Job, C.S. Lewis, and God’s Grace in Suffering

By Sameer Yadav

Editor’s Note:  This is  the text of a message on suffering preached by Sameer last summer at Cornerstone.  Sameer Yadav, from Boise, Idaho,  completed his Masters of Divinity degree at Master’s Seminary last year. He will receive the Masters in Theology this coming Fall.  In the picture on the right you can see a very life-like bust of Sameer Yadav next to (but symbolically lower than) a bust of famous philosopher, Rene Descartes.  Both are kept in the Louvre musuem in a certain country in Europe. 

The problem of C.S. Lewis’ pain

Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis, wrote two books that attempt to address the very same question – a question that affects the life of every Christian.  The question he asks is: how can a good God allow His children to suffer? And the first book he wrote to answer that question is called, The Problem of Pain.  If any of you have ever read Lewis, you know that his writing is very clear, his style is very clever, and his arguments are very forceful, confident, and persuasive.  In The Problem of Pain, Lewis argues convincingly, reasoning from the Scriptures that pain and suffering are God’s megaphone to get our attention so that we might turn to Him as our healer.

A short time after writing that book, C.S. Lewis met Joy Davidman, an American born poet-critic.  She seemed to complement him perfectly, and after a fairy-tale romance, they were married.  They considered one another to be God’s gracious gift, and they made Him the centerpiece of their blissful marriage.   But after a few short years of happiness together, Joy developed an extremely aggressive cancer, and she died, leaving Clive bereaved of the only person alive—beside God—whom he felt truly understood him and loved him.  Earlier, cancer prematurely had taken his father, his mother, and finally it had taken his wife.  While going through his empty house, he found four unused journals, and in them, he wrote what became his second book attempting to answer the question, how can a good God allow His children to suffer?  It is called A Grief Observed.  As it was for Lewis, it is amazing how the experiences of life bring out what we really believe about God, no matter what our “official theological position” happens to be.  After the problem of suffering came to him in a very personal way, C.S. Lewis couldn’t even word the question in the same way that he did in The Problem of Pain.  Instead of asking the theoretical question: how can God be good and still allow His children to suffer?  He framed it anew, this way:
 

“Meanwhile, where is God?  This is one of the most disquieting symptoms [of grief].  When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms.  But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find?  A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside.  After that, silence.  You may as well turn away.  The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.  There are no lights in the windows.  It might be an empty house.  Was it ever inhabited?  It seemed so once, and that seeming was as strong as this.  What can this mean?  Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?”

The suffering that Lewis had to bear didn’t cause him to stop believing that God exists, but it tempted him to believe that the God who exists is not really a good, just, and loving God. 

You and I will suffer.  It may not look the same as C.S. Lewis’ suffering, but if you aren’t suffering in some way right now, you will.  I can say that because God promised it.  2 Tim. 3:12  states that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” and James 1:2-3 reminds us to “consider it all joy, my brethren, when [not “if,” but when] you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” 

Sometimes it is a struggle to truly believe in the goodness of God when you are suffering  It is hard to say in your heart, “God is good” when you find out you have cancer, or when someone emotionally or physically hurts you, or when you get rebuked for sin, or when you get an “F” in preaching lab. 

But the crucial question you will have to answer in dealing with the pain in this life is this: when you do encounter suffering, are you convinced that you will remain faithful to God and not grow to be embittered against Him, like C.S. Lewis was? 

In  the  face  of  our  own  pain,  we  should  expect  to  be  confronted with the temptation to deny what we know to be true about God because of how we feel, or because of how overwhelming trials can sometimes be.

Could you really say confidently that you could lose everything and still cling to the goodness of God?  If you went home tonight and your car, or all your possessions, or even your own family with all your little ones, were violently ripped away from you, under the eye of a sovereign God, could you still from the heart proclaim His goodness and justice?

 Job could.  Job did.  Of any character in the Bible, Job is the most clearly associated with suffering.  Even unbelievers with very little exposure to the Bible know that Job’s life was the paradigm for pain.  In Job 1:22, we can see God’s assessment of Job after experiencing phenomenal loss. “Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.”

 As we look at Job chapter 1:6-22, we must take from this text two things that we must do so that we, like Job, can remain faithful to God amidst any circumstances of personal suffering that we might face. First, we must recognize the sovereignty of God in our suffering  and second, we must respond righteously to our suffering.

 Let’s look at vv. 1-5 so we can get a backdrop to Job’s experience: 

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil. 2 And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east. 4 And his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And it came about, when the days of feasting had completed their cycle, that Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.

 Job was an extremely wealthy man who probably lived around the time of the patriarchs, before wealth could be counted in terms of silver and gold, but had to be counted in agricultural terms.  He lived in Uz, a region in Edom, or modern Northern Saudi Arabia.  The text says that Job was not only blessed with a great deal of wealth, but he was also a righteous man.  Verse one tells us that he was blameless and upright, which could be seen by the way that he feared God and turned away from every opportunity to do something evil.  Verses four through five tell us that he had a close knit family and he acted as their priest before God. 

 He was so sensitive to the spiritual well-being of his family, and so zealous for the holiness of God that he continually offered sacrifices for his children, just in case, within the quiet inner recesses of their hearts, they might have cursed God. 

Job had a wonderful life of prosperity and he had it honestly, with a clean conscience and a pure heart before God.  But Job couldn’t begin to imagine what was about to happen to him. 

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. 7 And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it." 8 And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." 9 Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing?  10 "Hast Thou not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 "But put forth Thy hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse Thee to Thy face." 12 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD. 13 Now it happened on the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 14 that a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and took them. They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you." 16 While he was still speaking, another also came 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." 17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you." 18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and your daughters were  eating   and   drinking   wine   in   their   oldest brother’s house, 19 and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died; and I alone have escaped to tell you." 20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.  21 And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." 22 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.

Recognize the sovereignty of God in suffering

 If you are going to remain faithful to God and avoid the temptation to resent Him or blame Him during times of suffering, the first thing you have to do is recognize the Sovereignty of God in your own suffering. 

 In verses 1-5, we caught a glimpse of this righteous man Job, who is blessed with great wealth and a loving family, and in verses 13-19, we see everything that Job has systematically and violently ripped away from him.  But notice that before the text takes us from the prosperity of Job to the poverty of Job, we are taken in verses 6-12 to a council taking place in Heaven.  Look at verse six: the author draws back the veil of heaven and shows us a Council that convenes where all of God’s angels (who are here called “sons of God”) “present themselves” before the Lord.  The picture is of God’s throne room, where all His ministers are gathered around to give an account of themselves.  It is in this meeting that God’s dialogue with Satan in verses 7-12 ultimately result in God’s decision to allow Satan to rob Job of all his earthly blessings. 

 Job didn’t know any of this was happening in heaven, but the narrator includes it because he wants us to know that the trials and sufferings that we face do not begin with unfortunate circumstances on earth.  Trials and suffering begin in the throne-room of Heaven.  When  suffering comes upon you, you  shouldn’t  simply  see  it  as  the

logical result of living in a fallen world, or the normal acts of nature running their course while you accidentally happened to be in the way – it comes to you by the sovereign decree of God. 

 The sovereignty of God in suffering can be seen in three ways.

God is particular about who suffers

 First, God is particular about who Suffers, as we see in verses 6-8.

Satan seems to be pictured as the antagonist against Job.  When the book of Job was written, the name “Satan” hadn’t actually become a proper name—the word “satan” just means “adversary, accuser, or one who opposes,” and it is better translated here as a title, “The Adversary.”  This angel didn’t belong in God’s throne room, because he wasn’t part of the group – he came “among” them.

In verse 7, God asks the Adversary where he came from and the reply is that he has been roaming around on the earth.  The implication here is that he was roaming around looking for someone to set himself against as an Accuser or Adversary. 

We need to realize that just as Satan personally roamed the earth looking for people to attack in Job’s day, he continues to do the same today.  1 Pet. 5:8-9 says that,

“your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”

 Peter tells us that we have an active enemy who is seeking to destroy us through inflicting suffering on us.  Surprisingly, 45% of people who claim to be born again Christians do not believe in the Devil as a person, but only as a symbol of evil.  But, we have a real and personal enemy who desires to make us suffer in order to shake our faith and trust in God.

The point I want to make is that even though in verse 7 the Adversary was roaming the earth seeking someone to devour, he wasn’t the one who picked out Job as the target to set himself against.  Look at verse 8 in which God asks, “have you considered [lit. have you set your heart upon] my servant Job?”  God is the one who picked out Job.  God is the one who called upon the Adversary to set his heart upon Job as the one he would attack. 

When you and I suffer, we need to realize that God is sovereign, and that in His sovereignty He sometimes selects us to experience suffering. 

I have an auto-immune disease called ankylosing spondilitis, and it causes my immune system to attack the muscles along both sides of my spine.  Doctors have no idea what causes it or why it happens, but if it continues to progress, the inflammation could cause my spine to fuse together and make me permanently immobile.  I am also a reasonably strong Calvinist, so I know in my head that God sovereignly chose me to be afflicted in this way.  But when I can’t sleep at night, or when I can hardly get out of bed in the morning, I am tempted to complain about my pain like it is just a case of bad luck that I have this problem. 

When you think about your suffering as bad luck it is easy to complain, because no one is to blame for bad luck.  There is no one to resent for bad luck.  But if you realize that God in His sovereign wisdom actively chose for you to be afflicted, then your complaining is not harmless—it is a pronouncement that God is an incompetent King, and he either overlooked something or made a terrible mistake in your case. 

God has a purpose in suffering

God is not only particular about who suffers, but secondly, God has a purpose in suffering.

 Why did God choose Job to suffer?  How can you be comforted by God’s sovereign choice of you to suffer if your suffering is meaningless? 

 It becomes extremely important later on in the book of Job to realize something at this point.  The reason that God drew attention to Job as a target for Satan’s opposition was not as a punishment for Job’s sin.  That doesn’t mean that Job never sinned—later in the book he borders on blasphemy in demanding an explanation from God—it is just that his sin was not the cause of God’s desire to turn the Adversary loose on him.  The book of Job is written to counter “retribution theology.”  God did not incite Satan against Job because of His displeasure with Job’s sin in order to punish him. 

 On the contrary, according to verse 8, God delighted in Job’s faithful obedience.  God prized Job’s faith, and set it before Satan as a trophy of God’s own righteousness, like a parent who is proud of his children.

 But in verse 9, Satan challenged the genuineness and authenticity of his faith, because so far it hadn’t really been proven.   Job had never had the opportunity to prove that the basis of his loyalty to God was not in the temporal benefits he received from God. So when Satan said, “does Job fear God for nothing?”  he was challenging God’s assessment of Job.  He wasn’t disputing that Job seemed to be pious, but he doubted that Job feared God for any other reason than what he could get out of it.

 Verse 10 says that he put a “hedge around him, his house, and all that he has.”  The picture is of God raising up a protective wall around Job’s person,  his health,  and  then another one around his family and their property, and another one around everything else that he owned. 

 Satan’s challenge is stated directly in verse 11:  God, if you take away these protective barriers around all that Job has and withhold the temporal blessings you have given him, he will curse you to your face.  The same person who in verse 5 was so careful to offer sacrifice to You for his children just in case they cursed Him in their hearts—that same person will be so angry and resentful and bitter against You for taking away His blessings that he will openly and publicly denounce and condemn You.

God responds to the Adversary’s challenge in verse 12 by essentially saying, “Go ahead, take it all away.” God’s sovereign purpose in choosing Job as the object of Satan’s attack was so that the quality of Job’s faith would be made manifest to Satan, and to Job, and most importantly, so that God’s pronouncement of Job’s righteousness in verse 8 will be vindicated.  

 But the motivation of Job’s piety is not only in question for Satan, it is also a question mark for Job.  He has had so many spheres of protection surrounding his life that he never had the opportunity to observe the quality of his own faith. God’s loving purpose for Job was to make sure that Job knew that he had an enduring faith.  After reflecting on the bitterness of his response to his wife’s death, C.S. Lewis  wrote:

What new factor has Joy’s death introduced into the problem of the universe?  What grounds has it given me for doubting all that I believe?  I knew already that these things, and worse happen daily.  I would have said that I had taken them into account.  I had been warned – I had warned myself – not to reckon on worldly happiness.  We were even promised sufferings.  They were part of the programme . . . Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not in imagination.  Yes, but should it, for a sane man, make quite such a difference as this?  No.  And it wouldn’t for a man whose faith had been real faith and whose concern for other people’s sorrows had been real concern.  If my house has collapsed at one blow, that is because it was a house of cards.  The faith which “took these things into account” was not faith but imagination.  I thought I trusted the rope until it mattered to me whether it would bear me.  Now it matters, and I find I didn’t.

 First Peter 1:6-7, asserts that “now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

 God’s sovereign purpose for Job’s suffering was good and loving, and you can trust that His purpose for you in your suffering is good and loving, too.  Knowing that God has purposed every bit of suffering that you happen to face in your life, you have to ask yourself what that suffering is revealing about your faith.  Is it showing you how real and enduring your faith is, or is it showing you that what you thought was faith was really just a house of cards?

The Second Half of Sameer’s article will be forthcoming in the next issue.