Suffer! (round two)

I Samuel 2:6-7   “YHWH killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.  YHWH maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and he lifteth up.” (KJV)

Isaiah 45:7   “’I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I, YHWH, do all these things.’” (KJV)

            Surprise!  According to the Bible, God creates both good and evil.  Granted, evil is not all from him directly – most of it is from man, and to some extent, Satan – but he certainly has the power to stop both man and Satan in their tracks, or to prevent tragedy altogether.  Why he does not is the taunting question of unbelievers to believers, the one that makes us squirm and want to run, because we think – no, we fear – there is no sufficient answer.  We shrug, apologetically, offering some lame non-response:  “It’s a mystery!”  

            Guess who wins that argument?

            The better answer is a question, or several.  Turn it around.  If God stopped every evil thought and deed of man, every contrivance of Satan, every lightning strike and storm, kept us cozy and warm and prosperous, kept us from suffering and injustice,

1)  Would we seek him? 

            We look to him, mostly, in need and in pain; when we praise and thank him for prosperity and happy turns of events, it is because we remember our experiences of lack. 

 2)  Would we ever mature in spirit if we lived pain-free lives of coziness and prosperity? 

            For that matter, as human beings, could we ever have outgrown infancy if we never experienced the tension between good and evil, danger and safety, and never had the opportunity to learn from the fallout of our choices?  Gold is refined in the fire. 

3)  Is it not necessary that we have evil in order to desire good? 

            Desire for good is different than simply basking in it as a usual state.  Desire is active; it nags at the spirit.  It is the emotional force, incited by evil events, that compels us to turn to him, consciously, as the one from whom ultimate good comes.  Even when, in anger, we accuse him and demand, “Why?!,” we’re still directing the question to him, in recognition of his power for goodness.  

            In the midst of disaster, witnessing terror and destruction – earthquakes, tidal waves, the holocaust, 9/11, cancer – knowing his sovereignty, I react:  “How is this love, if we are his children?  I would never treat my children like this!”  But that is to bring him down  to human terms.  It is precisely because I wouldn’t bring terror and disaster to my children, even if it were to effect heaven for them, that he keeps this power of decision from my hands.  My love is imperfect, selfish – I could not bear to see them suffer – “leave them alone, take me!”  My best intentions as a human being can not see the ultimate end of anything – I can see only within the timeline of my own life, the small parameters of my own experience, and even that not very well.  Thank YHWH that he does not think like me, but knows the end from the beginning.