Tag: God Permits and Guides Calamity - Job 1-2

Job 1:13-19

Satan Takes Job's Property and Children

Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Tag:  God Permits and Guides Calamity

Note the following statement from the prophet Isaiah in light of the above narrative from Job:

Isaiah 45:7

I form light and create darkness,

I make well-being and create calamity,

I am the Lord, who does all these things.

Or, consider these words from Joseph, in reference to his brother’s evilness toward him:

Genesis 50:20

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

When we see evil happening in our world we have to stop to remember that God permits, allows and guides the disasters that surround us.   The permission for the above attack on Job and his family and enterprises came from God. In speaking to Satan, God said ... 

Job 1:11

But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

We have to accept that if a sovereign God is, indeed, sovereign, we have to let Him be completely sovereign.  You can’t be half-sovereign.   God is in charge. He permits disasters.   We can rejoice and accept those disasters the more we, by faith, accept this truth.   Note what one writer says about this thought:

“We see the same thing operating in the story of Job. Satan worked through the Sabeans and Chaldeans to exercise intentional actions of harm against Job. All the while they were fulfilling the plan of God, whose purposes in these things is never evil but altogether good and glorious.  People choke when I tell them that God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, at least, in some sense. The Westminster Confession says that God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, but it is quick to add that this does not occur in such a way as to eliminate secondary causes or to make of no significance the will of the creature. God does not do violence to the will of the creature. Nevertheless, God’s sovereignty prevails in every instance.”

Excerpt From

Romans

R. C. Sproul

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