God Controls Our Difficulties, Pt. 2

Today, I want to unpack the last three points from our passage. God controls our difficulties by giving His permission, by regulating restraint, and lastly by affecting His purpose through those difficulties.

4. God's permission (1:12; 2:6, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand." "Behold, he is in your hand…")
   God grants Satan the permission first to deal with Job's possessions as Satan sees fit and then permits him to afflict Job himself. We must realize the difficulties you and I encounter, the problems in which we are entangled, the struggles in which we are engaged, etc. have come to us by God's permission. God is holy, just, good, wise, tender, and loving. Knowing and viewing God that way changes the way you view the difficult situations God brought into your life. It changes everything.

5. God's restraint/control (1:12; 2:6, "Only against him do not stretch out your hand." "…only spare his life.")
   As God permits, he does not permit Satan to do everything might want to do. He puts limitations on Satan. At first, don't touch Job. In that contest, Job did not sin against the Lord by charging God with wrong (1:22). In the second contest, God limits Satan from taking Job's life, that is, don't kill him. From this we learn that God controls the matter [this or that], manner [slow, rapid, painfully, softly], and measure [quantity] (using Joseph Caryl) of the difficulties. Satan is not unleashed upon us without limitations and restraint.