Some thoughts on suffering (part 3)

There are three truths that must remain clear as we wrestle with the issue of suffering.

1. God remains in absolute control.

I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I the LORD, do all these things (Is. 45:7). When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it? (Amos 3:6). With such verses we might want to differentiate between what the Lord sends and what he permits. The Hebrews however felt no need to distinguish between these. They simply recognised God's control over all things. We must never accept solutions to the questions that suffering raises that are dependant upon making God less than sovereign.

2. Evil is awful.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Is. 5:20). We must see evil for the awful thing that it is. We must not excuse it or explain it away. We must share God's revulsion of it.

3. God is good

He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he (Deut. 32:4). Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong (Hab. 1:13a). While God may use the actions of evil people to bring about his purposes he never does evil and does not act in a way that his holiness is compromised.

We see the above three principles in operation at the cross. There God remained in absolute control and achieved his promised goal. Yet the actions of those who cried for Jesus' death and had him put to death were truly awful. The result was an act of mercy and grace.

In this blogs I have said that there is a mystery to the origin of evil. We are also left with questions when we face individual events of suffering. Even the fact that human beings are responsible for most suffering creates questions: why are some people exposed to the consequences of their/others actions and yet some are protected from them? In the Psalms we see God's people bring their protest and are reminded that God allows us be honest with him about our frustrations with suffering. Finally, because of the cross, suffering will come to an end for God's people. In the last chapters of the Bible we are told that the new heaven and the new earth will be a place where there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain (Rev. 21:4). The Bible does not give us the answers to all the questions that suffering raises but it does promise us the help of one whom we can speak to in honest prayer and who will bring his people to a place where suffering will never impact us again.