This question is asked by one of our Society of Evangelical Arminian (SEA) members: Can anyone recommend an Arminian interpretation of Job 13:15, ‘Though he slay me, I will hope in him’? Is it purely circumstantial and situational as, in the ahistorical story, God permitted Satan to tempt Job? Thanks again.
Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
I will surely defend my ways to his face.
Dr. Brian Abasciano, President and Founder of SEA replies, “This is a statement of absolute trust in God. Job thought God was afflicting him. The reader knows it is not God afflicting Job, but Satan, though allowed by God. But in any case it is an admirable attitude we should all have. It manifests an attitude of knowing that even if God were afflicting us, we trust in his goodness so much that we would believe it was ultimately for our own good. And that attitude extends to him allowing us to be afflicted as well. It is like a child submitting to a parent seeming to harm him by cleaning a cut, which is painful and seems like the parent is inflicting harm, when the parent is actually doing good to the child. It is nice theologically that in Job, God was not specifically afflicting Job. But that does not rule out that God could directly afflict us in certain circumstances if that would be best for us. And so the statement of trust you ask about is wonderful for those situations as well.”
