Wow, this was a difficult passage to read. Do you agree?
But I am going to try not to shy away from tough passages, and rather wonder who God is in the midst of these passages. What do I make of "When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?" (Amos 3:6) Is God really behind every disaster, punishing people for sin? I think it would be a hazard to go that far from this one verse, especially since the very next verse claims that God would not do that without sufficient warning from the prophets.
Amid the claims of Christian commentators that the Haiti earthquake was based on a punishment for demonic alliances, this passage would be an easy one to misquote. But that doesn't tell the whole story, no version of "why" really does. At the end, suffering is the ultimate challenge. God is good, God is all-powerful. So why evil and why suffering? I'm not sure we will ever know, even after the resurrection and we are with God forever. While we are here, and suffering is all around us, perhaps our best response to evil is to follow the example of the prophets and ultimately Jesus. When Jesus came face to face with suffering, he lamented and grieved it. Then he responded to it. Let us be people who respond to evil with compassion and the love of Jesus. Amen.
I wonder if God needs for us to go through suffering to grow us to become more compassion.
ReplyDeleteI like your take on God causing disasters. I firmly believe we go thru suffering so we can grow in our faith
ReplyDeleteIt is one of the reasons many people cannot believe there is a "loving" God. Does he really cause disasters? Would a parent do that to teach his child a lesson? NO! A parent would do all he could to protect that child. I think God has gone out of His way to protect us, but we are pretty stubborn.
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