God’s Sovereignty - Part 4
At this point in time we may not understand all there is to know about the problem of evil, but I believe God has revealed enough about this subject in the Bible so that if our hearts are in the right place we can trust and love God no matter what happens.
In Exodus 33:13 we see that Moses prayed this prayer: “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.” God answered that prayer. Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.” And Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.”
So today let’s look at the revealed things.
First of all, we need to know that God is not the source of wickedness.
God may in fact create calamity, but God is not the source of wickedness or wicked acts. First John 3:8 ESV says, “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
James 1:13,14 NIV, “13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
In other words -- and this one passage deserves a sermon all by itself -- God cannot be tempted to sin and He doesn’t tempt anyone else to sin. However, the devil can tempt you if you allow it by not dealing with your own evil desire. James 1:14 says that “each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.”
So first, we need to understand that God is not the source of sin and wickedness.
And second, we need to know that even though God is not the source of wickedness, He often uses wickedness, in the form of wicked people, evil spirits, and even Satan himself to perform His own purpose.
Psalm 76:10 states, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Here we learn that God will take man's wrath toward Him and turn it into praise. Any leftover wrath--wrath that won’t end up in praise to God--is leftover wrath that will be restrained.
We see this principle in operation in Job. In Job chapter 1, the Lord said to Satan that everything Job had was in Satan’s hands, but--and I quote--”on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
After Job’s children were killed, Job said, "the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21 ). And Job was right! In Job 42:7, God says to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” Job said God had given and taken away his children (as well as his cattle and other possessions). And God told Eliphaz that Job had spoken the truth about God. So both are true. Satan killed Job's children, and God was responsible because He had allowed Satan to do that.
But all’s well that ends well. In Job 42:10 (NIV 1984), we learn that “After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.”
Job got double for his trouble.
In chapter 1, Job had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.
In chapter 40, Job had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.
If God doubled Job’s animals, why didn’t God double Job’s children? Why didn’t Job have 14 sons and 6 daughters? I’ll tell you why. For those who believe the Bible, what we have here is mathematical proof of life after death. If we could ask Job today how many sons and daughters he has there in heaven with him, his answer would be 14 sons and 6 daughters.
Those first ten children didn’t die after all--they simply had a permanent change of address.
Margot Armer
