HOPE BEYOND TROUBLES
Many people, including the learned, have questions about today’s troubles: “Why is there so much trouble in the world?’ And “why do good people suffer?” The Scriptures of the Bible (old and new) are said to give us God’s answers to, and hope that goes beyond these troubles (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
HE BIBLE ANSWERS WHY SO MUCH TROUBLE IN THE WORLD.
God cursed the first people, Adam and Eve, with troubles for disobeying God.
And He also cursed their descendants for sinning against God (Genesis 3).
The Bible tells us that sin entered the world through one man, but in this way sin and its curse came to all people, for all have sinned (Romans 5:12) There is none righteous; all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:10, 23). Because of sin, God determined that mankind “who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1).
The Bible lets us know that mankind’s troubles come from a sinful heart, which causes “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander (Matthew 15:19). But the pains and consequences of sin may cause some people to turn to God for deliverance from their troubles. When the very sinful people of Nineveh believed that God was going to destroy them, they repented and turned to God in prayer. God spared them from destruction (Jonah 3:1-10). When the people of Israel repented of their continuous disobedience, God delivered them from their troubles of being captivity in Babylon (Nehemiah 9:27; Psalm 54:7).
However, the Bible tells us that God, who rules over all from his throne in heaven, has a finally solution for the troubles of this world. For God has set a day when he will judge the world and will create all things new (Revelation 21:5).
THE BIBLE ANSWERS WHY “GOOD” PEOPLE SUFFER
The Bible shows that many people make a mistake in believing they are good. Perhaps they may think they are good because of some good deeds they have done. But the biblical Word of God says: “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). However, because of his goodness, God made a way for people to berighteous in the eyes of God (John 14:6).
For it is by grace you are made righteous and “saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our [God-made-righteous] way of life” (Ephesians 2:8-10).
God’s way of righteousness includes people in the Old and New Testaments. For example, in the Old testament, God said Job was “upright; he feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). Even though Job was upright, God allowed Satan or the devil to cause troubles in Job’s life. Satan caused Job to suffered loss of money, possessions, children: and caused him to experience intense physical and mental pains, while being falsely accused by his friends and rejected by his wife.
But Job saw beyond his troubles. Job said: “shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10). “All the days of my hard service I will wait, Till my change comes” (Job 14:14).
God knew that Job trusted in the Lord’s mercy and goodness; and knew that Job’s
heart’s desire was to please God. The Lord enabled Job to rebound his troubles and gave him back twice as much as God had let the devil take away from him (Job 42:10).
Although Job lived in the time the Old Testament was written, God allowed him as an upright person to see the coming of his redeemer (Job 19:25-26). Jesus Christ was later revealed as the redeemer of the world (John 3:16;. Ephesians 1:7). We now understand that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
The Bible informs us that in addition to suffering for sin, God calls righteous people to suffer “to be conformed to the image of his Son [Jesus Christ]” (Romans 8:39). “For you have been called for this purpose, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you would follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21). And the Lord has given his followers the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to help them to obey him (John 14:15-17).
And as followers of the Lord, we are assured that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the [heavenly] glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). And “we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).
