|
Why Does God Allow Suffering?
Probably the
most asked question of all is, “Why is there suffering in the world?” There are
several ways to view the suffering of this world.
The Abuse of a Gift
God gave us the
gift of free will in order for us to choose to love Him.
The Choice:
- God created us in order to
love Him, and for Him to love us.
- The nature of love requires
some sort of choice (to love or not to love); love can not be forced.
- This choice gives us the
capability to choose the opposite: hatred.
The Consequences:
- Reality is that our free will
has consequences that can impact others.
- If I chose to drink and
drive, my decision can impact the well-being of others.
- If you allow hatred into your
life, it may impact others through verbal or physical abuse.
- God can’t change the impact
of our decisions, because this would in essence remove our free will.
The Reality:
- When faced with the decision
to serve God or self, humans chose self.
- Much of the suffering in the
world comes from humanity’s misuse of the freedom God gave us.
A Fallen World
- Some suffering comes from the
natural world around us. This is not the way God intended it to be (read
further).
- When God created the world
everything including humanity was completely good.
- When sin entered into world,
through man’s disobedience, it sent creation in a new direction of both
moral and natural evil (diseases, earthquakes,and accidents)
Suffering as a Warning
- Suffering can often act as a
warning. When our head hurts we know we need to go to the doctor or at least
take some aspirin.
- Suffering can often point out
bad choices and/or relationships in our life and help us to correct them
before the impact is too great.
God Suffers With Us
- We can take comfort in
knowing God knows the pain of suffering.
- In fact no one has suffered
more pain than God:
- God’s most loved creation
consistently turn their backs to Him.
- God’s most loved creation
abused, tortured, and killed His only begotten Son.
- God has paid the price for
our sins through the body of His own Son.
The fact that
God suffers with us can best be summed up through the short play “The Long
Silence.”
At the end of
time, billions of people were scattered on the vast plain before God's Throne.
Some shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But many other groups
talked heatedly, not cringing with shame, but with belligerence.
"Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?", snapped a pert brunette.
She ripped open her sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi
concentration camp. "We endured terror ... beating ... torture ...death!"
In another group a African-America boy lowered his collar. "What about this?"
he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched, for no crime but being
black."
In another crowd there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes: "Why should
I suffer?" she murmured. "It wasn't my fault."
Far out across the plain were thousands of such groups. Each had a complaint
against God for all the evil and suffering He had permitted in this world. How
lucky God was to live in Heaven, where all was sweetness and light, where
there was no weeping and fear, no hunger or hatred, no sickness or sorrow.
What did God know of all that human-kind had been forced to endure in this
world? After all, God leads a rather sheltered sort of life, they said.
So each of these groups sent forth a leader, especially chosen because they
had suffered the most. A Jew, an African-American, a person from Hiroshima, a
horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child, and AIDS victim. In the
center of the vast plain, these leaders consulted with each other. At last
they were ready to present their case, item by item, leader by leader, to God.
It was rather pertinent.
Before God could be qualified to be their Judge, He must endure what they had
endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a
human being, as a man.
Let him be born of the most despised race, a Jew, in poverty-stricken
conditions. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. As a child, let him be
forced to flee as a refugee, and live several years in a foreign country. Then
give him a work to do, and an ideal to uphold that is so difficult that even
his own family will think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let him
be betrayed by his closest colleague, into the hands of those who hate him.
Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury, and convicted by a
cowardly judge.
At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly, terribly alone
-forsaken of all his friends. Let him be tortured. Then let him die. Let him
die the most excruciating, and humiliating death possible, before a taunting,
reviling crowd, which not only verified his death but contributed to it.
As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval
went up from the whole assembled throng. When the last leader had finished
pronouncing his part of God's sentence, there was a long silence. No-one
uttered another word. Nobody moved.
For suddenly, everybody knew that God had already served His sentence.
God Can Turn the Bad to Good
- God can use the challenges
in our life to forge us into the type of people he wants us to be.
- There’s a famous saying
that “Nothing good is easy.” This has merit in our spiritual lives as
well. Ronald Nash once used the analogy of a person who wants to climb to
the top of Mt Rainier. As the person trains he realizes that the task is
too hard and decides to rent a helicopter to fly to the top. The question
is, would reaching the top be anywhere near as rewarding as if he had
hiked to the top? Of course not!
- God can use the suffering
in our lives to help bring us home to Him.
- God can turn the evil
choices we make into positive results.
Scripture:
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 This
passage gives hope for those who put their trust in God.
Role
Model:
Joseph in the
Bible had a tough life. He was sold into slavery as a child by his brothers.
Later in life he was thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit. Through
it all Joseph remained faithful to God. In the end Joseph was reinstated to
his position of power and saved the entire region from famine. When Joseph
meet his brothers again he said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it
for good.” Genesis 50:20
|
