Job 1:21 and exclaimed: “I left my mother’s womb naked, and I will return to God naked. The LORD has given, and the LORD has taken.
The problem is that people see a text and start running with it. Job said that without knowledge. The earlier verses explain that it was the devil who attacked his children. But because he didn’t know he blamed it on God. Sadly, preachers have been using it in church and at funerals.
Look at how God responded to all the things Job said in chapter 38:
1 The LORD responded to Job from the whirlwind and said:
2 WHO IS THIS WHO KEEPS DARKENING MY COUNSEL WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT HE’S TALKING ABOUT?
3 Stand up like a man! I’ll ask you some questions, and you give me some answers!”
You see! God did not take it lightly with Job for saying the things he said. God said he spoke without knowledge.
Paul explains to us by the spirit in Romans 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Meaning that God’s gifts are without repentance. He will not give you a baby and kill him after 2 years.
God does not give and take life. If you have a thorough understanding of God you’d realize that he is always a giver. He is the source of life. He doesn’t have death in him. John 1:4 In him is Life. In fact death is God’s enemy according to the Bible (1 Corinth 15: 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death)
If death is God’s enemy, then God will certainly not employ the services of his enemy against his children.
People may argue about how God delivered the Israelites into the hands of their enemies and permitting death against them. You’d realize that their disobedience opened the way to death and God permitted it because they have, by choice, rejected life through disobedience.
Jesus was clear that the taker of life was the devil. The thief commeth not but to steal to kill and to destroy, I have come that you may have life, John 10:10. You see!
Satan kills through accidents, disease, wars etc. God may have purposed that you live up to age 80. But if you choose to commit suicide: hang yourself or take poison, God will permit that since that is your choice. So the bible is full of mysteries. If you don’t understand it you will be misled into thinking that God is the author of evil.
Now, Contrary to what Job said, look at how someone with a better understanding describes God in 2 Samuel 14:14 After all, even though we all die, and we’re all like water being spilled on the ground that cannot be recovered, nevertheless GOD DOESN’T TAKE AWAY LIFE, but carries out his plans so as not to cast away permanently from him
See how God is described in 1 Timothy 6:13 Since you are in the presence of God, WHO GIVES LIFE TO EVERYTHING, and in the presence of the Messiah Jesus.
He gives life. Hallelujah!
Romans 4:17 As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations.” Abraham acted in faith when he stood in the presence of God, WHO GIVES LIFE TO THE DEAD and calls into existence things that don’t exist as though they were
2 Corinth 1:9 In fact, we felt that we had received a death sentence so we would not rely on ourselves but ON GOD WHO RAISES THE DEAD.
When you receive inaccurate information for so long, you tend to resist the accurate one when it is given. I pray that the Lord will open your eyes to know him more through his word.
But someone may ask, what about these verses. They seem to contradict what you are saying.
Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
2 Kings 5:7When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.”
Job 5:18 “For He inflicts pain, and gives relief; He wounds, and His hands also heal.
Ecclesiastes 3:3 A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.
The bible is a progressive revelation of God. They did not get to know God at once. They learnt of him more and more as they walked with him. You’d realize that those in the Old Testament misunderstood the sovereignty of God. In their opinion God was responsible for everything: good or evil. Even if someone was barren, they would say that God had closed her womb. They had not understood spiritual warfare.
You may insist those texts still show that God is responsible for some of the evils we see. But a proper revelation of God in the New Testament shows how limited those OT people knew God.
James 3:11Can both fresh water and bitter water flow from the same spring?
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17.
You see! It is clear from here that both good and evil doesn’t come from God.
Acts 10:38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, he went around doing good and healing everyone who was oppressed of the devil.
1 John 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the devil’s work.
Without a deeper revelation of God’s word, those texts may seem to connote that God afflicts people. But his word reveals that all the afflictions were of the devil. God rather sent Jesus to heal them. Those folks in the Old Testament had limited understanding of some matters.
He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their injuries. Psalm 147:3
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.
Hallelujah! This is what God does. Jesus proclaimed exactly how God is: he sets the oppressed free. He doesn’t afflict them.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, who will strengthen you and will keep you from evil.
2 Thess 3:16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all.
Have you noticed that these texts doesn’t show a monster God? He gives peace always, not pain.
1 Thessa 5:23
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
In fact this is a most basic text which should clarify all the confusion. Jesus was actually saying that “you people have thought that God was responsible for evil, but I have come to expose the one behind that, the devil. God’s will is life. That is what I have come to do”
If any man still insist that God afflicts people then that is unfortunate. It simply means they haven’t seen him yet. They have only read about him.
SINCERELY,
EMMANUEL OPOKU AGYEMANG
REVIEWED BY
REV. DR. ERIC OWUSU BARNIE
THE NETWORK OF REVIVALISTS 