God of the Bad Stuff

Lamentations 3:37-39 (HCSB)

      Who is there who speaks and it happens,

      unless the Lord has ordained ‹it›?

      Do not both adversity and good

      come from the mouth of the Most High?

      Why should ‹any› living person complain,

      ‹any› man, because of the punishment for his sins?

 

We have no problem believing that good comes from the Lord, but adversity? Is God responsible for the bad things as well as the good? The answer is “Yes.” If the words of our mouths come true only if God ordains it, then we can know for sure that God ordains all things—even the bad things that happen to us.

 

How do we rectify this with our image of a “good God”? God allows bad things, but it is always for a holy purpose. Does this include children being sold as prostitutes and innocents being raped and murdered? There is no avoiding an affirmative answer if you believe in the concept of a sovereign God. How can God then be good if He allows such evil and suffering?

 

Look at what Jeremiah writes next:

     

 Let us search out and examine our ways,

      and turn back to the LORD.

      Let us lift up our hearts and ‹our› hands

      to God in heaven:

      We have sinned and rebelled;

      You have not forgiven.

(Lamentations 3:40–42, HCSB)

 

Let us do what God’s Word says and examine our own hearts. Are not the seeds of every kind of evil present within our own hearts? Who commits the acts of evil in our world? We do. People like us. The difference between us and them is so slight that close examination scares us!

 

If God were to completely wipe out all evil from the world He would have to begin by wiping us out. G. K. Chesterton was right when he answered the question, “What is wrong with the world?” His reply was simply “I am.”