Jennifer Blacklock Blog

Here’s a big question- why would a loving God allow evil? And the big question that comes after considering that one for a while- does God cause suffering or only allow it? This is a theological debate; most Christians probably have an immediate response and opinion. Reading Elisabeth Elliot’s “Be Still My Soul” this week I came across a chapter on suffering and its purpose, and she addressed this question, saying,

“…does it matter whether a thing is ordained or merely allowed? Are events that seem to be out of control caused by God? Or does He allow them to occur at the hands of human beings? You can spend a lot of time pondering that one and end up pretty much where you started. In either case, the purpose remains the same- our sanctification. God is in the business of making us walking breathing examples of the invisible reality of the presence of Christ in us.”

Do we really need to figure out God’s agenda? He is perfectly, lovingly all-knowing. We have to choose to trust that He knows best. He’s given us enough to believe, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20), and He’s given a “measure of faith” to those who believe (see Ephesians 4 and Romans 12).

When Job questions God- and if anyone had a “right” to, he did- and God finally speaks in answer, He doesn’t actually answer Job’s questions, He basically says, “I’m God, and you’re not”, and it’s more than enough to answer and silence Job- “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” (Job 42:3)

God is God, and He’s too wonderful for us to understand. We can know this though: nothing is out of His control. He is not caught by surprise or taken aback by the sufferings and evil in this world. He’s had a plan from the beginning.

Someone in our Bible study last week said, “for some reason, God knows it’s best to allow the storms in our life”. You could take it further than that and say that for some reason (that our human brains are incapable of realizing and understanding because we’re not all-knowing, all-seeing, perfectly just and merciful), God knew it was best in the beginning, even before the beginning, to give free will; allow temptation; and give a command He knew would be broken, bringing sin into the world. He knew from the beginning. Genesis 3, the fall of man, was not an accident that God had to then work out a “plan B” for, no, it was part of plan A.

It’s okay to not know everything and okay to not have God “figured out”. We can trust His sovereignty- that He knows though we don’t, and that His plans are perfect, and nothing is out of His control. “He’s got the whole world in His hands”.