“And [the martyrd saints] cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost [T]hou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”                                                                                                                                       (Revelation 6)

“As it is written, For [T]hy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”  (Romans 8)

“[A]s a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so [H]e opened not [H]is [M]outh.”                                                                                                                                               (Isaiah 53)

 

“How many times have believers been asked, “Why does God allow…”  or “If God is so good, why…”  Unbelievers think this is a deep question that shuts down the believer.  Some pose these questions as questions of and for the ages. These questions should not stump the Christ-ian nor shut us down.  Before we give an answer to these impertinent questions, let me say this: The Christ-ian is under no obligation to answer questions from unbelievers that are obviously asked with no real desire for an answer.

Paul says in his pastoral letters that one is not to bother with questions meant to cause strife. In the Gospels, Christ refused to answer some of the questions that were unjustly motivated by sinners. On the other hand, Peter advises us to always be prepared to answer questions regarding the hope that is within us. The Proverbs tell us that we are not to suffer a fool gladly or to humour questions that are foolishly motivated. The Proverbs also tell us to, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him” in 26:4 but then in 26:5, “Answer a fool  according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”  In light of these Proverbs what are we to do?  We are to judge the intent of the question and answer or not answer according to the questioner’s intent.

After writing the above, and leaving the questions of unbelievers to the reader’s discretion, how could we answer the question of why God allows or ordains certain events. Some would answer that God does not cause certain events, but allows them to occur.  Some suggest that certain events are allowed by God because these events are the effects of the fall and are simply the reaping of a world that sows in sin. While there is truth in both of these answers, these answers do not answer fully. When persons respond with these answers they are trying to defend God, but reader, God does not need defending. We may defend and define truth but we need not defend God’s actions. God is good and God is sovereign.

In a trial a judge may disallow certain evidence from being used if it puts the defendent at an unfair advantage. This means the prosecutor cannot use certain aspects of the defendent’s past if it is not germaine to the present case. However, if the defending attorney makes the mistake of mentioning the disqualified evidence or bring something up that is not profitable to his client the prosecuting attorney may then use the previously disqualified evidence. This is analagous to God’s use of the fall and the effects of sin. God did not introduce sin or create sin but after sin was introduced God was and is free and justified in using sin and it’s effects for His ordained purposes.

Once the above is established the answer to the unbeliever’s questions of why does God allow X is simply, “it is what it is” or The God of all creation is the God of the BIG picture.  Our God is God of the Big Picture.  He and He Alone knows the end from the Beginning because He is the First and the Last, He is the Beginning and the End. the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Finisher of all things…that will work together for our good, because we are called according to His purpose and we are beloved by God and we love God. If we are to walk in the spirit of peace and with the Spirit of Peace we must also be the godly that see the BIG picture. We must be those that walk by faith and not by sight or live according to our senses.

To live according to our senses or feelings is certain to leave us tossed to and fro. To follow our heart is foolish, the heart must follow the Christ-like mind that loves God with all it’s strength. It is true we should use our God-given senses to worship God, but faith over-rides senses and feeling, we are to walk by faith and not sight or other senses. The Scriptures tell us to “Taste and see that God is good,”  what does this mean? It can be applied spiritually and literally.

I like the literal application. When one sits down to a meal one should first give thanks and ask God’s blessing upon the meal and then we should consider the goodness of God as we taste and enjoy the food. When one bites in to a Resse’s peanut butter cup, one should think God is so good.  Taste is an extra, our food could be bland and tasteless but it is not…this testifies to God’s goodness.  We see with our eyes that the heaven’s declare God’s great glory.  We hear with our ears the written and preached Word of God and we hear the testimonies of other as to God’s intercession in their lives. With the sense of touch we feel pleasure and pain, we feel our humanity and think of God, Who became flesh and dwelt among us for a time. The sense of smell can cause us or allow us to remember events of the past.

The above speaks to the five (5) senses given us by God. All persons have these senses lest they be challenged regarding their senses as blindness or deafness. In John nine (9) we see Christ heal a blind man and He tells those present and us that this man was blinded from birth so that he might be given sight through Christ’s compassion and that is an example of the BIGGER picture.

In the life of David there is an event that is truly horrendous and cannot be excused. David sought food from a priest of God.  The priest gave David the shewbread from the sanctuary and he gave David the sword of Goliath. (k)ing (s)aul hears of this and he orders his men to kill the priest and all the other priests. The soldiers would not hearken to this ill advised command. However, Doeg, an Edomite, a descendent of Esau, whom God hates, accepted (s)aul’s charge and murdered all of the priest as well as the women and children and the livestock, something (s)aul did not do when God commanded him, in his dealings with Agag prior to this event.

If ever the question of why did God allow this was justified, this was the time.  Why would God allow over eighty-five (85) of His own priests to be killed and in addition all the women and children? Did God allow this?  Did God ordain this? Was this part of God’s plan? The answer is, yes. How did (s)aul learn of the prestly aid to Jesse’s son, David? Doeg, the Edomite, told (s)aul of the aid. Doeg is one (1) of the persons in Scripture that is reprobate. This man occasioned the death of all the priests and all the women and children and the livestock. Not only did he play on (s)aul’s self-centered paranoia, he killed the people, himself.

The question is why did God allow this and why does God allow things today?  Another question is why did not someone stop Doeg, the Edomite, whom God hates. The answer can be given in seventeen words  words, (17) “Now a certain man of the servants of [(s)]aul was there that day, DETAINED BEFORE THE LORD…” In other words, God put Doeg, the Edomite, who God hates, in the picture.

A word on perspective: What happened that day, “which the LORD hath made?” Were so many persons of God killed by a sychophan-tick psychopath or were the persons of God released and received into paradise? The BIG PICTURE demands the latter. This life is a vapour, just a moment in eternity. Yes, Christ-ians have been martyred. Yes, Christ-ians, our family, are being persecuted all around the world, but it is a moment, a moment in God’s Great and Grand BIG Picture. In our Scripture texts above, we are told Christ was led as a sheep to slaughter AND we also learn that we too are to be sheep led to the slaughter all day long and it is to be in His Name.

The “Official” Christ-ian perspective or standard of operational procedure on suffering and persecution is this:
“Though [H]e slay me, yet will I trust Him”   and   “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  And, “If it so be, our God [W]hom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and [H]e will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up.”

Godspeed.