“Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10b, NIV)
What is life when it looks as if everything is coming undone at the seams?
For Job, life was like a house built upon the solid rock of a particular theological truth. A truth that stands behind and underneath every terrible, horrible, awful thing that comes into our lives. The rock upon which Job saw his house built was this: God is behind the trouble.
What goes on inside your heart and mind when you read something that says God is the one who is in control of whatever trouble comes into your life?
I hope its peace.
How could it be peace, you say, to think of troubles as something that we ought to accept as coming from God? To that question, I’d ask you this: What’s the alternative?
For Job, the alternative was that God was not in charge of the suffering that just took place. God was not in charge of the Sabeans attacking and killing his family. God was not in charge of the fire that consumed Job’s sheep and servants. God was not in charge of the raiding Chaldeans or the whirlwind or the blistering sores on Job’s skin. God was not in charge of any of that. The alternative was that God had no hand in that trouble and it certainly did not come from him.
It’s an alternative that will not do.
It seems helpful to relieve God of any type of blame when it comes to trouble and suffering. When a plane crashes, or an earthquake swallows buildings, or a diagnosis is pronounced, it seems helpful to get God off the hook. God did not intend for this and he certainly didn’t bring this about. That seems like the type of God we’d gladly worship. The type of God who is just as caught off guard by trouble and suffering as we are, is the one we think we want at our side.
It’s comforting in the moment to get God off the hook, but when time passes and we start to really process the trouble or suffering that took place, questions start to emerge. Questions come to the surface that must be addressed.
If God was not in control of that suffering, of what is he in control? Does this mean my suffering was not a part of God’s plan? If my suffering was not a part of God’s plan, does that mean my trouble was meaningless?
For Job, his suffering was as within the plan of God as it could possibly be. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.
For Job, his trouble was as meaningful as it could get because it ultimately came from God. This was a source of peace for Job. His house was built upon the rock of this truth. Good comes from God and trouble comes from God. It all ultimately comes from God.
This means that no suffering has gotten passed God without his say-so. He’s in control of all things including the terrible and awful. In Job’s situation, Satan was not in control. It can seem like he was at times but he really wasn’t—at all. He came to God. He asked God. God said this far and no further. And Satan had no choice but to comply, because ultimately God was in control.
I pray that this would not be a source of discouragement for you, but it would be comfort and peace. Trouble and suffering are horrible and awful things to go through. Tears are shed because it’s real and it hurts. Evil is evil; it is not good.
Peace comes when we are able to build our houses not upon some shifting sand of uncertainty about trouble and suffering, but when our houses are built upon the rock of God’s total and complete control of any trouble that comes into our lives.
Rest in the rock-solid truth that God has it all.