God ‘uses Satan’ to purify and strengthen believers, John Piper says
God uses Satan to strengthen and purify believers during times of trouble despite the devil's evil intentions, according to author and notable Bible teacher John Piper.
In an episode of "Ask Pastor John" uploaded Thursday, Piper was asked his opinion about the Old Testament Book of Job, including how Job's wife responded to his suffering.
As Job suffered as a test of his faithfulness, his wife was recorded in Job 2:9–10 as telling her husband, "Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!"
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"You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" Job responded, as quoted in the Bible passage.
Regarding the overall suffering of Job, Piper, the chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, states that "in the Old and the New Testament, amazingly, God uses Satan to serve his own purifying, strengthening, preserving purposes in the lives of his precious children."
"In other words, God baffles Satan by making him the instrument of the very thing he hates — namely, trust in God and holiness in life," Piper continued.
"I mention this just to make sure that none of us thinks that Satan's involvement with Job's suffering is somehow exceptional in the Bible and can be marginalized, as though it weren't going to happen to us."
Piper believes that "if we see Satan's hand in our suffering, it doesn't mean that the suffering has no good design from our loving Father."
Responding to Job's wife's response to her husband's suffering, the pastor believes that this shows "a double purpose," with the first being that "in our suffering, our most precious friend or loved one may turn against us."
"The other purpose, I think, is that we not let tests embitter us — to show that Job didn't let the test embitter him — but rather bring out of us a responsive hope to the very loved one who has become part of the satanic temptation and that we bring clarity to that loved one about God," he said.
Piper noted that God "has the right to bring comfort and calamity into our lives" and that "He owes us nothing" and "we don't deserve anything from Him."
"We can't negotiate with Him. He has done us no wrong," he adds. "His ways are high. We will understand by-and-by, even if we don't now."
Piper expressed hope that Job's wife was "not settled in her opposition, but only weakened for a moment." He pointed to a few textual indicators of this, such as how while friends of Job would later be rebuked for their words toward Job, his wife was not.
"When Job explains to her that God has a right to bring good and evil, comfort and calamity, there's no pushback," he added. "So, I think the reason Job's wife is introduced in this story is not mainly to condemn her but to highlight again the triumph of Job's faith and hope and love."
