[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during August 2020]
Last week, Mark asked us to pray about an accident involving US marines in southern California. We now know the outcome of that incident and we need to pray for the bereaved and those trying to console them. May God give them His words, not to provide an explanation but rather to offer comfort during a time of distress.
Why do these things happen? Why do the good go too soon and the others hang around too long? Why could God, who made an iron axe head to float, not have kept a boat buoyant for a bit longer?
‘Why’ is a question that has been asked many times. In the Bible, the first use of ‘why’ as a question comes in Genesis chapter 4, only one generation after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. God asked Cain “Why are you angry?” Anger against God is one of the natural reactions to disasters. Why did God allow it to happen? Later, God asked Jonah “Are you right to be angry?”
Another question is “What have they done to deserve this?” Were the passengers on Air India flight IX1134 last week particularly sinful? Are the residents of Beirut especially decadent? Jesus countered that question in Luke 13
“Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no!”
For those of the Moslem faith the reaction to such events is “God is greater”. To us that sounds trite, an over-used phrase that seems to be more one of defiance rather than acceptance, but it has a core truth. Job asked “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
Consider this passage from John 9:
“His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”
God is working His purposes out; He has a plan but we cannot see the whole picture.
We have a God who is greater – we may not have the answers, or even the right questions, but we can approach Him and ask for His blessing for those who are suffering. Lord, hear our prayer!
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © the Author
