Suffering - The Bible answer

The argument is: Why doesn’t God step in and stop it all? So there does seem to be an obstacle in the pathway towards accepting God.

To begin with we need to know what the roots of suffering are. So we will look at the first book of the Bible, Genesis ch. 1.

When God created the earth and everything on the earth, we read that it was good.

Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good:.

Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Again at the end of verse 12 – God saw that it was good. Again verse 18, verse 21, and verse 25. But then in the last verse v 31 it says:

Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.  

Seven times we hear that everything is good. There is no suffering, no pain, no wrong, and no sin. God created a world free of all these things. He created a wonderful world, which was very good.

Notice, I said, was very good. WHAT WENT WRONG?

Why is there a problem of suffering, when the world was created to be ‘very good?’

The account continues. The first man and the first woman were given freewill. They could decide things for themselves. They could think. They were not God’s puppets. They could make decisions. Indeed God gave mankind freewill so that they could choose to give him the glory. The idea of freewill offerings is seen in the Old Testament. No need to turn there, Leviticus 22:19 reads like this:

Lev 22:19 Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats.

God appreciates and is pleased with acknowledgement and praise from men and women. We have the choice to ignore God or to acknowledge him freely. It is entirely up to us. If we choose to worship God, then it is of our own volition. No one makes us.

So, what has this got to with suffering?

Chapter 3 of Genesis goes on to explain how that this freewill led to Adam and Eve breaking the only rule that God had set them. They ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God had specifically instructed them not to do.

So this was the first sin, the first direct contravention of God’s rules. We will see that this led to suffering and ultimately death for Adam and Eve.

Come with me please to Romans 5:12 which tells us more about this:

Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man (ADAM) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

So because of the sin of one man, Adam, God-given freewill had been abused for the first time. Adam sinned, so Adam deserved to die. The logic continues: All people are descended from Adam, which means all are of Adam’s nature, so all must die because of this, and because of our own sin. To the woman for her part in the sin God said in Genesis 3:

Gen 3:16     Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

She had to suffer for the part that she freely chose to play in that sin.

Gen 3:17     And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Gen 3:18     Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Gen 3:19     In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

So we have a test case here, because of sin mankind has to suffer and ultimately die.

Rom 6:23         For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is the dreary message of the first part that I want to reiterate. Our sins earn us suffering which leads us to death. So because of this first sin, the relationship between God and man changed. All that in the beginning was ‘very good’ became subject to this curse. Mankind had to do work to live, this work meant health would fail, suffering would be part of this, and eventually the road of life leads to death.

Next I feel we need to make a distinction between two types of suffering. It seems to me that there is suffering, which is directly caused by mankind and suffering which seems to happen which man can do nothing about. Wars, the spread of HIV, terrorism, and such like are all man made problems. Surely we cannot blame God for these. Would it be moral for God to step in and stop the consequences of these problems? Well no, because as in Genesis the first sin had its devastating consequences and so to do modern sins lead to consequences. Wars are the direct result of disagreements. The spread of HIV is a result of mankind's sordid activities and Terrorism is the direct result of sordid political opinions.

But what about natural disasters: The Tsunami killing thousands of people, volcanoes erupting and destroying vast areas of land, what about hurricanes, fires, some forms of illness that come seem to appear without cause? Well, let’s consider what the Bible has to say about these. I want to look at a case study here. If we turn to the book of Job we have an example of how an innocent man was plagued by natural disasters. In Job chapter 1 and the first verse we have what I might describe as Job’s character reference from God:

Job 1:1            There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

Eschewed is a strange old English word meaning: “declining or departing from something”. So Job departed from evil. Here was a man who was very good. Job is then subjected to a number of serious disasters and tragedies.

V. 15: his oxen and asses are destroyed.

V. 17: his camels are destroyed.

V. 19: Job’s sons and daughters are destroyed.

Now you would think after these most harrowing events even the most faithful person with much resolve would crack and be angry with God.

But look verse 22:

Job 1:22          In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

So through all this suffering he did not despise God. But look at verse 21:

Job 1:21          And (Job) said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

What faith. What amazing resolve. Job recognised that God gave him all of those things in the first place. So he is thankful that he was able to experience them at all. By Chapter 2 verse 7 we see that Job’s resolve was to be tested further. He was to suffer through ill health. The end of verse 7: Job was smitten with ‘sore boils from the sole of his foot unto unto his crown.’ Verses 9 and 10 really show Job’s determination to stay faithful to God and not say anything against him:

Job 2:9  Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

Job 2:10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Even when his own wife gave up hope he stayed faithful to God. What faith and what resolve. Three of Job’s supposed friends then came to visit him and proceeded to attack his personality and his character. They were sure that he must have been a very evil person for so many catastrophes to come upon him. You see their understanding of the situation was that people got the suffering that they deserved as a direct result of their wrongdoing. Job tried to find a cause for the evil, which had happened. This searching takes up a massive 35 or so chapters. Finally God spoke to Job of the wonderful creation that he had made, he talked about the stars: Job 38 v. 31

Job 38:31  Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

Job 38:32  Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?  

This was to make Job realise his place in God’s creation, that really he was only a very small part in God’s plan and he had no control over anything because all things are God’s. So from this we can see that God made Job suffer for a reason. God was strengthening Job’s resolve further by giving him these terrible sufferings so that when he came through them he would be an even stronger person. God wants to see people like you and I trying to please him even when they are faced with trials and problems in their lives.  

If you come with me to 2 Corinthians 11 you will see Paul’s ‘qualification’ if you like, to talk about suffering.

2 Corinthians 11: 23. For context verse 3:

2Co 11:3         But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

So Paul is really worried about the group of believers at Corinth . In verse 23 he spoke of people spreading false doctrines:

2Co 11:23       Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

2Co 11:24       Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.

2Co 11:25       Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

2Co 11:26       In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

2Co 11:27       In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Paul knew a lot about suffering. Paul was well qualified to talk about this. He had undergone many physically and psychologically painful experiences. So what does Paul (a man with lots of experience in this matter) say about suffering?

Come with me back a few pages to the first letter to the Corinthians chapter 10. verse 13 - Here Paul is discussing the concept of temptation. Just remember in your mind that Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the fruit and yet they did. They were tempted to eat, ‘because it was GOOD TO THE EYE’. So we sin because we give in to temptations. If there was not temptation to commit a sin then no one would. This is what Paul says: 1 Corinthians 10:13.

1Co 10:13       There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

What is that about then? How does this help us? Well, Job was suffering, and his ‘so called’ friends were putting him in the terrible position of tempting him to question God’s justice and God’s righteousness. There was a way provided for Job to escape. He looked up at the heavens and saw their beauty; he saw the immense magnitude of God’s almighty nature in the natural things around him.

God will always provide a way out of sinning, we often do not take that way out and so we have to suffer the consequences of our actions. Joseph ran away from the wife of Potiphar when she made moves to seduce him. David on the other hand saw Bathsheba and was tempted by her beauty; he sinned and had to suffer the consequences of his actions. God is a merciful God, when there are temptations, he will provide a way to escape, he never lets someone be tempted beyond the point that they could withstand. Let us again consider Paul and what he has to say about suffering. Turn with me to Romans 8 please. This time we will see Paul’s way of thinking. You’ll be surprised at the way Paul reasons here.

Rom 8:18         For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

So Paul explained that it is actually worth suffering now in this life, because God offers a perfect time when Jesus will return and his kingdom will be set up on this earth. Then the sufferings of today will pale into eternal insignificance, because of the phenomenal glory which will be revealed through those believers. Remember Romans 6 flick back a page or two, Romans 6 and the last verse: ‘The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ So suffering now and trying to combat sin is by far worth the effort because if we are deemed have put up a good fight we will be rewarded by being given an everlasting life, free of suffering, free of ailments and free of pain. The problem of suffering will be a thing of the past with no repercussions into this future time at all. So a summary before we conclude thinking about Jesus, I think by reading passages from the Bible, God’s word, we can come to these conclusions concerning God’s answer to the problem of suffering:

-          Firstly, the human race brought suffering upon itself when Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, committed the first sin. It was brought in the first instance as a curse on them and their descendents, the whole of the human race to follow.

-          This sin meant that from that point onwards humans would live their lives, they would then suffer, and die, perhaps not for a while, but the fact that sin leads to suffering and death is made clear.

-          We can also conclude that the degree of suffering is not in any way related to our degree of sin against God.

-          But, we also found out that God will not let us suffer more than we can bear.

-          We found out that some suffering is directly because of man’s actions on this planet. So man has to suffer the consequences of his own actions. The great suffering after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl , was directly because of man, so man had to suffer.

-          We saw that Job was a righteous and good man in the eyes of God, and yet he was made to suffer the most terrible things, so that he could truly comprehend the amazing awesome wonder of God’s creation and how insignificant man is compared with God.

-          We saw Paul’s attitude towards suffering, that it was not worthy to even be compared with the future glory of the kingdom. So Paul dismisses it, because we should focus not on the sufferings of today but the perfection of the future.

So to finish with, I want to remind you of Adam at the beginning and also remind you of Jesus. We read from Romans 5 earlier, I would like to turn there again:

Rom 5:17         For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

Rom 5:18         Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

So because of Jesus people can be saved from this seeming endless circle of sin, leading to suffering, leading to death.

How can this be?

Well, Jesus, who was born of a woman, by the power of God lived a sinless life, and still suffered greatly and he died a sinless man. He never ever disobeyed God’s laws, as the man Adam had done so many years before. However, as we said at the beginning, he had to die because he was of Adam’s nature, but we also said that Adam died because of his sin. Jesus did no sin, so he did not deserve to die. Hence, he could not stay in the grave, and God raised him. So here we see a man who suffered beyond anything that we can comprehend, he was crucified on a Roman cross, and yet he did not sin by giving in to his sufferings. Instead he held firm and was righteous in every way until his death. If we go to the letter to the Hebrews we can see a little insight into Jesus temptations. Hebrews 2:18 says this of Jesus:

Heb 4:18    For that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he I able to succour them that are tempted.

Because Jesus suffered and was tempted we can be helped by his example because he suffered in ways that we might.

Heb 4:15          For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

This shows to us that Jesus was tested in the same ways as we are today; he had the same problems which we have to deal with, but he never once gave in and did the wrong thing. So we can see that we should cling to him in times of suffering because he is the one who can save.

Finally, I put to you that it is actually worth suffering in this life, so that we can be a part of a better life to come when the world will be restored to the state of ‘very good’ as it was in the beginning. We can be part of this through the waters of baptism. Let me read you one verse from Isaiah 35 which speaks of this wonderful time to come.

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