Why Does God Allow Tragedy?
Various Scriptures
January 2, 2005
Introduction
As you all know, a major tragedy struck southeast Asia last Sunday. An earthquake registering 9.0 on the Richter scale set off tidal waves that hit 12 countries including India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, where the death toll from that country alone is at least 80,000, or more than three times the population of Aberdeen.
Overall, the death toll is over 120,000, which is roughly the population of Sioux Falls. And of course, they will be digging through the wreckage for months, finding others who have died. There are many thousands missing, including many tourists from around the world.
The possibility of disease in the wake of this could ultimately bring the death toll into the millions.
Obviously this is a huge tragedy.
It would have been easy to just let this go and maybe have some special prayer during the service, and I had other plans for today, but I think God’s big enough to let me focus on this for today.
Today I want us to look briefly at three questions that I think are pertinent to this issue.
I want to warn you that there will not be a lot of humor, if any, in this message. Some of you aren’t sure I’ve had any anyway!
But this is serious stuff, and I think it’s important that we wrestle through some of this, if we want to not only have something to offer those who go through these things, but also to be able to hang onto when they visit us personally.
But I want to give you an invitation here: I want to invite you to struggle with these questions. Don’t pass them off. Don’t just apply "pat" answers to them.
Think through them, asking God for clarity in helping you deal with them. Are you brave enough to ask God the tough questions?
He’s not afraid of your questions, believe me. These type of heart-cry questions are all through Scripture, and even Jesus asked the Father why He had forsaken Him.
So let’s look at these, at least briefly
Why did God allow this tragedy?
There are three main opinions I have found over time to discuss this question. The first is this one:
God caused it, for either a testing or a punishment.
Deuteronomy 31:29 -
In days to come, disaster will fall upon you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD and provoke him to anger by what your hands have made."
The second opinion is this:
Satan caused, to bring harm and destruction to those he hates - everyone.
Example of Job - Satan was behind all the calamity visited on Job.
And the third opinion is this:
God allowed it (though maybe not causing it directly) for reasons we may never know.
So which is it? I don’t know. It might be all three, or combinations of one or two, or it may have happened for reasons that fall outside of all these reasons. We simply don’t know.
But one thing I can say with absolute assurance: God is still in absolute control, and He can and does work in the midst of even such huge tragedies as this one.
Note: Jesus said all these things would happen before His return in Matthew 24:4-7 -
Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am the Christ, ’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places."
Jesus is saying that even these have a purpose - to usher in His return.
So guess what? One way we can look at these types of disasters and see the ever-closer return of Jesus.
Bottom-line: assigning "blame" or "cause" is not the issue. Reaching out to those who have been affected is. And we’re going to look at some specific ways to do that in a little bit.
But let’s look now at the second question we need to address when we discuss what happened last week, and that is...
What is the spiritual hope of those who have
died?
To those outside of Christ, this may seem like a heartless answer, but it’s true, and it’s Biblical. So here goes.
Let me give you the bad news first. All those outside of Christ have no hope. All who perished not knowing Christ as their Savior do not have heaven.
How can I say that? What about all the innocents who were killed? Well, let me first say that this isn’t easy to say. But track with me here.
1 John 5:12 -
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Jesus said in John 3:18 -
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
You see, outside of Christ we are all condemned. And the Bible says that all have sinned. And so if we are not in Christ, we are punished for our sins, as we deserve.
You have to remember something very important here: there are no innocent people in hell. Only sinners are in hell. And the Bible is very clear that we are all born as sinners with no hope of heaven on our own merit.
Jesus offers the chance to escape the punishment if we will only take it.
Now for the good news. I am of the conviction that those UNABLE to understand their need for forgiveness because of either age or mental handicap are covered by grace.
Therefore, I believe all those in that category who perished last Sunday are in heaven. And so they will be enjoying the presence of God Himself.
Let’s move on to the last question I want to look at today, and that is...
What can we do?
I want to offer four things we can do in the wake of this horrible event. These are easy and tangible things, that any or all of us can do.
* Give and pray for the relief efforts.
Needless to say, the rescue efforts are running at full blast, but they need help. They need people to help search for survivors, remove the dead, locate family and relatives, and all sorts of stuff.
They also need water, food, clothing, you name it. The conditions are horrible.
As mentioned during the announcement time, I mentioned the offering we’re taking to help in the relief efforts through World Hope International.
I received an e-mail yesterday from World Hope saying that they have local pastors and ministries already in place in the two hardest-hit areas, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
All the money we receive this month will go to the efforts in these two countries. We will be sending a check weekly, because they need the money ASAP, and I don’t want to have to delay getting the money to them.
Folks, I can’t stress this enough. Give. Give until it hurts. We have so much, and if giving to this effort means you have to go without something extra this month, then consider those who have lost everything in this time. They’ve lost family, friends, possessions, their homes, their clothes, you name it.
By the way, if you write a check, make it payable to AWC, and write "WHI" on the memo line, just to help us track it. Of course, the donations are tax deductible, so you can keep track of it for next year’s taxes.
Please give.
Pray that the needed manpower, funds, and other resources would get to the needy quickly, and that fraud and corruption would not rear its ugly head to delay the needed help.
Pray that survivors would be found quickly, and that families would be re-united.
Pray for and give to the relief effort. Second...
* Pray for the Christian message of hope.
Folks, we have just scratched the surface of our questions about why God allowed this.
Over there, they are in agony over this, and have questions that are more than academic.
In the midst of this, the message of Christ can shine, bringing hope to those without it, and offering comfort as people find out that the God of the universe was not asleep at the wheel, was not busy, or whatever during this tragedy, He was right there, and He still is there, wanting to reach out and comfort the people affected.
Pray that the message would be given clearly, and that those who hear it will hear the compassion imbedded in the good news of Jesus.
Third...
* Pray for God’s comfort for those who have lost loved ones.
No amount of words from us will be able to fill this need. This is a God-sized need, and only God can fill it adequately.
And so I encourage you to lift up these people, asking God to move in as only He can.
Some of the most gut-wrenching pictures of this horrible event are those showing the bodies of little children lined up.
And my mind begins to drift to wondering about what I would think and feel if those were my kids. And I can’t think about it too long without beginning to cry at what I anticipate would a tearing out of my very heart.
And then I think about the fact that it’s not just a hypothetical situation for them. It’s real, and it hurts more than they can describe.
Pray for God’s comfort. And lastly...
* Make a determined effort to reach others for Christ here.
I just read the other day that all over the world, approximately 150,000 people die every day. Many, if not most, don’t know Christ and face the same end as those who died in SE Asia.
Some of those are here in our area. I’ve lived here for four years, and other than days I’ve been out of town, I read the newspaper every day.
And I have yet to find a single day’s paper that didn’t have at least a few obituaries in it.
And how many of them didn’t know Christ when they died?
Plenty. Someone you know could die this week, and because they don’t know Christ, they will face a Christ-less eternity in hell.
So what are you going to do about it? Just keep hoping that somewhere down the road they’ll hear about Jesus and act on it?
How about becoming proactive and telling them yourself? Or if you don’t think you can do that, bring them to church. They’ll hear it from me, you can count it.
Or you can even send them to the web-site. There’s a link they can follow that will introduce them to the gospel, or they can contact me through it and I’ll talk to them that way.
But folks, please consider this: probably none of the people who perished in Asia planned on dying that day. But they did die.
Today some people will die who did not plan on it. And they may be people you know.
Do what you can to give them the opportunity for an eternity in heaven, okay?
Conclusion
Folks, tragedy can hit at any moment. If you have Christ as your Savior, then at least you’re prepared to meet God.
And on top of that, God’s Holy Spirit has placed in you a desire to live for God. And one of the ways we please God is to reach out to others in need.
So while we may not understand the "why" of what happened, we can do something to help alleviate the suffering of those going through it.
Whaddya’ say?
Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is in voicing compassion for these who are hurting? The I challenge you to give today, and even through the rest of the month, as God enables you.
And we’ll pray that along with the dollars, the good news of Jesus will go forth.
Let’s pray.
