Yesterday our church began a brief (-ish) series on the book of Job: a deeply challenging yet ultimately comforting book which addresses the theme of suffering in the sovereignty of God. As I explained in my introductory message, a short series on Job does not does not do the book justice. I quoted Christopher Ash, who wrote in his commentary:

“When we ask, “What kind of God allows this kind of world?” God gives us a forty-two-chapter book. Far from saying, “The message of Job can be summarized in a headline, in a Tweet, or on an SMS, and here it is,” he says, “Come with me on a journey, a journey that will take time. There is no instant answer—you can’t take a spoonful of Job, just add boiling water, and you’ll know the answer.” Job cannot be distilled. It is a narrative which (after the frenetic beginning) has a very slow pace and long delays. Why? Because there is no instant working through grief, no quick fix to pain, no message of Job in a nutshell. God has given us a forty-two-chapter journey with no shortcuts along the way”.

So while we will not have as long a series as I might like to give, there will be seven messages over the coming weeks. To supplement the sermons, I will be sending out weekly devotional emails on the book of Job (on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday). I encourage you to use these to work through the book with me- there is so much in this book worth thinking through.

This week will be a general overview as we look to dive into Job 1-2 next Sunday. And to begin, a number asked me yesterday if I could forward the plethora of verses I used to establish the total sovereign control of God over all things in our world.

Here is the relevant excerpt from my sermon. Read through these verses and reflect, meditate, pray and praise God for his sovereignty (I apologise for the length of this initial post).

The so called “problem of evil and suffering” is a real challenge for so many people. If God is truly good and all powerful like we believe, then why is there so much suffering in the world? Either God is not all good or else he can’t be all powerful. We can think about this apparent problem all we like, and try and get all philosophical about it.

But for the parents who have lost a child to a terrible accident, or to the husband who has lost his wife to a terrible cancer, or to the teenager who has lost his policeman father in a terrible bungled robbery, this a real question. If God knows about it, but- for some reason- chooses not to intervene, not to stop it…. If God allows such suffering to happen to me or to the ones I love… what do I do with that? What does Job do with that?

All of this can cause Christians to rethink their understanding. If they can’t reconcile an all-loving, all-powerful, all-knowing God with the suffering they see or experience, then something has to give. And so they say things like- “God is all powerful, but in his absolute freedom, God freely chooses to limit his power in this world so that some things are outside of his control”. This is a very common view- maybe this is even the way you understand it.

... Well, let’s hear God speak to us about this shall we?

"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?" (Je 32:27); "The Lord Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand... This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?" (Isa 14:24-27); "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord" (Prov 21:30); "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me... I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please" (Isa 46:9-10); "the plans of the Lord stand firm for ever, the purposes of his heart through all generations" (Ps 33:11); "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him" (Ps 115:3).

And we could go on- God is sovereign over the natural world "The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses" (Ps 135:6-7); God is sovereign even over what we would think are the most random events: "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Prov 16:33)- so throw a dice or draw straws, God controls the outcome. Insurance companies call natural disasters, “Acts of God”- and the Bible would agree: “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things” (Isa 45:7). And again “Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” (Lam 3:37-38).

God is sovereign over all life: whether they be sparrows or people. Jesus says "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt 10:29-30). God is in control of what we might call accidents: “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. 13 However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate...." (Ex 21:12-13). He determines everything in our lives- listen to Acts 17:24-26 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live”.

Listen to what God says to Jeremiah about his life: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5) - and this is true for all believers who understand that God "chose us in Christ Jesus before the creation of the world" (Eph 1:4). What is more "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Ps 139:16). God is sovereign over all of life- listen to 1 Sam 2:6-7 "The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts". And even over our very decisions. Proverbs 16:9 "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps".

Look at Ex 34:24- where it says that his people can freely go up to Jerusalem for the annual feasts, and God will effectively control the hearts and minds of the enemy nations so that they will not cause any trouble for them while the people are away. Or during the Exile, where we read in Daniel 1:9 that "God had caused the [Babylonian] official to show favour and sympathy to Daniel". Or perhaps more difficult is what we read in Ps 105:24-25 where the psalmist does not hesitate to attribute the hatred of the Egyptians to God: "The Lord made his people very fruitful; he made them too numerous for their foes, whose hearts he turned to hate his people, to conspire against his servants”.

If we are to hold onto all of this truth about the total sovereign control of God, we are going to have be content with some mystery. This is most clearly seen at the cross of Jesus Christ. This is where it all culminates in what John Murray calls “the arch crime of all history”-In Acts 2:23- the murder of the son of God. Whether it be Judas’ betrayal, the hatred of the Jews, and the awful injustice of the Romans were all due to “God’s set purpose and foreknowledge”. What’s more, all of these people did (Acts 4:28) “what God's "power and will had decided beforehand should happen".

All of this makes us realise that somehow, we have to reconcile God’s ultimate sovereignty in this world, with the reality of sin and disaster and evil, without making God responsible and liable and culpable. This is what J.I. Packer calls an “antimony”. What is an antimony? It is an apparent incompatibility between two apparent truths. An antinomy exists when a pair of principles stand side by side, seemingly irreconcilable, yet both undeniable.

Now- you might say that this is a cop out. Saying that the problem of evil is only an apparent incompatibility, not a paradox or a real contradiction. But this is all through the Bible. Is God one God, or is He three persons- Father-Son-and Spirit? Yes! Is Jesus fully God or is He fully man? Yes. Is the Bible the Word of God or is it written by human writers? Yes. Is God fully sovereign or do humans have responsibility? Yes. Both must be compatible. The Bible has no problem presenting truth as an antimony. Even within the same verse! “You meant it for evil” says Joseph to his brothers who had sold him into slavery, “but God meant it for good” (Gen 50:20). Hold on to them both if you want your faith to survive in this world!