Question to be asked: I’m a bit confused. Why does everyone just say that God is good and ignore some of things He seems to approve? He lets evil and suffering go on in the world. He ordered a lot of people to be killed. And then there’s the whole concept of hell. Why would a God who is good do those things?
I’m glad you asked that. I really am! Each week, for January and February, we’re going to be dealing with your questions. Remember, we asked you for questions around Christmastime.
You may recognize the Peanuts motif that our creative worship team came up with.
Lucy VanPelt. Lucy runs a 5 cent psychiatry booth, where she waits to answer peoples’ questions about life. Part of the humor of Lucy’s booth is that Lucy, of all the Peanuts characters, seems to struggle the most when it comes to helping people with anything. She’s a self-proclaimed crab and always mistreating her brother Linus and friend Charlie Brown.
So, this booth is fitting. The fact is, no one can adequately begin to answer some of the questions we’re going to plow through. My goal is to point us to God’s word and for you to leave saying, “I’m going to look into this more this week.”
The questions we’re dealing with today are turned to probably more than any others when it comes to keeping at a distance from God.
Why does God allow suffering?
We live in a world filled with suffering. In just the US every year there are some 10,000 violent thunderstorms, 5,000 floods of varying sizes, 1,000 tornadoes, and about 6 hurricanes.
11 people were killed yesterday in the bad weather that stretched across the Midwest and South. Puerto Rico was hit by another earthquake. This past week, we’re told, the bushfires in Australia have resulted in the death of over 1 billion animals. That’s just the past few days.
Over the past year, we’ve said goodbye to loved ones here. Others have dealt with diseases and injuries. Those are the experiences that are recent and close to home. There have been some 6,000 years of human history full of such things, all over the world.
That doesn’t address the things that people do to other people - like when a commercial airliner is accidently shot out of the sky. Innocent people suffer from all this. Why does God allow that to happen? Why does He seem passive about it?
But, He’s not passive, is He? No, in the OT especially, God orders people to be put to death - capital punishment for those who commit capital offenses, but also judicial killings of entire cities of people - men, women, children. That sounds extreme, but remember that doesn’t even compare to a worldwide flood that killed every human, except for Noah and his family. God didn’t just allow this to happen. He enacted it. How could He do that and be good?
There’s more. The Lord tells us that the payment for sin is death - that most people won’t find the road to Heaven. That means that most people will spend eternity in Hell, in punishment. Yes, it’s a real place. Jesus describes it as a place of darkness, outside the Kingdom, away from the Lord, a place where the fire never goes out and the worm doesn’t die; where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 13:41-42 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 13:49-50 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mark 9:48 …where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
Matthew 25:30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
God doesn’t apologize for Hell, and we shouldn’t apologize for teaching about Hell or try to explain it away.
But how can God be good and holy and loving in light of all of that?
The same Bible that tells us about the flood, and the destruction of Canaanite cities, and Hell can help us find answers. There are helps there…
1. The nature of God
We need to be sure that our understanding of God is driven by truth, rather than just some form of a god that we have fashioned for ourselves.
Unique
Hanging over our front door at home is the beginning of the prayer that devout Jews recited and still recite every day, taken from Deuteronomy 6:
Shema, Israel, Adonai, EloHAYnoo, Adonai, EhkHAD -
Hear, Israel, The Lord our God, The Lord is One…
There is only One God. Before there was anything else, there was God. It makes sense that when Moses asked His name, God told him, “I AM.” The Being One. The One Who Is.
That means that creation is something totally of God. No one loaned Him materials, gave Him advice, or even helped Him. It all begins with God.
Colossians 1:16-17 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
The very first of 10 commandments is this:
Exodus 20:2-3 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.
This first command sets the course for God’s relationship with Israel. Whenever they stray from Him, it usually involves other gods. They would need to be reminded over and over. No other Gods.
So, as they are preparing to cross over into the Promised Land, God gives them His commands again. No other gods. God alone is to stand out among them. God alone is to be remembered for all the blessings they had received.
Deuteronomy 4:32-40 … Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you.
And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire…. know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments…
Then there are 4 chapters in a row in Isaiah where God drives home this point again…
Isaiah 43:10-11
“You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.
Isaiah 44:6-8
… “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”
Isaiah 45:4-7
…I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.
Isaiah 45:18
For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other.
Isaiah 45:21-22
… there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
Isaiah 46:9 (ESV)
remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,
That could be a whole message all on its own. Meditate on this fact. Before there was anything, there was God. And all that came into being exists because of the exercise of His power and His will. It all begins with Him - the universe, the seasons, and all life, animal and human. That’s Who we came to worship here today. That’s Whose word we’re looking into today. That’s Who we’re speaking to as we pray. That’s our audience as we sing. There is no other. Hear, Israel. Listen, Church. The Lord our God is One.
When we start to ask questions about life and death, we need to bear in mind where human life comes from in the first place, and to Whom does human life belong. It’s too easy to forget that the universe doesn’t rotate around humanity. We’ve been created, and that makes us the possession of our Creator. Our very existence begins, centers around, and belongs to Him.
Another attribute of God is that He is…
Holy
This part of God’s nature receives special attention in Heaven. In Isaiah and in Revelation, the creatures around the throne God declare, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty! They don’t say, ‘Eternal, eternal, eternal…Love, love, love, or even Mighty, mighty, mighty!...”
It’s this holiness of God that awes us. It’s this sense of God’s completely separate, perfect goodness that makes us realize how much we fall short of His glory. It’s this sense that causes Manoah to say to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God!” It’s what causes Isaiah to fall on his face and say, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” We would do well to remember that the One to Whom we call is holy. That’s His nature, and He cannot deny His nature.
The holiness of God is what causes Him to be directly opposed to all things that are wrong. The Bible doesn’t just speak about how God isn’t evil. It speaks about the way His very nature abhors and opposes evil.
In fact, the primary way God’s holiness shows up is in His wrath. In the OT, there are over 20 words that express the idea of God’s wrath in over 580 different places. God uses very strong language to describe the way He hates, detests, abhors idolatry, occultism, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, hearts that devise wicked plans, feet run quickly to do evil, false weights, hypocritical worship, arrogance, injustice, divorce, and others.
Sin is cosmic treason. The holiness of God also demands that sin be opposed and dealt with.
That’s why there’s a cross in the Bible.
You can’t begin to make sense of the cross of Jesus if you don’t have some grasp of the holiness of God and what it means.
When we start to question the goodness and rightness of God, we would do well to remember that our whole ability to even say something is good or bad begins with God. It’s backwards to take our idea of good and then demand that God should conform to it. God is the standard - the perfect standard of all that right and just and good. Where else are you going to come up with it? Hollywood? Facebook and Pinterest? Take a vote?
There’s another attribute of God that is in perfect balance with His holiness…
Love
John writes,
1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
God is love. This isn’t the only “God is” statement found in Scripture, but it certainly is vital to understanding His nature. Paul highlights both God’s love and God’s holiness in…
Romans 11:22
Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.
Ill - Any parent who has had a teenage daughter or son stay out way past his curfew, and not call, can tell you about the coexistence of love and wrath. It’s what makes a parent say, “Oh, I hope he’s OK. I hope something hasn’t happened! I hope he gets home soon…’cause I’m gonna throttle him!”
God’s love, throughout the OT and NT is impossible to miss. It’s a love for all mankind, as those He has created. He expresses it in a variety of ways, the greatest of which is by sending His Son. Remember from John 3:16 that the way God showed His love for “the world” was by giving His one and only Son.
And just like God tells us to be holy because He is holy, Jesus tells us that our love is supposed to be just like the love of God. Paul tells husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the Church. We’re all told to love one another, because God loves us.
Studying the nature of God helps us with the tough questions. Another help is to remember…
2. The state of creation
(Fallen)
This isn’t the same world that God originally created. Originally, humans, were undying. We don’t know exactly how all the forces of nature worked together in perfection. We do know that it was changed when man chose to sin. Right away, there were relational changes between humans, between humans and God, and between the rest of creation with humans.
There were physical changes. Death entered the scene. Later, a worldwide flood disrupted the planet even more. And now, it’s just waiting for God to “make al things new” at the end of time.
Romans 8:20-22 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Every natural disaster that causes human suffering points back to this fact. This world, which God created and described as “good,” isn’t what it used to be. These bodies, that age and are subject to disease and injury, aren’t what they used to be. God is going to change all of that. This whole creation is going to be remade. There will be no more of the things that trouble us now. Every negative aspect of this world will be gone. Until then, we’re waiting.
Another important part of creation involved in all this is us - mankind.
Man, with free will
When God placed a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden and told Adam and Eve not to eat from it, He gave them a wonderful gift - the ability to choose obedience, which meant choosing to love God or choosing to reject His authority. If the tree hadn’t been there, they couldn’t have disobeyed. God knew how it would go, but giving us the ability to choose to love Him was apparently of great importance to Him.
Along with that ability to choose comes something else - people making wrong choices that hurt others. It took less than one generation for it to happen, and it’s been happening ever since. There will continue to be people making evil and hurtful choices - to be selfish, to be racists, to lie, slander, steal, rape, kill, abuse and destroy.
If you insist that for God to be good He has to intervene and stop all evil choices, you’re insisting that God must remove all free will. If someone doesn’t have the opportunity to choose these things, he actually has no choice. And if someone doesn’t have the choice to do evil, that means he also doesn’t have the choice to do good or even to love.
Ill - I don’t think my kindness to my wife would mean as much if she knew I had no choice. What if, somewhere in a dark, smoke-filled room, the marriage mafia had appointed me to be Carrie’s husband? If I mess up, they’ll kill me. I have to act real convincing, so that she never doubts my love. And, she knows that if I mess up, the Marriage Mafia will rub me out. Do you think my love for her would mean a whole lot to her?
Deep down, we value our opportunity to choose, and we’re glad that others have it too, even though ti comes with a price. We can choose to truly love one another and God. I can’t explain why God did this, except to say that it was very important to Him to give us this ability. It led to our need for Jesus to die in our place.
3. Our place in all this
This has been some heady stuff. Just to learn some things today isn’t enough. We’ll forget. Worse yet, we’ll dodge changes we ought to make
For instance, we need to be careful, as we ask questions, to make sure that our questions aren’t really a search for some inconsistencies in God so we don’t have to submit to His authority. After all, if God is guilty of some kind of immoral behavior, we can avoid letting Him interrupt our lives. So, be careful. Ask questions and expect to find real answers rather than excuses. That’s more of a heart matter than a head matter.
1 - Get God off the scales
I like the way Bob Rae describes our trust in God. Many people have God “on the scales.” They approach Him with a judgmental eye. Is He truly good? Does He really care? Can I trust Him or not? In their case, they’re weighing God out and haven’t decided if He deserves to be trusted or not. So, when hard times arrive, God’s goodness continues to be up for scrutiny. But once you get God off the scales, once you accept that He is loving, and holy, and good, it gives you a whole new perspective, and a whole different set of questions, that can truly help you. Use these tough questions to help you get God off the scales!
2 - Remember we are creatures
Did you pick up on the last line in Colossians 1:17? “In Him all things hold together.” It’s another reminder to us where we stand in this whole picture. We didn’t make ourselves appear. We can’t even make our real selves disappear. We are not our own. We’ve been bought with a price.
3 - See pain in a different light
More than one place in Scripture helps us see that God uses our pains to some desirable end - stronger character, hope, the fruits of righteousness, closeness to God, better prayer life.
God can help us approach pain with a greater sense of purpose. Pain can warn us of danger. It can help prepare us for Heaven. It can increase our dependence on God. It can give us an opportunity to witness.
Conclusion:
Joseph had experience all kinds of injustices and sufferings. His own brothers hated him and sold him as a slave. His master’s wife framed him, even though he was innocent, and he ended up in jail. In jail, he helped someone out, and the person he helped forgot about him a couple years instead of putting in a good word for him. And, at the end of the book of Genesis, Joseph was able to say to his brothers, was able to say to those who had hurt him, "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.
In the final pages of the Bible, Jesus flatly says, “Look, I am making all things new.” That restoration includes the changing of everything about us that’s undesirable too. Every injustice, every bit of seemingly senseless suffering, every reminder of a creation that has been skewed is going to one day all be fixed.
It’s not a matter of “if,” it’s simply a matter of “when,” and “Are you ready?”
