“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job 2:10
Job was the righteous man who suffered incredible loss in a terrorist attack and a natural disaster on the same day. We know Satan’s hand was behind what Job suffered, but the Bible does not allow us to think for a moment that Satan operates as a free agent.
Martin Luther once said, “Even the devil is God’s devil.” His point was that Satan’s best effort to destroy God’s work ends up contributing to its growth.
Dr. Joe Stowell tells the story of giving a sermon on the sovereignty of God. Afterward, a couple came up to him to thank him for his message, which they said had been such a comfort to them.
Then they told him their story. They had lost their son through a tragic and sudden illness, so they went to talk to their pastor. They were looking for something to cling to in their sorrow, and their pastor said to them: “I don’t know what to tell you, except to say that sometimes even God makes mistakes.”
The sovereignty of God will leave you with many questions, but it is far better to live with these questions unanswered than plunge into the abyss of a god (small g) who stands by as a helpless onlooker, because the disasters of life are somehow beyond his control.
The circumstances of your life right now may be far from what you would want them to be, but they are under the control of God, and that’s the first thing you need to know in times of disaster.
How would you answer Job’s question?
