Following the tragedy in Texas I had multiple people understandably asking the question, “Why?”
“Why would God allow?”
“Why would God not stop this?”
“Why would God not save?”
We have all contemplated these questions at various points in our lives – divorce, abuse, death of a loved one, disability, financial disaster, war, and yes natural disasters like the flooding in Texas.
This morning I was reading in Ecclesiastes and came to 8:17 and thought I would share it with you: “…then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.”
Here we are reminded that “under the sun” or here on the earth from our perspective, no matter how hard we try we cannot understand the plans and workings of God.
My answer to the “Why” questions is most often “I do not know.”
While we may not know why God does what He does we can know who God is. The Bible does not always tell us why God acts and works in certain ways, but the Bible does tell us who God is.
He is holy. He is righteous (meaning all He does is right). He is all-powerful. He is all-knowing. He is all-wise.
And He is compassionate. He is patient. He is gracious. He is merciful. He is kind. He is good.
Some contemplate human tragedy and conclude that God must be cruel. What they fail to see is that the greatest human tragedy was the crucifixion of Jesus. There on the cross Jesus (the completely innocent) pays the price for sinners (the completely guilty). The greatest injustice in human history is the crucifixion of Jesus and if we ask the question “Why?” we get our answer in John 3:16 where we read, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only (begotten) Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
We might not understand why God does what He does, but we can understand and know His loving and compassionate nature. Spurgeon said it best, “God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”