Trials and Calamities (4)

Sermon on the Mount-40

Many Christians believe that Satan is in control of calamity.

In their view, Satan is almost equal to God in power.

As you go through life, you always have to be looking over your shoulder, never sure when God might have his back turned, allowing Satan to run you down with some disaster God didn’t anticipate.

Others believe that you are in control of calamity.

You make yourself sick or have a bad month for your business by speaking or thinking negative thoughts.

In their view, if you think positively enough and have faith enough, nothing bad will happen to you.

Who is in control: Satan, you, or God?

James 5:7–10 (NIV84)

7Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.

8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

9Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

10Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Patient = μακροθυμέω makrothumeō = to endure patiently as opposed to losing faith or giving up.

Makrothuméō involves exercising understanding and patience toward persons while hupoménō involves putting up with things or circumstances.

Patience with people (1 Thess. 5:14), not trials or circumstances (as in 1:3). Specifically, patience with the oppressive rich.

There was a lot of injustice occurring at this time.

Workers and harvesters were not being paid; the innocent was being run down and even destroyed by the opposition of the corrupt rich.

The believers were instructed in how they were to deal with all the injustice occurring in their world.

This injustice is much like the injustice that occurs around us today and the admonitions given in James also apply to Christians today.

V. 10, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

The prophets did not suffer for doing wrong; they suffered for doing right.

They exhibited patience in the face of suffering.

They did not retaliate or form an army to fight against their oppressors.

Believers are not to try to overturn their oppressors. Even when deserving of justice, believers are not to resort to violence against their oppressors in order to achieve justice.

Believers are called to patience (see definition), not revolution.

There is no call for the downtrodden workers of the world to rise up against the wealthy classes.

Christians do not need to take matters into their own hands. Justice will be done. The Judge is standing at the door!

Romans 12:17–21 (NIV84)

17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

20On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This was addressing persecution that was occurring at that time against the Jews and Christians by Emperor Claudius.

The mandate to not take revenge always applies. It is not to be ignored when we deem it necessary.

Only a Christian can overcome evil with good.

We know that every wrong will be repaid either at the cross or in the eternal judgment.

Knowing this changes our hearts. It makes it possible for us to not take revenge.

1 Peter 3:8–17 (NIV84)

8Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.

9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

10For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.

11He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.

12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

13Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?

14But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.”

15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

17It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

We are not to repay evil with evil. That is the way of the world. Why? Because to this we were called: so that we may inherit a blessing (v. 9).

We reap what we sow, with a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

We like this promise when we do good things, but the same law applies when we sow bad things.

Verses 10 and 11 tell us what we must do in order that we may love life and see good days.

Keep our tongue from evil

Keep our lips from deceitful speech

Seek peace and pursue it.

James 5:11 (NIV84)

11As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

When you read the first two chapters of Job, you find that there is a definite biblical answer.

When a tornado flattens your home, a disease your health, or a death your family—when everything seems out of control—God is in control.

Job 1:1–3 (NIV84)

1In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

2He had seven sons and three daughters,

3and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

The first thing you must see is that Job was blameless, upright, feared God, and shunned evil.

Job, as a person, was whole, free from sin, completely right with God, and at peace with his world.

He was the greatest man living in the East.

None of Job’s suffering occurs because of any specific sin on his part.

Job 1:6–12 (NIV84)

6One day the angels (sons of God, esv) came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.

7The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”

8Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

9“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.

10“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.

11But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

12The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

The question of the causal nexus (cause and effect) between piety and prosperity has been raised, it must be probed to the utmost extent.

To prove that Job’s piety was not a result of his prosperity, it had to be tested to the utmost extent.

Was there a connection between Job’s piety and his God-given prosperity?

“I love the Lord, because of His many blessings.”

“Where have you come from?” God had a right to ask Satan that question, because He rules as King over the angels and over Satan.

The angels are “neither human nor divine in the full sense, but ‘sons of God,’ their being derivative from His, and their rank superhuman.”17

God created them. They are in no way equal to the Lord, for they report to him (1:6).

Satan, whose name means adversary or opponent, also must report to God as one who is not equal to the Lord.

Satan asks, “Does Job serve God for nothing?”

God responds by allowing Satan to test Job.

He set limits on the testing.

Satan is eager to attack Job, and the Lord does not stop him from testing faithful Job.

God has confidence in Job’s faithfulness.

James 1:3 (NIV84)

3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Testing = δοκίμιον dokimion = to try to learn the genuineness of something by examination and testing, often through actual use.

The genuineness of Job’s faith was being put to the test.

1 Peter 1:3–9 (NIV84)

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,

5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The purpose of all these trials is to prove that their faith is genuine. Literally, this is “the testing of your faith” or “the genuineness of your faith,” since the Greek word involves not only testing but determining the genuineness or value of an event or object.

The testing has the primary purpose of proving whether the faith is genuine or not.

That your faith is genuine may be expressed as “that your trust in Christ is real” or “that you really trust Christ” or “… trust God.”

Faith is more precious, of greater worth than gold.

Even refined gold, though it lasts a long time, eventually perishes.

It will be valueless in the marketplace of eternity.

But faith “purchases” an inheritance that can never perish.

Job was being accused that he was pious because all was going well with him.

Satan challenged God's praise of Job, claiming that Job's faith was conditional on his prosperity.

It’s easy for Job to serve God when everything is thriving. How about when things are falling apart?

Job 2:1–8 (NIV84)

1On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him.

2And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”

3Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

4“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life.

5But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

6The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”

7So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

8Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.

V. 3, You incited = סוּת (sûṯ): (This word can be misconstrued to mean mislead or seduced. This is not its meaning in this context.) The correct definitions is to incite (urge): to urge on; cause to act.

God did not act in a way contrary to His will.

Satan did not twist God’s arm to get Him to act against His will.

Some Christians believe that God is taken by surprise or is helpless to intervene when Satan is working his evil schemes.

That view is not from the Bible.

God was completely in charge of Job’s calamity.

God was the one who pointed Job out to Satan, initiating the whole affair.

Satan could not lay a finger on Job’s possessions until he had God’s permission to act.

God strictly limited Satan, forbidding him to attack Job’s health at this point.

Initiation, permission, and limitation—Satan was completely under God’s control.

Not just the book of Job, but the whole of Scripture proclaims the fact that God rather than Satan is in control of calamity.

Isaiah 45:5-6 (NIV84); 45:7 (KJV 1900)

5I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,

6so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.

7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

God is truly sovereign! Isaiah wrote a specific prophecy about Cyrus around 700 B.C.

This prophecy was fulfilled approximately 170 years later when Cyrus came on the scene.

Three different times the Lord makes the statement that there is no other god than he (45:5–6).

Isaiah 45:7 shows that nothing on earth occurs apart from God.

Isaiah is rejecting the pagan understanding that good and evil (or light and dark) are two eternally coexistent principles battling in the universe.

There is only one first principle, and he is light and good.

If darkness and evil exist, they do so because the one God permits them to exist.

Darkness = חֹשֶׁךְ (ḥō·šěḵ): an unilluminated area.

The kjv uses the English word evil to translate the Hebrew word ra.

This translation is misleading and not the best word to be used.

Evil = רַע (rǎʿ) = calamity (event): an event resulting in great loss and misfortune.

God does not create evil. He is absolute goodness and light.

1 John 1:5 (NIV84)

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 3:4-5 (NIV84)

4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.

5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

God is sovereign.

People will realize that all that happens: light (life), darkness (death), prosperity, and disaster (not evil as in the kjv; cf. Amos 3:6)—comes from God.

As the sovereign Lord of the universe, He can do everything.

Acts 17:24–28 (NIV84)

24“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.

25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

26From 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.

27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

28‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Exodus 4:11 (NIV84)

11The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

Satan is not the source of physical handicaps, birth defects, or congenital diseases. God made that clear when Moses stubbornly resisted God’s commission to lead his people because of his being “slow of speech and tongue.”

Acts 2:22–24 (NIV84)

22“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

23This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

24But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Acts 4:27–28 (NIV84)

27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.

28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

Political corruption and violent crime are two calamities that many fear.

When Jesus was unjustly arrested in the middle of the night and was illegally murdered the next day, who was in control?

The indifferent, corrupt Roman authorities?

The jealous, vengeful religious leaders?

The ignorant execution squad?

No. God and his predetermined plan.

Lamentations 3:37–39 (NIV84)

37Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?

38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?

39Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins?

Human words—positive or negative confession—do not magically control good and bad outcomes.

Ecclesiastes 7:13–14 (NIV84)

13Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?

14When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.

Neither Satan nor positive or negative confessions control calamity. God does.

That is exactly what we find in Job.

Until God gave his permission, Satan could not touch Job or his possessions.

Although we know Satan had a personal hand in Job’s calamities, Job was never encouraged to handle his situation by binding Satan, casting off curses, speaking positive confessions, or by employing any of the other occult-like techniques so popular in some parts of the church today.

The book of Job ends with Job back on track.

What was the secret?

He focused on God; Satan and demons are not even mentioned.

If God is in control, why did God allow Satan to pillage Job’s possessions, pulverize his family, and destroy Job’s health?

If God is in control, why does he allow bad things to happen at all?

To be continued…