Why are you doing this God?
Why is this happening God?
The cry of the person in the midst of crisis. The demand of a parent with a special needs child: Why did this happen to my child? Why did this happen to us? To Me?
Often, perhaps too often, we are afraid we know the answer. Last month we looked at the possibility that it was our fault. In John 9 Jesus heals a man who was blind from birth. The disciples ask Jesus whose fault it was.
Jesus responds that it was no one’s fault, it was for God’s glory.
So if it’s not our fault, why would God allow this to happen? Why would God cause this to happen? Because one or the other seems to be the implication. It doesn’t really matter if you lean more in the direction of God making the suffering happen or allowing the suffering to happen, the end result is the same. Suffering is here and you are in the middle of it.
We are not alone in asking this question. The writers of the Psalms, especially David, ask why God would allow suffering. Job asks God straight out:
If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
you who see everything we do?
Why have you made me your target?
Have I become a burden to you?
Job 7:20, NIV
Lots of people offer us reasons why God might allow or even cause something so painful. All too often the reasons are more than a bit like those of Job’s friends. They sound pious, they may even contain some truth, but they make a very significant mistake. They claim to have certain knowledge of the mind of God when it comes to the very specific situation we face. Knowledge they simply can’t have.
God never answers Job’s question. He doesn’t explain. The closest Job gets to an answer is in chapters 38-40. There God demands to know if Job really has the standing to question him. God asks Job, “Do you really want to correct me? (40:2); is your sense of justice really greater than mine (40:8); do you have the power that I have, the power to save? (40:9-12); do you know the secrets of the universe (Ch. 38-39).
The bible is full of people crying out to God in their suffering. We see it in the Psalms. There is an entire book called “Lamentations”. The issue is not grief. It is not asking why. Job is not condemned for asking why. God challenges him for questioning his character.
The implication is clear: Job, you don’t have enough information to make the kind of judgment you are making. You don’t have the perspective you need to say that I have mistreated you. Because that is really what we are saying when we blame God for whatever is happening. God, this is your fault and I don’t deserve it. You are mistreating me.
Why is not the problem. It is a perfectly good and legitimate question. We need to ask why. the problem is that we cannot live there. In the midst of our suffering we are tempted to.
God generally doesn’t give us the answer to our whys. He doesn’t tell us the reason for suffering, instead the Bible tells us (repeatedly) to expect it. So the question we really need to be asking ourselves is “can I trust God even when I don’t understand?” If we really believe the God is who He says He is in the Bible, then as hard as it is in the moment, we know the answer is yes. From Genesis to Revelation God is the God of good things, the God who creates a good universe (Genesis 1), the God who is light not darkness (1 Jn 1:5), who comes to save His people over and over again, especially and finally in Jesus, the God who will one day set all things to right (revelation 21-22).
This does not make the road easy. It does not erase the suffering. But it does offer hope.
The hope that while we do not always understand or even see the way forward, we can trust that God has our best in mind and as the apostle Paul says to the church in Philippi:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Rom. 8:35,37 NIV
Written by Kevin O’Brien
Kevin O’Brien is a husband, father, ordained minister, writer and volunteer theologian. He holds a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary where he won the Th.M. award in 1997. He has also done graduate work at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. Kevin worked as a brand manager on the Bible team at Tyndale House Publishers. During his time at Tyndale he has helped to develop several Bibles and has written articles which have appeared in The Way, the iShine Bible, and the Illustrated Study Bible. He also wrote a series of devotionals for WAYFM’s World’s Biggest Small Group.
Most recently, Kevin wrote an Advent devotional eBook. You can find it here.
Kevin lives in the far western suburbs of Chicago with his wife, three children, a dog, and a cat. He would prefer to spend his time reading, writing, woodworking and watching the Chicago Blackhawks.
