If you do a quick Google search on the word theodicy, you will find a fairly precise definition: “The vindication of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil.” Or, why would an all-knowing and all-powerful, loving God permit the manifestation of evil in this world? Let’s bring this theological and philosophical question closer to home. Why did God allow the Russian military to bomb an art school in the embattled port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, where approximately four hundred people (including children) were sheltered?
First, God is not the accused and we are not the judges. Like the end of the book of Job, God is not on trial, we are. All of Job’s probing questions as to why a “just” man like himself was experiencing such extreme suffering, were never answered. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me” (Job 38:1-3)! We have to walk with deep humility when probing these issues, knowing we are but dust and no one is just (Romans 3:10-12); while God is the perfect, supreme Ruler of all.
Second, God is in complete control and could have prevented every suffering, death and evil act that ever existed. There is absolutely nothing outside of His sovereignty. Every hair on your head is numbered, Heaven knows all the pain of your life. God can certainly choose to intervene and often does, but sometimes, He is silent. Incriminating God for not acting is implicitly suggesting you could run the universe better. It also indirectly seeks an impersonal, mechanistic god who “automatically” acts on behalf of the oppressed no matter what happens. This simplistic, predictable and robotic god would be no deity at all.
Third, mystery. To completely understand what God allows or doesn’t allow would require us to possess the full attributes of God. We do not and never will; there is an infinite abyss between the creation and the Creator. There is mystery. When reason finds it’s limits, the atheist denies God’s existence while the true believer bows down in worship. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known (I Corinthians 13:12).
Humility, sovereignty and mystery help us keep a Biblical balance with all the pain and suffering in our lives. Sin has rushed into this world through disobedience, and the consequences are spiritual, physical and eternal death. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Though sin is the overarching reason for all suffering, much of this world’s horrors is not the direct result of personal culpability; for example, Ukrainian children.
We know so little, we need God’s Word to help us navigate the enigmatic purpose of pain.
First, the agony of life should stir our souls to draw near to God; it is a catalyst for communion. Instead of being grateful for the “good life”, many get distracted in their diversions and forget about God. Pain wakes us up. C.S. Lewis points out: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Second, pain helps us identify with the suffering of others. A recovered drug addict can certainly understand an addict in the sweat, blood and tears of recovery.
Third, the grind of prolonged agony reveals the heart before man and God. Life is a song and skip on the “Yellow Brick Road” when all is going well. However, when the clouds darken, lightning and thunder crack, will we still trust Him? Let our hearts be firm and steadfast like Job: “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him” (Job 13:15).
Nicholas Schuleit
THERAPIST, PASTORAL COUNSELOR