SERIES: The Book of Job
God in the Dock
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: The Court of Heaven has just been called to order. The Judge sits on His throne and listens as His various messengers and assistants report on their recent activities. Suddenly an intruder makes an entrance. A hush falls upon the entire proceedings. The others recognize this intruder because there was a time when he was a welcome Advocate at the Court. But he has long since abandoned the Judge and has established his own lucrative business encouraging defendants to avoid the Judge’s Court altogether and to seek other avenues to redress their grievances. In fact, he turns prosecutor against anyone who decides to cast himself upon the mercy of the Judge and does everything within his power to get the Judge to rule the person “guilty.” So, you can see how the Intruder earned two of his titles, “The Accuser” and “The Adversary.”
You can see also why a hush has fallen on the courtroom and why all eyes turn to the Judge to see what He will do. To everyone’s surprise the Judge remains calm and simply asks the Intruder, in a way that makes one think He already knows the answer, “Where do you come from?” The Adversary answers, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”
(If I may take an aside here, I should explain to you that this Adversary has a unique modus operandi. His main sphere of influence is the earth, but he also has occasional access to the Court of Heaven. Why the Judge allows this I couldn’t tell you, but I do know that it’s not going to last forever. As a matter of fact, the Intruder doesn’t have nearly the freedom of access to the Judge’s Courtroom that he once had, and a day is coming when he will have no access at all, for he’s going to be chained with a huge chain and cast into the Bottomless Pit. For a thousand years he will be incarcerated there until the Judge lets him out on probation. No sooner will he get out than he will go right back to his old ways, so the Judge will finally throw him into the Lake of Fire. That is what we learn from the Book of Revelation.)
But I’m getting way ahead of things here. We were talking about the fact that the Adversary’s main sphere of influence is the earth, the habitation of men. When he answers the Judge that he has been “roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it,” it almost sounds like he was out for a friendly stroll. Far from it. The fact of the matter is he walks around like a roaring lion seeking people to devour. He never goes anywhere without the ultimate aim of diverting them from the Judge and instead getting them to sign contracts for his services.
But back to the Courtroom. Everyone expects the Judge to denounce the Adversary and throw him out. But instead, he does a very strange thing. He begins to brag about one of His servants on the earth. Listen to the Judge: “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.” It’s as though the Judge is challenging the Adversary by showing him a trophy and daring him to match it. The Adversary doesn’t say a word for what is probably only a moment or two but seems much longer in the deafening silence. One can almost see him straining to remember something in Job’s past of which he might accuse him and thus refute the Judge’s claim.
Suddenly it’s as though a light comes on in his head, and when he speaks it is immediately apparent that he has adopted an entirely different strategy. Instead of accusing Job of wrong actions, he has decided to impugn his motives. “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan sneers. “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 stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
What a brilliant maneuver for the Adversary! God has put Job on the witness stand (unbeknownst to Job, of course), confident that Job would be acquitted of any accusations the Adversary might bring against him. But now suddenly Job is no longer alone in the seat of the accused, but the Judge himself is there with him, accused of rigging the trial and paying off the witness. God is in the Dock!
Friends, have you ever before read of the trials of Job and realized, in a very real sense, that it is ultimately God who is on trial? I do not intend to be sacrilegious when I say that, for I know full well that God has every right and all power to throw Satan out of His presence and rule all his accusations out of order, period! But the fact is He doesn’t. He condescends to accept the Adversary’s challenge, and the rest of the book details the results of this Great Debate between God and Satan. There is a reason, of course, why God allows all this to happen, and it’s not to prove anything to Satan—I believe it’s to help us learn how to deal with unexplained suffering in our lives.
I see in the account of Job’s trials in chapters 1 & 2 five key stages. His trials are:
initiated by God,
instigated by Satan,
allowed and controlled by God,
executed by Satan,
and, finally, accepted by Job.
As you have perhaps noticed from the Scripture references in the outline, each of these points is made twice in our story—once in chapter 1 and again in chapter 2.
Job’s trials are initiated by God. (1:6-8; 2:1-3)
I guess I had read the opening chapters of Job dozens of times before noticing that God is the one who initiated the trials of Job, not Satan. I somehow had in my mind that God was minding His own business when the Devil came and accused Job of being good only because he was rich. But that’s not what happened. God is the one who brought Job into the conversation—just out of the clear blue. “Have you considered my servant Job?” I’ve heard a lot of sermons, and probably preached a few, about how great it would be to have God boast about you and say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” But now I’m not so sure. Had Job known what was about to happen, he might well have asked God to brag about someone else.
But in all seriousness, there’s an important theological problem that results from the fact that Job’s trials are initiated and allowed by God. Let me attempt to explain it this way: The Bible tells us that God is good and that He is all‑powerful. But if God is good, He would not want His children to suffer; and if He is omnipotent, then He has the power to keep them from suffering. Yet they still suffer. Therefore, God must not be good, or He must not be all‑powerful.
Now in an effort to escape the horns of this theological dilemma, many unwitting Christians have opted for a sort of cosmic dualism. They suggest that God is responsible for all the good in the world, while Satan is responsible for all the evil. The two of them are currently involved in a sort of Mexican stand‑off, but hopefully God will eventually win out and good will triumph. That, friends, is not what the Bible teaches.
We may think that through such manipulation we can save God’s honor and blame the existence of all suffering and all evil on the Devil, but the Bible makes it clear that God has been in charge all along. He never has been stymied by the Devil. By His permissive will He is sovereignly in control of everything that happens in this world. I’m not saying He’s morally responsible for it all, but nothing happens without His permission. And there are times when God not only allows suffering but even initiates it. God brought up Job’s name, knowing full well what the end result would be. I’d like to suggest, friends, that we get out of the business of trying to save God’s honor. He’s perfectly able to maintain His own self‑respect, and He will do so in startling fashion later in this book. Let God be God.
There’s one other point I would like to make regarding God’s initiation of Job’s trials. And that comes in the form of a very practical and personal question, “What would the Lord have said had He brought up my name or yours instead of Job’s?” “Have you considered my servant, Mike? For there is no one like him on the earth.” So far, so good. But what next? How would he complete that thought? And what would Satan’s response likely be? Would it be, “You gotta be kidding!? With servants like that, You don’t need any enemies. I could retire!” Think about it.
Now while Job’s trials were initiated, at least indirectly, by God, they were instigated by Satan.
Job’s trials are instigated by Satan. (1:9-11; 2:4-5)
It was clearly the Adversary who hatched the plot and provoked the sore trials to which Job was subjected. Satan contends that Job’s piety is all a front. He only serves God for what he gets in return. Take the pay away and he’ll quit the job. And not only that, but God Himself is guilty because He has rigged the rules of the game. He has bribed Job. Philip Yancey suggests that Satan was the first great behaviorist, for he claims that Job was conditioned to love God.[i] Take away the rewards, and his faith will crumble. Here are Satan’s actual words: “Stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
Job’s trials are allowed and controlled by God. (1:12; 2:6)
Satan’s demands carry no compulsion for God. But from His own sovereign good pleasure and in accord with His own wisdom, He decides to permit the trial of Job. Verse 12 says, “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.'”
Friends, there are two very important points in this verse. The first is that Satan was powerless against Job without God’s permission. And from that I believe we can assume that no trial, no temptation, no suffering, and no tragedy confronts us without divine permission. The reason why God allows such things differs probably in every individual case, but the fact that He allows it remains constant. That should be some comfort in the time of your deepest distress or severest sorrow. Your case is not outside of the permissive will of God, ever!
But along with that we must recognize a second very important point, namely that God alwayscontrols and places limitations upon our trials. When God gives permission for Satan to seize all Job has, He adds, “on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Later, when Satan’s strategy fails, he returns with another challenge, “‘Skin for skin! A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.'” So again, God allows Satan to attack Job, but once again He puts firm limitations on his actions: “But you must spare his life.”
To me this whole incident recalls the words of a NT verse often quoted glibly and generally applied only to temptation, but it applies equally to trials and tribulations. 1 Cor. 10:13 says, “No trial has come upon you except what is human (there are no superhuman trials). And God is faithful; He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear. But when you are tried, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” Friend, any suffering you are experiencing right now, as well as all the trials you have experienced in the past, have been allowed and controlled by your heavenly Father. Don’t think for a moment that you have been abandoned in a random and haphazard world.
Job’s trials are executed by Satan. (1:13-19; 2:7-9)
The Adversary loses no time carrying out his diabolical scheme once permission is granted. In swift succession four messengers come to Job with news that his pleasant world has fallen into ruins. The greatest man in the East suddenly becomes the sorriest man in the East. It all happens on his oldest son’s birthday, when all the children are gathered for a party. That means it probably happens just as Job is preparing to offer sacrifices in case one of his children has sinned in his heart against God.
It’s difficult for us to accept, but sometimes the trials of life come when we are walking the closest with the Lord. An American rabbi wrote a popular book called, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It was a bad book on a good subject, but the point I would like to make is that the Book of Job actually raises the ante: it might be entitled, When the Very Worst Things Happen to the Very Best People. Why would God ever allow that? The answer won’t come in today’s passage, but I will give you a preview of the answer that unfolds throughout the book: God allows bad things to happen to give us a glimpse of what real faith is all about and to encourage that kind of faith in our lives. Someone has defined faith as “believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.” Let me repeat that: “faith is believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”
Job’s trials certainly made no sense as he was going through them. This good man, within the space of a few short hours goes from being a prosperous, prominent, and healthy cattleman, landowner, farmer, master of countless servants, and loving father of ten children to a poverty stricken, sick, destitute, fatherless, and broken man. Poverty is always painful but there is no doubt it is more painful for those who were once wealthy. And poverty is not the end of the suffering for Job. In 2:7 we read that “Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.” When Satan executes a plan of suffering, he doesn’t do it halfway.
Job’s trials are accepted by Job. (1:20-22; 2:10)
I need to point out a very important fact, namely that Job does not know the reason why he is suffering. Suffering is always tough, but if one knows why it’s happening, it’s usually more bearable. We always ask, “Why?” “Why me, Lord? What did I do to deserve this?” But Job doesn’t have the foggiest idea why he is suffering. And God never tells him. Never! Not even at the very end of the book when God restores wealth to Job and gives him a new family does He tell him why he had to go through all of this. That to me makes Job’s acceptance of his trials all the more remarkable.
Job responds to his sufferings on two levels—the emotional and the spiritual. On the emotional level Job grieves, and we simply must not ignore that. Verse 20 says he rose and tore his robe and shaved his head. In chapter 2 he went and sat on the garbage heap outside of town. There’s nothing in the Bible that says a Christian shouldn’t cry, or sorrow, or grieve. There is much that says we should. In fact, the only restriction that is placed upon our grief is that it shouldn’t be a hopelessgrief. Grief in the Scriptures is rarely hidden. It is open, verbal, lengthy, and it is shared by friends. Perhaps we would have a considerable improvement in mental health today if we were to follow some of these ancient practices of grief.
The emotional level of Job’s reaction to his sufferings is normal. But on the spiritual level he is unique. After tearing his robe and shaving his head, he falls to the ground and worships God, saying,
“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.”
I see here several important truths that Job has grasped and which we need to grasp. The first is a fact about humanity. Paul put it this way, “We have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.” (1 Timothy 6:7) Everything material we have is acquired by the grace of God and will be left behind when we die. Secondly, he recognizes a fact about God, namely that He is sovereign. If He has given gifts, then He also has the right to take them away, and we have no right to impugn His motives or question His reasons. He is the sovereign God.
After the second attack of the Adversary, Job’s wife succumbs and gives in to the Tempter. Let’s read verses 7-10 of chapter 2:
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
9 His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”
10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
Job’s wife has lost her faith and wants Job to join her. She urges him to curse God and commit suicide. But he will have none of it. He doesn’t call her wicked but rather foolish and asks, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” Never does it cross Job’s mind to curse the Sabaens or Chaldeans, or to curse his own stupid servants, who now lie dead, for their lack of watchfulness. Nor does he curse the lightning or tornado. All secondary causes are dismissed, for there are no true accidents in a universe ruled by the one sovereign Lord. It was the Lord who gave and the Lord who took away. But never does it cross Job’s mind to curse Him either. “In all this,” our passage concludes, “Job did not sin in what he said.” Satan had predicted with an oath that Job would curse God to His face. On the contrary, he openly and resolutely blesses God.
In conclusion, there are four points I want us to ponder this morning:
Points to Ponder:
1. No one, not even the choicest of God’s servants, is exempt from trials and suffering. Had Job kept one foot in the world and one foot in his faith in God, it is probable that he would never have suffered these calamities at all. But because he was godly and faithful, he suffered. You say, that doesn’t provide a lot of motivation to be godly! No, not in itself, but motivation is found in what the suffering produces. Listen to how Paul describes the process. Just after enumerating the trials of his own life in this fashion—”We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”—he adds, “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:8-18)
There’s only one person in the world who can tell us if Job’s godliness and faithfulness were worth it, and that is Job himself. Only Job could tell us if he would choose to suffer all over again if that were the price for trusting God completely. And Job does tell us, not in today’s passage, but at the end of the book.
Somehow, some Christians have developed a doctrine that I fail to find anywhere in the Scripture. For want of a better term I call it the Doctrine of Preferential Treatment. Simply stated it means that God is obligated to treat us better than them. Christian children shouldn’t get leukemia, Christians’ houses shouldn’t burn down, and Christian workers shouldn’t lose their jobs, at least not unless they’re backslidden. But my Bible tells me that God is amazingly even‑handed with all people—believers and non‑believers—in this life. He sends rain upon the just and the unjust, and he allows suffering in the lives of the believer as well as the unbeliever. Not even the choicest of God’s servants, like Job, are exempt.
2. Suffering is sometimes, but not always, the result of sin. Sometimes, of course, it is. You break the law; you pay the consequences. That’s true of the laws of nature, the laws of health, and the laws of God. There are both temporal and eternal consequences of lawlessness, and that is what we might call “deserved suffering.” People today don’t like the notion of deserved suffering, but it’s one of the basic principles of God’s universe. I was reading this week in the Wall Street Journal that the gay and lesbian community is fighting hard to prevent the media from using the phrase, “innocent victim,” of those who contract AIDS from blood transfusions or from a health‑care worker or from an infected spouse. They don’t like the phrase because it implies that there are victims who are not entirely innocent. And they’re right—that’s exactly what it implies. People are often victims of their own sinful choices.
But there’s another entire category of suffering which is undeserved. When a small child succumbs to infant death syndrome, it’s not because of any sin that child committed, nor is it possible to attribute it to some sin in the parents’ lives. Jesus made that so very clear in John 9, when His disciples asked concerning the man born blind, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” and Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
If suffering comes to us, it is certainly wise to examine our life to see if it could be a consequence of some law violation. But if no direct relationship is obvious, we shouldn’t make one up, because all suffering is not the result of personal sin.
3. Satan is seldom satisfied with only one attempt against the character of a believer. The point here is simple. When you’ve won a victory against the Adversary by refusing to allow his trials and temptations to defeat you, watch out. He may well hit you from a different angle, and he may keep up the attack until he’s convinced that you are not going to turn away from God. Even then, he may take one last swipe at you just out of spite, but never without God’s permission.
4. When suffering comes, God’s people should remember their origin, contemplate their destiny, and worship their Creator. Are you struggling today with some major trial? Are you undergoing some heavy suffering—either physically, emotionally, or spiritually? It won’t help to get bitter. It won’t help to give in. It won’t help to blame others. It may not even help to ask, “Why?” It will help to remember that we brought nothing into this world (that’s our origin), and it will help to remember that those who remain faithful will be rewarded by almighty God, if not in this world, then certainly in the next (that’s our destiny). And it will help to say with Job, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Let’s worship Him.
Prayer. Father, we are so grateful that though You have not promised to remove suffering from our lives, You have promised to keep us from eternal suffering. Thank You that Jesus went to the Cross to pay the penalty for our sin so that we can spend eternity in Your presence. In the meantime, Father, may we worship You in Spirit and in truth.
DATE: June 13, 1993
Tags:
Satan
Sovereignty of God
Trials
Suffering
Doctrine of preferential treatment
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[i]Philip Yancey,”When the Facts Don’t Add Up,” Christianity Today, June 13, 1986, 19.