Monday Rewind – February 3, 2014 On Sabbath we continued our “Soul-Search” series by tackling the one subject that gives believers and skeptics “reasonable doubt” about a “good” God—suffering. The questions are endless, but we begin our search with the premise that sin and suffering were never God’s plan. God’s world, as it came from His hand, was perfect—encoded with His DNA of love (see Gen. 1:1-2:1-3; 1 John 4:8). So if the world was birthed in perfection, where did sin and suffering come from? Rewind to Revelation 12:7-9 for the surprising answer: “And there was war in heaven.” Symbolized as a dragon, this being was in fact an angel named Lucifer who desired God’s throne. Self-love in Lucifer rebelled against the Selfless love of God, and Lucifer, the adversary, was cast out of heaven. This conflict now becomes the context of everything that happens in the story of the universe and humankind. And the war that began in heaven came to earth. The ancient book of Job pulls back the curtain on that war and helps us understand several things about the universe and suffering. Rewind to Job 1:1-11 and the first thing we learn is that we are not alone. Extraterrestrial beings exist. Next, God exists and has an adversary, named Satan, who is also an adversary of man. Satan, presents himself as having dominion over the earth and its inhabitants. But God points to Job as one who defies the adversary’s rule and remains loyal to Him. God is good by Satan’s own admission. See Job 1:10. It is not until the adversary enters the story do death, pain, and suffering appear. Yet the adversary cleverly gets his victims to blame God for the suffering he himself inflicts (see Job 1:16). Clifford Goldstein said it this way: “To attribute evil to God is to attribute it to a supernatural force, but the wrong one!” So why didn’t God just destroy Satan immediately? God did not destroy the adversary immediately because God’s character is on trial before the universe and the jury is still out. Though it appears that Job is the one on trial, God really is. By questioning Job’s motives for being faithful, satan implies that God is not good or worthy of Job’s worship. This conflict concerning God’s character is not a private dispute. It takes place in the presence of other cosmic entities (“The sons of God” in 1:6). Had God simply eradicated His enemy on the spot, He would have appeared no more just, fair, or compassionate than a fascist who—at the first inkling of insubordination—mercilessly, without compassion or justice, eliminates his enemies. God is not a fascist. God is love and love cannot be forced. It must be chosen. Therefore, God’s greatest risk and greatest gift to mankind is free-will. Humans chose independence from God having been warned that to do so would result in catastrophe. Now that we suffer the catastrophic consequences of this choice, we raise our fists toward God and ask, Why? Should not those fists of protest be lowered so that we can beat our own breasts? We have seen the enemy and it is us! What about natural disasters (Acts of God)? We don’t choose earthquakes or pandemics. What’s the connection between free will and nature? The curse of sin extends to the creation. See Rom. 8:20-22. But just because there’s an adversary, just because God is bound to act according to His law and character, and just because the wages of sin is death, doesn’t mean that God can’t and won’t do something about suffering. An all-loving God didn’t cause evil, but He takes responsibility for it. In the court of public opinion, suffering (that which God fails to prevent) is the most devastating piece of evidence the opposition has to prove God is not good. But it is God’s willingness to enter into our suffering and to suffer for the guilty that is the most compelling evidence that God is good. God could have turned His back on the rebellious planet and abandoned us to our choices. But God does not keep Himself aloof from our suffering. He does not hide in heaven while His children take a beating on earth. He did do something—something that still preserves our freedom of choice and His freedom to love. He takes the consequences of our sin upon Himself in the person of Jesus, and in so doing, He upholds the moral law of life in the universe which is the law of grace. 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. (John 3:16) This gift comes to us by the cross of Calvary, revealing a God I can cry out to in my distress, and a God I can trust because He wouldn’t sacrifice His own integrity to make it easy on Himself. As long as we live here, we live on a broken planet. We cannot escape the realities of brokenness in this life. But because of Jesus, we have proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that God is good and He will end the problem of evil in a way that will vindicate His character and ours for trusting Him. –Pastor Randy p.s. The conversation continues on Facebook: https://facebook/KunaConversations
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 14:07:27 +0000
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