You may not want to finish reading this letter, and I would not blame you in any way.
I saw an animal die on the road today, not really an unusual site this time of year where we live, but I had seen this animal alive not long before. Over two hundred thousand people die every day on this planet, the number of animals that die must be inconceivable to us.
This letter is not about our personal feelings concerning these truths, nor is it about our emotions, how we handle these truths within us. It’s about God.
“See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.” (Deut. 32:39)
This God of love that many seem to be following, extoling, lifting up, saying that love may not be His only attribute, but it is the one that excels above all His other character traits, exists only in the minds of those who have determined to blind themselves to the entirety of the truths of who the Almighty is.
I said you might not want to finish reading this, didn’t I?
God knew that animal was going to get hit by a car today, He knew that young child was going to be raped and killed by that person, He knew the pain and suffering that was approaching, and He did nothing to stop it.
This is not about why do bad things happen to good people, there are no good people, only God is good, and we who have been born-again have accepted the truth of Romans 8:28 in our lives.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
This is about torture, maiming, killing, suffering, pain, grief unconsolable, torment, death and every other heinous and horrific thing that happens both to man and beast every moment of every day on this planet, and a God who watches it happen.
Does He intervene at times? Yes, of course, but those times may be so rare that they are hardly noticed. He lets those things happen, and we say, “Thy will be done.”
Just about the last thing most people want to do is question His will, ask Him why, we do not want to see that whirlwind Job witnessed approaching us. And in no disrespectful way, with no intent of drawing the ire of the Most High upon myself, what God said from that whirlwind was basically, “I will do what I want to do.”
So, He lets them suffer, He allows inconceivable evil to act, He lets them die and does nothing.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:8)
There is only one consolation to us who question these matters, and it is this truth, death does not exist for God. Every soul will exist forever, if He wants to recreate that animal He can, nothing is impossible for God Almighty.
But it does not answer the question, does it?
This is an evil, wicked, sinful planet, full of pain and death, and that is how at this present time, and for the last few thousand years He wants it. If that sentence was not true, then God would not be Almighty, He would be less than the Most High. And He isn’t.
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:11)
I cannot see the pleasure that He sees, I see inconsolable sorrow and suffering, I see wickedness unfettered, I see death that He could have averted if He wanted to.
Once again, I am getting too close to the appearance of that whirlwind, and I have no desire to draw either dishonor to His Holy name, or chastisement upon myself. God is Holy, God is love. God kills and lets both man and beast suffer and die.
Maybe you should not have read this letter.
