We believe 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 300 teachers
and teenagers on a field trip in South Korea in 2014 sink with all aboard 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.
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.
But, 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.
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 in part.
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 because I’m lazy) 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, “tempted 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.
