I believe from reading the Bible that nothing happens,
no reality, no action of any kind, that God doesn’t either cause to happen or
permit, allow, to happen. He is absolute sovereign over the universe and all
that is. Therefore, there is no war between God and Satan, as if they were two
opposing Gods, one good and one bad. The book of Job and elsewhere teaches us
that Satan, who hates mankind and slanders Christians daily, can do nothing
without God’s permission and within the limitations he is given.
If that is the case and the God who created us is a
loving God, a God who loved mankind so much He paid the penalty for our
wickedness against Him on the cross and rose from the dead to legally justify
us before Him, paying a ransom to His own self for us, and satisfying all
requirements for the payment of our sin debt, then why does He allow children
to starve to death or be sexually abused? Why would He permit the Sewol ferry
full of teachers and teenagers on a field trip in South Korea in 2014 sink with
300 lost? Why would he let a mentally challenged person in a nursing home be
abused? We know why bad things can happen to good people. Just
read Job.
We know that being a good person by Protestant Baptist
standards; faithful church attendance, tithing, Bible reading, and praying
often does not guarantee you a life without sickness or sorrow, or even a
painless death. The book of Job makes it clear that bad things happen to good
people without them knowing specifically why or even being told in this life
and we are called to simply trust God. Remember also that God verbally
condemned Job’s friends for misrepresenting Him by assuming that there was a
direct cause and effect; that Job must have been being punished for some secret
sins for such bad things to happen to him. We are often guilty of that, like
saying someone got cancer because we just know they balked at God’s call to be
a missionary. God eliminated such pagan rubbish-thinking in the book of Job.
You really don’t know why a lot of things happen and God makes it clear you
won’t, at least in this life.
But, why do they happen to people who are without any
understanding of what is happening to them and who weren’t even capable of
doing anything to deserve their fate? I know, I know, the angry, mean
fundamentalist turns red and shakes his fist and shouts, “They’re all sinners!
They deserve it!” But, for us sane people who are not filled with hate and
contempt for humanity but have God’s love for the lost and for many of the
people who need you to share your faith with them this is a legitimate problem.
It’s not the problem of suffering, per se. It’s the
problem of the clueless, the hapless, the innocent, the helpless suffering
horribly for no apparent reason other than someone’s wickedness or a seemingly
random accident. You will be asked that and someone will say that is the reason
they cannot believe in God. Either He’s weak, as far as they are concerned, or
He’s evil, or maybe He just doesn’t exist.
Why does hideous evil happen to people who have not
capacity to learn from it? Why does this awful suffering happen to people who
simply would not be able to understand your saying that God will make some good
come out of this?
The author, Thornton Wilder once wrote a book, in
1927, entitled The Bridge of San Luis
Rey. In that fictional book several people die when an Inca rope bridge
collapses somewhere in Peru. A priest witnesses it and goes on a search to try
to understand the purpose of God bringing these strangers together to die. He’s
looking for a reason. Why did they have to die?
But, there is no reason. You see Wilder believed that
there is no purpose in life beyond your own will. There was no greater meaning
to anything, in Wilder’s mind.
The Bible has a few examples of the suffering and
death of the innocent and not-so-innocent but clueless nonetheless. There is a
child that God takes home because He sees some good in him and rather than let
him be raised by evil people God just takes him.
1Kings
14:12 Arise thou therefore, get thee to
thine own house: and when thy
feet enter into the city, the child shall die. 13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury
him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is
found some good thing toward
the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.
Other children and pregnant mothers are killed
mercilessly by enemies.
2Kings 15:16 Then Menahem
smote Tiphsah, and all that were
therein, and the coasts thereof from Tirzah: because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and all the women therein that were
with child he ripped up.
Children are killed by bears as part of
the fulfillment of a prophecy said fulfillment being prompted by their mocking
of God’s prophet.
First, the prophecy;
Leviticus
26:21 And if ye walk contrary unto me,
and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you
according to your sins. 22 I will also
send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy
your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
Then, the fulfillment;
2Kings
2:23 And he went up from thence unto
Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out
of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up,
thou bald head. 24 And he turned back,
and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came
forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
And then Jesus Himself made remark about some men who
had been murdered by the Roman governor and some more who had died in an
accident as being no worse than the men he was talking to at the time, who
thought themselves good.
Luke
13:1 ¶ There were present at that season
some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answering said
unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the
Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish. 4 Or those
eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they
were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish.
To some unbelievers, none of this makes any sense, if
there truly is a loving God. Nor does it make sense to many Christians.
The person whose son was murdered working late at
night and trying to get home demands, “Why did my child die doing what he was
supposed to be doing? He was good. He was loved. This makes no sense. He didn’t
deserve that in any way, shape, or form. It was such a waste of a good life.”
But, there are
a couple of things we must lay down as a foundation before we can proceed.
First, without belief in the resurrection then none of
it makes any sense and the God of any religion becomes a twisted monster. But,
we’ve been promised repeatedly that there will be a resurrection. And not just
some kind of spiritual resurrection but a resurrection of our bodies.
In what may have been the first book of the Bible that
was actually written down sometime closer to 2000BC than any other book in its
writing we have the book of Job.
Job
19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26
And though after my skin
worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see
God: 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and
mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though
my reins [that’s your insides, your internal organs] be consumed within me.
Jump ahead a thousand years to the time of Isaiah, the
prophet.
Isaiah 26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they
arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out the dead.
Again, jump ahead two to three hundred years to the
time of the Persian and Mede emperors ruling over Babylon, and Daniel.
Daniel 12:2 And many of
them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and
everlasting contempt.
Then, you know that the New Testament is filled to
overflowing with talk of eternal life and resurrections.
John
11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live: 26 And whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Romans 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have
the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, to wit,
the redemption of our body.
Revelation
20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6
Blessed and holy is he
that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no
power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him
a thousand years.
Another thing we have to understand is that God’s mercy is
preeminent. It is very important to Him. It is an attribute of God that is
revealed all through the Bible.
Psalm
89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne:
mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
Psalm
101:1 « A Psalm of David. » I
will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.
Micah
7:18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by
the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger
for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
And remember;
James
2:13 For he shall have judgment without
mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
And we must see that God’s focus is on eternity, time without end.
Isaiah
57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty
One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is
Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place,
with him also that is of a
contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive
the heart of the contrite ones.
Exodus
15:18 The LORD shall reign for ever and
ever.
Revelation
4:10 The four and twenty elders fall
down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever
and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Psalm
90:2 Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God.
That’s where our focus should be as well. That is how we should be
thinking as Christians.
Matthew
6:19 ¶ Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal: 20 But lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.
1Peter
1:3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time.
We also know that the world is under judgment because of our first
parents’ sin.
Romans
5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned:
Romans
8:22 For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Innocent, helpless people suffer like those of us who aren’t so
innocent and helpless because our world is under judgment. They suffer because
the evil of mankind in general must be filled, to come to its conclusion to be
sorted out by God at the end, and suffering provides people with the
opportunity to show God’s mercy and compassion to the weak, the halt, the lame,
and the blind. This is not to say that we are not to seek justice or that
oppressed or exploited people should not seek redress of grievances. Nor is it
to say that these three things; a world under judgment, humanity’s evil that
must be filled and revealed, and the call to mercy are the only reasons the
innocent, the weak, the clueless, and the personally unaware suffer but that
these three things are significant.
The only way out of this mess is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was God in the flesh, who walked among men, the only time that happened in
a human body, in other words, the only-begotten Son of God, not Alexander the
Great who had himself declared the son of God in Egypt or Augustus Caesar who
signed his decrees as the son of God.
Romans
6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Acts
4:12 Neither is there salvation in any
other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved.
Of course, the skeptics dismiss the resurrection and eternal life
as so much, “pie-in-the-sky” hopeful thinking, mostly because the thought of a
God who judges sickened them because of their life’s choices as in the case of
the previously mentioned Thornton Wilder.
But, being of a sounder mind we can see the brilliance of God’s
plan, at least we can see in part.
The world is suffering right now, in pains like a woman giving
birth.
Romans
8:22 For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now.
WICKEDNESS FILLED
In the Bible several times a man of God complains about how, in
this life, things make no sense because the wicked seem to get away with
everything. As an example, Jeremiah wrote;
Jeremiah
12:1 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with
thee of thy judgments:
Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
We see something else about the wicked in the Bible that is
important to this study. Just as the earth has been drying out since the Flood
of Noah so sin is revealed until it is fulfilled and receives God’s judgment.
Note here what God said to Abraham.
Genesis
15:12 ¶ And when the sun was going down,
a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon
him. 13 And he said unto Abram, Know of
a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict
them four hundred years; 14 And also
that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come
out with great substance. 15 And thou
shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they
shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
The child-sacrificing, temple prostitute-patronizing, bestiality
practicing Canaanites were to have their way until there was some kind of
tipping point, some kind of rim of the bucket over which their iniquity would
spill when that bucket was full. God was waiting on the full expression of
their wickedness, the point at which He would drop the hammer on them.
The book of Revelation, at the end of the Bible, has an
interesting name. Something is revealed, the lid is taken off the boiling pot,
the end of human-centered history, when things have gotten to the point beyond
which God will not let them proceed, takes place. It gets really bad. As Christ
said in reference to the end, as noted by Mark;
Mark
13:20 And except that the Lord had
shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom
he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.
So, just as the earth has been drying out since the Flood so has
man’s iniquity added to iniquity has been proceeding since Adam and Eve
disobeyed God.
Romans
1:16 ¶ For I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God
revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth
in unrighteousness;
19 ¶
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath
shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even his eternal power
and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified
him not as God, neither were
thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be
wise, they became fools, 23 And changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,
and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to
uncleanness
through
the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between
themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of
God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,
who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For
this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did
change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the
natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men
working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of
their error which was meet. 28 And even
as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are
not convenient; 29 Being filled with all
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of
envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud,
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers,
without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they
which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have
pleasure in them that do them.
There are two things going on here. In a single person’s life God
will let things happen, let you do things, although sometimes He does prevent
you as He has done me on several occasions, do things that give you bad
consequences. Preachers say that sin will take you further than you want to go,
make you stay longer than you want to stay, and force you to pay more than you
want to pay. We know, from reality, that at some point it’s all going to come
crashing down on us if we persist in sin. But, we don’t know when God is going
to call in our debts and expose our wickedness, do we?
In the life of humanity in general, in this fallen world under
judgment because of man’s sin there is a great deal of suffering. Richard
Dawkins, a militant atheist, has written about it this way in his disbelief in
any purpose to life. In reference to the animal world he wrote;
The
total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent
contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence,
thousands of animals are being eaten alive; others are running for their lives,
whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping
parasites; thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst and disease.
It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will
automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of
starvation and misery is restored….In a universe of blind physical forces and
genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going
to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice.
The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if
there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but
blind, pitiless indifference.[1]
History
shows us a swirling mass of humanity, selfish emotions, greed, exploitation,
murder, rape, and abuse. History is the story of man’s crimes (and I’m using
the word man for men and women) History is the record of man’s crimes against
God, against his fellow man on an individual basis and on a group basis, and
against nature. This boiling pot of iniquity is going to seethe and bubble like
the proverbial witch’s cauldron until the time comes for God to completely take
over from mankind. History, as we know it, human-centered, will cease and God
will be present again as He was in the first century but this time as a sort of
military dictator, allowing no more nonsense from humanity.
Psalm
2:9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of
iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Revelation
2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod
of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I
received of my Father.
Revelation
12:5 And she brought forth a man child,
who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up
unto God, and to his throne.
Revelation 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword,
that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Regarding
the state of affairs now, things are building up to an appointed time and end.
Matthew 18:7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for
it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence
cometh!
This
is our reality until the Lord’s return. Great evil, calamity, disaster,
accidents, pain, suffering, and grief. This is part of the judgment on the
world because of man’s sin. It is building up to an appointed time, which we do
not know as yet. It’s not just a general idea for discussion in polite company.
This suffering has real faces, broken bodies, and shattered dreams. It has
anguish, tears, and much grief and sorrow.
We
are reminded of this general judgment each day as we drive around using fossil
fuels, the remains of life before the Great Flood of Noah. We are reminded of
the current judgment we are under when we watch a loved one die, hear of the
abuse of a child, a fire that kills an entire family, or even see a dead animal
on the side of the road.
President
Lincoln said that God wasn’t on either side in the American Civil War. He
declared that the war was a judgment on both sides.
We’ve
resolved now why the suffering of innocents happens in a world under judgment
racing toward its end, toward the fulfillment of its iniquity, its sin, and its
evil. We know that all of these questions will be answered in eternity. As God
suggests in Job to us, ‘Bad things happen for no reasons you will know in this
life. Trust me, though. I have it under control.’ Our real question, the one
that involves us and which we must answer, is how are we, as Christians, to
respond to this judgment and its consequences.
We
talk about our rights to express our religious faith in this country. We scream
and rant and cry that the “gubmint” is trying to keep us from worshipping God.
But, the Holy Spirit tells us;
Galatians
5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is
no law.
James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their
affliction, and to keep himself
unspotted from the world.
A
famous atheist of the 19th century said to us, if I may paraphrase,
“Your actions are speaking so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
It
has become increasingly common, since the early 1900s, for premillennial,
fundamentalist Christians to throw their hands up and say there is no point to
trying to make the world a better place. After all, you’re only redecorating
the waiting room to Hell. But, we are called to fight evil. We are called to
help others weaker than ourselves. We are called to do good to others.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them.
1Timothy 5:10 Well reported of for good works; if she have
brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the
saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently
followed every good work.
Yes,
it is good to fight a strip club attempting to open up in your neighborhood, to
fight the heartless act of abortion, to see that those who are helpless are
fed, clothed, housed, to see that elderly people have heat, food, and shelter
or to support a children’s hospital or to insist on stronger laws against child
abuse and neglect. It is good to do good. Righting a wrong, or demanding that
government right a wrong with its power, is a good thing, a useful thing, an
opportunity to show, to reveal who you belong to. It is only pointless if
Christ is not in it if you are just offering someone a temporary respite but
being silent about an eternity of suffering that awaits them if they don’t walk
away from the world and trust Christ.
Terrible
stuff happens in this world and will continue to happen until the end. Innocent
children and helpless adults will suffer horribly. First, in our individual
lives our wicked choices will be permitted until our time has come and God
visits us for our iniquity. So, if you are refusing to forgive your family,
stealing from your employer, cheating on your spouse, being proud and
self-righteous, trying to control other people, or holding any one of the
myriad of attitudes in your heart that symbolize fallen humanity, your time is
coming. You just don’t control when that will be. You may be under judgment
right now and not realizing it as you cry the blues for being wronged by a
family member or a stranger.
Second,
in a world under judgment things seem careening out of control in every
generation as human beings seem to be stumbling about in a darkened room.
Spiritual beings and earthly beings with evil intent and wicked motives spend a
great deal of their energy doing bad stuff, as we see in Job. God allows it and
will allow it until the appointed time. Planes will crash, boats will sink,
criminals will go about their business, and other accidents will happen and you
might not have a clue as to why no matter how much you proclaim you do.
Third,
these awful things will continue to happen without your knowledge of any
immediate cause and effect in many cases in spite of your pretense of knowing,
in your superior spirituality, why God is permitting or doing something.
Fourth,
our response is to be one of mercy, extending God’s grace to those in desperate
need, those who have suffered and are suffering, helping the helpless, and
comforting each other.
Fifth, we need God’s mercy and should be praying for it for
ourselves and for others. It is not that God is somewhere far off and doesn’t
know these things are happening. Nothing can happen that He doesn’t either
allow to happen or cause to happen.
Here are two versions of the same prayer that Jesus gave His
followers. Bear with me as I need to set this up. Modern Christians are not in
the practice of cross-referencing the Bible for meaning as they’ve been taught
to go outside of the Bible, to Webster’s 1828 dictionary or to the opinion of
some notable Christian celebrity for meaning, which is fine, but sometimes
misleading.
Note, for purposes of understanding, that a temptation is a test
in the Bible, a trial, a difficulty, or a provocation (comparing Genesis 22:1
with Hebrews 11:17; then look at Psalm 95:8; Hebrews 3:9) even as Paul referred
to in the case of his eyes as sickness or disability. (Galatians 4:14). The
only reason I can think of for Pope Francis thinking that this prayer suggested
that God tempted us with sin is his lack of reading comprehension, inability to
cross-reference meaning, or just the bad translations the Vatican uses. God
doesn’t tempt His people for the purpose of making them fall like Satan does. Notice
in the following our minds fill in, “with evil,” after neither tempteth he any man as that is the meaning of the verse.
James
1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he
any man:
Evil is calamity, distress, disaster, and trouble or malice and
intent to do violence or hurt in some way. (Genesis 37:20; Isaiah 45:7; Matthew
6:34; Ephesians 4:31; 1Thessalonians 5:22).
So, here are the prayers given to Jesus’ followers at different
times and under different circumstances but given as models for us to pray from.
Matthew
6:9 ¶ After this manner therefore pray
ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors. 13 And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory,
for
ever. Amen. 14 For if ye forgive men
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Luke
11:1 ¶ And it came to pass, that, as he
was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto
him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3 Give
us day by day our daily bread. 4 And
forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And
lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
We NEED to pray each day that God NOT lead us into trials,
testing, or struggles and that He deliver us from trouble and grief and
suffering.
We NEED to pray for mercy, for ourselves and for others. We
desperately need God’s mercy and those who are suffering and have suffered need
God’s comfort which we should be willing to provide as He has done for us, to
forgive those who sin against us as well as He has forgiven us so much more.
We NEED to trust God, that He will straighten things out in His
time, and that we might not know when that time is until it happens.
John
16:4 But these things have I told you,
that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And
these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.
Suffering, like death, is one of the most commonplace things
living things encounter. It is almost inevitable. It is visited upon the
innocent and the guilty alike. It is permitted to happen as part of the
judgment on our lives but it is also allowed to happen because of the judgment
on this world. Many bad things and awful circumstances seem like they have no
reason, no purpose, no justification. Evil people get away with things it seems
and accidents, unintended consequences of a lack of prudence or diligence in
safety or preparation, or even for no apparent reason at all, happen all the
time. Unless doctors drug you up or you die instantly in an accident or from a
sudden medical event you can die in agony. Children will suffer at the hands of
wicked people and mentally handicapped people and the elderly will suffer
neglect and abuse.
We must fight wickedness whenever we encounter it. We must offer
God’s comfort to those who are suffering. We have to accept that there are many
occasions when we just won’t know why a thing happens. But, we must trust God,
that His mercy, His grace will prevail in eternity. It is the essence of our
faith, to trust God that He is good and that He is in control. Our place isn’t
always to trumpet that we know why a thing happens. We are simply told;
Romans
12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice,
and weep with them that weep.
And always remember;
Matthew
5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Revelation
21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Don’t dismiss the question of why an innocent person suffered when
asked. Weep with those who weep. Remember what James wrote about someone else’s
need.
James
2:14 ¶ What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and
have not works? can faith save him? 15
If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in
peace, be ye warmed and filled;
notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body;
what doth it profit?
It will end, even sooner than you think it will. And when it does
man will know that there was no good thing in his sin-corrupted soul that God
did not put there in spite of him.
Why do the innocent suffer? Because we live in a wicked and fallen
world that, because of man’s sin and his sin nature, will continue its horror,
its crimes, its seemingly random so-called accidents until God puts an end to
it. In the meantime we are to trust God, to tell others about the salvation
that is offered only through Christ, to show God’s mercy on the suffering, the
helpless, and the weak, in other words, to do right, and to not only do it
ourselves but demand that those with real, physical power in this world do
right by the suffering, the helpless, and the weak. The world needs God’s
salvation and His mercy. A suffering or abused innocent one needs your
kindness, your love, and your real, physical help in Christ’s name.
Remember, your response to your own suffering and to the suffering
of others if you have walked with and experienced the comfort and joy that
Christ wants to provide you.
2Corinthians
1:3 ¶ Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are
comforted of God.
This is our answer to suffering, suffering that is real, horrible,
and constant in this world. The real question isn’t why the reality of
suffering happens but what are you going to do about it with Christ’s Spirit
dwelling in you.
[1] Richard Dawkins, River
out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (New York: Basic Books, 1995),
154-155.
