from 40 Questions About Suffering and Evil
by Greg Welty
Having familiarized ourselves with the diverse range of evils in the Bible (Question 6), it is now time to reflect on how God relates to the suffering and evil in the world, including the kinds of evils we have just surveyed. Does God bring about good through suffering and evil? Is that what God is aiming to do? If so, how does he do that? This chapter and the next argue that multiple biblical narratives repeatedly weave together three themes that together reveal the goodness of God amid the world’s evils:
- The goodness of God’s purpose—God aims at great goods.
- The sovereignty of God’s providence—God often intends these great
goods to come about by way of various evils. - The inscrutability of God’s ways—God typically leaves created persons
in the dark (either about which goods he is aiming at, or about how
these goods depend on the evils which occur, or both).
By examining how these three themes come together in the Job, Joseph, and Jesus narratives, we will see a kind of divine modus operandi when it comes to diverse kinds of evil in the world. The three themes above do not lie hidden in obscurity; they are right there on the surface of the biblical text. And they can help Christians develop an overall perspective on evil that is biblically faithful and that forms a foundation for answering the apologetic and practical questions in parts 3 and 4 of this book.
In this chapter (Question 7) we will look at God’s purposes and methods: the goodness of his purpose and the sovereignty of his providence. In the next chapter (Question 8) we will consider our lack of access to God’s purposes and methods: the inscrutability of his ways.[1]
Good Purposes and Sovereign Providence: The Job Narrative
The Goodness of God’s Purpose
In the opening chapters of Job, the “prologue” before the main events, Satan accuses Job of serving God out of mercenary motives:
- “But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you
to your face” (Job 1:11). (Accusation: Job serves God for possessions.) - “But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he
will curse you to your face” (Job 2:5). (Accusation: Job serves God for
health.)
In response, God seeks to refute Satan’s charges and frustrate Satan’s predictions, and thereby vindicate God’s own worthiness to be served for who he is, rather than for the earthly goods which he supplies. He does this by giving Job an opportunity to display great perseverance amid great suffering. Although the text does not explicitly reveal why the vindication of God’s name is such a great good, and thereby worth the evil which Job suffers, other chapters of Scripture are quite clear as to its value (Ps. 99:1–3; Isa. 48:10–11; Ezek. 20:9, 14, 22; 36:21–23; Matt. 6:9).
The Sovereignty of God’s Providence
In the subsequent narrative, Job’s great suffering is a means for him to display great faithfulness, and that suffering is a combination of moral evils and natural evils:
Moral evils:
- The Sabeans attacked, stealing Job’s oxen and donkeys, and striking
down his servants (Job 1:15). The Chaldeans attacked, stealing Job’s
camels, and striking down more of his servants (Job 1:17). - Satan himself “struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot
to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7).
Natural evils
- “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them” (Job 1:16).
- “A great wind came across the wilderness” and destroyed Job’s house and family (Job 1:19).
Job’s display of faithfulness while suffering these evils fulfills God’s good purpose of vindicating God’s worthiness to be served for who he is rather than for what he gives. But just as extraordinary, there are at least four indications in the text that God is the one who was behind the suffering and who ultimately brought it to pass in Job’s life.
First, while not denying that the Sabeans, Chaldeans, fire, and wind were the means of his suffering, Job says, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). In thus attributing his suffering to God, “Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22).
Second, in responding to his wife’s faithless admonition to “curse God and die,” Job says, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil [rā]?” (Job 2:10). On Job’s view, it would be foolishly inconsistent to think that only goods come from God and not evils as well. Again, by attributing his suffering to God, “Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).
Third, when God passes judgment on the various speeches made about him, whereas Job’s friends fare badly, Job’s theology fares well: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7).
Fourth, at the end of the book, Job’s siblings and friends seem to share Job’s view of the matter: “And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil (ra’ah) that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). They confirm Job’s interpretation of his own suffering and its ultimate cause.
Good Purposes and Sovereign Providence: The Jesus Narrative
The Goodness of God’s Purpose
In the passion narratives of the Gospels, God aims at the great good of redeeming the world by the atonement of Christ. The sacrificial death of the God-man who lived a righteous life turns aside the wrath of God for all who trust in him. Because Jesus’s cross perfectly solves the worst problem we could possibly have—being liable to God’s just judgment against our sin—God’s aiming at the cross is his aiming at the best good we could possibly receive.
But the cross also exalts God in all his attributes: his justice (for judging our sin in Jesus), love, grace, and mercy (for providing an atonement for undeserving sinners), wisdom (for devising this perfect plan of redemption), and power (for orchestrating historical events over millennia to fulfill this plan). Insofar as his glory is his highest good, God’s aiming at the cross is his aiming at the best good he could possibly have.
The Sovereignty of God’s Providence
These same passion narratives also reveal that God intends these great goods to come by way of various evils:
- Jewish leaders plot against Jesus (Matt. 26:3–4, 14–15).
- Satan prompts Judas to betray Jesus (John 13:21–30).
- Judas betrays Jesus (Matt. 26:47–56; 27:3–10).
- Unjust “show trials” wrongly convict Jesus of blasphemy (Matt. 26:57–68).
- Pilate cowardly condemns a clearly innocent man to death (Matt. 27:15–26).
- Roman soldiers carry out this unjust sentence (Matt. 27:27–44).
This is a perplexing chain of perverse moral evil, and the removal of any link would have robbed the world of the highest good for both man and God.
When Peter and John were imprisoned for testifying to the cross, their friends’ prayer for them gives crucial insight into how early Christians viewed Jesus’s sufferings:
“Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed”— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. (Acts 4:25–29)
So the early Christians believed God planned that the responsible human beings who perpetrated these moral evils would in fact do so. They intend it for evil, but God intends it for good, to the (spiritual) saving of many lives. The early Christian believers’ view of the sufferings of Jesus was therefore like Job’s view of his sufferings and Joseph’s view of his sufferings. God is the one who fulfills his promise and his plan in these events, even though the Jewish leaders, Satan, Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, and the Roman soldiers are the historical actors on the scene (Acts 2:23; 3:18). God’s “handing over” Jesus to death was by way of many others “handing over” Jesus to death, though the motives or intentions differ between the creaturely and the divine. Steven C. Roy helpfully summarizes this point:
This dual responsibility for the handing over of Jesus to death can also be seen in biblical texts that use the verb “hand over” [paradidōmi]. The gospels point to three individuals or groups that have special responsibility for handing Jesus over to be crucified: Pilate (Mt 27:26), the Jewish religious leaders (Mt 27:18) and Judas Iscariot (Mt 26:14–16). John Stott summarizes: “First, Judas ‘handed him over’ to the priests (out of greed). Next, the priests ‘handed him over’ to Pilate (out of envy). Then Pilate ‘handed him over’ to the soldiers (out of cowardice), and they crucified him” (The Cross of Christ [Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1986], p. 58). Yet God was not passive and uninvolved in the handing over of his Son to death. Rom. 8:32 says that God the Father “did not spare his own Son but gave him up [paradidōmi] for us all.” Thus it was the will of the Father to surrender him over to death “for us all.” And this was as well the voluntary self–surrender of God the Son. In Gal 2:20, Paul speaks of Jesus Christ as “the Son of God who loved me and gave [paradidōmi] himself for me.”[2]
Summary
In each of the Job, Joseph, and Jesus narratives there is one set of events, but two sets of intentions behind the events: creaturely and divine. The creaturely intentions were evil (involving greed, envy, cowardice, hatred, covetousness, etc.), whereas the divine intentions were good (aiming at goods for both man and God).
Of course, it is one thing to discover that God has aimed at great goods by way of significant evils. It is quite another to hold that we can always discern the goods he is aiming at by way of evils, that he wills all the evils there are (and not just some), that God commands that we inflict suffering and evil, that God causes the evils he uses as means to goods, or that God intends that evils occur. The remaining Questions in this part of the book will address these topics.
To read more, preorder a copy of 40 Questions About Suffering and Evil, or pick up a copy on Tuesday, September 24!
[1] Should these lessons gleaned from the Job, Joseph, and Jesus narratives be generalized to all evil whatsoever? Or would that be a hasty generalization lacking credibility? This important question will be considered in Question 11.
[2] Steven C. Roy, How Much Does God Foreknow? A Comprehensive Biblical Study (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 74 n. 3.
This post is adapted from 40 Questions About Suffering and Evil by Greg Welty. This title is set to be released on September 24, 2024. If you are interested in adopting this book for a college or seminary course, please request a faculty examination copy. We will also consider requests for your blog or media outlets.
Multifaceted answers to the multifaceted challenges of suffering and evil
Both inside and outside the Christian faith, many difficult realities trouble human hearts and minds. By being equipped to answer questions about suffering and evil, Christians can persevere in faith, share their faith, and defend the faith when confronted with these inevitable challenges of living in a fallen world.
In 40 Questions About Suffering and Evil, Greg Welty shows the necessity of exploring our vocabulary around evil and suffering so we can clearly see and express the best questions. Welty explores vital ideas, backgrounds, and issues, answering questions like these:
- What is the difference between Moral Evil and Natural Evil?
- What is the Bible’s role in helping us understand suffering and evil?
- Does God will all suffering and evil?
- How is the gospel relevant to counseling those who suffer?
Welty provides biblically informed intellectual resources for answering significant questions about suffering and evil, exposing readers to a wide range of influential views articulated by Christians over the past two millennia.
