"Truly, O God of Israel, Our Savior, you work in mysterious ways" (Isaiah 45:15, NLT).
"Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? (Job 4:7, KJV--Eliphaz to Job).
God brings good times as well as bad times (cf. Isaiah 45:7, NLT). "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things." (Isaiah 45:7, ESV). God "doesn't willingly grieve or afflict the children of men" (cf. Lam. 3:33, ESV). Job questioned God's justice after his suffering and God never explained Himself to him, but only humbled him by revealing Himself to bring him to repentance. Jesus was asked if a disaster that happened was because the victims were eviler than others, but Jesus admonished them to repent lest they likewise perish. Just because someone is suffering we are not to conclude that he is being punished by God.
Job was written to partly answer why the godly suffer, but there is no complete answer to this dilemma and we are left with the challenge to trust God for who He is and His providence working for the overall good in the end (cf. Rom. 8:28). They ask why does evil happen to good people? There are no good people! The question might as well be re-phrased, "Why does good happen to evil people?" Because Jesus said that only God is good! God is the source of all good (cf. James 1:17) and evil is just the perversion, waste, and shortchanging of good, or evil under the guise of good--humanism is merely goodness without God in the equation. Yes, one might well echo the words of the famed hymn by William Cowper: "God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform."
Job was told by Zophar in Job 11:7, ESV, "'Can you find out the deep thing of God?...'" As the Latin phrase goes: "finitum non capax Infinitum." This means the finite cannot grasp or contain the infinite! The KJV asks if we canst "by searching find out God." The answer is an emphatic "No." Caveat: God is too wise to make a mistake, too kind to be cruel, and too deep to explain Himself, a sage has observed. God doesn't owe us an explanation and isn't accountable to us; contrariwise, we owe Him an explanation and are accountable to Him! We must not be armchair quarterbacks and second-guess God! We must expect trouble in this life: "Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble" (Job 14:1, ESV). "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19, ESV).
We must be encouraged to continue in the faith and to bear our cross, which pales in comparison with Christ's passion, for "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (cf. Acts 14:22, ESV). Remember that trials, tribulations, temptations, sufferings, tests, and adversities must inevitably come; however, Christ will be with us as we pass through the waters and the fire (cf. Isaiah 42:2). "[W]e rejoice in our sufferings," according to Romans 5:3, ESV. Remember, Christ didn't exempt Himself from any type of suffering but suffered in all similar manners and yet without sin (cf. Heb. 4:15). Christ isn't asking us to do anything He didn't do Himself!
We must not ever judge victims as being somewhat less worthy, holy, or righteous than us and believe they deserve what befalls them, as if they were suffering karma or the natural consequences of evil as Job's comforters assumed of him: "As I have seen, those who plow trouble and sow iniquity reap the same" (Job 4:8, ESV). They told him that no one innocent ever perished! Their presupposition was that the only reason trouble comes is because one is not right with God; God blesses the good and punishes the evil. Their calculus was an oversimplification, for they had not reckoned God's goodness into the equation and His profundity, that we cannot figure God out or put Him into a box.
One reason evil exists is that we see good in its contrast. God works evil into good and turns the wrath of man into His glory (cf. Psalm 76:10). Why does He work with evil? Because there's so much of it to work with! God can take the most diabolical events and turn them into good results, and we must not break faith in God that He knows best and what He is doing. Look at what Joseph said, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good" (cf. Gen. 50:20). Acts 2:23, ESV, says that Jesus was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." Someday Jesus will answer all our questions and we will know even as we are known (cf. John 16:23, ESV, "In that day you will ask nothing of me...."). Soli Deo Gloria!
"Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? (Job 4:7, KJV--Eliphaz to Job).
God brings good times as well as bad times (cf. Isaiah 45:7, NLT). "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things." (Isaiah 45:7, ESV). God "doesn't willingly grieve or afflict the children of men" (cf. Lam. 3:33, ESV). Job questioned God's justice after his suffering and God never explained Himself to him, but only humbled him by revealing Himself to bring him to repentance. Jesus was asked if a disaster that happened was because the victims were eviler than others, but Jesus admonished them to repent lest they likewise perish. Just because someone is suffering we are not to conclude that he is being punished by God.
Job was written to partly answer why the godly suffer, but there is no complete answer to this dilemma and we are left with the challenge to trust God for who He is and His providence working for the overall good in the end (cf. Rom. 8:28). They ask why does evil happen to good people? There are no good people! The question might as well be re-phrased, "Why does good happen to evil people?" Because Jesus said that only God is good! God is the source of all good (cf. James 1:17) and evil is just the perversion, waste, and shortchanging of good, or evil under the guise of good--humanism is merely goodness without God in the equation. Yes, one might well echo the words of the famed hymn by William Cowper: "God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform."
Job was told by Zophar in Job 11:7, ESV, "'Can you find out the deep thing of God?...'" As the Latin phrase goes: "finitum non capax Infinitum." This means the finite cannot grasp or contain the infinite! The KJV asks if we canst "by searching find out God." The answer is an emphatic "No." Caveat: God is too wise to make a mistake, too kind to be cruel, and too deep to explain Himself, a sage has observed. God doesn't owe us an explanation and isn't accountable to us; contrariwise, we owe Him an explanation and are accountable to Him! We must not be armchair quarterbacks and second-guess God! We must expect trouble in this life: "Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble" (Job 14:1, ESV). "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19, ESV).
We must be encouraged to continue in the faith and to bear our cross, which pales in comparison with Christ's passion, for "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (cf. Acts 14:22, ESV). Remember that trials, tribulations, temptations, sufferings, tests, and adversities must inevitably come; however, Christ will be with us as we pass through the waters and the fire (cf. Isaiah 42:2). "[W]e rejoice in our sufferings," according to Romans 5:3, ESV. Remember, Christ didn't exempt Himself from any type of suffering but suffered in all similar manners and yet without sin (cf. Heb. 4:15). Christ isn't asking us to do anything He didn't do Himself!
We must not ever judge victims as being somewhat less worthy, holy, or righteous than us and believe they deserve what befalls them, as if they were suffering karma or the natural consequences of evil as Job's comforters assumed of him: "As I have seen, those who plow trouble and sow iniquity reap the same" (Job 4:8, ESV). They told him that no one innocent ever perished! Their presupposition was that the only reason trouble comes is because one is not right with God; God blesses the good and punishes the evil. Their calculus was an oversimplification, for they had not reckoned God's goodness into the equation and His profundity, that we cannot figure God out or put Him into a box.
One reason evil exists is that we see good in its contrast. God works evil into good and turns the wrath of man into His glory (cf. Psalm 76:10). Why does He work with evil? Because there's so much of it to work with! God can take the most diabolical events and turn them into good results, and we must not break faith in God that He knows best and what He is doing. Look at what Joseph said, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good" (cf. Gen. 50:20). Acts 2:23, ESV, says that Jesus was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." Someday Jesus will answer all our questions and we will know even as we are known (cf. John 16:23, ESV, "In that day you will ask nothing of me...."). Soli Deo Gloria!
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