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!"I am at the point in my Bible reading cycle where I'm entering Job again. In what seems a series of divine Godincidences the topics of deception and fighting the literal devil revealed in Scripture has come up in numerous conversations lately. Just recently a Facebook friend and brother in Christ, Jody Midgley, specifically posted part of a 40 day series wherein he discussed battling the fiend. My comment on that post was that the biggest trouble I have when I'm walking people through how to recognize the devil's schemes is that we are deceived into expecting him to appear in a red cat suit with a tail and pitch fork when Scripture warns us that he appears as an 'angel of light' (2Cor11:14).
Job 1:16
I thought of that brief commentary and similar conversations I've had this morning when I read Job chapter 1. We know from the verses earlier in the chapter that the devil has been given permission to attack Job, short of his personal body. The characters experiencing the events do not. Thus, a servant comes running from one of the calamitous events described and proclaims "The fire of God..."
But was it? In all appearances it seemed to be just that. But it wasn't. Except it looked like it, right? I mean how are the characters experiencing the event to know - they weren't standing around the Throne Room listening in on the conversation when it happened. So give the credit (go ahead and finish the thought of where this really goes in our hearts, the BLAME) to God right? Well in this case we know that's wrong. God didn't do it, even though He allowed it. That's a very important distinction. When tragedy strikes it is no longer a question of whether it was ALLOWED to happen, that's now a moot point, an established fact - the vulgar term is SHIT HAPPENS. One of my more mature (behaviorally, not chronologically) ministerial associates, Joe White, wrote recently "Manure Occureth".
My sound faith in God recognizes that although my life is in His hands, my steps are ordered by His Word, my path is set out under His direction, that calamity strikes. In those moments I have reflexively retrained my natural reaction to be withdrawal from emotion - to take a step back and force myself into objectivity. The smell of burning wool and charred flesh is still in my nose, I'm breathless from the sprint away from ground zero, shaking from the adrenaline, wondering why I survived, why me... and those signs serve to suddenly clarify my potential danger of running headlong into another self inflicted disaster after having been at the scene of a life shaking event.
Step back. Breathe. Evaluate. What just happened? Destruction. Of what? An idol I'd established in my life? No - then what? Innocents and valuable livestock. People doing their job, they clocked in this morning to tend the flock which was faring well this season. Were they evil? No more than any of us really, Bubba (I know it's not a Biblical name) was the best sort of people you'd ever want to know, give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. So now we've seen rampant supernatural destruction it is next to impossible to fully wrap our mind around, and our heart is caught up in a maelstrom of potential devastation and bitter reaction that will drown us in life destroying hatred of God. C.S. Lewis called it "The Problem of Pain."
In my evaluation I've eliminated God as the culprit and simultaneously pinned the tail on the Devil because I know that it is the Thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy. God gave us original life, and has willingly walked with us to give us new life, life more abundant (John 10:10). Now, am I suddenly enlightened as to the purpose of my pain? Rarely. Hardly ever in fact. Frequently I'm able to look back and see how He redeemed that destruction. Occasionally I get to see some reasoning unfold in days rather than years. Most often however, I'm just left in a calmer place knowing that I don't know what just happened or why, but that like Job, I can trust God.
And he said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."One of my points in this today is best summed up by a statement made by Pastor Steve Elliott: "A disaster of Biblical proportions does not make it Biblical in character."
In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
Job 1:21-22
Just because it looks like the "Fire of God" doesn't make it so. We do better to ascertain the character reflected in the events before we jump to an unwarranted conclusion. Often what people want to blame God for is nothing more than the inherent consequences of sin that never needs the active judgment of God.
To illuminate this struggle of acceptance and sorting through events we often face in our daily life I want to share something I read recently in Jonathan Cahn's book The Harbinger:
[we're stepping into a conversation between the two main characters, the Prophet and Nouriel regarding 9/11/2001, Nouriel struggling to wrap his mind around the implications]
Nouriel: Was God behind it?
Prophet: Man was behind it, he answered. Evil men were behind it. Up to that point they had been restrained...
Nouriel: It's hard to receive...but it's a hard... For what follows? I don't know. But even to say, 'God allowed it to happen'...
Prophet: It happened, Nouriel. Therefore it had to have been allowed to happen. That's not the question. Rather the only question is whether it was allowed to happen for no reason or whether there was, within it, a redemptive purpose.Hard words that bear thinking about.
Nouriel: On 9/11 people were asking, 'Where was God?'
Prophet: 'Where was God?' he said, as if surprised by the question. We drove Him out of our schools, out of our government, out of our media, out of our culture, out of our public square. We drove Him out of our national life, and then we ask, 'Where is God?'
Nouriel: Then He wasn't there?
Prophet: Still, He was there. He was there with those who lost their loved ones and is still there to heal the broken and comfort those who mourn. He was there with those who gave their lives so others could live, shadows of Him. And He was there, as well, with all the countless others who would have perished that day if not for the countless turns of details and events that saved them. And for those who perished... those who were with God in life are now with Him in eternity. For these, it was not a day of national calamity but of release. He was with them and is with them.
In what is an echo of an Andy Andrews book entitled How Do You Kill 11 Million People? with the poignant subtitle Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think I want to close sharing an article I just read this morning which finishes out the tap on the shoulder I received this morning to write this (emphases of paragraph and final line mine):
March 21, 2013
The Devil in Disguise
By Earl Tilford
3/21/2013
Arguably, the satanic character in the HBO series only superficially resembles our president. The depiction also is Biblically and theologically inaccurate because evil usually comes to us disguised as good. Satan sold Eve on the virtues of nibbling the forbidden fruit, insisting God would never punish her. The innocent Eve couldn’t have recognized evil since she had not yet broken the one commandment God gave her and Adam. Had Satan been honest with Eve, it would have taken a “blonde moment” of apocalyptic dimensions to buy into the pains of childbirth, loss of a son to sibling murder, tooth decay, a likely painful death followed by a return to dust. The serpent promised a deeper understanding of life’s mysteries, theretofore known only to God, Satan and other angelic creatures.
Evil exists. Pure, unadulterated evil recently visited a nearby Tuscaloosa neighborhood where an unknown assailant butchered a 73-year old female friend of mine. Heartbroken, I listened at her memorial service while the pastor dwelt on the Psalmist’s poetic assurance that we need not fear evil while in the valley of death because a loving God will be there with us. Some years ago, in the midst of that valley, I asked “God, where were you when my child died?” The response I received, “The same place I was when my son died,” brought serenity and hope without fully satisfying the “why?” Presumably a complete answer awaits me in eternity.
Most of the time, evil isn’t as clearly apparent as my friend’s ax wielding killer must have been during her terrifying last moments. The most recognizable modern personification of evil is Adolf Hitler. Third Reich propaganda films like “Triumph of the Will” clearly show millions of Germans adoring the Fuhrer whose seductive message blamed their sufferings on the Versailles Treaty, evil intent of Bolsheviks, and insidious machinations of Jews at home and abroad. In 1933, had Hitler promised, “Follow me and within 12 years your cities will be rubble, 19,000,000 of you will be dead, our nation divided and occupied by foreign armies, your national honor trashed, and my name along with this regime will become synonymous with evil,” I doubt the people who gave us Beethoven, Bach, Einstein and Goethe would have yelled, “Sieg Heil! Sign me up!”
The essence of Biblical evil is man usurping God’s providence. God didn’t create us evil. He did, however, allow free will and then, when humanity turned away to pursue its own ideas of what is good, just and righteous, God let us be who and what we are with deadly results. Words matter.
On January 20, 1942, 15 German officials, met at the Berlin resort of Wannsee where, over brunch, they decided to exterminate and incinerate Europe’s 12,000,000 Jews. If all went according to plan, the fully developed process would take less than a year. Indeed, from January 1942 to April 1945, the German work camp system killed 12,000,000 people, half of them Jews. Nazis used euphemisms like “evacuation” for “extermination” and “medical re-socialization” for “sterilization.” Their final solution was mass murder.
The Wannsee attendees didn’t resemble monsters. Conference chair, SS Lt. Gen. Reinhardt Heydrich, who would soon earn the title “Butcher of Prague,” also was a concert violinist and Olympic gold medal fencer. Most of the attendees—secondary officials and bureaucrats—were lawyers…family men. Their evil was not in their monstrosity but in their banality. Worse, they were convinced history would vindicate and honor their actions.
Like the Satan in the Garden, evil deceives with words. A current TV ad depicts a brother conceding his gay sibling’s right to be as happy in same-sex marriage as he is with his wife. Many liberal Christians advocate a plethora of “social justice” issues from pro-choice and gay marriage, to open immigration. Ironically, in Biblical Greek—the language of the New Testament—the words “righteousness” and “justice” are identical. God’s justice flows from inexorable righteousness while social justice reflects human values. Therein lies the rub. Evil is not how we play Satan, but how Satan plays us.
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