May 5, 2021 – Click here to listen
My wife took me to task over some comments made to a friend whose wife is suffering from cancer. My friend told me he was angry at God. I told him that disease and other maladies facing humanity including death are caused by sin and he should not be angry at God because his wife is enduring liver cancer and instead direct his anger at sin and the author of it Lucifer.
She told me I shouldn’t tell people that they are suffering because of their sins. She doesn’t think that she was singled out to endure breast cancer because of some sin she committed, nor did she think our friend who is suffering so much was enduring it for some sin she committed.
Hmmm . . . She misunderstood what I was saying. As I look back to “the beginning” in the garden of Eden there was no sin and there was no consequence for it including the ultimate result of sin, death. As you recall God allowed for eating from any tree save one and He solemnly warned that the day that Adam or Eve ate from it they would surely die. After tempting Eve with lies and pride in visions of becoming a God, Satan convinced her to willfully disobey God and as forewarned by God death was spawned along with unimaginable dark sin.
Sin causes death, disease, sorrow, grief, sadness, and hopelessness and it is in our DNA.
I was not maintaining that those enduring cancer or whatever are being punished for a particular sin. A study of the book of Job will convince you of that; however make no mistake we have many examples of specific sin causing horrendous devastation. Just look at what happened to the Jews when they sinned against God. It isn’t just nations that are punished but individuals as well. David’s adulterous sin with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah precipitated nearly unbearable punishment and anyone can read of his anguish in Psalms.
I get so tired that I’m exhausted to listen to those who are enduring trials railing against God and questioning His goodness. If you are obsessed with the “why” question, (Why do bad things happen to good people?) Try some logic and ask that question about Jesus? He IS Good! He never once sinned, not even a little white lie. And yet He suffered as no one in the history of creation suffered.
Why?
Why did He have to suffer and why did Jesus do it? I cannot answer why bad things happen to little kids and otherwise innocent people, but I can speak to the why question about Jesus. Why did He subject Himself to humiliation and unparalleled suffering? Because He loved us and apparently that is the only way we could be redeemed.
I told Teresa that we are created far down the intellect scale and could not understand God if we tried with all our being for an eternity. His ways are higher than ours. He knows everything and we have a smidgeon of knowledge. That my friends is where faith comes in. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. If you believe this then believe He has your best interest at heart even when it is utterly impossible to see why something bad has to happen. We must trust in Him and have faith that He is working on our behalf always.
Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.