The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Katie P. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Research - Justice
All too often I hear people ask "If a just God was really there, why would He allow so many people to suffer and die?" It is a question that so many people, Christians included, don't have an answer for. If God exists, and if He cares about us humans, why would He allow bad things to happen to us? Why is there evil in the world? Why is there death and suffering?
God gifted man with free will. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, man was separated from God. (Genesis 3) Because of the evil that entered the world, sickness, pain and eventual death are part of life. But just because the world is an evil place, it doesn't mean that God is a cruel sadist. He doesn't let evil happen to us with his back turned. He shows us continually that He is still here and caring.
In the book of Job, God allows his faithful servant to be tested by the devil. Job loses everything he owns, and goes through unthinkable amounts of physical suffering. But even though God lets Job go through everything, He never leaves him. Even though Job tells himself that he has done nothing to deserve his misfortunes and that God was unfair to him. When God finally speaks to Job, He asks him, "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?" Job 40:8. Even though God allowed bad things to happen to Job, He never left him. He heard every one of his cries and in the end, God proved his justice and returned everything Job had lost, plus much more. Job 42:12, 16-17. 12:The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first... 16:After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so he died, old and full of years.
God never turns his back on us. He is a just God. He allows things to happen to us so that we can grow and learn from our mistakes and so that we learn to depend on Him more than our own strength. But He never gives us more than we can handle. And even when things look their darkest, we always have the promise of eternal and perfect life with him. Psalm 37: 5-6 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Psalm 45:6 Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
