Suffering: How Can a Good God Allow It?
Suffering: How can a good God allow it?
We are putting the big questions on the table. The big questions you and your friends have asked about God. Questions such as: Why is there suffering? Why are people abandoning their faith? Is Jesus the only way to God? What does God say about the transgender movement? The Scripture does not avoid your questions and God is not frustrated by them. God welcomes us with our questions and meets us with His grace and truth. Join us for our new series, On the Table, as we unpack several pressing questions confronting the Christian faith.
Locations & Times
First Baptist Church Seminole Tx
202 SW Ave B, Seminole, TX 79360, USA
Sunday 5:00 AM
BibleProject | Trusting God Through Suffering
Read Plan
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The victims of the Columbine shooting.
Suffering like that of the shooting at Columbine High School leaves us asking “How?... Why?” Such evil brings us face to face with darkness. Suffering can cripple even the strongest of wills. It can drown any and all hope we have. When there is no greater hope, suffering suffocates faith.
Only a good God can redeem suffering. In order to find this answer, we need to turn to God’s story. The story of how he can, does and will redeem suffering. We’re going to look at the lives of Job, Joseph and Jesus. But first, we must start with Genesis, because it lays the groundwork of God’s good, renewing and redeeming quality.
1) Genesis - God alone can subdue chaos
The writers of the Bible are no strangers to suffering and chaos. One of their favorite ways to depict it is as water. For the ancient writers, chaos is like the dark stormy waters that threaten to consume and drown us. It is dark and mysterious, and it kills swiftly and without mercy. These chaos waters are in the Bible from the beginning.
And so immediately, the Bible begins with this idea: God alone can subdue chaos (water) and bring beauty out of it (land).
This point is echoed in the story of Noah. Chaos threatens to consume God’s good world.
All forms of chaos took over the world, and so God let chaos run its natural course: destroying everyone living in that way.
But God did not allow chaos and suffering to have the final word. Just as had happened earlier in the story, God again subdued chaos (water) and brought beauty out of it (land).
We wish it were always as simple as the story of Noah. The good are rescued from evil and suffering, but that’s not how it always works. And that’s what we see in the life of Job.
2) Job - God does not always make sense of chaos & suffering
Like Noah, the forces of chaos (suffering) destroy the world, but this time not the whole world, just that of a single man. In this story, we see that, on an unsuspecting day, a man deemed to be “blameless and upright” loses everything. His wealth, his livestock, his servants and his family. All of it.
After experiencing this unimaginable loss, Job’s response takes the form of a lament.
God responds:
The way in which the universe works is far beyond our understanding. And so sometimes we simply cannot comprehend why we are suffering. It takes great faith to be able to not throw up your hands in face of suffering and see God as an evil tyrant. It takes great faith to see God as redeemer.
3) Joseph - God alone can redeem chaos & suffering
Like Job, Joseph’s life was cast into chaos.
-Sold into slavery by his brothers, who were jealous of him.
-Served time as a slave, but gained a good reputation.
-Accused of having an affair, lost his reputation.
-Thrown in prison for over 2 years.
-Sold into slavery by his brothers, who were jealous of him.
-Served time as a slave, but gained a good reputation.
-Accused of having an affair, lost his reputation.
-Thrown in prison for over 2 years.
Joseph saw that despite everything that had happened to him, all the wrongs, all the suffering, God is a God of redemption and renewal. Joseph knew that only a good God can redeem suffering. God proved that to be true in his own life on Earth.
4) Jesus - God does not run from suffering, but uses it for good
Jesus does not run away from suffering, but even saw himself slowly moving towards it in his own life.
The crucifix: the greatest form of suffering in the ancient world, perhaps in world history.
An ancient form of torture, the crucifix was used, not just to punish those crucified, but to leave an emotional scar on witnesses. Reminding them who was in control. The cross was a horrific symbol of suffering.
Elie Wiesel, a teenager in Auschwitz, often was marched past fellow Jews who were hung on the gallows.
"‘Where is God now?’ And I heard a voice within me answer him: ‘Where is He? Here He is–He is hanging there on this gallows.’”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously wrote, prior to himself being hanged upon Nazi gallows, "Only the suffering God can help.”
Only a good God allows himself to share in our suffering. That is why we can see God’s presence, even in the midst of great suffering. Only a suffering God can use suffering as a means of renewal.
As the Columbine massacre unfolded, students were shuttled to a nearby elementary school where their parents waited, desperate to know if their child was ok.
We have all, in one way or another, experienced suffering. Be it death, divorce, disease, substance abuse or addiction. Suffering is everywhere.
Show your scars to those around you, facing suffering all kinds. Show your neighbor that they are not alone. Show them to the savior who sees your scars, holds out his wounded wrists and says, “me too.” God is present in your suffering. And that same God can and will redeem suffering.
Discussion Questions
1) When in your life did you reach your lowest low? What helped/hampered you in the season?
2) Read Job 3:3-26 and Genesis 50:20. Compare and contrast the responses of Job and Joseph to suffering.
Are both valid responses?
Which are you more likely to respond like?
When in your life have you felt like Job? Joseph?
3) Do you truly believe that God is good? Why/why not?
4) Read Revelation 21:1-5.
What hope does this give you?
1) When in your life did you reach your lowest low? What helped/hampered you in the season?
2) Read Job 3:3-26 and Genesis 50:20. Compare and contrast the responses of Job and Joseph to suffering.
Are both valid responses?
Which are you more likely to respond like?
When in your life have you felt like Job? Joseph?
3) Do you truly believe that God is good? Why/why not?
4) Read Revelation 21:1-5.
What hope does this give you?