If God is Good and Powerful, why is there Suffering and Evil in the world?

(Job 2:3-10)

While in secondary school, I had a sincere expectation that if I really believe in God, if I
confess the right promises in the Bible, if I just prayed hard enough and positively
claimed divine blessings, that life would be smooth sailing. Sickness, poverty and sorrow
would be things of the past. But then something happened. Someone we knew had cancer
and went through painful chemo-therapy.

With the whole church, we fasted and prayed for our friend’s mother. We tried
everything we knew – laying hands, anointing with olive oil, speaking in tongues. You
name it, we claim it. She recovered for a while, believed in Christ and was baptized. But
there was a quick relapse.

When she passed away, I felt not only grief but lots of guilt and confusion. How can that
happen? That’s not going according to the script. I applied the correct formula but got the
wrong results. Miracles should happen when we have enough faith, right? Did I pray hard
enough? Maybe I didn’t pray enough. Because if I did all the right things, then why
didn’t God answer my prayers as expected?

The point of this story is not to prove that I have suffered a lot. Not at all, many people
have seen much greater suffering. The point is, very often, when we have unrealistic
expectations of what life is and who God is, our faith can be easily shaken. Unbiblical
assumptions about faith, suffering and evil can set us up for disappointments with God…

But when bad things happen to good people, many profound questions confront us:
“Where is God in the midst of our pain? Why doesn’t He do something about the evil and
suffering in this world? Why did my friend die in that accident? Why, God?” I believe
many of us have asked these why questions before.

The why question may hit hard when a medical report confirms that lump in our body is
cancerous… It could come in the form of the death of a family member, a close friend or
a child… Or massive natural disasters like the Japan earthquake or the tsunami that hit
Banda Aceh that left thousands dead and many more homeless… Or the horrible cruelties
and tortures of war that we see on television news …

And some people often ask these questions not because they are looking for an answer.
These why questions are often used as a powerful weapon to disprove God

The famous skeptic David Hume wrote: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is cruel. Is he both able and
willing? Where then does evil come from?”

But if the why questions are, for you, not an argument to disprove God, but genuine
questions that trouble your heart… If it’s not just a philosophical puzzle, but a heartfelt

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and personal (maybe even angry) question for you, then it reveals something interesting
about what you actually believe about God… about who He is…

Because number One: It shows that you believe in an all-powerful God. If God is not
powerful, then the why question is meaningless. Because God is simply unable to clean
up all the mess in the world so there is no point asking Him why He didn’t. He can’t do it.

Number Two: It shows that you believe in a good God. If God is cruel and uncaring; then
there is no point asking Him why He allows evil and suffering either. He simply can’t be
bothered.

Nowadays, it is tempting to offer cheap answers that say, “Even God has limitations…
Even God is not all-knowing or all-powerful. He didn’t know in advance that such a
tragedy would happen, so you gotta forgive Him for not making a better world”. It may
sound comforting but that sort of god deserves our pity, not our worship. It leads us to
greater fear and despair; rather than a deeper hope and trust in a sovereign God.

But if God is both Good and Powerful, as the Bible says He is, then why does He
allow Suffering and Evil in the world? It becomes a profoundly difficult question (both
to our heart and to our mind) only if you believe in a biblical vision of God as holy, as
loving and all-powerful, doesn’t it? So how then shall we respond?

And the first thing to note is this: The Bible recognizes, allows, and even invites such
questions… If you are troubled by the reality of sin and suffering in the world, it is not
necessarily a sign of unbelief. Instead there may a problem if we are not troubled by evil
and suffering. Just listen to the groans of suffering Job, the laments of prophet Jeremiah,
the angry complaints of Habakkuk or if you read Psalm 22; leading to the climax of that
haunting cry of Jesus Himself on the cross: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken
me?” You can hardly find any faithful believer in the Bible who does not wrestle with the
ultimate why questions.

The Bible recognizes, allows, and even invites us to ask such questions… Not all faiths
or religions will do something like that. The author John Dickson points out that…

For our Hindu friends, such questions would never arise because all suffering is the result
of “karma” (you reap what you sow). There is a universal law of cause and effect. If you
suffer, it is the fruit of your own deeds. You must have done something wrong in this life
or in a past life (reincarnation). It’s logical and simple – you are just reaping the
consequences of your own actions. Everything is fair and square.

For our Buddhist friends, the why question proves that you have not attained
Enlightenment. The Buddha teaches that all suffering is caused by desire. Being poor is
painful because you are attached to wealth. The desire for love makes the loss of a loved
one unbearable. So what’s the solution? The 3rd Noble Truth says: Get rid of desire and
you are free from suffering. When you are detached from desire, you don’t need to ask
these why questions.

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Or if you don’t believe in God (an atheist), then there is no rhyme or reason behind
tragedy. It’s just the way nature is – ‘survival of the fittest’. Some people are going to get
hurt, and other people are going to get lucky. There’s no point asking the why questions.
There is no One out there to ask this question to. Richard Dawkins wrote, “The universe
we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom no
design, no purpose, no evil, and no good; nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.” The
universe just doesn’t care who suffers.

For our Muslim friends, you don’t really complain to God. Islam means ‘submission’.
You need to submit to the mysterious will of Allah who has predestined everything
(Qadar). Suffering is a test of your faith. To question Allah’s wisdom and will borders on
blasphemy. It’s scandalous enough to say that Jesus, a prophet of Allah, should suffer
death on the cross. It’s absolutely unthinkable that God Himself should suffer pain!

For non-Christian worldviews, suffering is either the payment you make to settle your
karmic debt, an illusion caused by worldly desire, a test of submission to Allah or the
blind, uncaring processes of the universe. Well, at best, there are partial answers in all of
them. But they don’t really address the why questions the way they deserve to be
answered. And here’s why…

The passage of Scripture we read just now was taken from the book of Job that deals with
the “problem of evil and pain” with the utmost honesty – it’s full of poetry, not
philosophy; cycles of emotional dialogues, not dry lectures; full of questions rather than
answers. It’s interesting that the Holy Spirit did not inspire a short book of quick rational
explanations but a long, poetic book to help us feel the emotions and process our pains. If
we are deceived into thinking that faith in God will surely bring health and wealth, the
book of Job tells us just the opposite: That there is such a thing as innocent suffering.
People who are righteous and faithful are not exempt from suffering on earth.

The story of Job begins with a glimpse into a cosmic bargain in the heavens. God said to
Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? He’s blameless, fears God and shuns evil”.
But the devil threw this challenge, “Does he worship God for nothing? You have blessed
him with so much wealth and health, take that away and he will curse you to your face.”
So God gave permission to Satan to lay hands on Job’s life – disasters destroyed all that
he owns including his servants and children… painful sores afflicted every part of his
body so that he had to scrape himself with broken pottery to find relief among the ashes.

And like Job, we are offered a choice. Will you respond to the agonies of life as his wife
would suggest, “Why do you still hold on to your faith? Curse God and die!” Or will you
follow Job’s example in the midst of pain, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord. Though he slays me, yet will I hope in Him”?

And the drama continues with Job’s complaints that he wished he was never born,
wrestling angrily with God, even challenging God to provide answers. But at no point did
he abandon faith in God. It is precisely because he trusts in God’s goodness and
sovereignty that he struggled so hard to understand such injustice in his own life.

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And his three infamous friends were shocked to hear Job’s complaints. They had been
sitting quietly, even crying together with him for 7 days. Now they could be silent no
more. How do you explain such intense suffering if Job is really innocent? God cannot be
unfair. That cannot be. So the conclusion is: Job must have sinned to deserve his
misfortunes.

Do you see the irony here? Job’s friends offered sound, orthodox theology in their advice
to Job. They are saying, “You reap what you sow. Sin has consequences. Who, being
innocent, has ever perished?” or “Sometimes God disciplines His people for their sins.
Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty”
(5:17-19)

They say: “Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? When
your children sinned against Him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin” (8:3-4) If
you put yourself in Job’s shoes, do you feel like whacking them on the head? Their
answers made him suffer even more.

Of course, it is true that all sinners will eventually suffer punishment. It is true that people
have freedom to choose good or evil. It is true that there is a devil that tempts people to
sin. It is true that God disciplines those He loves and greater good can come out of
suffering. At best, these answers are helpful clues and hints to explain some suffering but
not all of it. Sometimes people just assume that we deserve a comfortable life from God.
But does God really owe us a good life? Perhaps the real question we should ask is:
“Why does God allow so much happiness for sinners who have rebelled against His
love?” These partial answers are valuable to expose the hidden assumption that people
are good and sin has no consequences.

But at worst, these apologetic answers can be abused and misapplied by those who want
to defend God in a proud, know-it-all way to add insult to those who suffer.

These are partial answers because they do not tell us why is the distribution of
punishment so random and so ‘unfair’? Is there really a pattern that people who die in
road accidents are more sinful than those who don’t? What about natural disasters like
tsunami and earthquakes where there is no freewill involved? I have known a few young,
bright and potential future Christian leaders who died tragically at the prime of their life.
Why must these young lives be taken away? They could have done so much good.

There is a Japanese manga series called “Death Note”. It’s about a student who found a
supernatural notebook that grants him the ability to kill anyone whose name & face he
knows by just writing the name in it. If God ever needed some suggestions, I would be
happy to recommend some names in my Death Note: a list of names of dictators and
murderers whose death would make the world a much better place. Why take away these
young men whose lives would be such a blessing to others?

We cannot pretend we have all the answers… Maybe the most honest answer is: For the
most part, we don’t know.

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If anything, the story of Job tells us that not every case of suffering is a punishment for
sin. Just because we live in a fallen world doesn’t mean that there is no innocent
suffering.

When some people asked Jesus concerning a man who was blind from birth, “Who
sinned? Was it his sin (maybe the blind man sinned while in his mother’s womb or in a
previous life) or was it his parents’ sin that caused him to be born like that?” Jesus said:
No. He denied that the man’s suffering was directly caused by anyone’s sin. He said,
“But this happened so that the works of God may be displayed in him”. Then Jesus
restored his sight. He rejected a simplistic idea that all suffering is directly caused by sin.

Job knew he was innocent and yet he suffered immensely. His friends said: “Job, you
must repent then God will heal you”. But to admit that he has done something wrong,
something that he has not done in order to escape suffering is wrong. It means he will do
anything in order to save his own skin and restore his wealth. And Satan would have won
the wager. But Job defended his own integrity even to the point of demanding God to
appear before him in court. In justifying himself, Job even charged God of injustice. He
said (26:1-31:40): “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who
has made me taste bitterness of soul, as long as I have life in me… I will never admit you
are right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity”.

But at the end of the story, when God finally shows up out of the storm, He rebuked Job’s
friends, “I am angry with you because you have not spoken of me what is right as Job
has”. And it’s scary to me that these friends tried so hard to defend God but ended up
saying the wrong things about Him. Job’s innocence was vindicated in the end.

But if we are expecting that at last God will surely explain to Job the reasons for his
suffering or at least tell him about that cosmic wager in heaven, we’d be greatly
disappointed. Instead of answers, God asked even more questions: “Who is this that
darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will
question you and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s
foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you
know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?” (Job 38-41)

In other words, God is essentially asking “Who do you think you are, Job?”

Here God is not addressing the “whys” of Job’s suffering or denying his integrity. The
reason He rebuked Job was because of Job’s willingness to condemn God of injustice in
order to justify himself…

Do you tell the lightning bolt where it should go? Have you seen storehouses laden with
snow? Can you set the course for the stars in the sky? Where were you when I made the
universe?

To accuse God of injustice, you can only do so from a higher position of moral wisdom.
But are we in such a position when there is so much we don’t know? More than any

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explanation to the why questions, God wants us to know the answer to the ultimate who
question. We need to let God be God.

Since He is the One who knows everything, is it not possible that He has a good and
loving purpose in allowing evil and suffering that our minds cannot comprehend? Our
demand for rational answers can sometimes be a form of idolatry: “God owes me an
explanation for everything that happens in this world and I want Him to tell me what I
want to know right now”. But there are some things we will not understand because we
are not God. Sometimes we need to learn to live with unresolved mysteries.

We are simply not god.

Finally Job declares, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (42:5). He may not get all the
answers he wanted but he personally encountered God and that’s all he ever needed.

Some skeptics may not be convinced: “I don’t buy this “God’s ways are higher than our
ways” answer. What kind of answer is that? It doesn’t answer what I want to know.”

But if you deny God, what better explanation can you offer for the death of a loved one
or for evil in the world? How do you, as an atheist, handle tragedy and suffering?

“The universe just doesn’t care who suffer? Things just happen? Life sucks? Some
people are going to get hurt and others get lucky?”

Do these answers offer any comfort when you struggle with pain? I may not know
everything but I think the Christian answer is much better than “Life sucks”.

Because you see, the problem of evil depends on the big assumption that a good God
would never allow evil to continue. Just because we cannot think of any good reason why
God would allow suffering and evil to continue does not mean that God cannot have such
a reason.

Why should there be no reason from God’s perspective just because we cannot think of
one? So there’s a hidden assumption that we have god-like knowledge of everything: If
we cannot think of a good reason, it means no reason exists. We fail to see the limits of
what our humble 2-pound brain can comprehend.

If there is no God, then there is no objective evil. If there is no such thing as evil, then
there is no good reason to be angry with suffering either. Survival of the strong and death
of the weak is ‘natural’. Why get angry? You can raise the problem of evil and get angry
with suffering if and only if you presuppose God.

Otherwise, it’s like saying, “I don’t believe in God because of durian”.

Huh? What do you mean? “Well, I hate durian. They taste horrible”.

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What has that got to do with God? “I can’t believe in God because how can He create
something that tastes horrible like durian?” We may laugh because it doesn’t make sense.

But if you deny God, then there is no ultimate standard of right or wrong. It’s all
subjective. It’s up to your preference and taste to decide whether you feel greed, lust or
violence is wrong. It’s same as your personal taste for durian. Some people like to sleep
around. Others love to eat durian. It’s all subjective. You decide.

If that is the case, and you say “I can’t believe in God because of evil (and evil doesn’t
exist)”, it is just as meaningless as saying “I don’t believe in God because I hate durian”.
Because evil is just your personal taste preference. Just because you don’t like durian and
injustice doesn’t make it a reason that God cannot exist.1 Without God, there is no
problem of evil.

Although we cannot explain the specific purpose behind every case of suffering, the
Bible gives us clear answers on two other important questions that help us to trust in
God’s goodness and power. They may not respond to the questions we want, but they are
probably the answers that we need. And these answers can be found in the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ… We can look to the gospel for answers.

The first question that tests our faith when we suffer is: “How do we know if God even
cares? Where is He in our pain?”

The gospel says: God is with us when it hurts. He is not far away, looking indifferently
at our struggles. Rather he has come in the person of Jesus and suffered personally at the
cross on our behalf. Whatever mysterious purpose He has to allow suffering, the answer
cannot be that God doesn’t care. Only the Christian faith shows us a God who cares
enough to go through the flames of despair, rejection, shame and pain with us and for us.

I don’t know why God allows evil things to happen, but I’m glad that He did allow one
evil thing to happen – He allowed Jesus to die on the cross. From a human perspective,
that’s suffering of an innocent man caused by evil actions of people like Judas, Pontius
Pilate, Herod and the crowds. But from the divine perspective, we find that on the cross,
God has decisively done something about sin. If we are tempted to think of our suffering
as a punishment, the gospel says, “No, Jesus took your punishment on the cross”. God
sees all that flows into and flows out of the cross and says: It’s worth it.

Some time ago, I came across a story that goes like this: “At the end of time, billions of
people gathered before God's throne. Most retreated from the awesome light before them.
But some became angry and said: "Can God judge us? How can he know about
suffering?" There is a Jewish man who had suffered at a Nazi camp. "We endured
terror ... beatings ... torture ... death!"

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For the Christian, while we may not explain where evil comes from, we know that the standard of good
comes from God’s holy character. Without God, we not only cannot explain what evil is, we also cannot
explain where goodness come from (RC Sproul)

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An African girl lowered her collar. "What about this?" she demanded, showing an ugly
rope burn. "Lynched for no crime but being black!"

Far out across the plain were many people with a complaint against God for the evil and
suffering he had permitted in the world. How lucky God was to live in heaven where all
was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What
did God know of all that men had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a
pretty sheltered life, they said.

So they discussed and came up with a clever plan: “Before God is qualified to be our
judge, he must endure what we have endured.” Their decision was that God should be
sentenced to live on earth - as a man!

Let him be born a hated Jew.

Give him a work so difficult that even his family thinks he is crazy when he tries to do it.
Let him be betrayed by his closest friends.
Let him face false charges, be tried by a kangaroo court and convicted by an unfair judge
Let him be tortured and stripped naked and shamed.

As each person announced God’s sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the
crowd.

“And finally, let him see what it means to be terribly alone and abandoned.”
”Then let him die in agony and defeat.”
”Let there be a great crowd of witnesses to verify it.”

When the last person had finished pronouncing the sentence, there was a long silence.
Nobody uttered another word. No one moved.

For suddenly all knew that God had already served his sentence in the person of Jesus
Christ.

Albert Camus, an atheist wrote: “The god-man (Jesus) suffers too, with patience. Evil and
death can no longer be entirely imputed to him since he suffers and dies. The night on
Golgotha is so important in the history of man only because, in its shadows, the divinity
ostensibly abandoned its traditional privilege, and lived through to the end, despair
included, the agony of death.”

Any vague idea of a sheltered god in the sky won’t do. Only Jesus has wounds and scars
that could speak to our wounds, scars and pain. The other gods were strong and rode in
glory and majesty. Only Jesus stumbled with a cross on his back on the way to his throne.
The gods of this world are portrayed as victorious, mighty and undefeatable. Only the
God of the Bible has wounds. He was nailed on the cross. Whatever game plan He has
for the universe, God did not exempt Himself from the same set of rules. He understands
our pains. He is present in our suffering. He can walk with us in our brokenness.

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There is a poem called “Jesus of the Scars” that puts it beautifully: Ed Schiltoff

The other gods were strong. But Thou are weak.

They rode, but Thou didst stumble to Thy throne.
And to our wounds, only God's wounds can speak,
and not a god has wounds but Thou alone.

The second question that we struggle with when we face terrible wickedness is: Will evil
and suffering be resolved one day? Will there be ultimate justice?”

The gospel says: Yes, God will put things right and renew the heaven and earth.

Look around us. The problems with corruption, environmental pollution, wars, racism
and economic oppression are so complex. Very often we find ourselves being part of the
problem than the solution. It’s easy to despair and give up: There is no hope and no use
trying. We despair with the doubt of whether evil can really be overcome because it
appears so powerful and pervasive. When we cry out for justice and wonder about why
evil seems to prosper, we often assume that God must judge right here right now…

But Jesus promised that God will intervene and stop evil according His own timetable.
One day, He will wipe every tear from our eyes and turn weapons of mass destruction
into instruments of peace. There will be future resolution when relationships will be
restored, all creation transformed and healing justice in society. Just as Job’s story ends
with God appearing to vindicate his innocence and restore double all that he had lost,
Jesus rose from the grave on Easter Sunday to vindicate His innocence and begin the
restoration of all creation. The resurrection of Christ is the ultimate sign that God’s
righteous rule will prevail over sin and death. Evil shall not have the last word.

Think for a moment: If there is no God, death will be the final word. If there is no God,
then we are nothing but the accidental, by-product of biochemistry. We are just a random
collision of carbon-based molecules. We hit the lottery so we were born. There is no
reason or no purpose for our existence. Our ultimate destiny is death and nothingness.

So in a million years from now, it doesn’t ultimately matter what suffering and injustice
had happened. Without God, life is absurd, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

But the good news is: History has a purpose. What God has done in Christ on Easter
morning, He would do on a cosmic scale for the entire creation. That includes us! We
will be raised from the dead and given new incorruptible bodies! And he will return and
complete his kingly rule over all. There will be a final day of reckoning for every sin
committed and a day of restoration for all suffering. We cannot save the earth, only Jesus
can do that.

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But in the meantime, as His kingdom people, we are to live today as if that glorious
future is already present. We are to be signposts pointing forward to what that new
creation, that new humanity bearing the image of God will look like.

Some of you may know that I work as an IT consultant doing software projects.
Sometimes customers are skeptical about sales talk: “You say the system can do this, it
can do that. But talk is easy, how do I know it really works? Prove it.” So it’s common in
IT projects that we would build a prototype version of the real thing so that the customers
will have something to look at, something they can touch and work on. Then they have a
better idea of what the actual system can or cannot do: “Oh, now I can see how the
system will look like”. A prototype is a smaller but workable model of the real thing. And
sometimes we need to remind the customer: “This is just a prototype, a beta-version, it’s
not the real, finished system yet. Some of the benefits you will only see when the system
actually go live, ok?”

In the same way, the church is meant to be a prototype of the future kingdom of God. We
are to model something of what the new heaven and new earth will look like. Yes, we are
not perfect yet. There are still bugs here and there because God is still working to debug
or sanctify us. But whether it is supporting children in need through organizations like
World Vision, arguing for a fairer economic system in the academy, telling the truth as a
journalist, creating a safe space for our children to grow or doing business with integrity,
the way we live should point forward to God’s kingdom in its future fullness. So that
people can look at the community of Jesus (this prototype) and say: “Ah, now I can
imagine what the kingdom looks like. It’s not just sales talk”. Because of the resurrection,
we have every reason and motivation to be agents of healing in a suffering world.

Perhaps a more urgent question for us is: What are we doing now about the evil and
suffering in our world? It’s a call to action. Are we actively working as individuals and as
church to alleviate suffering of the poor and the weak?

Let me close with this final thought: For the most part, we don’t know why God allows
evil and suffering to continue. But we do know that God has a greater purpose that we
don’t understand because He is God, and we are not. We do know the reason cannot be
that God doesn’t care because He too suffered and hurt by sin with us and for us on the
cross. We do know that at the right timing, He will punish evil and restore everything.

In the meantime, we are offered a choice: Will suffering poison our souls and make us
bitter towards God? Or will pain turn us to trust and hope in God even when we don’t
understand? Do we serve and worship God because of the blessings and protection that
He gives us? Or do we love Him for who He is even when the path of obedience leads to
sorrow? Will we follow Job’s example in the midst of loss and say, “The Lord gave and
the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”?

Friends, it is better to walk through the shadow of suffering and death with God than
without Him. Let us pray.

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