Derek Prince. Why Bad Things Happen to God’s People. Shippensburg PA: Destiny Image, 2017. E-book.

Derek Prince was one of the finest Bible teachers of his generation. I have a few friends that even today frequently listen to him on YouTube. I am more of a reader, so when I saw an opportunity to obtain Prince’s classic on the Book of Job at a reduced price, I took it. It was more than worth it.

I have read other books on Job. I have researched the understanding of the Book of Job reflected in Moby Dick. I even directed a production of MacLeish’s J.B. Henry Morris, for example, had a good detailed commentary on Job.

Why Bad Things Happen to God’s People is not so much a commentary as it is an analysis of the way God deals with people sometimes. Prince tells us that there are basically two reason why we go through hard times, “and both of them are for our ultimate good.” (8)

The first reason is to deal with sin in our lives. For example, once I was ill for three days. The Lord said it was because of some idle words that I had said. I did not argue, and three days later I was fine. (I also recall how one of my friends was so kind to me while I was sick.)

The second reason is initiated by God “out of his desire to raise us up to a new level of intimacy with Himself.” (8) That is really what is going on in Job.

According to Prince, mankind’s biggest problem is that we want to be independent of God. He even says:

The problem was not that Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. Actually, that is not a bad motivation. However, they wanted to be like God without depending on God. (8, emphasis in original)

Prince admits, “I don’t have all the answers.” No, he does not have the Book of Job completely figured out. Instead, he says, that Job is “less about the answers and more about a new revelation of who God is.” (52)

Prince notes Job 42:7-8. In these verses God notes two things about Job’s drama. (1) Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar did not speak the truth about God. (2) Job did.

So when Job complains, “God has taken away my justice,” he is speaking the truth. Job’s friends—and they were friends, after all, they ministered to him for a week before saying anything—who said that God must be punishing Job for a sin were not speaking the truth.

I have always been reluctant to attribute truth to even some of the reasonable-sounding passages or promises spoken by the three friends. Prince says the same thing. (He purposely skips over Elihu, the young man who speaks up later in chapters 32 through 37.)

Prince notes that

In most cases the average religious person would have reacted just the opposite of the way God responded. They would have agreed that what the friends said was right and what Job said was awful! (58)

You see, Satan is the accuser (see Revelation 12:10). That is what he does at the beginning of Job. Sadly, Job’s friends do the same.

Satan always has a way to attribute the worst motives to God’s servants. This contains a warning for us because there is much negative being said about the church and servants of God today. (70)

Again,

It is the will of God for us to prosper. But there is very little in the New Testament to suggest we are destined to prosper by contemporary materialistic standards. (87)

When Bildad says that it is presumptuous to say that a man can be right with God, Prince points out that a key theme in the Bible from Enoch to John is just the opposite. “Righteousness, in fact, is the whole issue of [the Book of] Romans.” (96) Jesus’ main opposition came from religious and political leaders who were self-righteous, in other words “without depending on God.”

It is Satan who argues that we cannot be right with God. Of course, we cannot on our own. Now Job lived before Jesus, who confirmed God’s eternal covenant through the blood of the Cross. Still, he had a Messianic hope. He longed for a mediator. (Job 9:32-35) He believed God would send a redeemer and that he would live on after his death. Job had an eternal perspective “…no matter what happened to Job’s body, he knew that it would be resurrected.” (110, cf. Job 19:25-27)

Prince also notes that Job was no stoic. “Job really releases his feelings—and I believe that is absolutely the right reaction.” (99) Anyone who has read the Psalms knows that David also let his emotions out.

The heart of the matter with Job is this: Job had all these bad things happen to him because he was righteous. And “God never did anything but uphold Job’s righteousness.” (102) Prince declares, “God tests us because He is proud of us and wants to bring out the best of us.” (105)

He notes

Throughout the Scripture you will never find God being offended or condemning anyone for speaking honestly. He may correct them, but he never condemns them. (107)

Prince sums up the first part of Job’s story by saying that people make two presumptuous mistakes concerning God. They say that (1) innocent people are not afflicted with suffering, and (2) everything is fair, so if people get a bad deal, it is their fault. Both are simply not reality.

When Prince focuses on what God says out of the whirlwind, he again emphasizes its truth.

Do we know how to treat the wicked? Do we know how to bring them into subjection? The answer is definitely, “No!” I am thankful God knows how to deal with the wicked, and we should be prepared to leave the job to Him. (127)

God is the one to ultimately deal with Satan. Prince says God says, “[L]et Me run My universe My way.” (129)

God is not remote and indifferent in regard to His creation. He is continuously and intimately concerned with all his creatures, whether it is a donkey, goat, raven, eagle, or lion. (130)

“When Job encountered the Lord, it finished all his questions.” (133)

“There is not way to develop endurance except by enduring…This is the key to progress in the Christian life.” (144)

“Do not feel you must understand everything. You must trust in God’s goodness.” (150)

None of us will ever fully understand God and His ways. If we could, He would not be God and we would never learn to trust Him. As Job learned, God knows what He is doing—and that must be sufficient for us. (169)

God was proud of Job. He said, in effect, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (See Matthew 25:23) May He say the same to us.