Is there meaning in tragedy?

In this we see not only the wisdom of God but His mercy also. Directly sin entered the world a baffling problem presented itself in the slaying of righteous Abel. Why should the godly suffer? If a man's life really pleases God, why should that pleasure not be indicated by special good being his in this life? There is, of course, the alternative problem Why should the ungodly prosper) — and this is dealt with in Psalm 73. But long before the days of the Psalmists God saw fit in His mercy to solve the enigma for us by permitting extreme disaster to come upon Job, and then causing the story to be recorded and preserved in an inspired writing. The solution was given as soon as "the oracles of God" began to appear.

How natural it is, especially for those who believe in a present moral government of God, to look for a perfect manifestation of His mind in the maintenance of right and the judgment of wrong in the world as it is! No doubt this was strongest among the Jews, who might have expected it justly under the theocracy Jehovah was pleased to establish in their midst. But in truth it is a truth indigenous to every land, and common to all ages, and found in every circumstance and grade of life. Here the three friends of Job more and more yield to it, and Job, who suffered from his allowance of it, was kept from it mainly by the unswerving consciousness of his own integrity, but none the less writhing under the inexplicable web of inflicted misery, the more poignantly felt because he never doubted that God somehow had to do with it all, and righteousness pleads that evil should be punished and good dwell in peace and honour. Who ever learns till he is taught of God that His children must wait in faith, and suffer patiently in the exercise and trial of their faith, till God has His rights in the return and reign of His Anointed? Then, and not before, shall we reign with Him.

All is inexplicable; and those who would make this world, as it is, a proof of the righteous government of God, are just doing what the friends of Job did. They were saying that this world could be explained as to the present expression of God's moral government. But no; there is Job, and he is in the depth of suffering. He was very naughty, but he spoke more rightly than his friends. He says, I have seen the righteous man suffering. He wants to find God. He says, "Oh, if I could see Him! but I cannot find Him." All this, I again say, is in itself inexplicable. But the moment I search into the word of God, I have got the key to it all. Take the infidel upon his own ground, and he has not a word to say: he is the least capable of any of explaining the facts that are going on every day; for they are inexplicable, except as sin has come in.

People like to walk by sight, and that was the great fallacy that lay under all the speeches of these three friends. They looked at Job; they looked at what he was; and they look at what he now is in all this terrible crushing to the dust, and they said in effect, 'Well, God is a righteous God, and if there were not some dreadful thing behind all this, God would never have allowed it.' They were completely wrong, and Job was thoroughly right in saying, 'No, I know it is not so, and all your talk cannot get rid of the fact that you have most wicked men that are most flourishing, and you have pious men that are exceedingly suffering, in the world as it is now.' How is that? Because Satan is actively working here; because Satan is the one that men follow without knowing. They are slaves and captives of the devil; and those that are not slaves of the devil are the objects of his vengeance and hatred. God does not remove that; He does not put down Satan yet; he is allowed his way. And there never was a greater proof of it than his leading the world and the Jewish people to crucify their own Messiah, the Lord of glory. Was there any fault here? Here you have the crucial proof. Here was the absolutely sinless One and never such a sufferer.

Job said, as many persons in the world today are saying, Why is it that so many terrible things are allowed to happen to some men? Why is there so much suffering and misery? and why is it that the best people are often the greatest sufferers? Not merely the "down-and-outs," who have squandered their very lives in riot and pleasure, but good persons, pious people, servants of God, are full of afflictions. Many do not know even a day's freedom from anxiety and pain.

The question arises continually now as then, How and why is there in the world so much grief and sorrow? Such thoughts breed discontent and distrust. Some here tonight perhaps find such misgivings creeping into their souls like poisonous serpents. They think within themselves, Surely God does not know the burdens of the human heart. If God is love, why are the righteous afflicted, and why do the innocent suffer? Such questionings spring from a secret distrust of God.

It has to do with the ways of God on earth; why He allows the evil and the suffering and the persecution of the saints of God. How often have the suffering saints in all dispensations cried out Why? Why? Why? At times God has allowed circumstances to come upon the saints which have raised the agonizing cry to God, Why has this been allowed in my life? Yet no answer, no solution to their problem has been given. We may well ask, "Will there ever be an answer, will there be an unfolding by God as to why He has allowed these distressing things to affect His people? We have the assurance that all will be revealed, and all the evil which has been allowed in this world will be seen to have an answer. This is taught in the passage to which we have called attention. That this passage has a universal character is obvious, but while it does include all things, we have in mind to speak of it as it affects us today. There can be no doubt but that we shall see all revealed at the judgment seat of Christ; but the earthly saints and the world at large will not see this revealing until the moment to which this passage looks on. We have been mystified at times when we have taken account of the evils which have been perpetrated in this world, and perhaps have wondered why God allowed them to happen. All is involved in this passage, for we shall see that it stands related to the testimony of God through the prophets and saints of all dispensations.

The tragedy may have been an unexpected illness or an accident - a mother does not expect to loose her children before she dies. The situation brings before us the text in Proverbs 27, 'Boast not thyself of tomorrow. for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.' Life is short, death is eternal and eternity is long. The realities of sin and its inevitable consequence had been brought home to bear on the widow. We do not hear her complain, Why has God allowed this to happen to me? But undoubtedly He had permitted this disaster to touch her in order to bring glory to His Son as well as to teach her the verity of the truth given in Ecclesiastes 7:1b-3 that, It is better to go into the house of mourning ...', but she would also learn that there was an abundant and gracious provision of blessing for her.

1895 307 No comfort can be true and divine and consequently effectual, that concerns itself alone with the trial and sorrow. It is truly a welcome relief to the aching heart to find another heart entering into its grief; but this is sympathy rather than comfort.

The characteristic of comfort is that it strengthens the soul to bear its burden with fortitude as well as resignation; and it accomplishes this result by considering the trial in the light of the glory of God. When sorrows overtake and overwhelm the soul, it gives itself many a bitter pang by reiterating the question — Why do I suffer this? Why has this come upon me? And under these circumstances there can he no real comfort, until such a one lays hold by faith upon the fact which scripture abundantly reveals, that the clouds and storms are but agents in the development of the beneficent purposes of God. All things are working together for the accomplishment of good; and this to those who love God and who are the called according to purpose. This we had not known but for the word of God; but He has given it for our comfort, and that we may thereby trace His hand in each event, minute or mighty, which befalls us. Leave God out, and all is confusion and anarchy: a crowd of pitiless misfortunes grinding man to the very dust of the ground from whence he was formed. Bring God in, and the man of faith can rejoice in tribulations also.

To accomplish His gracious work He will use the sorrows of life, and, that His love may be deepened in their souls, He will first deepen the sorrow. The saints are called to the glory of God after they have "suffered awhile" (1 Peter 5:10); so, on our way to glory, we often catch some brighter rays of His glory after a time of suffering. It was thus with the sisters. They had to suffer awhile, for the Lord tarries, and no word comes from the Lord. The days are passing, Lazarus is sinking, the shadow of death is creeping over the home. At last death has come; Lazarus is dead. They have suffered awhile; they shall now see His glory — for "this sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." To sight it was for death, in reality death was being used to bring into display the glory of Christ and swell the triumph of His victory over death. To accomplish these great ends, how perfect the way He takes.

The Christian is not exempt from the sorrows and sufferings that are the common lot of mankind because of the entry of sin into the world, but in his trials the Christian has a resource of which the man of this world knows nothing, even in our God and Father and in His dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith brings God in between the heart and its sorrow, resting in what God has spoken, having the assurance that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). We may not be able to understand God’s ways with us, for they are past finding out, but we know that God’s ways are perfect, and therefore turn to Him, and to His dear Son, to find true solace and sympathy in sorrow, and comfort that is beyond anything man can give.