not found in the temporal change of circumstance; it is found in the lasting changes he has worked in us.
As mentioned previously, God develops us through trials. His goal is not to make us happy by making life easy, but to make us joyful by making us like himself, that is to say, like his Son Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29).
The Deeper Joy of Job
Let’s go back to Job. Earlier I talked about why God sent trial into Job’s life in the first place, to eliminate the pride that had grown in him and to correct the misconceptions he had about his Creator. Now, think about the misery Job experienced because these two things were in his life.
Pride increases our dependence on ourselves and causes us to look inwardly for hope, support, and deliverance. But we do not have the power to produce those things. So in the end, pride only leads to discouragement, loneliness, and oppression.
And what about the misconceptions Job had about God’s power, plans, and integrity? Did this harm him in any way? You need look no further than the book itself to see the trauma this caused in him.
Think about how miserable he was to have cursed the day he was born (chapter 3). Imagine the inner turmoil he felt when he concluded that God hated him (9:22-24). And sense the fear that filled him when he determined that God was no longer with him to help him (7:3-10).
Were these true? Of course, not. But Job believed them anyway, and much of the emotional trauma he endured was a result of these errant views.
The Incredible Favor of God
When God saw these things in Job and determined to correct them, he did Job an incredible favor. He was willing to put him through this tremendous ordeal to rid him of these albatrosses and bless him in the end. The lessons he learned would benefit him for the rest of his life.
God did for him what he encourages us to do for one another when needed, to show our love and faithfulness by wounding our friends (Proverbs 27:6).
But Job was not the only one who benefited from what God did. The blessings of God’s work in his life allowed him to be fruitful in the lives of others. Job lived for another 140 years after this trial, and no doubt told the story and repeated the lessons of it to everyone he met.
This brought glory to God, who had lovingly and purposely done this to Job, it prevented others from making the mistakes he made, and it helped them understand God’s purposes in their own trials.
This fruitfulness continues even today because God saw fit to preserve Job’s ordeal in the Bible. The fact that you are reading this article proves God’s love for you in that he is allowing you to benefit from the love he showed to his servant Job.
Death as an Act of Love
But what about death? How could death due to trial be an act of love on God’s part? Because through death we go to be with God.
Paul had a great inward struggle where this is concerned. He wanted to live, continue his ministry, and produce fruit for Christ. But he was also drawn by a powerful urge to leave this world and be with the Lord.
In Philippians 1:21, he stated that dying would improve his plight: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Two verses later, he gave words to the inner struggle he faced, saying, “For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”
The Old Testament speaks of the blessedness of leaving this world, as well. In Isaiah 57:1, the prophet reveals why God sometimes takes his servants before their time. He observes, “The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart; merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil.”
The word “evil” here means “distress, misery, or calamity.” It reveals that sometimes God takes his servants home so they do not have to continue in this brutal, miserable world. They are allowed an early entrance into that place Paul longed for. An early death for the believer is an act of mercy flowing from God’s love.
Dying and the Suffering of Loved Ones
Before I leave this point, let me address the issue of the loved ones we leave behind. Depending on your stage of life, the concern you have for what will happen to your spouse, children, or grandchildren may be different.
As of this writing, my four children are all grown, so I do not worry about them as much. My death would certainly be devastating, but not in the same way it would if they were all children. My wife, however, still needs me to provide income, love, and support. If I died, it would create a tremendous trial for her.
So, how do we think about the blessing of dying when we have people who will suffer if we do? Like every other aspect of trial, we must learn from this, as well.
We must remember that they, like us, are God’s creation; he loves them as much as he loves us and is as committed to them as he is to us. If he chooses to take you early, he is also choosing to give them the trial of losing you.
Think of Job’s children. Maybe they worked for Job on his farm. Maybe they worried that if they died, their father would suffer not only emotionally but also financially.
Perhaps they even prayed to God about this. But God chose to take them anyway because he had a purpose in it for Job, a purpose he used to develop and bless him.
It is the same way with you. If God chooses to take you and grant you the mercy of heaven, he has a purpose in it for your loved ones, and he will use it to develop and bless them.
And when you actually see his face, the measure of doubt you hold about this will evaporate, for you will truly understand who it is that loves them.
Responding to God's Role in Suffering
Now that we have a more thorough understanding of God’s ways in suffering, let’s talk about how we should respond during our own trials. What lessons do we take from Job’s situation? Let me briefly discuss three.
Three Ways to Respond
The first thing you should see is that this trial is evidence that God is active in your life.
This situation, whatever it is, is not a random tragedy that has befallen you. It has been purposed in the mind of God for your development.
None of us is without sin or error, and it is highly likely that we have much more that needs to be addressed than did righteous Job.
So, when that blow comes—whether it’s cancer, divorce, financial hardship, or something else—recognize it, not as a sign that God hates you or is treating you unfairly, but that he is working on you.
Second, focus on learning, not doubting or complaining.
Ask yourself, “What is God teaching me through this?” One way to answer this question is to pay close attention to the areas where you feel anxiety, worry, fear, or confusion.
To go back to the example of the refiner from Malachi 3, this is the impurity in you beginning to come to the top. Learning from trial requires us to become expert analyzers of our innermost selves.
So, dig into the negative feelings you have as your trial unfolds, study those issues in the Bible, and pray to God for grace to overcome them.
On the flip side, avoid doubting or complaining. Remember what Job did and steer away from it. If you feel these building inside you (and most of us will), recognize that God is bringing them to the surface so he can correct them.
Doubting and complaining stem from a lack of trust in God’s wisdom, provision, power, and love. To grow out of them, you must increase your knowledge of God in these areas.
Finally, have hope.
Meditate not only on Job’s suffering but also on his restoration. This is just as much a lesson of the book as anything else. God is good, and he will only send the trial you need to accomplish the good he has planned for your life.
He will be with you in this, teaching, strengthening, and guiding you. He will not abandon you, even though you may not see him clearly through the fog. And, as we’ve already learned, remember: this will end well for you, even if it means your death.
My Friend’s Statement
Given what we have learned from the book of Job, was my friend right in his assertion about God’s role in his wife’s cancer? Does the Bible back up his claim that “God has nothing to do with it. He would never do something like that. He loves us too much.”
While it is certainly understandable that he would respond this way, and we have great compassion for the terrible weight he has been forced to bear, on this point, he is in fact wrong.
God has purposed, ordered, and brought this trial to her, him, and their family. And he has done it to develop and bless them in the end, regardless of how the treatment goes. That is the real hope in this situation, and we pray he and millions of believers in similar circumstances will recognize these truths and be encouraged by them.
