“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21b).
The daughters of two well-known theologians recently died, and both theologians publicly reflected on the tragic events. One is an Arminian, and one is a Calvinist:
- Ben Witherington (an Arminian), “What Good Grief Looks Like When a Daughter Dies: Walking the Way of Grace in the Midst of My Grief” (April 11, 2012)
- Fred Zaspel (a Calvinist), “Reflections on the Loss of Our Daughter” (November 13, 2013)
(HT: Tony Reinke)
Losing a daughter in the prime of her life must be unimaginably painful! But my jaw dropped when I read what Ben Witherington asserts about Job 1:21 (bullet points added):
One primary reason I am not a Calvinist is that I do not believe in God’s detailed control of all events. Why?
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- First, because I find it impossible to believe that I am more merciful or compassionate than God.
- Second, because the biblical portrait shows that God is pure light and holy love. In him there is no darkness, nothing other than light and love.
- And third, the words, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away,” from the lips of Job (1:21), are not good theology. According to Job 1, it was not God but the Devil who took away Job’s children, health, and wealth. God allowed it to happen, but when Job said these words, as the rest of the story shows, he was not yet enlightened about the true nature of the source of his calamity and God’s actual will for his life. God’s will for him was for good and not for harm.
I strongly disagree.
You can read (at least part of the reason) why in chapter 4 of my book From Typology to Doxology. (The publisher gave me permission to upload a free PDF of chapter 4, which includes my informal paraphrase of the entire book of Job.)
Some excerpts (with bold emphasis added):
- Meanwhile, unknown to Job, Satan joins the sons of God (apparently God’s angels) when they present themselves before God, and God initiates a discussion with Satan about Job (1:6–8).Satan accuses Job of serving God merely because God has blessed Job, and God gives Satan permission to test Job but not touch him (1:9–12). (p. 64)
- Again Satan joins God’s angels when they present themselves before God, and again God initiates a discussion with Satan about Job (2:1–3). Satan accuses Job of serving God merely because God blessed him with health, and God gives Satan permission to touch Job but not murder him (2:4–6). (p. 65)
- God allows Satan to afflict Job, but he does not merely allow it. The epilogue describes Job’s Satan-inflicted calamities as “all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (42:11). This is consistent with the prologue where God twice initiates discussions with Satan about Job (1:8; 2:3). The end of God’s statement in 2:3 implies that God himself is the ultimate cause of the calamity since he, not Satan, is the one who destroys Job: “you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” (p. 72)
Job’s words in Job 1:21 are good theology. They give us a rock-solid footing when we’re reeling, and they fuel worship.
“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21b).
Related:
- Recommended Reading on Job
- God Doesn’t Have Creditors (Job 41:10–11) | outline (a sermon I preached on 11/27/2011)
- The Logical and Emotional Problems of Evil
- A brilliant tweet by Ted Olsen: “Job in a nutshell: Job: Why? Friends: You sinned. Job: No I didn’t. God: Look at the cool animals!”
Witherington: “I find it impossible to believe that I am more merciful or compassionate than God.”
But that’s because we only know in part. We think we are more merciful because we don’t see the whole picture.
Andy, I think Ben needs to read “Beyond Suffering” by Layton Talbert. How does he get around Job 2:3b “he still holds fast to his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason”. God clearly takes full responsibility for Job’s calamity and admits that it was God who destroyed Job without reason.
Also when Job said “The lord gave and the Lord has taken away” the very next verse says “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” 1:12. Ben seems to be ignoring this verse. If Job was wrong, and falsely uttered this statement, as Witherington states, then why would the author make the claim that Job did not “charge God with wrong”?
There are basically 7 witnesses listed in the book of Job and all of the attribute Job’s suffering as coming from the hand of God.
1. Job – “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away” 1:21
2. The Author – “for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” 42:11
3 God – “you incited me against him to destroy him without reason” 2:3
The remaining 4 are Job’s friends. (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and even Elihu) All of them attributed Job’s suffering to God. They were wrong about the why, but they were correct about the who.
It just puzzles me how a man as godly and brilliant as Ben Witherington can simply miss what is so obvious in the text.
please excuse the typos.
“There are basically 7 witnesses listed in the book of Job and all of them attribute Job’s suffering as coming from the hand of God.”
Isn’t there some truth in what Witherington says? Isn’t it Carson who says that God stands behind evil differently (or asymmetrically) than He stands behind good? Perhaps what’s wrong with Witherington’s view is that he is incomplete. Yes, God allowed, and yes Satan took away. What’s missing is that God’s allowance is a form of taking away, but a form that is different both textually and experientially than Satan’s taking away. And perhaps Witherington is right that what Job says is bad theology if detached from the rest of Scripture, which shows that God asymmetrically stands behind evil vs. good.
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness.
I make well-being and create calamity.
I am the Lord, who does all these things.”
Isaiah 45:6-7 ESV
Andy, thanks for this and your response brother.
As a minister who has lost a child myself – my acceptance of the classical reformed doctrine of God’s sovereignty does not rest upon me being more compassionate than God; but me being more finite than him.
As a creature I am not able to pry into the things hidden within God’s infinite wisdom and kindness. We wait for him to reveal more of how his plans glorify him, knowing from the cross and all his dealings with us that he is kind and compassionate.
It’s appalling that Witherington would make such a claim that Job 1:21 is not good theology given the very next verse: “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22). We know, then, that in saying what Job did, namely that “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away” (1:21), he “did not sin or charge God with wrong” (1:22). His theology was good and right! As hard as it is humanly to accept Job’s theology, the text clearly indicates its truthfulness!
Getting to grips with God’s Directive and God’s Permissive will sorts this out. God is Ultimately in Control of all things good or evil. Sometimes he directs suffering (Paul Acts 9 “A Chosen vessel to suffer for My name”) But He only allows the evil for the greater good in this case His Own glory. He knew the outcome of course. Job fully understood his God and trusted Him completely “Though he slay me yet will I trust Him” God is our loving Father, Holy Righteous and just in everything He does. We can trust Him in every situation we find ourselves in, even in bereavement.
I am one of the three pastors at Reformed Baptist Church where Fred Zaspel serves with Pastor Hufstetler and myself. It has been of course a most difficult time for all of us as in God’s providence Gina has gone home to be with the Lord. However, it has also been wonderful to see how Pastor Zaspel, his wife Kim and their son Jim have been sustained by the sovereign grace of God in this deep trial.
I think most of us can not imagine the pain with the loss of a child. My heart goes out to Mr. Witherington in his sorrow. I am saddened that he does not see the grace of God both Job and his trials. May the Lord yet instruct him. But for now let us pray that God will comfort him.
Wow, just wow. Presumably Witherington, had he encountered Christ shedding tears of blood in Gethsemane, would have removed the “cup” out of his enormous compassion, thereby “compassionately” denying redemption to the whole world.
Aside from the obvious exegetical issues, I think we need to be careful not to come off sounding like Job’s “comforters” in this discussion. Remember, Job’s theology wasn’t altogether correct–why else would God to meet with him in the end of the story if not to help him to see things differently? Yet the so-called friends seemed to care more about showing Job how wrong he was rather than trying to understand his grief. Just food for thought…..