4 is Satan responsible for suffering?

tough questions, honest answers

1 if God hates suffering, why doesn’t he get rid of suffering in the world?

If God were to eradicate suffering from the world, he would have to get rid of sinners—suffering is inextricably linked to our rebellion against God back in the garden. But God does not want to obliterate sinners; he wants to save them. John 3:16–19 reveals God’s heart about saving sinners. When the kingdom of heaven came to earth with the arrival of Jesus, God opened the way for unbelievers to be rescued through Christ’s death. If at that point God had ushered in the fullness of the kingdom and closed the curtain on suffering (doing away with all pain and heartache), what would have become of us? We wouldn’t have been born, let alone had a chance to embrace Christ!

God is rich in mercy toward us! He is delaying closing the curtain on sin and suffering so that more people—millions more over the last 2,000 years—might come to know Christ. Until Jesus returns, our sufferings drive us to reach out to unbelievers with the good news: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for their salvation. The cost of suffering may be great, but people are worth it.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son (John 3:16–18).

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).

If you believed the eternal state of your neighbors and unsaved family members was worth the suffering you face in this world, how might that change things?

2 why do honest, good people have to suffer so? don’t they deserve better?

This world is full of pain. We look at the anguish that good friends are experiencing and insist, “Good people deserve better.” But do we? It’s a tough question, and the Bible has a hard answer. It paints a sobering picture: people are not innately good. It also says that people—all of us—cannot begin to comprehend how our sin has offended God. In fact, the Bible states that God is just and right to send rebellious creatures to hell— dare we say that he is fair to give us a “taste” of what that hell might look or feel like through our sufferings here on earth?

But wait! There is a hidden mercy here! By tasting suffering in this life—hell’s splash-over—people are driven to ponder what may face them in the next life. In this way, suffering may be our greatest mercy. If we experienced nothing but ease and comfort, we would soon forget that we are eternal creatures—but suffering won’t allow that. It persistently reminds us that something immense and cosmic is at stake: a heaven to be reached for Christ’s sake, and a hell to be avoided.

Every day of our short life has eternal consequences for good or ill. Thus, it is only fitting that a merciful and wise God should give us some sense of the stakes involved, some sense of the magnitude of the spiritual battle—he does this by giving us foretastes of heaven in the joys we experience, and foretastes of hell in our suffering.

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away (Isa. 64:6).

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer. 17:9).

What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: “There here is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless” (Rom. 3:9–12).

Philippians 1:27 says to “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” We tend to look at our own conduct as the standard of virtue (measuring our Christ-likeness by our own good behavior). And so, we end up judging ourselves by ourselves, making a whole list of virtues our own when, in fact, the Bible says we are to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. Read James 1:23. What does it mean to look in the mirror of God’s law? When you do… what do you see?

3 what possible good can come through suffering that is out of our control?

It’s one thing to muster a submissive attitude toward God when we bring troubles on ourselves, but it’s a different matter when unexpected trials hit us broadside—trials not of our own making. Like when a drunk driver veers across the yellow line. Or a grim-faced doctor diagnoses cancer. Or reassessment slaps your property with a higher tax burden. Or a clumsy linebacker breaks your high-school kid’s leg in football practice. Or an old friend drags your name through the mud. You didn’t bring any of these troubles on yourself; these are circumstances over which you have no control—and for that reason, they’re the hardest with which to deal.

But look at the apostle Paul. He didn’t bring that shipwreck on himself. He didn’t instigate a death threat in Damascus. He didn’t orchestrate mob scenes that left him smashed by stones. Paul may not have been responsible for his circumstances, but he was responsible for the way he reacted.

He never groaned, “Oh, for Pete’s sake, here we go again!” Instead, he said, “For Christ’s sake, I delight in hardships.” Another response? He said in 2 Timothy 2:10, “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect...” These were the first words out of Paul’s mouth when he was pelted by stones, sidetracked by brutal floggings, and thrown into dark dungeons. He endured hardships for Christ’s sake, as well as the sake of the church.

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:10).

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (Gen. 50:20).

When suffering that is out of your control wreaks havoc, what is your first reaction? Why do you think we look for someone to “blame”?

4 is Satan responsible for suffering?

Yes, Satan is responsible—imagine a ship called Evil that Satan fuels with his wicked schemes (and all the suffering that accompanies it). Satan may stoke the belly of that ship, but God sovereignly intervenes and “steers” that ship to accomplish his own plans and purposes. God is the “stowaway” on Satan’s ship, erecting invisible fences around Satan’s fury and bringing ultimate good out of the devil’s wickedness. So God’s decrees allow for suffering to happen, but God doesn’t “do” it.

These are deep waters: God permitting suffering but not necessarily “doing” it? How does he pull it off? Welcome to the world of finite humans trying to comprehend an infinite God. What is clear is that God permits all sorts of things he doesn’t approve of. He allows others to do what he would never do—take the sufferings that fell upon Job, for instance: God didn’t steal Job’s camels or entice the Chaldeans to wreak havoc, yet the Lord did not take his hand off the wheel for a nanosecond.

restraining grace

Sometimes in Scripture, it’s hard to tell exactly who is behind all the heartache and hardship, and we wonder, are Satan and the Lord in cahoots with one another? Take the following verses:

But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart...(Ex. 8:32).

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart...(Ex. 10:20).

So which is it? Who did the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart? When it comes to Pharaoh’s stony resolve and exactly who did the hardening, Scripture points to both Pharaoh and the Lord. We know from James 1:13 that God does not inject the idea of evil into anyone’s heart. So how is it that “the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart”?

Through the common work of grace in our world, God is constantly staving off evil, restraining the fury of Satan so that harm and calamity do not overwhelm us. The devil can only do what God allows. Every once in a while, however—as in the case of Pharaoh—God lifts his hand of restraining grace to allow evil men to carry out their wicked plans, only as it serves God’s higher purposes. God was inasmuch saying to Pharaoh, “So you want to sin? Well, go ahead, but I’ll make sure that when you do, your evil intentions suit my higher purposes and plan.”

Even though humans have intellects and wills of their own, God ultimately governs all they do, including the results of their evil intentions. And he does it all without impugning his righteous and holy character.

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