Who Then Is It?

“If it is not he, who then is it?”

Good question, Job. If it is not God who gives the earth into the hand of the wicked … if it is not God who keeps his appointed rulers from dispensing justice … then who can we blame? When we suffer inexplicably, whom but God may we reasonably charge with afflicting us?

Most deep thinkers eventually arrive at this question, and not all are omni-determinists. Job was several millennia pre-Calvin.

A Conundrum Ages Old

The conundrum is ages old, and if you haven’t ever posed it, even to yourself, perhaps one day you may. Thankfully, Job stopped short of making God the author of sin. Modern determinists should be so prudent. Instead, he was left perplexed. How am I to think about this? If God is truly sovereign, as I believe, then why does he repay relative righteousness with disaster after disaster? Those who define omnipotence as micromanagement of the universe down to the subatomic level are left with a truly terrifying God: “It is he.” Or, as some put it, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?”

That’s cold comfort to the suffering believer, isn’t it. Ice cold. Alternatively, if they are uncomfortable with that conclusion, or just inconsistent in their theology, they are stuck back at “If it is not he, who then is it?” or maybe just “God moves in mysterious ways.”

Can, May or Does?

No one doubts God can give sinners into the hand of the wicked, or may choose to prevent the evil man or woman from receiving the justice they crave. Sometimes he does. “The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!” Moreover, no one can reasonably doubt the Father disciplines his children, though we should never confuse the two things. But any theory of causality that makes God personally the author of all human misfortune (including and especially that of devout followers of Christ) fails to satisfy the human soul. It may satisfy the intellect of theologians, but it cannot touch the heart.

Scripture teaches God is not the only one who moves in mysterious ways. The story of Job is one of the earliest tales in scripture, so we cannot say with certainty what the poor man knew about evil and where it originates. It’s doubtful he had a fully-developed understanding of the malicious heavenly powers to comfort him. As it turns out, the unidentified “he” behind our protagonist’s misery was a “son of God”, a powerful spirit being the Hebrew text refers to as the Accuser or the Adversary. Translators generally call him Satan. The writer of the book of Job plainly tells us this right at the outset of all Job’s troubles and terrors. He it was who multiplied Job’s torments in hope that his bewildered victim would curse God and die.

Would Job have ever guessed this? He couldn’t possibly.

More Than One Answer

Believers today lack no important knowledge of the Adversary. Scripture has much to say about the author of evil and the myriad spirit beings who have taken up his cause. I find it mysterious that so many who read and believe the scriptures have difficulty perceiving the gleeful malevolence of the principalities and powers behind many of our deepest sorrows and afflictions. Christendom gravitates to the poles of a false dichotomy. At one end, increasing numbers answer any question of causality with “God did it.” At the other end, it’s all Satan all the time. Both views are overly simplistic. Both fail to take into account all the scriptural teaching on the subject. Both leave a strange, unsatisfying taste in the mouth, as warped theology tends to do.

In the end, any useful theory of cause and effect needs to take all possible sources of personal disaster into account. Most of the time when I struggle to identify the source of my own grief or suffering, I find the Adversary a much more plausible fit than my heavenly Father.

Because even believers sin, there are times it is difficult to be completely certain about cause and effect. One day soon we will be able to. In the meantime, scripture gives us more than one possible answer to “If it is not he, who then is it?” I find that of great comfort.