The words printed here are concepts.                                                                         You must go through the experiences.

Why Suffering?

 

If there is a God of love, as declared in the Bible, why is there so much suffering in the world? Why does He not stop it if He is The Almighty?

If we do not believe in a Creator Who created everything, if we believe that it all happened purely by chance and for no reason at all, it could be very difficult to try and explain the reason for so much suffering in this world – just senseless suffering and bad luck.

But if there is a Creator, would one then not expect to find an answer to this difficult question?

If we trust the integrity of the One Who created it all, if we trust Him that He would not be so heartless as to leave humanity (people He created with hearts and emotions) without an answer, but surely expect of Him some clues, if not the full answer to this question.

I can find no better place for the answer than in a Book that spans the history of humankind - A Book that starts with the story of the first humans on this planet and continues into the future history of man. The history of man who received a spirit (soul) that distinguishes him from all other living creatures. Genesis 2:7 ‘Then the Lord God formed man from the [*]dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being.’ ([*] The same essential chemical elements are found in man and animal life that are in the soil. This scientific fact was not known to man until recent times, but God was displaying it here. But only man in the whole of creation received the spirit of life – a soul).

Again, can we trust the integrity of the Creator to allow a Book (the Bible that claims to be the Word of God) to be partly or completely false and mislead billions of people over the whole history of humanity? If we trust God for His Word one would expect to find many of the answers we are looking for.

Genesis 1:1 ‘In the beginning God created the heaves and the earth’

Genesis 1:31 ‘God looked at everything He had made, and He was very pleased’

If God made everything good, what went wrong? Could it be man’s choices?

Genesis 6:5 ‘When the LORD saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time, He was sorry that He had ever made them and put them on the earth.’

Genesis 6:6-7 ‘He was so filled with regret that He said, "I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them.”’

Why, why was God sorry that He created us? Because God is so infinitely perfect and holy.

Leviticus 19:2 ‘Be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy.’

Habakkuk 1:13 ‘Your (God’s) eyes are too holy to look at evil, and You (God) cannot stand the sight of people doing wrong.’

But God is full of compassion and love. II Chronicles 30:9 ‘If you return to the LORD, ...... the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn His face from you if you return to Him.’ And He made a love covenant with man:

Deuteronomy 7:9 ‘He will keep His covenant and show His constant love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and obey His commands, but He will not hesitate to punish those who hate Him.’

God’s punishment (suffering of human kind) is for two reasons; punishment for disobedience and wickedness of the heart but also that in our suffering we would seek Him and return to Him.

Amos 4:6 ‘I was the one who brought famine to all your cities, yet you did not come back to Me.’

Amos 4:9 ‘I sent a scorching wind to dry up your crops. Still you did not come back to Me.’

Amos 5:6 ‘Go to the LORD, and you will live. If you do not go, He will sweep down like fire’

Ezekiel 14:12 & 21. 12 ‘if a country sins and is unfaithful to me, l will stretch out my hand and destroy its supply of food. I will send a famine and kill people and animals alike. 21 This is what the Sovereign LORD is saying: "I will send my four worst punishments - war, famine, wild animals and disease.

But God is love. 1 John 4:16 ‘And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.’

Hosea 11:8 ‘How can I (God) give you up, ....  How can I abandon you? Could I ever destroy you?  My heart will not let me do it. My love for you is too strong.’

John 3:16 ’For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God is true to the covenant He made with man and therefore will punish sin as a perfect and righteous God but His heart hurts by doing it and He identifies with the suffering of man. If we relieve suffering of others, we relieve His pain

Matthew 25:35 ‘I was hungry and you fed Me, thirsty and you gave Me a drink; I was a stranger and you received Me in your homes, naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you took care of Me, in prison and you visited Me’.

Matthew 25:40 ‘I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these members of my family, you did it for Me!”

Sin in the heart of man brought God’s wrath, suffering on the world. It hurts Him as much as it hurts us.

Romans 8:22 ‘We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.’

Suffering will be part of creation until the end of time but seeking God and coming to Christ will set us free from our part in sin, our guilt, and will give meaning and hope and courage in our lives.

2 Corinthians 1:5 ‘For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.’

Hebrews 2:9-11 .... it was fitting that God, for Whom and through Whom everything exists, should make the Author (Christ) of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the One Who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.’

We are all under God’s wrath and are suffering because man’s choice of sin. Christ suffered on our behalf to give us hope and turn God’s wrath away and protect us from eternal suffering.

Romans 8:19-21 ‘The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the One Who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.’

 

Man’s sin makes him unacceptable to a perfectly holy God. But the God Who is love made a covenant with man to bless him if he lives a life of obedience. But no one is without sin (I John 1:8 ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’) and we stay under His wrath. He sent His Son to die on our behalf for the wickedness of our hearts and set us free from the eternal wrath of God. The world, however,  is still wicked and under God’s wrath but those who have come to Him have a better understanding of this suffering and can therefore, in their relationship with God, process it and live through it with hope, understanding  and absolute trust. II Corinthians 1:9 ‘Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope (trusting His integrity) that He will continue to deliver us’