Joel and the Problem of Suffering

Joel had it tough. Not only did he have to suffer a locust plague eating the people out of house and home, he then had to inform his neighbours that their suffering was entirely their own fault. Even worse, the suffering was deliberately and directly inflicted by their God - the graphic army of locusts being described as the Lord’s!

Though unlikely to win any popularity contests, at least Joel could console himself that he had an answer which has eluded many suffering people today who ask, "Why?!"

This isn’t some dry philosophical debating point, but a cry borne of bewilderment, frustration and pain. "Why me? Why not someone else? It’s not fair! Why didn’t God stop this? What have I done to deserve this? I thought He cared!" Instinctively, we assume that suffering is ‘deserved’ as part of a relatively simple ‘cause and effect’ model (e.g. Sodom and Gomorrah).

But when a tower collapsed in Jerusalem, killing eighteen people, Jesus warned against prematurely concluding that this tragic event was a summary judgement by God on people who were more wicked than anyone else. (Luke 13:4). Plainly, God was not involved in that calamity in the same way as he had been in Joel’s locust plague. He permitted it but He did not prescribe it.

Similarly, the Pharisees assumed a man born blind was ‘"steeped in sin from birth"‘ and asked who was to blame. Jesus told them the real point was that the affliction afforded an opportunity to bring glory to God by its removal (John 9:1-3).

In answering, "Why?" it may be helpful to consider three sources of suffering: 1) humanity, 2) ‘nature’ and 3) God Himself.

We have to concede that much of the suffering in the world is caused by what has been called ‘man’s inhumanity to man’. God has given us the gift of free will to act as we please, but operating within a universe of cause and effect. The physical, moral and social consequences of what we do are therefore inescapable, and so our responsibility is equally inescapable. How easy would it be for God to stop each wrong decision or act, and the next one ... and the next one ...? But very quickly there would be no free will at all. And so God has graciously honoured that gift of free will by allowing its natural, and often terrible, consequences to occur even to today.

The constant stream of natural disasters that occur can also be traced back to a consequence of free will - the disobedience of Adam (Gen.3). In some sense, the cursing of the ground reflects the dislocation in the relationship between Creator and created, whether human or not. Until the relationship is restored, the created will continue to malfunction - a situation first to be addressed in the millennial reign of Christ, but comprehensively only when there is a new heaven and a new earth. Until then, none are guaranteed immunity from so-called ‘acts of God’, irrespective of their moral condition or spiritual status. We can be sure it’s always safe to treat calamitous events as ‘a wake-up call’ in realizing how small, frail and exposed we are, and how much we need to rely on God for our very breath and, vitally, our spiritual future.

Thirdly, as in Joel’s experience, suffering can be caused by God’s judgement, against believers or unbelievers. The end purpose of each, whilst we are still in the age of grace, is to turn us back to Him. This type of suffering can therefore be a catalyst for vital change in our lives - although it doesn’t seem pleasant, helpful or even warranted at the time.

It’s facile to suggest such a complex question can ever be completely answered! But it has helpfully been said that a fabric viewed through a magnifying glass is clear in the middle and blurred at the edges. We only know the edges are clear because of what we see in the middle. Life’s fabric has many blurred edges - events and circumstances we do not understand - but they must be interpreted by the clarity we see in the centre: the cross of Christ.

We aren’t left to guess about the goodness and intentions of God from isolated bits of data. God has clearly revealed His character and dramatically demonstrated it to us in the Cross. ‘He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ (Rom.8:32).