Rev. Don Campbell
Judges 6-7
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, April 1, 2019
“WHY”
Israel had once again done what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years. God called Gideon, who ask God for a sign, proving the Lord was with him. After some convincing, involving fire from the hand of the angel of the Lord springing up to consume the food Gideon had brought and wet and dry fleece, Gideon picked up the mantle of leadership and with 300 handpicked soldiers freed the land of its oppressors. Children learn this bit of O. T. history in Sunday school class.
Rather than focus on the details of Gideon’s victory, I wish to draw attention to Gideon’s initial conversation with the angel of the Lord. Gideon’s son was beating out wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites, who would come at harvest time and devour the produce when the angel of the Lord appeared: “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, ‘Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, “Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?” But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian’” (Judges 6:12-13). God had sent an unnamed prophet to Israel who reminded them of God’s mighty works among them and concluded with “But you have not obeyed my voice” (Judges 6:10). In this case, the answer to the “Why?” question was clear. It is not always so.
Unless we want to risk judgment upon ourselves for speaking for God when we have not been commissioned to do, we must be careful about assessing the reasons disasters, whether personal, national, or global. The best we can do is look at some possibilities.
First, there is a statistical probability that certain things will or will not happen, but statistical probability, no matter how accurate, does not tell us why one suffers calamities in life and not another.
Second, failing to live in harmony with laws of nature can certainly explain why some people suffer, but again we are confronted with such things as George Burns’ smoking several cigars and drinking several drinks a day and living to be 100 and little children dying of cancer.
Third, God may be punishing us for our sins. Everything hinges on what we mean by “punish.” Human suffering does not work forgiveness. The sufferings of Christ and only the sufferings of Christ atone for sin (1 Peter 3:18). Penal sufferings are the prerogative of the civil authorities (1 Peter 2:14).
God does discipline us, to be sure (Hebrews 12:6). He does not shield us or rescue us from the consequences of our own sins, as a permissive, parent would do. One way in which God disciplines us is by pricking our consciences through the indwelling Spirit (Galatians 5:14; Romans 7:22-25).
Suffering is a fact of life for all living creatures because we live in a fallen world. If a cow is hit by lightning, she will suffer the same fate as a human hit by lightning. Neither is being punished by God by this act of nature.
Suffering is a fact for saint and sinner alike: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:18-23).
There are few times—if any—when we frail humans can definitively answer the question, “Why me Lord?” But we can seek to comfort those who suffer. Paul found comfort in the all-sufficient-grace of God (2 Corinthians 12:9). When we begin here, heaven’s inexhaustible comfort can be unleashed in the life of the sufferer: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
CONNECTIONS
1. What lesson can we learn from Luke 13:1-5 about passing judgment on others because of some tragedy that might have befallen them?
2. While we might want to give ourselves a spiritual checkup when it seems we are suffering for no apparent reason, what should be our focus (Romans 8:18-25)?
