Pastor's Perspective

The Patience of Job
Recently I preached a sermon on “Spiritual Warfare” for which I used as an Old Testament text Job 1:6-22. This passage tells the story of Satan’s accusations against Job before God and his attack on Job’s property and family. It is just a part of the introduction to the book of Job and is followed in Chapter 2 by a second round of accusations and attacks against Job, this time affecting Job’s own physical health. I was using the passage only to illustrate the spiritual warfare going on between God and Satan and how it affected Job, and also affects us. I was not attempting to deal with the deeper issue that is the central theme of the book of Job. That issue is known in theological language as “theodicy” – the question of reconciling the justice of God with the fact of human suffering, especially the suffering of the “innocent.”

In Greek philosophy and much of later western thought, including the way the issue is often dealt with today, there are three possible assumptions that can be called into question: (1) that God is all-powerful, (2) that God is just, and (3) that man can be innocent. Then theodicy becomes a question of which of those assumptions to deny. To deny the first assumption is to say that God is not all-powerful and therefore has no control over the suffering that occurs in the world. Alternatively, one can say there is no God. This is the way the question is handled in several popular books of recent years. To deny the second assumption is to say that God is not just – that there is a “dark side” to God. This is the idea of “the Force” in the Star Wars movies, a power which is morally ambiguous and is equally responsible for good and evil. It is also the philosophy underlying much New Age thought and other belief systems that deny any objective standard of good and evil or of morality.

The theology of Israel and of the author of Job is illustrated in the attitudes of Job and his “friends,” with whom he debates the problem of evil and suffering. The first two assumptions are held absolutely firm. God is both all-powerful and perfectly just and good. On the other hand, the third assumption is recognized as false. Man is never completely innocent. That leads to the logical conclusion that every person’s suffering is indicative of the measure of his guilt in the eyes of God. Jobs “friends” advocate this position to the fullest, calling upon Job to acknowledge the sinfulness for which his suffering is the just punishment. Job does not claim to be free of all sin, but he denies the extent of wickedness that was suggested by his “friends” and by the logic of their simplistic theology.

What is logical and imperative in the abstract is often not helpful in actual human experience. There are people like Job who, though not sinless, are upright and good, and yet who suffer bitterly while others of less upright character appear to escape such trials. For such situations, the simplistic theology of sin and judgment offers neither consolation nor guidance. The understanding of the role of Satan described in the first two chapters helps us to realize that there is an enemy who seeks to undermine the relationship between God and man. Even so, questions arise as to the leeway that God allows to Satan.

The book of Job does not answer the question of theodicy, at least not in a way that satisfies human logic. The almighty and holy God remains a mystery to us. We cannot discern his purposes in allowing suffering. We can only acknowledge his sovereignty and seek his comfort in our trials, knowing that his love revealed to suffering mankind in Jesus Christ is greater than all that the enemy can throw against us.

J.F.P.

Pastor Potter has Office Hours in the Prayer Room on Wednesdays from 2 to 4 p.m.

Prayer Room phone number: 908 995-4531.

Pastor's phone 1-800-273-8349 PIN 43, or (cell) 908-303 6657.