Suffering and the Goodness and Sovereignty of God

Several days ago I had some friends of mine suffer a horrible tragedy, the death of a second child. The event has no doubt caused much pain and raised questions among even the church family. In moments of extreme suffering, your theology is most important, because what you believe determines whether you will sink or swim when the flood waters come rushing. The following doctrines are essential in keeping your head above water; fail to grab any of them and you will drown.

First, God is sovereign. This event has not caught him off guard or crept up unexpectedly. God is in complete control of the situation commanding and directing all events according to his sovereign will. It is important to believe that God is even sovereign over the evil things we do or the evil things that happen to us. God could have stopped the fall of Adam, the increase of wickedness on the earth during the times of Noah, the enslavement of Joseph, the enslavement of his people Israel, the rebellion of the Jews, the killing of the prophets, the captivity in Babylon, the fall of the temple at the hands of the Romans, the Black Plague, the crusades, Hitler and the Holocaust, the planes that hit the World Trade Center, and the death of this precious little girl. God ordained that all of these things happen, and God is ultimately behind all of these horrible things. Now before some cry “heresy,” let’s look at Job. Job was a man on which profound suffering fell, to a degree which few people today can relate. He lost his kids, his property, his wealth, his servants, the respect of his wife, and his reputation with his friends. Yet in the midst of this pain look at what he says in Job 1.20-22:

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

We all remember the story well. Satan comes before God and God brags on Job for his faithfulness. Satan then accuses God of putting a hedge of protection around Job, and that Job only praises God in the midst of his blessing. So God allows Satan to go and devastate Job. Yet who does Job attribute everything that has happened to him to? It is the Lord that gives and takes away. Was Job wrong? Was he accusing God of something that he didn’t do, but that Satan was the one actually responsible? The text says immediately after Job speaks that Job did not sin in everything that he said.

God also ordained the greatest evil act in history, the murder of Jesus the Christ. It was sin to crucify the Son of God. It was sin to betray him. It was sin to mock him and spit on him and beat him. Yet look at what Isaiah says concerning this wicked thing in Isaiah 53.10a: “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.” Who crushed Jesus? God did. Who brought about his suffering ultimately? God did. God was the one in control when Jesus died and God is in control now.

And think about this as well. If God could not rescue a little girl and allow her to continue breathing then we have far greater problems then the loss of this child. If God can’t save a baby, he can’t save anybody, he can’t right what we have made wrong, and he can’t bring any kind of hope and peace to us in the midst of tragedy. His hands are tied and he is not a God worth praising. Thanks be to the sovereign “God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.” (2 Corinthians 1.3b-4a)

Second, God is good. He is good when he gives us good things. He is good even when he takes good things from us. Thinking back to the text in Job, notice that Job declares that the Lord’s name is blessed regardless of what befalls us. Jesus says in Matthew 10.18 that, “no one is good except God alone.” Also John says that, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (I John 1.5)

Yet God can and does use the evil and horrible things in our lives for his good purposes and for our good. Look at what the Apostle Paul says about everything that happens to us in Romans 8.28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” What is included in the phrase “all things?” Taxes, tests, job loss, muggings, parking tickets, fights, and even loss of loved ones. Everything is used by God for the good of those who love him, namely, those who are found in Jesus Christ. And why does God choose to work in us this way? Listen to Philippians 2.13: “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God uses evil things that happen to us for our good according to his “good pleasure.” In other words, God working in us in this way is only good, not a result of some cruel or mean spirit about him.

And consider this. The supremely evil act in history, the murder of Jesus, was used for the greatest good in the universe: that God would be glorified in redeeming a sinful and fallen race. It was good for God to crush his Son that we might receive life and no longer stand under God’s condemnation. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” (1 Peter 3.18)

Lastly, suffering identifies us with the God who suffers. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1.5 that, “we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” We are comforted by the God who suffered when we share in his suffering. Listen to Philippians 1.29: “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” Suffering for the Christian is expected and is even spoken in terms of a gift. It is “granted” to us to suffer. Jesus also suffered to help us in our temptation when we suffer the same things: “For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” Our only hope in our suffering is clinging to the cross of Christ, the instrument of his suffering and shame, and be identified with our great God and Savior as we endure the most horrible things for the glory of his Name. Let us be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8.18)

God is in control. God is good. Even when little girls die.