Smiling at Frowning Providences

When the Christian finds himself to be under great afflictions and facing much adversity, which is the case for all Christians at one point or another in their lives (Job 5:7), he can either despairingly say, "I'm having a hard time seeing God in all of this." Note that Job's wife who knew that God was the ultimate source of Job's suffering, but sinfully advices Job to, "Curse God and die" (Job 2:9)! Or he can say, "The Lord is not far from it, he is not merely in it, but he is behind it!" Though we do not realize it at the time the former position is one of a faint hearted attitude and lacking of strong faith, but "How painful are honest words!"(Job 6:25). We think that we are solid until the time of testing comes and reveals hollow places in our faith that need some constructive attention. When it comes to this I am afraid that I have been more like Job's wife than Job, whose weakest moments have been greater than my strongest.

But what lessons we could learn and what relief we could be gained by considering that God was in absolute providential control of Job's destiny? How much better off we would be if we were to smile at frowning providences, especially in that we have the example of Job set before us! Let us faithfully believe as it is promised by God, that just as he was at the helm of Job's life, it is also true that he is the captain in ordering the direction and affairs of our lives. If we cannot seem to muster a smile during the bad times, for there is a time for everything, and suffering in itself is terrible, we have this assurance that God directs all things for his glory and our good. Now this is a joyful thought even in the worst of circumstances that though "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Ps. 30:5). This was the bases for martyrs who died in pain, but went rejoicing and singing into heaven.

To accuse one of lacking faith or being substandard in integrity is an easy estimation to make by those that are strangers to affliction, and are on the outside looking in, not going through the same thing, is it not? How true it is that, "Men at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping" (Job 11:5). And though it is true that this is a question of faith low minded empathy and high minded sympathy is what we want and need when going through troubling times, and further it ought to be the tools of counsel and instruction when dealing with our brothers and sisters who find themselves out to be under the scourging rod of God. We do not know what God may be up to in the various circumstances of people's lives.

Testing is the tool of working in us strong faith and though faith may at first be weak and strained under a heavy burden, it is what keeps us in that it stems from God, and it is strengthened all the more for it. However, the best as well as the worst of Christians have a tendency to have tunnel vision when it comes to spiritually trying matters. Like Jobs counselors we assume that God must have such and such a thing in mind. But God usually does his work in secret and mysterious ways that we cannot discern. The norm for us is not the normal way that God works.

The disciples probably assumed the coin in the mouth of the fish was relevant only to them and their taxes, but where did the coin come from other than another work of God in dealing with mariners that had found their providential lot to be that of an encounter with troubled seas? Whatever the case may be with this, it is a verity that God uses affliction for our good and for his glory. What we see as now being painful to us is but the work of a loving and disciplining father who will not permit us to be so prosperous that we do not attain to the fullness of himself that we are so desperately in need of.

So instead of asking where God is in our trials let our spirits find humble harmony with Job, who suffered far more than all of us, and acknowledge that it is God who is the dispenser of both good and evil. "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble" (Job 2:10)? Job had faith and this is what helped him through his trial. And how his faith was measured and developed more perfectly because of his trial! Unwavering faith, though it can be shaken yet it cannot be shattered, is what reveals the persevering believer from the falling apostate. If we have to ask where God is in the evil that befalls man we are in an indescribably terrible state as compared to having the peace of knowing that we are under the sovereign care of God who brings frowning providences, but only such that we might ultimately smile at.

Things are not so bad if one can say "God is behind the thing." To have to look for God in a bad situation is to be in a most miserable predicament. It is not that one merely has a problem when he cannot see God in an affliction, and has to look for his hand in the matter, but rather the more serious problem is that he does not see God altogether in the affliction to begin with. There is a problem with our language usage here. It is true that the devil did his worse to Job, but just as the devil had command over nature and evil men, it was God who had command over the devil.

"He wounds but he also binds up; he injures but his hands also heal" (Job 5:18). Job's pain was very real, he suffered a lot, and he cried, cursing even the day of his birth (Job 3:1), but not God, and in the end he found occasion for a smile. He was closer to God for his sufferings and the Lord blessed the latter part of his life more than the first (Job 42:12). "A gracious soul may look through the darkest cloud, and see a God smiling on him" (Thomas Brooks Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices Banner Pg. 86).