1 Doubting God's Goodness: Life in a Time of War Rich Nathan May 20

Doubting God’s Goodness: Life in a Time of War Rich Nathan May 20, 2012 Apologetics: Doubting God Series Ephesians 6:10-12

I recently heard Dr. Greg Boyd, a pastor from Minneapolis, give the following illustration. I’m expanding on it with a huge degree of pastoral liberty. But the basic idea came from Dr. Greg Boyd. Imagine its June 5, 1944. You are living in France and have rented a beach house and you are planning to vacation with your family on the beach at a place called Normandy. You’ve been working hard all year and are looking forward to kicking back, relaxing, drinking good French wine, swimming in the surf with your children, and enjoying the beach for the next month.

Well, to your surprise, that night, June 5, 1944, the sounds of planes flying overhead disturb your sleep. Paratroopers start dropping into your yard. And in the morning, before dawn, flotillas of landing craft land on just the spot you’ve planted your beach umbrella. You, of course, are very upset especially after one of the beach invaders breaks your favorite beach chair when he rolls over it with his tank.

And then you have to contend with all the shooting and shells that are landing in your yard. You are in the backyard trying to get a little peace as you lie in your hammock. You finally lose your patience and start screaming at everyone, “Stop it! Stop it! I’m on vacation!”

Dr. Boyd’s point was that the problem most Christians have and, indeed, most people have with all of the suffering and pain that exists in our world is that we basically believe that life should be like a vacation instead of like a war. You know there is a difference between being on vacation and being in the middle of a war. Listen to the following description of a spa that is in Scottsdale, Arizona.

If you are looking for a desert climate and an overall recharging vacation, we recommend the W Scottsdale where the spa will leave you ultra- pampered and relaxed. Guests of the hotel are just steps away from Old Town and unlimited shopping options at the waterfront. The Bliss Spa, with its seven tranquil treatment rooms, has a full menu of rejuvenating facials and many highly trained masseuses. Our two top picks are the Blissage 75 and the Hot Milk. Also, the sought-after Fat Girl’s Slim Treatment will have you feeling great in your itsy-bitsy bikini and ready for some serious tanning time. After the treatments are finished, head up to the posh, open-around-the-clock-pool. The thirteen cabanas are equipped with flat-panel TVs and Internet for those who don’t want to completely disconnect. These can be reserved during the daytime for $250.00. While

at the pool, swim by the tanning concierge for tips and the best sunscreens. Also, if the sun is working too slowly, get an organic airbrushed tan in your guestroom bathroom. This is part of one of the many luscious amenities.

Now, isn’t this the American dream of what normal life should be like all of the time? You’re pampered, you’re protected; everyone else in the world exists to take care of you and your needs. You have money to burn, no hassles, no stresses. You spend the day soaking in hot milk before you go in for your Fat Girls’ Slim Treatment .

Let me read to you, by way of contrast, what it was like to live as a soldier in the trenches during World War I:

Trench life was, however, one of considerable squalor, with so many men living in a very constrained space. Scraps of discarded food, empty tins and other waste, the nearby presence of the latrine, the general dirt of living half underground and being unable to wash or change for days or weeks at a time created conditions of severe health risks (and that is not counting the military risks). Vermin including rats and lice were very numerous: disease was spread by them, and by the maggots and flies that thrived on the nearby remains of decomposing human and animal corpses. Troops in the trenches were also subjected to the weather: the winter of 1916 to 1917 in France and Flanders was the coldest in living memory; the trenches flooded in the wet spring sometimes to waist height whenever it rained. Men suffered from exposure, frostbite, trench-foot (a wasting disease of the flesh caused by the foot being wet and cold all the time, constrained to boots, for days on end, that would cripple a man), and many diseases brought on or made worse by living in such a way.

What is it like to fight in a war? A quick Google search will bring up dozens of images of the horrific conditions that U.S. soldiers experienced during World War II. You will see faces that are etched with the pain of their experiences – war- weary men who are transporting their wounded comrades for medical care. It is not only the soldiers that are injured in the war, but also there is all of what we call today “collateral damage.”

There is an image of a little baby who was picked up by an American G.I. The baby nearly died as a result of the battle. It is not just men, women and children that are affected. All of creation is affected by the war. I ran across a photo of American G.I.s patching up a dog that was injured in the crossfire between the Americans and the Japanese.

I’ve been doing a series that I’ve titled Doubting God . I’ve been away the last couple of weeks. Marlene and I had the privilege of teaching at a leadership conference in Copenhagen where we gathered together hundreds of pastors and

leaders from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. While I’ve been away, I’ve heard rave reviews about Charles’ and Insoo’s preaching over the past two weekends. Isn’t it great being part of a church that has so many gifted young teachers?

A few weeks ago, I did a message titled Doubting God’s Goodness . I said, then, that of all the barriers that people have to faith, the greatest barrier is the sheer amount of suffering that exists in the world. Why, if the Christian story is true and God does exist and God is love and he does choose to interact with this world, then why do so many people in the world suffer? Why so much violence? Why so many unexpected tragedies? Why so much pain?

In the first talk that I did on Doubting God’s Goodness , I spoke about how we as human beings misuse the gift of freedom that God has given us. Rather than love God and love our neighbor, we human beings turn our backs on God and we often abuse and injure our neighbor. We talked about the impact that sin has had upon the well-being of this world.

Why do so many people suffer?

Certainly, a part of the answer has to do with the misuse and abuse of human freedom. But among the answers that we must consider regarding the extent of human suffering is this answer: We are not currently on vacation. We are, and the whole universe is, in the middle of a war. I’ve called today’s talk, Doubting God’s Goodness: Living in a World at War . Let’s pray.

Ephesians 6:10-12 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

I want to make a very simple point today. You cannot understand the world at all that you read about or listen to regarding crime, teenage suicides, child abuse, or various wars - you cannot understand the world that you are looking at outside this church; you cannot understand inside the Church - the Vineyard or the various kinds of battles between churches, the unrest in the Church, various heresies that have arisen in church history; you cannot really understand your whole life or what your family may be going through without setting it against the backdrop of what the Bible would call “spiritual warfare”. By spiritual warfare, we mean this great cosmic battle that is going on between God and his angels and Satan and the demons that follow his lead.

When we see that the world, and life, is played against this backdrop of spiritual warfare, things make a great deal of sense. We begin to understand that, as in

all wars, there are casualties. There is a need to fight. There is a need to keep up our morale and have exhortations and pep talks. There is a need for weapons and a certain kind of battle-ready urgency. We need to be aware of the tactics of our enemy.

So we understand that the backdrop of life is spiritual warfare with Satan – God’s enemy – who hates and wants to destroy everything that God loves. God loves the world, so Satan goes out of his way today to destroy the world God made. That includes you, your character, your reputation, your marriage, your health, and your kids. Everything that God loves – this world, with all its natural beauty, our air, our rivers and lakes, the fish in the seas, the animals and plant life - everything that God loves is under attack by Satan and his demonic followers.

With spiritual warfare as a background for life in this world, we can begin to better understand suffering from how the Christian story teaches:

Understanding suffering

I recently read a horrifically heartbreaking and tragic story in the NY Times. The article was titled 14 Years In An Unmarked Grave, And Finally A Break In The Case . Here is how it began:

To find Marleny Cruz, one must start 28’ away, at a guidepost in the back row of Block 21 at Forest Green Park Cemetery in Morganville, New Jersey. That is Row A of graves. Each grave is 7’ long, from head to foot. You move forward counting the rows. In Row D, according to a brass plaque, lies a beloved husband, father and grandfather. In Row F, a beloved mother. Between them, in Row E, 6’ beneath a patch of grass with no marker, lies Marleny. The strangers who arranged for her burial here, on May 26 th , 1998, did not buy a plaque. What would it have said? It had been three months since her 14-year old body was found, bruised and strangled and sexually abused, on a Bronx curb, and she still had not been identified.

Marleny Cruz did not fall through the cracks – she was born there. Marleny grew up in the Dominican Republic with a mother who would be killed in a fight over drugs. Marleny moved to New Jersey to live with her father, whom she later accused of abusing her. She bounced around foster homes, sometimes staying just a couple of days before running away.

James David Martin, 12 years older than Marleny, called himself “Snake.” When he was about six, his mother beat his little sister to death, and he was sent to Maryland to live. In 1989 when he was 17, he lured a 15-year old boy into the woods, strangled him and in a flourish that made the murder national news and put the case on the cover of Sports Illustrated,

stole his Air Jordan sneakers. Mr. Martin served seven years in prison and was released in 1996 to live in New York City with his mother. After nearly stabbing to death another person, he spent seven more years in prison. Cecilia Santiago became his girlfriend and then his wife. And then, three months after his release in 2005, she became his next victim. They had moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania where her body was found in a parking lot trash bin.

He pled guilty and was in prison in Pennsylvania when DNA from Marleny’s body finally hit a match after 14 years. Detectives flew down to question him.

“He admitted to strangling Marleny,” Detective Reiman said. “He’s very friendly, very articulate, very easy-going, an easy smile. Soft-spoken. Intelligent.”

On Wednesday, detectives flew Mr. Martin, who is now 40, to the Bronx. Detective Reiman said he was investigating whether there were other victims. “I would say it is a very strong possibility,” he said.

Finally there will be a plaque for Marleny Cruz on her grave. What will it read? Here lies Marleny Cruz, motherless, runaway, victim #2 of a man who called himself “Snake.”

When you read horrible things in the newspaper about what some mother or father did to their child, when you hear about some incomprehensible evil that has gone on somewhere in the world, when you yourself or one of your loved ones has been the victim of some terrible crime or violation, how do you explain why this thing happened? What is the story that our society tells to provide understanding for terrible evil, for crimes like what happened to Marleny Cruz, murdered by a man who called himself “Snake”?

Typically, our society tells one of two stories to provide understanding. One story that’s told is the biological explanation that the killer was suffering from some sort of physical defects, a chemical imbalance in his brain, some sort of genetic defect. There was something wrong with the killer’s biology.

The second explanation our society offers is the psychological story. The terrible family that the killer was raised in. The violence that he experienced at a young age. The arresting of his feelings of empathy.

Both of these stories – the biological and psychological story – have great truth in them as explanatory grids through which we understand our worlds. But rarely in our secularized society do we say even those of us who have become Christians and are now part of a new story, a story informed by God’s Word in the Bible,

rarely do we read these things, hear about these things, experience these things and say, “There is a spiritual component to what we’re hearing about.”

Marleny Cruz was a casualty of a spiritual war. We cannot understand the world’s suffering and we cannot understand the suffering of Christians unless we see ourselves not as people on vacation, but people who are living in the middle of a war.

Understanding the Church’s suffering

You have heard of the Salvation Army, of course. It started in Great Britain more than a century ago. Here were men and women who went out into the streets and decided that they were going to do something for the poorest of the poor. You know, the people that you and I walk by and think we don’t want that person getting too close to us because they are drunk. They may throw up on us. We worry that they have a gun. We worry that they have a knife. We are afraid of these folks who are stretched out along the side of a building. We avoid them. We walk around them.

The Salvation Army was made up of men and women who said, “We are not going to walk on the other side of the street. We are going to try to rescue these people who are littering the streets of our cities.” So they formed this Salvation Army to minister to the poorest of the poor. What could be closer to the heart of God than that? To love our neighbor as ourselves no matter what our neighbor looks like or smells like. Now guess what happened. Do you think they had an easy time of it, that their noble intentions were just applauded by everyone and the world stood back and cheered?

Let me read to you from a contemporary account in the 1880’s. This historian writes that in the city of Whitechapel, “Salvation Army teenage girls were roped together like cattle and then pelted with live coals. On dark nights hooligans used sprinklers to shower the marching Salvation Army troops with tar and burning sulfur.” In one year alone, 1882, 669 Salvation Army soldiers were knocked down or brutally assaulted. 60 Salvation Army buildings were wrecked by mobs. The British police refused to intervene because they hated the Salvation Army as well. In one city, Oldham, 100 young men decided to form what they called a “skeleton army”, sort of a mocking of the Salvation Army. They wore skulls and cross-bones. They knocked Salvation Army girls to the ground and kicked them mercilessly. They opened up subscription lists and all over the country brewers and tavern keepers contributed money so that Salvation Army workers would be beaten.

When they started, Salvation Army workers would regularly be beaten and kicked and spit on by people who hated them for helping alcoholics and prostitutes, the poor and the homeless.

I ask you, “What could possibly energize this kind of hatred against people who are just trying to do good?” Why would anybody go out and knock a worker down and kick them and spit on them or burn their buildings? Unless they are being energized by someone who hates everything that God loves. You can’t make sense of the history of the church, its persecutions, the divisions in the church, or folks misunderstanding one another regularly, where you see continual opposition to the work of God’s Spirit, opposition to mission, opposition to the gospel unless you understand that we are in a war.

The Bible says that many of the problems in the church come from Satan.

And, of course, in our day we see Christian leaders and pastors, people with great notoriety self-destruct because of their own greed or sexual sin. Who is it that exploits a Christian’s weaknesses, feels around to find the one weak point in an individual and then kills them with it? Why do so many Christian leaders fall into sin?

We read story after story of Catholic priests who are involved in sexual abuse. Who is energizing that, I ask you? Is it just psychological? Or is someone behind the scenes attempting destroy what God loves—the Christian church?

The bottom line is that we as Christians should never be shocked by bad things. Grieved, yes; angered, yes; brokenhearted, yes. But surprised? Believing that something strange is going on because there has been some great injustice, some great evil? We Christians are informed by God’s Word in the Bible. We live in a world of people who have turned their backs on God, who are misusing their freedom. We live in a world that is at war. We are not on vacation.

The New Testament refers to this world as being at war over and over again. Let me just give you a few representative verses.

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Luke 11:21-22 21 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. 22 But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

Our struggle, brothers and sisters, is not only against our own sinful and fallen tendencies. We also struggle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Almost every ancient culture through their stories and myths and traditions viewed the world this way – that the world is at war and that casualties are the result of this war between good and evil spirits. Maybe in high school you read the great Greek myth by Homer called The Iliad . And what you see in The Iliad is that behind the Trojan War between the Greeks and the Trojans is a spiritual war that’s going on behind the scenes with gods lining up either in favor of the Greeks on one side or the Trojans on the other.

Understanding the world’s myths

But this is not just confined to the Greeks. Dr. Greg Boyd in his book God At War , points out that we find this spiritual warfare backdrop in almost every culture before the last couple of hundred years in the Western world. We find this warfare motif in a whole variety of African cultures, across Asia, among the Babylonians, the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the South Americans. There was a universally shared understand, an intuition, that behind the scenes of this world was a spiritual conflict. And it is only in the last few hundred years as a result of the so-called Enlightenment that the Western world has simply closed its eyes to what 99% of the world has believed for 99% of time.

We teach even if we are theists that basically the only actors that existed in the universe are God and people. And so when we suffer, when there is an outbreak of evil, when there is an orgy of violence as what took place in Rwanda back in the 1990s – do you realize that in Rwanda there was the equivalent of two World Trade Center disasters every single day for 100 days as neighbors attacked their neighbors with machetes killing 8000 people a day every day for 100 straight days – what could possibly account for this in the Western world?

Even among theists, even among Christians we believe that the only actors at work are either God or people. So we try to come up with an explanation of suffering that charges either human beings with the crime or God with the crime. But while the Bible teaches that God is supreme, he is the omnipotent Creator and Sustainer of all that is, nevertheless, the Bible teaches that there are these intermediate spiritual beings that are variously termed gods or angels or principalities and powers, or demons. Other people in the world have seen what we have refused to see.

We are not on vacation. We’re in a war. You can’t understand suffering. You can’t understand why the church is suffering. You can’t understand the world’s myths. And you can’t understand the Christian story unless we set the Christian story against the backdrop of spiritual warfare.

Understanding the Christian story

Usually the way we tell the Christian story is that we say that the story is about God who loved the world so much that he sent his only Son and whoever believes in God’s Son, Jesus, will not perish, but will receive eternal life. That’s the way we sum up the Christian story – John 3:16.

John 3:16 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.

And certainly God liberated human beings from our sin, freeing us from the just punishment that is due us for our sins. Certainly, God adopting us into his family, making us his children, transforming us into the image of his Son Jesus – these are all parts of the Christian story. But the comprehensive scope of the Christian story cannot be understood without reference to the spiritual war that forms the backdrop of scripture.

Why did God become a man? Why Christmas? Why did God enter this world through the person of Jesus Christ? Why?

Certainly to reveal to the world the nature of God. We understand what God is like by looking at Jesus. We know that God welcomes every human being because Jesus welcomed every human being. Certainly God became a man not only to reveal God’s nature, but to suffer and die in our place, to be our substitute.

But we’re not telling the full story of Christmas unless we put it in the backdrop of spiritual warfare. Here is what 1 John 3:8 says:

1 John 3:8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work .

There was a war going on on Christmas morning. There was a clash of kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan were smashing into each other. Satan knew that his kingdom was under assault. That’s why he inspired Herod the King to murder all the baby boys in Bethlehem. He knew the Son of God had been born to destroy his work.

Why did Jesus do his miracles of healing, his deliverances, his miracles over nature? Certainly, Jesus’ healings and miracles were acts of compassion. He was showing us the heart of God. But God loves people and wants to restore every human being. He wants human beings to flourish. Certainly Jesus worked his miracles to bring people into his family, folks who had been excluded. Jesus was putting a welcome sign over the entrance way to the kingdom of God.

But we don’t understand that in a comprehensive way that Jesus was healing or doing deliverances, unless we see that Jesus was setting up his kingdom over against the kingdom of Satan. Here’s how Jesus explains his ministry in Matthew 12:22-23, 28-29

Matthew 12:22-23, 28-29 22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions without first tying up the strong man? Then his house can be plundered.

Why did Jesus die? Certainly, he died as a sacrifice for our sins, to pay our debts. He died in our place as a substitute. He died to propitiate, to satisfy, to appease the wrath of God against sin. But we do not understand the death of Christ in a comprehensive way unless we set it against the backdrop of spiritual warfare. Why did Christ die? He died to overthrow the kingdom of Satan. Here is what we read in Colossians 2:13-15:

Colossians 2:13-15 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

And here is what we read in Hebrews 2:14:

Hebrews 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil…

What was the resurrection all about? The resurrection means that Jesus is the first of many resurrections. He opened the way for those who are united to him by faith to be resurrected from the dead. But without an understanding of

spiritual warfare and what the resurrection meant in terms of a defeat of Satan, you don’t have a comprehensive understanding of this part of the Christian story.

Listen to how the Apostle Paul explains the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:22-25 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But in this order: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The entire Christian story, friends, assumes that we are living in a world at war. And with warfare as the context for understanding our world and what is going on in the Christian church and the world, understanding all the old myths and understanding the Christian story, let’s look back at Ephesians 6:10:

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Why does the Apostle Paul tell us to be strong in the Lord? We need to understand who it is that we are up against and how desperately we need to be attached to the Lord, to run to the Lord, to be filled with the Spirit of the Lord, to be drenched with the Word of the Lord. Why do we need to be clothed with the power of the Lord? Because of the power of the enemy that is arrayed against us.

I want to give you just a little window so that you can see something of Satan’s power today. To do so, what I would like to do is to flip back to the book of Job 1:6-7. It says:

Job 1:6-7 6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”

We learn that Satan is not omnipresent, he is not everywhere, he must travel from one point to another. And in the same way that he is not omnipresent, he is also not omnipotent, that means he doesn’t have all power. But as we are going to see, he has great power.

The apostle Peter calls him a “roaring lion seeking people to devour” in 1 Peter 5:8. John, in Revelation 12:9, calls him the “great dragon.” He has great power. And if you want evidence of the power of Satan, understand that he didn’t hesitate to attack and go after Jesus Christ, the Son of God, himself. So much

confidence did Satan have in his power that he went after Jesus.

Still, his power is a limited power. Anything that Satan does only comes by the permission of God. The message of the book of Job is clearly that the Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. But in the mystery of God’s reign, he has given Satan permission to do evil. So, we read in Job 1:8-12:

Job 1:8-12 8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” 9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” 12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Now, let’s consider the following experiences of Job. Remember, we are looking at Job to understand the great power of Satan, and why we desperately need the might of God when we are facing a power like Satan’s power.

As we read through the chapter we find that Satan is able to stir up people to attack you. It says in Job 1:13-15:

Job 1:13-15 13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house,14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

When it is “What’s happening here? Why are these people coming against me? Why is my mother or my father hurting me suddenly? There doesn’t seem to be any reason for it, any rationale that I can come up with for it. Things seemed so peaceful; I thought we were getting along better.”

Understanding relational problems

Do you know that Satan can stir up attack against you through people? You wonder about the hateful, mean-spirited things that people sometimes say - the unfair criticisms; slandering you or someone you love. Satan can stir violence against you; he can stir lies about your character and reputation. Satan can stir

that up.

And we go on and we see a power that Satan has that many of us don’t think about. It says in Job 1:16:

Job 1:16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

The fire of God is lightning.

Understanding natural disasters

Do you know that Satan has a certain amount of power over nature? Now, it is clear that not all lightning comes from the hand of Satan. But some of it does. This one did. And I believe that when Jesus was in the boat traveling across the Sea of Galilee to go to the other side and the winds came to sink the boat, I believe that that storm was stirred up by Satan. It was energized. Certain natural disasters come from Satan. God is over all, but there is a certain limited amount of power that he has given to Satan including the power to hurl lightning bolts.

Then read on in verses 18-19:

Job 1:18-19 18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

Not only lightning, but a mighty hurricane. Again, it is certainly not the case that every hurricane or tornado or windstorm comes from Satan. The winds are at the commands of God. But in this case, Satan was given the power to stir up a mighty wind and to murder.

Imagine, tremendous power over nature. You see in the case of the Gadarean swine that Satan has power over animals from time to time. And, of course, we know that Satan exercises terrible power over the minds of men and women. Lying and discouraging and driving people to suicidal thoughts, to homicidal thoughts, to violent thoughts - we must come to grips with the power of the enemy. His power to assault you with lust. To stir up our pride. To cause you to desire something that two minutes ago you were not even thinking about. To have two people fighting with each other violently. You know, folks who stood at an altar at a church and said, “We will love one another until death us do part,”

fighting like cats and dogs.

Friends, are any of you feeling like you are under siege, like you are living the life of Job? It is one thing after another, stuff coming from left field: financial problems, health problems, multiplied relational problems. You are trying to serve God, but there have been these attacks on you, attacks on your family. You say, “Where did this come from – this physical assault, this attack on my reputation, this lawsuit out of nowhere? Why does it feel like I am under siege?

You are in a war. It is because we are in a war that Paul says we need power, we need to be strong.

Understanding our need for power

The Apostles were not ashamed to pray for power.

Acts 4:29-31 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Friends, let me ask you a personal question. How often do you pray for power in your life? For strength to stand, to withstand the assault that you are under? How often do you pray for power to resist temptation? How often do you pray for a release of God’s power in a situation where you see someone else under assault? How often do you pray for a release of God’s strength and power in a situation where you see what God loves under attack?

God loves truth. You see truth being shredded. How often do you pray, “Release your kingdom, Lord, where the truth is under attack. Release your kingdom and power, Lord, where human beings are under attack. Release your strength and power where the environment is under attack. Release your strength and power in me, in my family because we are under attack”?

The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6:10 to “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” So often in the Bible the backdrop to understanding why someone is sick, why the gospel is being hindered from going forward, or why there is some terrible disaster in some part of the world is - not exclusively, not exhaustively, but commonly - spiritual warfare. We rented a beach house on the Normandy Beach on June 5, 1944. And we thought we would be on vacation. We thought that’s what life was supposed to be like in this world.

But it’s not. And this backdrop of spiritual war helps us to understand our response.

Understanding our response

When we see that we are at war, we begin to see that other people are not our ultimate enemies. Other people may hurt us deeply. They may hurt what we love and who we love. Other people may have corrupted themselves by making terrible choices, by addictions, by habits of lying, or violence. When we understand that we are at war, we understand that other people are not our enemies. Other people are simply captives, prisoners of our real enemy.

Listen to how the Apostle Paul puts this in Eph 6:12:

You think you are fighting against this person, but the real fight is taking place behind this person. That’s where you need to aim your prayers. This is the reason why it is possible for us to love people who have become our enemies because they are not our real enemies. They are captives, they are prisoners. They are in bondage to the real enemy – the devil and his servants. When we see that we are at war, we understand that our response to injustice is not to debate its causes. But to fight the injustice wherever we see it. We are called to combat lies with the truth, to combat hunger by feeding people, and to combat abuse by rescuing people. We are not called to debate, but we are to actually doing something about injustice.

When we understand that we are at war, we understand that we do not have to search out all the causes of suffering. Our job becomes clearer. It is to relieve suffering. It is to come alongside people who are in pain. It is to comfort folks. It is to welcome people.

The great challenge we always face, brothers and sisters, is to not be shocked or surprised that something wrong is happening in this world, as if something strange were going on. We’re not on vacation. We’re at war. Let’s pray.

Goodness: Life in a Time of War Rich Nathan May 20, 2012 Apologetics: Doubting God Series Ephesians 6:10-12

I. Understanding suffering

II. Understanding the Church’s suffering

III. Understanding the world’s myths

IV. Understanding the Christian story

V. Understanding relational problems

VI. Understanding national disasters

VII. Understanding our need for power

VIII. Understanding our response