Questions Without Answers⤒🔗

There seems to be no end to people’s questions regarding the suffering of the world. Our secularized culture does not automatically direct those questions to God. Often the only conclusion arrived at is that it is impossible for there to be a God. And beyond that, people essentially carry on in the vicious circle of violence and suffering all around. The relentless flow of reports of natural disasters or war, violence and oppression, and the massive numbers of victims that we hear about, sometimes may seem to offer a shield of habituation.

Tragedies of illness and death within one’s own sphere of life, however, often cause things to be different. Even then it generally turns out that distress does not incite prayer. One may or may not find a way to carry on, but it hardly ever happens that a door is opened to God in all of the suffering. The questions that almost take our breath away find no answer. And when a believing Christian makes an attempt in such situations to approach someone based on the gospel, he realizes that he can only say very little.

Incidentally, Christians too face questions that seem to have no answers. Even believers sometimes cry out that the confession of Lord’s Day 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism seems to offer quick-fix solutions. The acknowledgment of God’s omnipotent and omnipresent power, and of his fatherly hand (QA 27), does not bring them so smoothly to the phrase that “we can be patient in adversity” and “thankful in prosperity” of the next answer of the Heidelberger. We appear to be inclined to agree somewhat more readily with the emphatic recognition in Article 13 of the Belgic Confession of Faith that God’s action is often “beyond our understanding”.

Comfort?←⤒🔗

Much has been written by faithful pastors about the tension in this confession. On the one hand, we profess belief in God’s omnipotence; on the other hand it is undeniable that many believers also struggle with this. Our theological reflections also do not and cannot escape the reality and the persistency of suffering. Within the doctrine of the providence of God, the theme of “God and suffering” is given a place. Augustine is often quoted: “Even that which is contrary to God’s will is nevertheless not outside of it.” Does this help us to move forward? In line with this is also the theme of “theodicy”. Literally this means: God’s justification. Can our thinking understand anything about God’s reign amidst the ocean of sorrows and suffering in this world? Can we rationally defend what the Lord God is doing, and what he allows to happen? And does that give comfort and perspective?

It has often been said: do not even try. Our limitations do not even outline the vaguest contours of God’s government over a fallen world. Perhaps a person who desires to love God can say some sensible and even wise things in his mind. Yet the questions do not bring rest or closure.

Silence is Sometimes Better←⤒🔗

At the level of pastoral care in the church, it is often realized — thankfully — that silence is better than speaking. The advice not to ask for the why but for what purpose, as a rule does more harm than good. We know the many situations of intense suffering, and of harrowing questions. I will not give examples, but pastors know very well when they don’t have conclusive words. Sometimes you can reach out a hand a little later. The fact that Job’s friends, who had come to comfort him, kept their silence for the initial seven days and seven nights, says something (Job 2:11-13).

It is not my intention with this article to survey the depth and breadth of the questions that are present. In fact, I only want to present something from Scripture about the how of God’s nearness in the midst of the guilt and need of the world. This will contain a few pointers for the comfort that is required. At the very least, we see God’s intervention coming a little closer to people’s sorrow, as well as to their guilt.

God Did Not Withdraw Himself After All←⤒🔗

“God’s fatherly hand” is not obvious in this world. After the fall, we read how God’s judgment strikes man and the earth. The words trouble, sorrow, rule, curse, toil, sweat, thorns, thistles, dust, and with it the thought of death, dominate the passage that follows (Gen. 3:16-19). And then the LORD God sent man from the Garden of Eden... (Gen. 3:23). And after we read about Cain and Abel and of the proliferation of wickedness in the generations that follow, there follows the announcement that “the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Gen. 6:6). The conclusion is: “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land.” This extends not only to people, but also to cattle, creeping things and birds. Here all self-evidence about the hand of God being near is lost. God takes his hands off from the world, and he has good reason to do so.

Where do we get this easy talk about a loving God, and a sweet Jesus who wants to give downtrodden and miserable people a good life? Of course God does not want violence and disease and death... But if that is the tenor of our message, we must add, that God is the Holy One, who also does not want sin. And we need to admit that it is amazing that Genesis 6:6 has not become the last word of the Bible. God has not withdrawn his hand, for it follows: “But Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD” (Gen. 6:7). Speaking reverently — the fact that the LORD carried on at that time cost him dearly. God’s love does not remove his greatness and majesty. There is a profound depth in this, which is incomprehensible to us. God lives in inaccessible light. And yet the Lord is not exalted without also being moved. God’s regret and hurt illustrate some aspect of that depth.

There is room for Why? ←⤒🔗

Does God’s regret mean that he is going against himself when he still continues to seek man? In a certain sense it is true. We read in a few more places in the Bible that God does not do what would logically be expected, especially in the suffering and the whys of people. The book of Job is a great testimony to this. Job’s reproaches to the LORD, and his questions, probe very deeply. He cries out that God treats him unjustly and arbitrarily. His friends admonish him severely. Many a church council would do no less. But the conclusion of the LORD is that it is not Job, but the friends who need to be admonished. Even with all his rebellious questions, Job still spoke right of God (Job 42:8)! In Lamentations something similar happens. Inspired by God’s Spirit, a prophet (Jeremiah?) shouts things at God that make us pale. “God is to me a bear lying in wait for me… He has bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow... He made my teeth grind on gravel... My soul is bereft of peace (think “salvation”), I have forgotten what happiness is” (Lam. 3:10-17). This is indeed followed by an acknowledgement of God’s mercies. And also that it is good for man to bear his yoke in his youth (Lam. 3:22, 27). In the remainder of the chapter, the tone changes into something more like that of a prayer. It has not become any less difficult, but the hand of God is there. The bitter laments and the whys have, however, remained. God’s Word also leaves room for the deepest misery that is shouted out against God!

In between there is the amazing statement: “For he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men (Lam. 3:33). God allows suffering to enter into the world, but he does not do it with his heart. God turns the hurt to himself...

God’s Distress...←⤒🔗

Against the same backdrop — the exile — we read in Isaiah 63:9, “In all their affliction, he too was afflicted.” There the God of the Bible makes himself known as the Father of Jesus Christ. Indeed, God applies affliction to himself. That is the line of thought started in Genesis 3. Mercy rejoices, up to heaven, over against judgment. God allows his people, like Jacob, to struggle with him at times. God himself would almost succumb to it, as at Pniel (Gen. 32). But precisely in this way he is marvellously near.

Hearing about this does not make us think any less of God’s holiness. It does however fill us with deep wonder at God’s intervention with sinful people. God shares in the burden we deservedly succumb to. Here we can see the contours of the Man of Sorrows from Isaiah 53 becoming visible. In him, the Father himself draws near to us. The Saviour bore the diseases, the reproaches, and the iniquities that belong to us. And he speaks to us of a yoke that is easy, and a burden that is light (Matt. 11:30). Easy and light — because he bore our guilt and punishment.

From this we do not portray an image of God that offers a rational answer to our whys amidst the suffering of the world. Something else is happening: from the cross of Calvary the Person of the Lord Jesus comes to us. He takes our why — magnified immeasurably — upon his lips. And he says to believers and unbelievers alike: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

And those who hear may know and be comforted: he truly does make all things new.

To be able to offer comfort to the most profound questions — it is the privilege of those who have themselves been comforted by him (2 Cor. 1:4).