Why does God let war happen?

Suffering comes to us from different quarters and for various reasons, but that which is testing the greatest number now, and causing the most suffering at this time is the war, and many are asking why it should be? Why, if God is good, should there be any war at all? That is a question that calls for an answer. God is good, ten thousand times ten thousand voices bear witness to His goodness, but the world as such has rejected God, and despised the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that His goodness would lead them to repentance (Rom. 2:4) and has chosen to follow Satan, the adversary instead of God. In Eden Adam listened to the voice of Satan and turned his back upon God and by that act of disobedience sin entered into the world and death by sin (Rom. 5:13) and when sin came in, peace spread its wings and flew away. “There is no peace, says the Lord, unto the wicked” (Isa. 48:22). The world has been Satan’s world since that day and “suffering and sweat and tears and blood” are the result, they are part of sin’s foul brood.

When we heard the story we were reminded of some who when they fall into any trouble always cast the blame directly upon God. "Why," say they, "did God allow this to happen?" This is a question that is being asked by many in regard to this desolating war. "Why does God allow it to continue?"

The fact is that all trouble in this world is the result of sin being here, and especially may this be said in regard to this almost world-wide war. Sin is lawlessness — independence of God, the determination of men to go their own way without reference to His will in any matter. If men are determined to please themselves, like the boy with the knife, and, in spite of the warnings and entreaties of God's Word, will persist in the refusal of His will, and of the way that He points out to them as the way "of pleasantness and peace," how can they complain if they reap the harvest of their own sowing? "God is not mocked" and men cannot flout His will and then expect that He will shield them from the consequences of their folly. "They hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices." Thus it is written in the Word of God, and His Word cannot fail.

But David did not only lament a scattered nation, but a shaking earth also; he looked around, and wherever he looked there was trouble; said he, "Thou hast made the earth to tremble, Thou hast broken it… it shakes." And that certainly describes the state of the nations today. David was bewildered. He had looked for peace and the kingdom of God on earth, and lo! war, and disaster upon disaster, and in his bewilderment he complained, "Thou hast made us drink the wine of astonishment." In these days many are drinking from that same cup — they are asking, Why? It is a question in their hearts continually, if not on their lips. Is God responsible for the broken, shaking earth? Can its miseries and groanings be laid at His door? Nay, as the church cannot blame God for its scattering, neither can the world blame Him for its shaking. It is "man's inhumanity to man that makes countless thousands mourn." Men reap what they sow; if they prefer the devil's way to God's they will get the devil's malice instead of God's mercy. Disobedience of God's law lies behind the world's wars. It has been so from the beginning. Genesis 3 records the first disobedience and defiance of the Divine will, and Genesis 4 describes the first destruction of human life, a man murdered by his own mother's son. The one follows the other as night follows day. It is cause and effect.

But David did not only lament a scattered nation, but a shaking earth also; he looked around, and wherever he looked there was trouble; said he, “Thou hast made the earth to tremble, Thou hast broken it. . . it shaketh.” And that certainly describes the state of the nations today. David was bewildered. He had looked for peace and the kingdom of God on earth, and lo! war, and disaster upon disaster, and in his bewilderment he complained, “Thou hast made us drink the wine of astonishment.” In these days many are drinking from that same cup—they are asking, Why? It is a question in their hearts continually, if not on their lips. Is God responsible for the broken, shaking earth? Can its miseries and groanings be laid at His door? Nay, as the church cannot blame God for its scattering, neither can the world blame Him for its shaking. It is “man's inhumanity to man that makes countless thousands mourn.” Men reap what they sow; if they prefer the devil's way to God's they will get the devil's malice instead of God's mercy. Disobedience of God's law lies behind the world's wars. It has been so from the beginning. Genesis 3 records the first disobedience and defiance of the Divine will, and Genesis 4 describes the first destruction of human life, a man murdered by his own mother's son. The one follows the other as night follows day. It is cause and effect.

Not only has God allowed this war, for it is clear that He has, but in His wisdom He has permitted it. Indeed, as we enquire into matters, we think it will be seen that God could not, as being true to Himself, have hindered it. God has given a Book to the world, and if the nations had governed their conduct by that Book there would have been no war.

Men ask, “Why does not God stop this war?” “Why does He allow this cruel strife and bloodshed to continue?” But were He to put the question to all as to how they would desire it to be settled, I do not doubt that each of the nations engaged in combat would only desire to have it brought to a conclusion in the way of victory for its armies. Each nation is only desirous for the intervention of God in its own behalf. None of them desires the war to be brought to an end by its defeat. It is not only the Germans that desire to have “Gott mit uns,” but all the others desire the same for themselves. That is to say, all want the thing settled in their own way; and if God is not going to settle it in that way, they would prefer Him to keep out of it altogether.

But wherefore ask, “Why does not God stop this war?” Rather ask why does He not stop all wars, and why does He not stop all the evils to which flesh is heir? “Why,” says some poor broken-hearted woman, “was my boy, or my brother, or my husband stabbed through the heart with a German bayonet?” But the same question is also wrung from the broken heart of a poor German woman; and God is not indifferent to the sorrows of His poor afflicted creatures, whoever they may be. And may not some other poor woman be asking why her boy, who was the darling object of her heart, has been suffocated by the terrible diphtheritic membrane, or why her husbands lungs were torn to pieces by the bacillus tuberculosis, or why her brother’s body was burned to a cinder in the last railway disaster, or by means of a fireball from the thunder-cloud?

But there was a time, we know, in the world's history, when God took a direct and immediate interest in what was going on among men. Even their battles were said to be the Lord's battles; and their defeats, famines, etc., were sent as a known infliction from God for some evil that He was dealing with. Now, while it remains perfectly true, that there is no war or sorrow of any kind that happens without God, and all is decidedly under His sovereign control, it is not in the way of the same direct government. So that a person cannot now say, This war is at the word of God; or, This famine is a chastening for such and such an evil. That would be indeed both ignorance and presumption. No doubt there are persons quite ready enough to pronounce as to these matters. Their mistake arises from not appreciating the great change that has taken place in God's government of the world. As long as Israel was the nation in which God was displaying His character for the earth, these things were found directly and immediately from God. But from the time God gave up His people Israel, it has been merely the indirect, providential control of a general kind, that God exercises over human affairs.

While God does not intervene publicly and make wars to cease in the earth, He still acts providentially, and brings good out of evil for the blessing of men and for His own glory, He sees every wicked atrocity and says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” He beholds all the sorrow in the earth, and calls the distressed and broken-hearted to find in Him everlasting consolation, and a peace and hope that the world cannot afford.

While God does not intervene publicly and make wars to cease in the earth, He still acts providentially, and brings good out of evil for the blessing of men and for His own glory, He sees every wicked atrocity and says, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." He beholds all the sorrow in the earth, and calls the distressed and broken-hearted to find in Him everlasting consolation, and a peace and hope that the world cannot afford.