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Why Does God Allow Suffering? Facts
of Life
Suffering is a problem in life that comes home to everyone. A child is born blind, deformed or mentally afflicted; and the question comes: Why? The child has done no harm. A man or woman of fine character and in the prime of life is racked with pain in a hopeless disease that can only end in death. Why him? Why her? These are the people who can least be spared. Millions in the world are suffering semi-starvation and disease in countries with vast populations and little fertility. Others perish or are made homeless in floods and earthquakes. Why should they suffer? Pain, torture and death have been imposed on helpless millions by the tyranny of man and the destructiveness of modern war. Countless lives are lost in acts of terrorism, by brutality and hijacking. Accidents there have always been, but the scale of today's disasters and natural calamities is often overwhelming: a passenger aircraft crashes; an oil rig blows up; fire traps hundreds in an underground train. People ask: Why does God allow it? The questions readily rise
to mind and on the surface seem reasonable: yet a candid
look at them shows that they carry certain implications.
They imply that suffering in human life is inconsistent
either with the power or with the love of God: that as a
God of love either He has not the power to prevent the
suffering, or if He has the power then He has not the
will, and is not a God of love. It is assumed that the
prevention of suffering as it now affects the apparently
innocent is something we should expect from a God of love
who is also Almighty. Are these assumptions justified? Facts
of Life
Should
People be Saved from Themselves? These questions can only
be asked of situations when the hand of man is involved.
Earthquakes, tempests, famines and floods are called
'acts of God' because usually there is no other
explanation for their occurrence. So if we look beyond
human acts to natural disaster, we find that it falls
upon all, innocent and guilty alike. As soon as we begin
to question the suffering of innocent victims of these
disasters another dilemma is raised. Are we saying that
the calamities should be selective in their working,
searching out only those who deserve to suffer'? An Evil
or a Symptom? "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). The sentence upon the woman after the disobedience in Eden says: "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." To the man God says: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:16,19). The teaching is simple. With man's disobedience there came a dislocation in the relationship between the Creator and the created; the relation between God and man is out of joint. The first sin brought a fundamental change which affects all with the evils which are common to man. Death is universal: God does not modify it for the particular individual. The Bible teaching is that men are left to their own ways and the working of natural law, though there may be times when natural disaster is divinely directed as a judgement upon man and for the cleansing of the earth. The outstanding example is the flood in the days of Noah. At the same time it is
true that in the Bible, for those who seek to serve God,
suffering takes on new meaning; they are in a new
relationship to the Creator, and will learn to see
tragedy in a new light. What is it? A Godly
Man's Experience The
Agonizing Problem Job's friends argue that there is a direct connection between a man's sin and his suffering and they therefore contend that to suffer so greatly Job must have greatly sinned. Job is convinced of his own integrity: he is human, but he knows that he is not guilty of the sins they try to fasten upon him. Yet he has enough of his friends' philosophy to feel now that he suffers unjustly. Has God chosen him to be set up as a mark to shoot at? Because, compared with others, his sufferings seem wholly disproportionate to any faults he can confess. To him it seems that his affliction can only mean that God has turned against him, and this moral problem adds to his bitterness. The "tents of robbers" prosper: why should the righteous suffer? If God is judging him, is it right that he should be judged by a standard human nature cannot reach? The friends utterly fail
to shake Job's conviction in his own righteousness, and
at last they cease to argue. But underlying Job's
contention is an ultimate faith in God, in spite of all
the questionings, and a belief in God's justice; and so
Job reaches out to the hope that in another life, if not
now, God as his Redeemer will vindicate him and be on his
side. And so he introduces a new element in the argument
when he looks beyond the grave to resurrection and
reconciliation. That belief, hinted at in Job, is fully
declared elsewhere in both the Old and New Testaments,
and it gives a new perspective to the problem. Yet it
does not in itself explain why men and women should
suffer in this life. God
Speaking to Man God speaks to men, says Elihu, for their spiritual education, their guidance in life and their preservation from destruction. He "withdraws man from his purpose, and hides pride" from him, leading him away from his own self-assertive course of life, for pride is the source of sin. As to the other means of communication, Elihu says: "He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: so that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers" (Job 33:19-22). The description of
suffering perfectly fits Job, and Elihu is saying that
even he needs the chastening, reproof, discipline of the
Lord-not for the specific sins alleged by his friends,
for Elihu does not mention them, but for a more subtle
fault. Elihu has already hinted at it, for it is the sin
of spiritual pride, and only the experience of suffering
can bring it to light so as to convict him of it. God's
Working with Man "I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear: But now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6). This working of God with
man must in its nature be individual: only the man who
suffers can gain this as a personal experience. The
larger problem of suffering remains, and the only answer
to be extracted from the Book of Job is that man cannot
question the majesty and wisdom of God: He is the Creator
and Sustainer of all life, and His works are beyond man's
knowledge. It is this answer which is elaborated with
such power and beauty by the Voice from the whirlwind in
chapters 38-41. Man can only accept that the ways of God
are beyond his judgement. "Does
Job serve God for nought?" Job's faith in God was put
to the test under trial, and by trial it was tempered as
steel. It was by his final acceptance of the wisdom of
God, and by learning that faith could be developed
through suffering, that Job came at last to the fuller
knowledge of God. Some
Conclusions
A
Divine Discipline "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees" (Hebrews 12:5-12; Proverbs 3:11-12). Read in its context, the
passage expounds itself. Suffering and loss are common to
man, but for the children of God they are directed by
their Heavenly Father as a spiritual training, and as
such are the expression of His love. Does
God Suffer? "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:14-17). "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Greater love even God could not have than to give His beloved Son to the suffering of the cross for the redemption of men. It is true, therefore, to say that even God suffers, and it becomes possible to understand the saying of the prophet concerning God's relation to Israel: "In all
their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his
presence saved them" (Isaiah 63:9; see also Judges 2:16).
Why
Does God not Intervene? His Holy Spirit can be grieved, He can be moved with yearning compassion. He can love with an everlasting love. All these are Scriptural expressions, and they reveal God as the supreme Personality who can from His holy transcendence enter into the lives of the men and women He has created. People often ask: Why does God not intervene to stop suffering, to halt war, to prevent disease, etc.? God does, of course, intervene in human affairs; He has shown His power at many times in history. But there is a limit to this intervention: He has allowed man freewill, and He allows man to use that freewill -- for good or ill. God intervened in the
history of His chosen people Israel and gave them special
opportunities to worship. Him and be His witnesses. He
entrusted them with His revelation and with the promises
and prophecies of a coming Messiah. God
Sent His Son "It became him . . . to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings . . . In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." (Hebrews 2:10-18) "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). In accepting suffering in
obedience to the will of God he raised it to a new plane,
and showed it no longer as the greatest evil but as a
means to an end: for through suffering, in his perfect
obedience to God, he overcame the power of sin in human
nature, and so made possible resurrection from the dead
to eternal life with the Fat~er. In this he obtained
perfection, a tried and tested faith, completeness in
obedience, wholeness in the love of God and the service
of man -- an example to all his followers. Perfect
through Suffering And "having been made
perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author
of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5:9). He is the
author, the source, the cause, of a salvation men cannot
attain for themselves, since on account of his sacrifice
men and women who come to him for life are by God's grace
accepted as members of Christ. And so, as Christ rose the
third day, there is spiritual resurrection to new life
now for those who are baptized into him, and the hope of
physical resurrection and a change to immortality in the
day when he returns. "Partakers
of the divine nature" If, then, God suffered,
and if, in obedience to the Father, Christ suffered even
to death, the whole problem of man's suffering is raised
to a new level. Without faith in God, suffering is an
evil to be endured. With faith, and the example of the
Son of God, suffering may purify and ennoble, and be a
means by which God brings the sufferer nearer to Himself.
It can be truly a divine education, the chastening of the
Lord. "All
things new" This time for the kingdom to be set up is very close. But the Lord's own words and many other prophecies make it plain that the coming of Christ will be preceded by great tribulation for the world, and no doubt also for his disciples: "For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matthew 24:21,22). But when the Lord Jesus Christ appears, he will cleanse the earth of all evil, put down all sin and selfishness, eliminate disease-and ultimately death. He will reign for God and remove suffering. Then shall be fulfilled the words heard by the apostle John on Patmos: "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 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. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:3-5). For those who answer the call of God's love, the way of suffering may be the way of life, and that is the ultimate purpose of the existence of suffering in the world. The call is still going out; there is still opportunity for all who are looking for hope beyond this present evil world, to find it in the 'good news' of the Gospel. STANLEY OWEN Reproduced by courtesy of the Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Association by whom all rights are reserved. |
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