*first - I must apologize for being absent in the comments...I've been down and out with the worst flu ever! On top of morning sickness. Not.Funny. My goodness!!*
One of the most common questions asked by non-believers: "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?" I've heard it. I'm sure most of you have too.
The book of Job is the ultimate in 'bad things happening to good people'. Job was upstanding. Righteous. A 'good man'. So why did bad things happen to him? He loses EVERYTHING. And it seems so senseless. As readers, we have the benefit of knowing why. We are witness via the Word to God's plan and purpose for Job's suffering. Even though Job can't see it, we can see that his seemingly senseless and cruel suffering is FOR GOD'S GLORY. It's all for God's glory.
That's the answer in Job and it's our answer now. God's glory.
Just as our personal suffering is for His glory and part of His plan, so is the mass suffering.
It seems so contradictory. It seems so wrong to say that God allows the bad.
But He does. He allows the bad. FOR THE GOOD.
As much as God is love, He is justice. As much as He loves His children, He hates sin.
If our Christ bled and died and bore the brunt of God's full wrath, how can we exempt any suffering?
We can't.
I'm sure it seems so odd and cold to non-belivers. But those who know nothing of God's love, can't begin to comprehend His justice.
God WILL be glorified. He will be gloried through my suffering. Through yours. Through the suffering of those who don't know Him and can't understand it.
*BOOGERS! Accidentally posted early and then was unable to change it. Apologies. I claim pregnant brain. *
9 comments:
Non-believers aren't the only ones to whom this makes God seem cold and UNloving! I think evangelicals in general (at least Canadian evangelicals ~ we're always a little more on the liberal side than Americans) seem to have divorced this belief, trading it for the "gentle Jesus, meek and mild would never let this happen" interpretation.
I've grown up getting the general impression that the just, holy, jealous, sin-hating God of the Old Testament was replaced by the loving, serving, sheep-to-the-slaughter Jesus of the New Testament. It's only been relatively recently, as I spent time really studying my Bible last year on this blog, that I've really noticed it, though. No one would SAY this is how they believe and teach in church ~ we claim to believe God is the same yesterday, today, and forever ~ and yet, it kinda is. The God of the Old Testament is rarely talked about. He just makes us too uncomfortable.
But I'm with you. Displaying His glory is God's primary focus and everything He does is to that end, whether we understand it here and now or will only once this life is over.
Good doesn't become great unless it's compared to bad.
Sorry to hear you've been so under-the-weather! I hope you're on the mend!!! (and we'll forgive you for pregnant brain, too!)
AMEN! I agree also with the comment that we've replaced (unintentionally?)the OT God with a gentler, less judgemental God. I've heard someone say instead of asking "Why me?" in their life when something goes wrong, they say "Why not me?".
If I look at my life, the easy times and the hard times, it's obvious to me when I'm closest to God. When I have a particular need or troubled time in my life I draw closer to Him and depend on Him WAY more than when life is smooth sailing!
p.s. I'm also so sorry to hear your sick!! Prayed healing for you this morning. ((hugs))
Thanks so very much for your prayers!
I think the hardest part of becoming a believer and truly studying the Word was reconciling the God who is love with the God who is just. But the whole bible is FILLED with examples of God allowing bad for His glory.
Great post Sandy.
It's hard for us to reconcile the fact that God is able to take our pain away but sometimes purposely doesn't. We think that because we would do that (stop a rape, rescue the kidnapped, save the dying), that He should too.
Yet if God was completely understandable by human comprehension, He would be a small God indeed!
And, on a much smaller scale, we deny our children (hurt our children) for their greater good all the time, because we know better than them and we know what's good for them in the long run. Yet we can't give God the leeway to parent us the same way.
And sometimes, maybe oftentimes, it's not necessarily because it's good for us that He allows it, but because, just like you said Sandy, it is for His glory alone!
It is a hard truth, and yet still comforting in the fact that everything is still filtered through His hands, He IS glorified, and there is eternal significance to our suffering.
Reconciling the God who is love with the God who is just was a major part of our growth last year, and I think it will continue to be this year too! It's such a hard thing for us to wrap our human minds around.
Praying for you Sandy - it's going in my new prayer journal, along with Tammi's request from yesterday.
I see now that my tardy comment on yesterday's post would have applied today as well! Great thoughts and great comments. It's so great to have more participants this year. It can only add to our learning!
Great post! (Sorry to hear you are under the weather!) Great thoughts from all of the posters as well. I really liked how the NT verses fit in with your thoughts as well, Sandy. All things are for HIS glory: the leper could not have appreciated his healing if he had first not been sick and the faith of the Centurion could not have been so clearly shown had his servant not been suffering. We must suffer in order to fully appreciate the redemption from suffering.
As a side note, and other than of course the Bible, I have heard that R.C. Sproul's book "The Holiness of God" talks on this very thing. Haven't read it yet, but soon I will be thanks to my beautiful darling Sandy who bought it for me this morning. :-D
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