My Reflections

Why does God Allow Suffering?

Take Up Your Cross

Prompt:
Some people have questioned how God can allow suffering. How would you answer such questions?

Answer:
God created a perfect world before the fall of man. Genesis 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. Genesis chapter 3 is where Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was after this that the ground was cursed, punishments were issued, and man began to suffer and work for what he ate.

Genesis 6:5-7
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

This is the condition of man and the earth before the great flood. Notice, in verse 5, it say that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Suffering is caused by sin. Sin is allowed by God to give man a free choice and so that God’s grace can abound.

Genesis 6:11
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

Violence causes suffering, and the earth was full of it.

In Genesis 6:3, God promises to not always strive with man because he is flesh.
And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

In Exodus, God make a covenant with the children of Israel. They verbally agree to this covenant, and Moses sprinkled blood of sacrificed animals upon the people, making this a blood covenant. Again, man’s heat is evil. At least 10 times in he wilderness, the people murmur against God, and refuse to trust him.

In Leviticus, the Old Testament law is written out.

In Dueteronomy and Joshua, the Israelites make their way into the land of promise.

In Judges and other Old Testament books, such as the books of the profits, we again see suffering as a result from sin. These weren’t just little white lie sins either. These were major sins like worshiping other gods and sacrificing their children to them. God allowed suffering in hopes that his people would return to worshiping him and turn away from committing those sins.

He allows suffering so that we will know he is God.

Ezekiel 11:12
And ye shall know that I am the Lord: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you.

John10:10
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Then there was a new covenant given through Jesus. It was prophesied of beforehand.

Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Hebrews chapter 8 speaks of this new covenant. The New Testament is full of the promise of the new covenant which is made through the blood of Christ Jesus.

Yes, while we are still upon this earth with sin in it, there will be suffering. Christ suffered with and for us while he was on the earth. When he died upon the cross, he conquered sin, death, suffering, and Hell. Our physical body will suffer here on earth, but when we die, our soul will live forever, freed from suffering and pain, as we will be in the presence of Almighty God for the rest of eternity.

Revelation 21:3-8
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

We, who believe in Jesus Christ, have a hope and a future.

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