Is that the Best You Can Do? - Pt. 6

When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” (Judges 6:7-14 ESV).

 

I’ve heard many people start a discussion with the question: “If you had the opportunity, what would you like to ask God?” More than any other response that I’ve heard is, “I’d want to ask why God allows so much suffering.” It is a reasonable question. As you have read from me many times, the short answer is “for our good.” Of course, the basis for this truth is found throughout the Scripture. Our reading today is one of those references.

 

Gideon asked the same question thousands of years ago. Why do some people face one tragedy after another, while others enjoy all kinds of blessings? Why do some nations enjoy peace and prosperity, while others face poverty, persecution, and even genocide? How can a God who loves this world enough to send his Son allow holocaust and hunger, death and destruction? How can a God who cares so much about his creation allow human hands to destroy his beautiful world? In the words of a Jewish rabbi, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Are people right when they say that with so much suffering there cannot possibly be a loving, caring God? Did the wife of Job have it right when she advised him to “curse God and die” (cf. Job 2:9)?

 

Of course there’s no easy answer to the problem of pain. We may never understand this side of heaven, but we do know that God gave his Son to save us from our sin and all its destructive effects in this world, including suffering. We can be assured that he cares more about us than we will ever know. God’s answer to Gideon is instructive: “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” (v. 14). Perhaps we should concern ourselves with the “going” more than the “knowing.”