Suffering Is Not Good Series

We have special seats as we watch the drama of Job unfold. God

has, by this opening chapter, invited us into the balcony to watch the

whole thing from a heavenly perspective. We get to see from the view

of God and Satan, and who knows how many millions of celestial

spectators. It is a sort of cosmic, SMILE YOUR ON CANDID

CAMERA, set up. We are all in on it, but Job has no idea what is

going on. We know that all of the dirty tricks of Satan are deliberately

designed so we can all see Job's reaction. We also know that when the

entertainment is all over Job will be rewarded for being a good sport

through it all.

In this analogy Satan is the Allen Funt of the spirit world who goes

about constantly trying to dream up new ways to reveal human

responses to trying situations. All of this could be great fun if God

would just call Satan off on account of unnecessary roughness. If

Satan would have been less violent the whole drama could be

enjoyable. Had he just plotted for all his possessions to be robbed,

that would have been an interesting thing to watch. But Satan pulled

no punches. He wiped Job out and without mercy saw to it that the

vast majority of his servants and all of his children were killed. This

spoils the whole show for those who are not sadistic.

Many have felt that God made a bad deal with Satan. Robert Frost

has God explaining later to Job: "I was just showing off to the devil."

Job responds, "That was very human of you." Carl Jung, the famous

psychiatrist, goes so far as to say that God felt guilty for what He let

Satan do to Job. The reason he says God sent His Son into the world

to die on the cross was because He felt so guilty about Job. The cross

was not only to atone for man's guilt, but for His own. This is

certainly as extreme a view as ever uttered, but what it reveals is man

questions the justice of God in allowing Satan to treat Job like He did.

It just does not set right with man that God would give this much

freedom to the forces of evil. He should have put more restricted

limits on Satan. This is man's biggest problem with evil. Why does God in His

sovereignty not stop evil from being so powerful. The feeling is, if God

is forced to permit evil, He is not all powerful, and if He freely permits

it, He is not all good. God is forced, it seems, to give up one or the

other of these attributes. Since all of Scripture however reveals God

to be both all powerful and all good, man is forced to try to figure out

how this can be when God permits evil to be as powerful as it is.

One of the answers to this dilemma is, God can allow evil to be

powerful if the end result is greater good. In other words, God is

justified in permitting any degree of evil that He, in His sovereign

power and wisdom, can turn to good. For example, God allows Satan

to buffet Paul with his thorn in the flesh, because that evil of suffering

will help Paul escape the greater evil of pride that could ruin his whole

ministry. Here is a clear case of God giving Satan freedom to do what

He could use for good. This means that the reason God does not

destroy Satan and cast him into the lake of fire is because, in a fallen

sinful world, the works of Satan can be used for the purpose of God.

God allows Satan freedom because it is useful for His own ultimate

goals. God is in control, therefore, and evil will not be able to do

anything that God cannot overcome, and make count for good in the

long run. This being the case, God is off the hook, and He is justified

in permitting evil.

This truth is easily perverted into error. Some conclude that evil is

not real. If evil is used for good, they reason that evil is really a part

of the good. If the good can only come by way of evil, then evil is

good. If good can come of evil then evil is not really bad, and,

therefore, not genuinely evil. This kind of thinking leads to the

Christian Science conclusion that evil is not real at all, but is the result

of false thinking. The Bible makes it clear, however, that evil is real,

and that it is bad and not good. God can use it for good, but it is evil