August 6, 2002
Joe was the runt of the litter, at least in the minds of his brothers. They hated his cocky self-assurance and that their father gave him the best of everything.
One day while they were at work, along came Joe. He said dad had sent him to see what they were up to. Their tempers flared. They began to plot how to get rid of him and came up with a scheme. Slave traders passed by on occasion. They would sell Joe to a slave trader but tell their father he had been killed in a horrible accident.
They got away with their scheme. Their father, Jacob suffered grief beyond imagine. The brothers felt guilty but stuck to their story.
In a few years, a drought hit their community. Soon Jacob had to send them in search of food. They found it, but they also found something they did not expect: Joe was the kingpin over all available grain. When they finally recognized who he was, they realized they were at his mercy. What would he do to them?
This story comes from Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Joseph wound up in Egypt. By living with integrity, he landed first in jail for something he didn’t do, and then in the Pharaoh’s court for something he did do — with the Lord’s help, he predicted a severe famine.
The Pharaoh saw his wisdom. He put Joseph in charge of everything, and by his prudent decisions, the Egyptians had food enough for themselves and other nations.
The brothers did not know how Joseph came to such power. All they knew was that they had wronged him, and he could now do whatever he wanted to them. They were terrified.
But Joseph wept as he heard them talking. He realized they did not know his character. Finally he told them his story, then said, “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”
He added, “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” At that, Pharaoh told Joseph to invite his family to live in Egypt where he could take care of them.
After a time, their father died. The brothers thought Joseph would now retaliate, but they were wrong. He forgave them and said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
Throughout Scripture, this theme repeats itself. God’s people suffer, yet out of their suffering comes good. Job suffered yet God eventually blessed him (and us too, as we read his story). Jesus suffered, yet God raised Him from the dead to provide salvation for sinners.
The Bible says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Often, this verse is interpreted to mean that good things will happen to anyone who suffers, but the words are specific: this promise is for those who “love God” and obey His call on their lives.
More than that, the context is also specific. The next verse says that these called ones who love Him will be “conformed to the likeness of his Son.” In other words, God teaches His people the Christlike response to suffering, and this is the “good” that comes from trials.
Jesus, like Joseph, “did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
Jesus knew that the Father was just. Yes, He died on a cross for sins He did not commit, but God also raised Him from the dead to rule at His right hand and live forever.
God can work good from our troubles. Sometimes, those troubles are the only way good can happen. We may not become world-class leaders like Joseph, but nothing happens to us haphazardly. God will reveal His purpose in His time. He promises, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Suffering may be here for a little while, but His people must not give up hope. God is still in control.
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Friday, June 22, 2018
Why bad things happen ............. Parables 758
July 23, 2002
When the popcorn bowl runs out, I like to suck the butter and salt out of those partly popped kernels in the bottom. Sometimes I gnaw on them, despite a little voice that tells me to stop it. Once I cracked a filling in a back tooth. My dentist added insult to injury by reminding me I’d made a foolish decision.
This incident reminds me of that huge question: Why does God allow suffering? People in every corner of the world ask it. While the biblical answers may not satisfy everyone, over the next few weeks I’ll offer a few that immensely help me.
First, three foundations. One, suffering does not always imply God’s punishment. Sometimes it does, but not every time.
Two, while God can bring good out of anything, that is not always the reason He allows bad things to happen. Sometimes they are just bad.
Third, God does take responsibility for everything. Job said, “Shall we accept good from God, and not evil.” The very next line reads, “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”
Jeremiah repeated the thought: “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” While the mind of God does not make sense to our limited perspective, yet the Bible affirms we can trust Him anyway. It also reveals a few why’s concerning evil and suffering.
One reason we suffer is that we bring it on ourselves. We make foolish choices, and our actions have consequences. Without them, we would never regret foolishness, or change. Ecclesiastes puts it in the negative: “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.”
Cause and effect are important to our stability. Water should satisfy our thirst. Flipping a switch should turn the lights on or off. We expect results from what we do and if they do not happen, we are perplexed, even thrown off balance.
This applies to both good and foolish choices. When I bite a hard popcorn kernel, my less-strong fillings are apt to take a beating. When I ignore God’s moral warnings, my life will fall apart. When I behave and obey Him, I experience not only His blessing but His pleasure.
The foolish choices of others can cause us suffering too. Children suffer in war. People die at the hands of reckless drivers. A construction worker neglects a safety check. Airline mechanics do too. Innocent people suffer consequences.
Consequences should change our choices but what about drivers who run stop signs, make illegal turns, drive too fast, and cut in too quick, who never get a traffic ticket or ever have an accident? Or consider an elderly couple, normally careful drivers, yet one day he failed to stop at a stop sign. They were hit by a truck and both died. Does this make “cause and effect,” and God, capriciousness?
Christians know God takes responsibility for everything. In the case of the elderly couple, He had reasons for allowing their suffering and death. They were people of faith and belonged to Him, so they were not being punished — Jesus already took their punishment for sin.
Neither did they die so ultimate good would happen. It did not, at least for them here on earth. Their death was a tragic event, even though God could have stopped it. For the most part, it happened as a result of a wrong choice.
But God also has reasons for not applying that rule of cause and effect to others who seem to deserve it. Maybe He is giving them a second chance. Maybe He has a greater plan for their lives.
Sometimes people blame God when trouble strikes, but I would not want God to change the rule of cause and effect. When I do something dumb, I do not like the consequences, yet without their predictability (in general), the world would make even less sense than it does.
When the popcorn bowl runs out, I like to suck the butter and salt out of those partly popped kernels in the bottom. Sometimes I gnaw on them, despite a little voice that tells me to stop it. Once I cracked a filling in a back tooth. My dentist added insult to injury by reminding me I’d made a foolish decision.
This incident reminds me of that huge question: Why does God allow suffering? People in every corner of the world ask it. While the biblical answers may not satisfy everyone, over the next few weeks I’ll offer a few that immensely help me.
First, three foundations. One, suffering does not always imply God’s punishment. Sometimes it does, but not every time.
Two, while God can bring good out of anything, that is not always the reason He allows bad things to happen. Sometimes they are just bad.
Third, God does take responsibility for everything. Job said, “Shall we accept good from God, and not evil.” The very next line reads, “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”
Jeremiah repeated the thought: “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” While the mind of God does not make sense to our limited perspective, yet the Bible affirms we can trust Him anyway. It also reveals a few why’s concerning evil and suffering.
One reason we suffer is that we bring it on ourselves. We make foolish choices, and our actions have consequences. Without them, we would never regret foolishness, or change. Ecclesiastes puts it in the negative: “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.”
Cause and effect are important to our stability. Water should satisfy our thirst. Flipping a switch should turn the lights on or off. We expect results from what we do and if they do not happen, we are perplexed, even thrown off balance.
This applies to both good and foolish choices. When I bite a hard popcorn kernel, my less-strong fillings are apt to take a beating. When I ignore God’s moral warnings, my life will fall apart. When I behave and obey Him, I experience not only His blessing but His pleasure.
The foolish choices of others can cause us suffering too. Children suffer in war. People die at the hands of reckless drivers. A construction worker neglects a safety check. Airline mechanics do too. Innocent people suffer consequences.
Consequences should change our choices but what about drivers who run stop signs, make illegal turns, drive too fast, and cut in too quick, who never get a traffic ticket or ever have an accident? Or consider an elderly couple, normally careful drivers, yet one day he failed to stop at a stop sign. They were hit by a truck and both died. Does this make “cause and effect,” and God, capriciousness?
Christians know God takes responsibility for everything. In the case of the elderly couple, He had reasons for allowing their suffering and death. They were people of faith and belonged to Him, so they were not being punished — Jesus already took their punishment for sin.
Neither did they die so ultimate good would happen. It did not, at least for them here on earth. Their death was a tragic event, even though God could have stopped it. For the most part, it happened as a result of a wrong choice.
But God also has reasons for not applying that rule of cause and effect to others who seem to deserve it. Maybe He is giving them a second chance. Maybe He has a greater plan for their lives.
Sometimes people blame God when trouble strikes, but I would not want God to change the rule of cause and effect. When I do something dumb, I do not like the consequences, yet without their predictability (in general), the world would make even less sense than it does.
Monday, June 12, 2017
The ‘why’ question ................ Parables 600
June 16, 1998
U.S.A. SCHOOL SHOOTING -- WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING?
If the question is not added after newspaper headlines, people do ask it after hearing tragic events such as young students bringing guns into their school to shoot classmates and teachers.
Without intending to diminish the horror of recent events, a cartoonist attempts to answer that huge question. His drawing shows a man shouting at God, “Why do you allow injustice?” A voice comes back, “I might ask you the same question.”
In another attempt to answer this question, an eighty-year old friend says we are foolish to confuse God with life. In life, we experience evil, helplessness and things that seem senseless. However, God is always good, powerful and wise. While we may not understand His reasons for staying out of certain human activities, we cannot blame Him when people do evil things.
Who do we blame? The psychologists debate back and forth; is it nurture or nature? Is the environment at fault or is this a genetic problem?
Those who blame nurture say something is wrong with a bad person’s environment. That could include parents, the school system, their neighborhood and society at large. Accordingly, if children were properly raised, rightly educated, and lived in the right part of the world, they would not do evil things.
Others think genetics determine character and intelligence. Certain people are simply prone to unacceptable behavior. In this theory, kids who shoot other kids are genetically predisposed to be anti-social (or however the current lingo describes them). We are simply “programmed” and our behavior is a natural outflow of that programming. We have no real choices in what we do because our decisions flow out of predetermined factors set at birth.
The Bible does put some responsibility in both areas. Because our environment does have influence, parents are told to raise their children to know and obey God. Social structures are encouraged to be just and moral, upholding righteousness and punishing those who do evil. Of course failure of families and other social systems to uphold godly values can result in children without those values, kids who shoot other kids.
As for genetics, Scripture does say that we are “born into sin.” This means that although human beings were created to reflect God’s image, sin has marred our ability to do it. Our propensity to go our own way, opposing and ignoring God, permeates the entire human race. A huge reason kids shoot kids is inherent in what the Bible calls our “sinful nature.”
However, the Bible makes it clear that God does not allow anyone to blame their nature or their environment for their behavior. Our sinful nature is neither an excuse nor a reason for despair. God will forgive us and give us a new nature. With this transformation, we can choose good and rely on Him to give us the power we need to overcome our sinful nature.
We are not stuck with externals that “program” us either. Despite the lawlessness around us, with God’s help it is possible for us to choose to obey Him. Jesus said, “In the world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” Through faith in Him, we can overcome the negatives that life throws at us.
God clearly says no one is a helpless victims of their genes or their environment; we are personally responsible for our choices. Nature and nurture can be negative or positive but God gives freedom from both by giving us the ability to choose — and that will influence how our life turns out.
God’s key to the nurture/nature debate is choice. He may permit evil but He also puts the ball back in our court. He says, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . .”
U.S.A. SCHOOL SHOOTING -- WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING?
If the question is not added after newspaper headlines, people do ask it after hearing tragic events such as young students bringing guns into their school to shoot classmates and teachers.
Without intending to diminish the horror of recent events, a cartoonist attempts to answer that huge question. His drawing shows a man shouting at God, “Why do you allow injustice?” A voice comes back, “I might ask you the same question.”
In another attempt to answer this question, an eighty-year old friend says we are foolish to confuse God with life. In life, we experience evil, helplessness and things that seem senseless. However, God is always good, powerful and wise. While we may not understand His reasons for staying out of certain human activities, we cannot blame Him when people do evil things.
Who do we blame? The psychologists debate back and forth; is it nurture or nature? Is the environment at fault or is this a genetic problem?
Those who blame nurture say something is wrong with a bad person’s environment. That could include parents, the school system, their neighborhood and society at large. Accordingly, if children were properly raised, rightly educated, and lived in the right part of the world, they would not do evil things.
Others think genetics determine character and intelligence. Certain people are simply prone to unacceptable behavior. In this theory, kids who shoot other kids are genetically predisposed to be anti-social (or however the current lingo describes them). We are simply “programmed” and our behavior is a natural outflow of that programming. We have no real choices in what we do because our decisions flow out of predetermined factors set at birth.
The Bible does put some responsibility in both areas. Because our environment does have influence, parents are told to raise their children to know and obey God. Social structures are encouraged to be just and moral, upholding righteousness and punishing those who do evil. Of course failure of families and other social systems to uphold godly values can result in children without those values, kids who shoot other kids.
As for genetics, Scripture does say that we are “born into sin.” This means that although human beings were created to reflect God’s image, sin has marred our ability to do it. Our propensity to go our own way, opposing and ignoring God, permeates the entire human race. A huge reason kids shoot kids is inherent in what the Bible calls our “sinful nature.”
However, the Bible makes it clear that God does not allow anyone to blame their nature or their environment for their behavior. Our sinful nature is neither an excuse nor a reason for despair. God will forgive us and give us a new nature. With this transformation, we can choose good and rely on Him to give us the power we need to overcome our sinful nature.
We are not stuck with externals that “program” us either. Despite the lawlessness around us, with God’s help it is possible for us to choose to obey Him. Jesus said, “In the world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” Through faith in Him, we can overcome the negatives that life throws at us.
God clearly says no one is a helpless victims of their genes or their environment; we are personally responsible for our choices. Nature and nurture can be negative or positive but God gives freedom from both by giving us the ability to choose — and that will influence how our life turns out.
God’s key to the nurture/nature debate is choice. He may permit evil but He also puts the ball back in our court. He says, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . .”
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Suffering and Death .............. Parables 261
April 3, 1991
A few weeks ago, a little Alberta girl died in a car accident while she was singing “Jesus Loves Me.” A family member took comfort in the confidence that she was ushered into the arms of Jesus while she sang.
Apparently that confidence is not shared by the majority. A medical social worker in Saskatchewan says “the belief in death as the gate to a heavenly reward is no longer how people view the end of life.” She says the first concern today is the loss of living, not with “heaven or damnation” and “death is a block to health” not the entrance to eternity.
She went on to explain current trends concerning the care of terminally ill patients. If there is no hope for an improvement in the quality of life, then passive euthanasia (as opposed to active, which is illegal) is an option. That is, it is better to stop life-sustaining treatment than to suffer.
It seems that if this life is all there is, choosing to end it is a contradiction. Not that I’m big on suffering; given a choice, pain will always be far down my list of preferred experiences. But for those who believe life is all there is, living in pain seems more logical than pulling the plug when things get too tough.
The problem is that death is not a universal gateway to heaven. The Bible says it is the “wages of sin,” the final enemy of human beings. What comes after death is the real issue. Jesus Christ says a person either spends eternity with Him or is cast away from Him forever, depending on what they believe about Him. Blunt it may be, but that is what God says about death.
As for suffering, the Bible indicates four causes: first, sin in general causes general suffering for people, whether it is their own sin or that of others. Secondly, some kind of suffering is often the way by which life ends. Thirdly, God will sometimes chasten His sinning children with suffering as He works to correct their destructive behavior. Lastly, He can glorify Himself through either removing the problem or giving supernatural endurance to the sufferer.
Suffering can draw people to God. Deuteronomy 8:3 says God “humbled” His people by allowing them to suffer hunger, then feeding them with manna that they might “know that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Suffering taught them to rely on Him.
The Apostle Paul suffered when he lost personal prestige. Despite his loss, suffering brought him to know Christ and eternal life. Jesus, although innocent Himself, suffered as God used His sacrifice to redeem mankind. Since then, many Christians have suffered as they follow Christ, and God has used their sacrifices to impress upon others the validity of the gospel message and used that suffering to bring many to salvation through faith in His Son.
Scripturally, about the only negative thing I can discover concerning suffering is that it doesn’t feel good. In fact, the Bible teaches if suffering comes our way, there is some reason God has allowed it. We may not always perfectly understand what He is up to but when painful things happen and we feel like “pulling the plug,” God encourages us with verses like 1 Peter 5:10: “The God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, will make you perfect, and establish, strengthen, and settle you.”
As we seek His face, we can ask Him to either reduce the pain, eliminate it, or give us strength to endure it. In this way, we learn to trust Him with the pain of living. Then, when the time comes to endure the pain of dying it is even possible that He grant the grace for us to be singing while we travel to the arms of Jesus, not crying or protesting because we have had to suffer.
A few weeks ago, a little Alberta girl died in a car accident while she was singing “Jesus Loves Me.” A family member took comfort in the confidence that she was ushered into the arms of Jesus while she sang.
Apparently that confidence is not shared by the majority. A medical social worker in Saskatchewan says “the belief in death as the gate to a heavenly reward is no longer how people view the end of life.” She says the first concern today is the loss of living, not with “heaven or damnation” and “death is a block to health” not the entrance to eternity.
She went on to explain current trends concerning the care of terminally ill patients. If there is no hope for an improvement in the quality of life, then passive euthanasia (as opposed to active, which is illegal) is an option. That is, it is better to stop life-sustaining treatment than to suffer.
It seems that if this life is all there is, choosing to end it is a contradiction. Not that I’m big on suffering; given a choice, pain will always be far down my list of preferred experiences. But for those who believe life is all there is, living in pain seems more logical than pulling the plug when things get too tough.
The problem is that death is not a universal gateway to heaven. The Bible says it is the “wages of sin,” the final enemy of human beings. What comes after death is the real issue. Jesus Christ says a person either spends eternity with Him or is cast away from Him forever, depending on what they believe about Him. Blunt it may be, but that is what God says about death.
As for suffering, the Bible indicates four causes: first, sin in general causes general suffering for people, whether it is their own sin or that of others. Secondly, some kind of suffering is often the way by which life ends. Thirdly, God will sometimes chasten His sinning children with suffering as He works to correct their destructive behavior. Lastly, He can glorify Himself through either removing the problem or giving supernatural endurance to the sufferer.
Suffering can draw people to God. Deuteronomy 8:3 says God “humbled” His people by allowing them to suffer hunger, then feeding them with manna that they might “know that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Suffering taught them to rely on Him.
The Apostle Paul suffered when he lost personal prestige. Despite his loss, suffering brought him to know Christ and eternal life. Jesus, although innocent Himself, suffered as God used His sacrifice to redeem mankind. Since then, many Christians have suffered as they follow Christ, and God has used their sacrifices to impress upon others the validity of the gospel message and used that suffering to bring many to salvation through faith in His Son.
Scripturally, about the only negative thing I can discover concerning suffering is that it doesn’t feel good. In fact, the Bible teaches if suffering comes our way, there is some reason God has allowed it. We may not always perfectly understand what He is up to but when painful things happen and we feel like “pulling the plug,” God encourages us with verses like 1 Peter 5:10: “The God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, will make you perfect, and establish, strengthen, and settle you.”
As we seek His face, we can ask Him to either reduce the pain, eliminate it, or give us strength to endure it. In this way, we learn to trust Him with the pain of living. Then, when the time comes to endure the pain of dying it is even possible that He grant the grace for us to be singing while we travel to the arms of Jesus, not crying or protesting because we have had to suffer.
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