WE tend to become somewhat calloused to all the trouble that is in the world. Every day the news is filled with tragedy and heartache, but generally it is quite far removed, involving people in other lands, and other cities, with whom we have no personal acquaintance. We expect news to be bad, and as such it becomes rather matter-of-fact.

Then, suddenly, tragedy strikes close to home; a special bulletin informs us that an airliner has crashed in Pittsburgh, and all passengers and crew were lost. We are shocked by the realization that this could well have happened to us, or to someone close to us. We think of the sadness and sorrow brought to the family and friends of those who are suddenly gone.

We find ourselves asking the question, “Why did God allow this terrible thing to happen?”

Does God Really See or Care?

THIS QUESTION IS not a new one; it has been asked by thinking men and women throughout the ages. Thousands of years ago a faithful servant of God named Job became personally concerned with discovering the meaning of his own suffering. The record of this is found in the book of the Bible which bears Job’s name. The first verse of this book informs us that Job was an upright man who feared God and shunned sin.

To begin with, Job was a prosperous man, abundantly blessed by the Lord along material lines. The record is that “his substance … was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.” (Job 1:3) Job was also blessed with a large family, and he desired that they, too, should be blessed by the Lord. Job prayed for his family, and offered sacrifice, because, as he said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” (vss. 4,5) Job felt, apparently, that in the event his sons had sinned, his prayers on their behalf would be heard and favorably answered.

But experiences were ahead for Job for which he was not wholly prepared. Satan, the great Adversary of God and men, charged that this servant of the Lord was loyal to God only because his loyalty had been bought by the abundance of good things with which the Lord had blessed him. In answer to this charge, God permitted Satan to inflict calamities upon Job to test his fidelity. God had no doubt about the outcome of this trial, and in his wisdom knew that any temporary suffering he permitted to come into Job’s life would, in the end, prove to be a great blessing to him.

And Job did experience terrible trouble. The record states: “There was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: and there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them; and the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

“While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

“While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: and, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”—Job 1:13-19

Job’s reaction to these evil tidings was: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” We read that “in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” (vss. 21,22) Then God permitted further trouble to come upon Job. His health was taken away. He was smitten with ‘.’boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.” Then Job’s wife turned against him and said, “Curse God, and die.” To this Job replied, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”—Job 2:9,10

Job did not turn away from God when trouble came upon him, as so many throughout the ages have done. His chief concern was to know why God permitted him to be afflicted with such bitter experiences, and throughout his book we find evidences of his search for this understanding. After Job was stricken down with disease, three of his friends visited him for the purpose of giving comfort. Later in the book we are informed that these three did not speak the truth concerning God, implying that the viewpoints they expressed to Job were not correct.—Job 42:7

There is chapter after chapter of philosophizing on the part of Job and his three friends. But what it all amounts to is that according to Job’s friends he was suffering because he had committed some gross sins which he was hiding from them, and for which he had not repented and sought God’s forgiveness. Job, of course, knew that he was not perfect, but he also knew that he had not willfully transgressed God’s laws, so he was not willing to accept this explanation.

EVIL MEN PROSPER

Job knew that while, as a servant of God, he was now suffering, frequently evil men prospered, and apparently escaped the evils that come upon so many. So, in answer to his friends he said: “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth [Margin, ‘in mirth’], and in a moment go down to the grave [without suffering a long, painful illness].”—Job 21:7-13

While Job knew that the explanation offered by his friends was not the true one, yet he did not understand why God was allowing him to suffer so severely. In a beautiful, poetic manner he describes his search for an understanding of God in the light of his own experiences, saying, “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him; but he knoweth the way that I take: when he bath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”—Job 23:8-10

Job realized that there was a divine purpose for his being tried so severely, but he had not yet discovered that purpose. He also knew that if he maintained his integrity before God he would pass the test successfully, and would ‘come forth as gold.’ Job’s wife wanted him to curse God, but he knew this would be foolish. In all ages there have been those professed believers who, when affliction came upon them, have wondered where God was, and what he was doing to protect their interests. Many such have even turned against God.

The world is filled with evil. It is not for us to lose faith in God because of this, or even to criticize him. Our proper attitude should be one of humility, and of earnestly seeking the answer to our questions from the only proper source, which is the Word of God.

God’s questions continued, and eventually Job spoke again, and said, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.”—Job 42:2-5

Job finally learned the meaning of his severe trial. He learned that its loving purpose was to give him a clearer understanding of God, that he might serve him more faithfully and with greater appreciation. He speaks of this clearer understanding as ‘seeing’ the Lord, instead of merely having heard about him. Since he had gained such wealth of understanding, Job’s brief period of suffering must have seemed to him to have been a most valuable experience.

Besides restoring Job’s health, we read that “the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. … And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.”—vss. 12-15

JOB—A PICTURE OF MANKIND

For more than six thousand years the human race, having come under condemnation to death because of sin, has been exposed to evil, and by experience has been learning the terrible results of disobedience. The seeds of death have manifested their presence in humans, young and old, and by myriads of infirmities and diseases of both mind and body. Neither the young nor the old have escaped the plague of death, infants often falling before the enemy at a tender age with no understanding of what is taking place in and around them. Perchance, some live to ‘a ripe old age’, only to succumb finally to the ravages of death which prey upon all.

And not only by disease are the people brought down to the grave, but upheavals of nature in an unfinished earth contribute to the process, as do accidents, and men’s own cruelties to one another in war and in crime.

Throughout all the ages God has not interfered with the great enemy, Death. Paul informs us concerning the people as a whole that “God gave them over to a mind void of judgment.” (Rom. 1:28, Margin) This implies that he has not restrained the human race from taking its own course, selfish and sinful though that course has been. Neither has he interfered with the carrying out of the death sentence, in the sense of protecting some, and not protecting others.

But God’s great design does not end with the human race prostrate in death, for through Jesus, the Redeemer, he has made a provision for all to be awakened from death and to be restored to perfection of life. Paul wrote, “Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Cor. 15:21,22) This provision of life through Christ is based on Jesus’ own death and resurrection. He said, “My flesh … I will give for the life of the world.”—John 6:51

The fact presents itself that few in all the ages have as yet profited by their experience with evil; indeed many, as noted, have been turned to unbelief by it. This is understandable, and if we were to base our conclusions on man’s limited abilities and his restricted viewpoint, there would be no satisfactory answer as to why God permits evil. In the limited viewpoint of many, death is the end of existence; to others it is the end of all opportunity to learn and to profit from past experiences. But these viewpoints are not supported in the Bible.

As we have seen, according to the Bible, those who are asleep in death will be awakened from that sleep and given an opportunity to profit from the experiences of the present life. Just as it often happens now, the difficulties and distresses of a certain day are often understood and appreciated at a later day. So it will be, on a grander scale, as those who are now sleeping in death are awakened, and they enter another term, as it were, in their school of experience.

In Job’s case, while he could not understand at the time why God allowed him to suffer, yet when the experience was over he could say, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.” And so it will be with the world of mankind. When the experience of suffering and death is over, and they are awakened from death, their faulty vision or understanding of God will be corrected, and they will rejoice to learn of the gracious and loving provision the Creator has made for them through Christ the Redeemer, to ransom them from death, and to restore them to perfection of life, if in the light of this true knowledge of God they obey him by conforming their lives to his standards of right and wrong.

JOY IN THE MORNING

The psalmist wrote, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Ps. 30:5) This nighttime of sin, sorrow, and death began with the disobedience of our first parents. And it has, indeed, been a night of weeping. The sorrow that has borne down upon the human race has been bitter, and many in their distresses have wondered whether or not God has any pity.

But there is to be a morning of joy for the human race! That morning of joy will be ushered in by what the Scriptures refer to as the rising of “the Sun of righteousness,” who will have “healing in his wings.” (Mal. 4:2) Jesus is this glorious Sun of righteousness. The new day of blessing he will cause to dawn will be brought about through the establishment of his kingdom, which is a government of righteousness foretold by all God’s holy prophets since the world began.—Acts 3:19-21

It will be during the reign of Christ that Adam and his children will receive their first real experience with ‘good’. It will be this that will complete their education with respect to the validity and importance of the standards of tight and wrong established by God. Though perfect when created, Adam did not then have sufficient knowledge to prevent his transgression. Job maintained his integrity before God under test, yet he also needed to experience evil and to be delivered from it in order to ‘see’ God. Adam and his race will likewise ‘see’ God as a result of their experiences.

And the God they will then ‘see’ will be the one they have longed to know and to serve. They will recognize the value of the experiences through which they have passed. Understanding real values, they will realize that the few short years of hardship through which they passed while experiencing suffering and death as a result of Adam’s transgression were everlastingly valuable. It will be the time when Adam’s children are being made alive through Christ. Killing calamities will no longer be permitted. The peaceful and prosperous conditions which men and women today would like to see throughout the earth will then exist, because “the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.”—Isa. 11:9

The Lord assures us further that he “will swallow up death in victory,” and that he will “wipe away tears from off all faces.” (Isa. 25:8) What blessed assurances these are! Paul wrote that Christ would reign until all enemies are put under his feet, and that “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (I Cor. 15:25,26) The result of this is described in Revelation 21:4, which reads: “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.” Of this same time of Christ’s kingdom we read, “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”—Isa. 11:9

Having had real experience with both good and evil, each individual will be able to decide intelligently whether or not he wishes to choose the good and live forever; or choose evil and again be sentenced to death—a death from which there will be no resurrection. Christ will then be King supreme in his kingdom, and he will be Judge supreme. Peter also refers to him as a great “Prophet,” and informs us that it shall come to pass “that every soul which will not hear [or obey] that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.”—Acts 3:22,23

During the present nighttime of sin and death, all die—believers and unbelievers, the innocent and the guilty, the righteous and the unrighteous. But as a result of the reign of Christ, only those who willfully disobey the laws of God will be destroyed. All others will continue to live and to mature toward perfection. If these continue faithful, they will enter as perfect humans into the everlasting future ages of happiness and life “with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”—Isa. 35:10

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