“Did God Do It?”

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Or was it going to happen anyway?  Is it the work of “the ruler of this world”—Satan (cf. Jn 14.30)—or just chance?  These questions have been topics of debate for thousands of years, involving people from all walks of life, each of whom has an opinion.  Sometimes it spills out into current events, like the recent attempt to assassinate presidential candidate Donald Trump.  Some take note of details that, against the odds, led to his survival, and conclude that God intervened to miraculously rescue him from certain death.  Others scoff at this notion and accuse the former group of narcissistically treating every welcome occurrence as God’s special blessing to them.

It’s always amusing when irreligious people offer up opinions about religious matters; but in this case, the extremes are only slightly exaggerated versions of ideas promoted by those who profess to be Christians!  Some harp on God’s sovereignty, and hold that nothing occurs without God specifically willing it.  Others protest—that would make God the author of evil as well as of good, and mean none of us has free will, but are all puppets, compelled to righteous or evil deeds as it suits his arbitrary purposes.

Those who stress God’s sovereignty have a point.  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (Ja 1.17), and “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Ro 8.28).  Does this mean your paycheck is a gift from God, and not a result of your work?  Well, no.  That’s looking at it from the wrong angle.  Your paycheck is a gift from God, and you earned those wages by your free choice to work for them.  How can both of these be?  God expects us to cooperate with his grace, in the little things as well as the big ones.  He created a universe in which you could earn a living, and molded the unfathomably numerous and complex features of that universe in such a way that, in this case, you received an earthly reward for your work. 

But the other side has a point, too.  Many have worked, without receiving an earthly reward, or had it swept away by the natural world, or stolen by evil men.  Perhaps you’d blame God, if your entire livelihood was lost in, for example, a flood; but again, you’d be looking at it from the wrong perspective.  The book of Job introduces a third option. In the first two chapters Satan takes away everything Job has, in an effort to get him to curse God.  It’s Satan—not God, and not chance!  Yet, where did Satan get this idea?

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

(Job 1.8)

So when Job’s wife implores him to “Curse God and die” (2.9), her assumption that God is behind the loss of Job’s children, health, and wealth is not totally wrong.  In fact, Job affirms it, asking her rhetorically, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (v10).  The difference is in the perspective.  Job’s wife expects to see justice in the natural world.  If not, she will accuse God of doing wrong.  Job recognizes that there’s more to the story, and strives to

look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

(2 Corinthians 4.18)

Job was not merely the victim of chance; Satan worked evil against him; but in God’s hands that evil became good, because Job loved God (cf. Ro 8.28).  God didn’t force Job to remain true.  If he had chosen to curse God over his misfortunes, God could have justly condemned him as a traitor.  Instead, God exercised both his inscrutable providence and his visible intervention in order to dispense grace and influence his creations to cooperate with it, by way of reason.

However, fervently attributing each welcome event to God’s intervention reflects a major flaw in the Calvinist philosophy common to most American Protestants.  Many show by their actions that, deep down, they don’t really believe the caricature of predestination they preach.  Others hold a fairly nuanced view compatible with reality.  But there are also plenty who would label this article as heresy, on account of words like “cooperate” and “earned.”  They would point to a number of proof-texts, which in the absence of the context of the entire rest of the Bible would seem to support their position; but in practice, the view is absurdity: if I get what I want, then it’s a gift from God and it testifies to his love for me.  If I don’t get what I want…well, let’s not talk about that.

But as you recoil from that nonsense, be sure to avoid the opposite extreme, which is just as bad—the notion that God is not allowed to intervene in his creation.  It’s fine to shrug and move on, without ascribing an event to God, or to Satan.  But to say, this is not God’s doing; it was going to happen anyway, displays a  profound misunderstanding.  There is no “anyway,” unshackled from God, if he is both omniscient and the creator of the universe.

Although there was nothing in the natural world to inform Job of their cause, the disasters that befell him were evil.  They also worked together for good.  They were Satan’s doing, but they were also God’s doing.  The difference is that Satan was trying to get Job to do evil—“But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face” (Jb 1.11)—while, in the very same events, God was giving Job an opportunity to do good—“He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason” (Jb 2.3).  Don’t get distracted worrying whether an event’s cause is divine, demonic, or natural.  Instead,

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

(1 Thessalonians 5.16-18)

Jeremy Nettles

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