We live in a world where injustice and suffering reign. Inequality in the face of misfortune is a fact at which people are outraged, or one they end up accepting.
Since a culprit must be found, whom shall we put in the dock? GOD, regarded as nothing less than the chief party responsible for all human distress.
People raise this question, which is only a poor excuse for unbelief or ignorance: If God is love, as the Bible declares (1 John 4.8 and 1 John 4.16), how is it that he does not protect his creature better against the blows of fate? Why, for example, does he allow the martyrdom of innocent children, the oppression and violence that claim so many victims throughout the world, the scandalous poverty in some countries and the insolent waste in others?
We could still understand it if God punished those who insult him, if he struck down the dishonest, the immoral or the wicked. But at least let him spare the innocent and the defenseless...!
Take care:
Let those who presume to accuse the Creator of indifference, of cruelty, or, if you will, of “failing to assist a person in danger,” take the trouble to listen to Him! For it is His Word, the Bible, that will vindicate Him and can give an answer to this distressing problem. The holy Book teaches us first of all that the primary cause of all humanity’s misfortunes is called sin. It is through sin that suffering and death were brought into the world.
Romans 8.20-22, reminds us that the sufferings of all creation are due to the pride, immorality and selfishness of the human race to which it is subjected.
Pollution and crimes against nature, denounced on every side today, only confirm it. Through his wanderings, and seeing their consequences for himself and for others, man must learn to know himself and become aware of his state of sin: he will thus be led to repentance and faith.
And do you know what the greatest injustice of all time was? The crime of humanity crucifying Jesus, the Son of God, who came out of love to save his creature.
Warning signal
But we have not answered your whole question. Many calamities do not have sin as their direct cause, and they strike the responsible and the irresponsible alike.
Jesus himself makes this remark on the occasion of a news item:
The conclusion drawn by the Lord is this: the accidents that strike some serve as a warning to all the others. In a human body, pain is a warning signal; it can save a sick person’s life by forcing him to consult the doctor, who will treat not only the pain but the cause of the illness. Some tragedy, some sudden death reminds me that tomorrow it may be my turn, that I must be ready, that my plans may suddenly be ruined and the dearest ties broken. “Prepare to meet your God” (Amos 4.12).
God’s purpose
God wants to make people serious, to lead them to ask themselves the essential questions: Why am I on earth? What is there after death?
Shall I not one day have to give an account of my life? These are indeed the real problems!
The supreme catastrophe is not death, but what follows it: judgment. A little child who dies perhaps thereby escapes many sufferings on earth, and above all the eternal perdition that would be his lot later if he did not accept Jesus as his Savior.
God is sovereign, he is wise, he knows perfectly what he is doing. Even at this very moment, he wants to awaken your interest and touch your conscience and your heart. Rather than rebelling at the misfortunes of others and blaming God for them, remember his love. He once appeared to deny his justice when he struck his innocent Son in the place of the guilty ones that we are, you and I. And he patiently waits for you to turn to Him to be saved. Will you not do so now?
Christian Publications of Valence