May 14, 2025 • 30 mins
Much of the trouble we have in living the Christian life comes from not looking at ourselves. We examine and cross examine others and even God Himself but fail to ask ourselves the same questions. This is true of the problem of evil. We want to know why when that same question is staring at us in the mirror.
In this episode we find God turning the tables and asking man this question. Sometimes we are like children who need to be reprimanded with the question, “Why did you do that?” If the problem of evil in God’s sight is a deep question, the question of sin in our lives can be just as perplexing.
Read about this subject
- Scriptures: I Samuel 15; II Samuel 12; Lamentations 3
- “The Potter and The Clay”
Study more on this subject
- Free Bible Course: What Happened to America?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, I am Kerry Duke, host of My Godand My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
We've been looking at the question “Why,Lord?” We've seen that great men in
(00:21):
the Bible, even prophets of God, criedout to Him asking Him this question.
Men like Moses, Job, David,Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and even the
Lord himself wanted to know why.
Today we wonder the same thing.
Why does God allow our lovedones to be taken from us?
(00:42):
Why does he allow them to suffer?
Why does the world have to beso unfair and so painful to us?
Where is God when we need him the most?
We are looking at some of the reasonswhy things happen the way they do.
We're talking about some things God hastold us in the Bible about how and why He
(01:03):
manages the world the way that He does.
We will be talking about the sufferingswe endure and the reasons for them.
I know you want to learn more abouthow to cope with the heartaches
and the pains of this life, but Iwant to ask you to consider this
question from another point of view.
Now, this may apply to some ofyou more than to others, but it
(01:24):
will help all of us gain a betterperspective on this part of life.
Sometimes when we're struggling witha problem and we can't figure it out,
it's good to turn the question around.
Sometimes we may need to, aswe say, flip the question.
Sometimes instead of asking God whyLord it would be good for us to listen
(01:49):
to God ask us the same question.
We get upset and we ask God why Hedoes things the way that He does.
But if you listen to God inthe Bible, you find that God
aims the same question at us.
It's as if God is saying, “Youask me why I do what I do.
(02:11):
I'm asking you why do youdo the things that you do?
You ask me why I allow sin.
My question to you iswhy do you commit sin?
You complain to meabout evil in the world.
Who caused that evil?
Who is responsible?”
Take King Saul as an example.
(02:32):
God chose him and gave him the greathonor of being the first king of Israel.
God was with him and God gave him anearly victory over the Philistines, and
even though he made mistakes as a king,God didn't strike him dead all at once.
God was merciful.
He allowed him to continue his king.
The story in I Samuel chapter 15was after he had sinned by not
(02:57):
waiting for Samuel like the prophethad told him in I Samuel 13.
It was in spite of his rash and harshtreatment of his own son, Jonathan, in I
Samuel chapter 14 in I Samuel chapter 15.
God through the Prophet Samuelgave Kings Saul a simple command.
Go and destroy the Amalekites.
(03:20):
These people had attacked the Israelitesas they were traveling toward Canaan.
The attack was entirely unprovoked,and God said to Moses that someday he
would take vengeance on these people.
Hundreds of years later, Saul wasselected by God to be the one to
execute God's judgment upon thesepeople, and the instructions were clear.
(03:43):
Samuel told Saul to kill the Amalekites.
He was not even to spare the animals.
So Saul, the commander in chief,took his forces to battle these old
enemies of Israel, but this king whogave orders to everybody else didn't
follow the orders that God gave him.
He went to war with the Amalekites,but he spared the king and saved
(04:07):
the best of the sheep and oxen.
When he returned, God sentSamuel to confront him.
The first thing Saul didwas to boast to the prophet.
“I have performed the commandment ofthe Lord.” Samuel replied, “What then
is this bleeting of the sheep in myears and the lowing of the oxen which I
(04:27):
hear?” That should have embarrassed Saul.
It ought to have shamed him.
He heard the command that Samuel gave him.
He didn't misunderstand or forget.
He deliberately disobeyed.
And to make matters worse, he actedlike that he had done what God
told him to do, so he tried to setthe record straight with Samuel.
(04:48):
That was a bad idea.
He said that they had carriedout God's command to slay the
Amalekites with one exception.
That was Agag the king.
His reasoning was that Godgave him a rule, but he could
make an exception to that rule.
Sound familiar?
He also said that they brought backthe best of the sheep and oxen.
(05:10):
His army had evidently killedthe rest of the animals.
Now again, God didn't give him theright to make that exception, but he
was the king of Israel and evidently hethought that he had the authority or he
convinced himself that he had that right.
When the prophet of God sawhow stubborn Saul was, he told
him to be quiet and to listen.
He shared with the king what Godhad said to him the night before.
(05:33):
God said when he was a littleman in his own sight, God
made him king over all Israel.
Then we see that piercing questionthat begins with one word in
verse 19 of I Samuel chapter 15.
“Why?” “Why did you not obey thevoice of the Lord?” Why didn't
you do what God told you to do?
(05:55):
Now, of course, Samuel is notasking to get an answer out of Saul.
He's rebuking him.
If you're a parent, haven't you saidthe same thing to your children?
When you've told them not to do somethingand they do it anyway, how many times
have you said, “Why did you do that?”
You want to know whatyour child was thinking.
Now, of course, they're not goingto give you a sensible answer most
(06:18):
of the time because they don't evenunderstand themselves why they did it.
Now, I'm not saying it's asilly question to ask them why.
We know that it's proper because God isasking Saul that very question, knowing
that he's not going to get an honestanswer out of him, at least at first.
When God asks man, why he's not lookingfor information; he's giving correction.
(06:41):
That's a question we needto hear God asking us.
Instead of secretly criticizing Godand being angry with Him because
of what's happened, instead ofasking Him why, we might need to
ask ourselves the same question.
That's especially true ifwe're having trouble because
of sinful decisions we've made.
(07:01):
The Bible says in Galatians six,verse seven that we reap what we sow.
In Proverbs 13, verse 15, the Biblesays the way of transgressors is hard.
When we sin, we pay for it.
We suffer because of sin.
We feel guilt and pain in life,and we ask God “Why?” When we
(07:21):
should be asking ourselves why.
Of course, I'm talking about theproblems we have because of our sins.
I realize there are other timeswhere we're not directly responsible.
Not all suffering in this lifeis the direct result of our sins.
We will talk about that more inlater lessons, but even then, if
(07:43):
we're not directly responsiblefor the hardships that we endure,
we are still sinful people.
We're prideful people.
And if we know that we have sinnedand we're suffering because of it, we
certainly don't need to complain to God.
We need to ask ourselves whyon earth we said what we did
or committed what we have done.
We need to ask, “Why did I do that?” andthen learn from it and if need be, repent.
(08:10):
But God also asked Saulanother why question.
He said, “Why did you swoop down on thespoil?” Now the spoil of war here was
the good livestock of the Amalekites.So the real answer to the question,
“Why did you do all this and not obeyme?” is because Saul was being selfish.
He didn't do God's will.
(08:32):
He followed his own will.
Now, this kind of correction from aprophet of God should have brought
him to his knees, but it didn't.
Incredibly, he was so stubbornthat he still insisted that he
had done what God told him to do.
In verse 20, he said, “But I haveobeyed the commandment of the Lord.”
(08:52):
As we look at that story, we wonder“What's wrong with this man's thinking?
Has he lost his mind?” But the way he'sarguing is no different from anyone
today who's trying to justify his sin.
People say ridiculousthings when they're caught.
They're not rational when they'retrying to justify their behavior.
(09:13):
After Samuel rebuked Saul again,the king finally gave in and
admitted what he had done.
He admitted and confessedthat he had sinned.
Now the sad part is that it wasnot a clean confession because he
blamed the people for pressuring him.
This man's life was full of troubleuntil the day that he took his own life.
(09:34):
So in his case, the answer to the question“Why?” was staring him in the mirror.
Ironically, God posed the samequestion to the next king of
Israel who was a much better man.
David's life was a sharpcontrast of blessings and curses.
He was a loyal and brave youngman, and the people loved him.
(09:55):
He was a man of faith.
A man, God said, was aman after his own heart.
And the more he trusted God,the more he accomplished.
But Saul was jealous of Davidand he did his best to kill him.
Some of the Psalms appear tohave been written during this
uncertain time in his life.
No one had to teach Davidthat life is unfair.
(10:16):
He lived it.
And you see that in some ofthe Psalms that he wrote.
He cried out to God in Psalm 13 andsaid, “Why, Lord?” But when Saul
died, David's burden was lifted.
He went from being huntedlike an animal to sitting on
the throne of Israel as king.
He had wealth, power, fame,and the loyalty of his army.
(10:38):
God gave him victory over his enemies.
So in the life of this great man, we seea lesson that applies to each one of us.
Life is not all good, butlife is not all bad either.
If life were always good, we wouldn'tappreciate what we have, but if life had
only bad days, our spirit would faint.
(10:59):
God designed this mixture.
He keeps it in place.
In Ecclesiastes seven, verse 14, theBible says, “In the day of prosperity,
be joyful. But in the day of adversity,consider; surely God has appointed the one
as well as the other, so that man can findout nothing that will come after him.”
(11:20):
So now that things are better,what did David do in this more
blessed stage of his life?
He made the biggest mistake of his life.
You see, before, while he wasgoing through so much trouble,
he was alert spiritually.
He had his guard up.
That was necessary to protect his life.
But now that he had the securityof being the most powerful man in
(11:43):
the world, he dropped his guard.
It happened on that fatefulevening in II Samuel when he saw a
beautiful woman from his housetop.
He took her and committedadultery with her.
She was the wife of oneof his loyal soldiers.
As a result of this affair, shebecame pregnant with his child.
Almost unbelievably, he came upwith a plan to avoid embarrassment.
(12:06):
He gave the husband of this woman leave togo and be with his wife so that it would
appear that he was the father of the childand no one would think anything about it.
But this husband, whose name was Uriah,was the better man in this instance.
He refused to go home and enjoytime with his wife because the
security of David, the king and thenation depended on men like him.
(12:31):
As a result, David even moreincredibly told Joab, the ruthless
captain of his army, to set up Uriahin battle so that he would die.
David then took the man's wife,Bathsheba, and he married her.
Here again, we see a principlethat we must remember in the
study of the problem of evil.
It's that same principle of sowing andreaping in Galatians six, verse seven.
(12:56):
Whatever a man sowsthat shall he also reap.
God rewarded David for his goodnessbefore, and now he's about to
repay him for the evil that he did.
The prophet Nathan came to David afterthis with a story in II Samuel chapter 12.
He told the king about a certainpoor man that had a special lamb.
(13:18):
He loved and cherished this pet.
A certain rich man in the same citywho had a great abundance of livestock
was being visited by a traveler.
So instead of killing one of hisown animals for the meal he took
the poor man's one little lamband killed it for his guest.
David had been a fair manin general in his life.
(13:40):
He saw right and wrong in termsof black and white, and when he
heard this story, he was furious.
He was so angry at the rich manin this story that he prescribed
a penalty that was beyond whatthe law of Moses even required.
The law said that a man who hadstolen sheep was to pay the owner
four times what he had stolen.
(14:02):
But David said in this case,the rich man would die in
addition to paying this amount.
He was oblivious to the meaning of thestory, but his heart was pierced when
the prophet told him, “You are the man”[second Samuel chapter 12, verse seven].
The rich man in the story was David,The king saw evil in someone else, but
(14:26):
he was blind to sin in his own life.
Nathan went on to explain, “You are theman, Thus says the Lord God of Israel,
I anointed you king over Israel. Idelivered you from the hand of Saul.”
Now, here we find again, a remarkable yetnot so surprising aspect of our nature.
(14:47):
When times are hard, we pray to God,but when times are better and we have
it good, we forget God and we forgetquickly what he had done for us.
A soldier in the Civil War kepta diary like many of them did.
He wrote that when there was apause in the fighting, the soldiers
would cuss and gamble and drink, butwhen the cannons started firing at
(15:09):
them again, they would pray to God.
A Vietnam soldier said it this way.
In his diary, he said, “I am anatheist until the shooting starts.”
David was not an atheist or a drunkard.
But he did forget what God had done forhim when he was being chased by Saul.
He thought that he was going to die.
(15:30):
In fact, in his mind hewas quite sure of it.
He said, “I will perish somedayby the hand of Saul” [First Samuel
27, verse one]. He even said,“There is but a step between me and
death” [I Samuel 20, verse three].
That's how David felt, but he was wrong.
(15:50):
God spared his life.
God gave him his lifeback and much, much more.
God said through the prophet Nathan,“I gave you your master's house and
your master's wives into your keepingand gave you the house of Israel and
Judah. And if that had been too little,I also would have given you much more.”
(16:12):
How amazing.
God said I gave you all this and ifthat wasn't enough, if you wanted
more, I would have done it for you.
Then comes the question from God.
Why?
“Why have you despised the commandmentof the Lord to do evil in his sight?
You have killed Uriah, theHittite with the sword.
(16:33):
You have taken his wife to beyour wife and have killed him with
the sword of the people of Ammon.
Now, therefore, the sword shall neverdepart from your house, because you have
despised me and have taken the wife ofUriah the Hittite, to be your wife.”
How do you explain this?
David had cried out to God “Why?”when he was down and afraid.
(16:56):
Now God is asking him the same question.
If we think that the problem ofevil is a great mystery, then
how do we explain human behavior?
Centuries later, the people ofJudah had turned away from God.
They served idols and lived sinful lives.
God sent the prophetJeremiah to warn them.
(17:16):
He preached to these people for 40 years.
He told them their nation wouldfall to the enemy and even named
the enemy—the Babylonians—butthese Jews mocked Jeremiah.
They put him in prison.
They threatened his life.
This godly man had trouble understandingwhy God sent him on this mission.
He brought up the problem of evil to God.
(17:38):
When he asked, “Why does the way ofthe wicked prosper—that's in Jeremiah
chapter 12—he even accused God ofdeceiving him about what he would
experience at the hands of the Jews.
He reached the point where he wasso discouraged that he decided to
quit, but he couldn't because hisconviction in the word of God, he said,
(17:59):
was like a burning fire within him.
After 40 years of rejecting Jeremiah'swarnings, the Babylonians attacked.
They broke down their walls.
They burned their houses.
They killed the old peopleand the little children.
They raped the women.
They left others to starve.
War truly brings out the worst in people.
(18:20):
Some read the Bible and ask how a lovingGod could bring such suffering on people.
But the real question is, why didn'tthey listen to God who gave them
every good thing that they had?
They could have avoided this calamity.
They had plenty of time to turn thenation around, but they only grew worse.
The prophet Jeremiah alsowrote the Book of Lamentations.
(18:43):
This book is about the terrible sufferingof the people left in Jerusalem.
After the war buildings were on fire,dead bodies were in the streets, little
children were crying out for help.
The people were starving.
Some of the women evenate their own children.
Hear some of the versesthat talk about this.
“Arise, cry out in the night atthe beginning of the watches.
(19:06):
Pour out your heart like waterbefore the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward him for the lifeof your young children who faint from
hunger at the head of every street.
See, oh Lord, and consider,to whom have you done this?
Should the women eat their offspring?
The children, they have cuddled.
(19:27):
Should the priest and prophet be slainin the sanctuary of the Lord, young and
old lie on the ground in the streets.
My virgins and my young menhave fallen by the sword.
You have slain them inthe day of your anger.
You have slaughtered and not pitied”[Lamentations two verses 19 through 21].
In Lamentations four verse four, the Biblesays, “The tongue of the infant clings
(19:53):
to the roof of its mouth for thirst.
The young children ask for bread,but no one breaks it for them.” Verse
six in Lamentations four says, “Thepunishment of the iniquity of the
daughter of my people is greater thanthe punishment of the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment.”
Verse eight says, “Now theirappearance is blacker than soot.
(20:15):
They go unrecognized in the streets.
Their skin clings to their bones.
It has become as dry as wood.”
“Those slain by the sword are betteroff than those who die of hunger.
For these pine away, stricken forlack of the fruits of the field.”
“The hands of the compassionate womenhave cooked their own children. They
(20:39):
became food for them in the destructionof the daughter of my people.”
In the middle of these horrifyingimages, chapter three goes to
the heart of the situation.
Here Jeremiah talks aboutthe problem of evil.
This is a great chapter to rememberwhen you think about this subject
in Lamentations chapter three.
Jeremiah seems to be speakingon behalf of the whole nation.
(21:03):
Their pain and suffering is great,and it's interesting that several
verses in Lamentations three arevery similar to the Book of Job.
The book of Job in chapter six,verse four says, “The arrows of
the Almighty are within me.” In Jobchapter seven, verse 20, he said
that God was using him for a target.
(21:23):
Now this sounds very much like whatwe read in Lamentations chapter
three, verse 12, where Jeremiahsaid he has “bent his bow and set
me up as a target for the arrow.”
Job said, “You hunt me like afierce lion.” Jeremiah said God
was like a lion waiting to ambushhim in Lamentations three verse 10.
(21:44):
Job said the people taunted himand his name was a by word to
the people [Job 30 verse nine].
Jeremiah said, “I have become the ridiculeof all my people, their taunting song all
the day” [Lamentations three verse 14].
Job said we receive good and evilfrom God [Job chapter two, verse 10].
(22:07):
Jeremiah also said, “Both wellbeingand woe proceed from the mouth of the
Lord” [Lamentations three, verse 38].
If you want to learn more about theproblem of sin and suffering, read and
learn all you can in these two booksof the Bible about these two men.
One of the themes that Jeremiahmentions in Lamentations three
(22:29):
is the fact that God is a God ofmercy as well as a God of wrath.
Romans 11, verse 22 says,“Behold therefore the goodness
and the severity of God.”
God is both good and severe.
He is both loving and just.
Jeremiah teaches great lessonsabout suffering in this chapter.
One is that there is a good sideto suffering at the hand of God.
(22:54):
“The Lord is good to those who wait forhim, he says to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should hope and waitquietly for the salvation of the Lord. It
is good for a man to bear the yoke in hisyouth” [Lamentations 3:25 through 27].
Another tremendous pointis in verses 32 and 33.
(23:17):
“Though He causes grief, yet Hewill show compassion according to
the multitude of his mercies, forHe does not afflict, willingly nor
grieve the children of men.” God getsno pleasure out of causing us pain.
He does it for our good.
And here's the point that we've beenlooking at in verse 39, he asked,
(23:39):
“Why should a living man complain, aman for the punishment of his sin?”
You talk about a “why” question.
This is certainly one here.
Instead of pointing the finger at God andasking God why, and even criticizing God,
there are many people in the world todaythat need to ask themselves this question.
What am I complaining about?
(24:01):
Why am I complaining when Ibrought this suffering on myself?
Again, I want to qualify this andadmit that not all suffering, not
all trouble in this lifetime, isthe direct result of our sins.
But some of it is, and when that's thecase, instead of turning away from God
in anger, we need to turn toward him inhumility and in the fear of the Lord.
(24:25):
Now in regard to these Jews in the daysof Jeremiah the prophet, we find that they
were complaining about their calamities.
We see that in the book of Ezekiel.
Even these Jews were complainingabout what had happened
when they were responsible.
Why should the Jews complainabout their calamities?
They were the ones who caused them them.
(24:45):
And yet this is the very thingthat many people do today.
So here are three pointed examplesof God asking men, “Why did you
do that?” He asked King Saul this.
He asked David this.
He asked the Jews this and bringsit up in Lamentations chapter three.
And I would urge you, as you readthe Old Testament, especially
(25:06):
to keep your eye out for that.
Look and see how many times thepeople of Israel fell into sin, and
God asked them (25:12):
Why did you do that?
Why did you turn away from meafter all that I've done for you?
After all that you have seen allthe miracles that I have done in
your presence, all the power andlove that I've shown, how could
you and why would you disobey me?
It's a funny thing about human naturethat man will complain about what's
(25:33):
happening to him and yet at the sametime he doesn't notice the things
that he's doing willfully in his life.
So this question is a powerful questionthat needs to be turned on mankind, and
we can do that and be more humble andlearn to live for God and have a better
attitude if we'll just sometimes do this.
But let's take what we'redoing a little bit further.
(25:55):
Look at this question whyfrom some other points of view
that I believe will help us.
There are other ways in whichwe need to ask the question why.
When we're tempted to be angry withGod, for instance, instead of asking
the question, “Why are all thesebad things happening to me? I don't
deserve this,” maybe we need to askthe question, “Why are all these
(26:19):
good things happening in my life?
I didn't deserve them either.” Oftentimeswe talk about what we don't deserve
when we're talking about or thinkingabout something bad, and we don't ask
the question (26:31):
Did I deserve all the good things that I have in my life?
We need to count our blessings.
We need to realize that life isnot about getting what you deserve.
It's not about fairness and equality.
Eternity will take care of that,In this life, there will always be
inequality, there will be unfairness,there will be things that we deserve.
(26:54):
There will be things that wedon't deserve in this life.
That's the nature of this life.
So again, instead of focusing onthe question why do I have these
bad things in my life, maybe we needto ask the question why do I have
all these good things in my life?
And that might turn usa little closer to God.
When we ask the question, “Why me, Lord?”maybe we need to turn that around and
(27:19):
ask the question, “Why not me?” Whatmakes me any different from anybody else?
Why should I not have to go through this?
Other people do.
Why should I be the exception?
Sometimes we get so focused and fixedon our own problems that we fail to
see other people around us, even rightnext to us that are going through
(27:40):
the same thing or even worse in life.
Sometimes we have that kindof self-centered attitude
in view of ourselves.
Here's another way to lookat this “Why” question.
Sometimes we wonder why Godeven made this universe.
We question why He put us hereknowing that we would go through all
this pain and all this suffering.
(28:00):
Why would God do that?
So in other words, we sometimes can getto the point to where we question or even
criticize God for his decision to create.
You talk about man getting out of hisplace to question not just how God
manages the world presently, but toquestion and even criticize him for
(28:21):
making the decision to create all this!
And yet sometimes that iseither done or it's insinuated.
There was a man named Job that wasquestioning God along this line,
and God had some questions for himin Job chapters 38 and following.
Now we're going to talk about thatlater, Lord willing, in our studies.
But for now, I just want you to thinkabout how arrogant really that is—for
(28:46):
a human being to question God and tocriticize God about that kind of decision.
But if we wonder out of pain and outof sincerity why God made the world and
put us here, knowing that we would gothrough all this pain and suffering, maybe
we need to turn that question around.
Maybe we need to, as parents, askourselves the same kind of question.
(29:07):
Why do we as parents bring children intothis world knowing that they will suffer
pain and great heartache in their lives?
Why would man question God and notquestion himself about the same thing?
Are you beginning to see that it'snot a good idea to ask God questions
without being ready to answer His?
(29:29):
Thank you for listeningto my God and My Neighbor.
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite, and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate programs.
(29:49):
Study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
Hi, I am Kerry Duke, host of My Godand My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
We've been looking at the question “Why,Lord?” We've seen that great men in
(00:21):
the Bible, even prophets of God, criedout to Him asking Him this question.
Men like Moses, Job, David,Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and even the
Lord himself wanted to know why.
Today we wonder the same thing.
Why does God allow our lovedones to be taken from us?
(00:42):
Why does he allow them to suffer?
Why does the world have to beso unfair and so painful to us?
Where is God when we need him the most?
We are looking at some of the reasonswhy things happen the way they do.
We're talking about some things God hastold us in the Bible about how and why He
(01:03):
manages the world the way that He does.
We will be talking about the sufferingswe endure and the reasons for them.
I know you want to learn more abouthow to cope with the heartaches
and the pains of this life, but Iwant to ask you to consider this
question from another point of view.
Now, this may apply to some ofyou more than to others, but it
(01:24):
will help all of us gain a betterperspective on this part of life.
Sometimes when we're struggling witha problem and we can't figure it out,
it's good to turn the question around.
Sometimes we may need to, aswe say, flip the question.
Sometimes instead of asking God whyLord it would be good for us to listen
(01:49):
to God ask us the same question.
We get upset and we ask God why Hedoes things the way that He does.
But if you listen to God inthe Bible, you find that God
aims the same question at us.
It's as if God is saying, “Youask me why I do what I do.
(02:11):
I'm asking you why do youdo the things that you do?
You ask me why I allow sin.
My question to you iswhy do you commit sin?
You complain to meabout evil in the world.
Who caused that evil?
Who is responsible?”
Take King Saul as an example.
(02:32):
God chose him and gave him the greathonor of being the first king of Israel.
God was with him and God gave him anearly victory over the Philistines, and
even though he made mistakes as a king,God didn't strike him dead all at once.
God was merciful.
He allowed him to continue his king.
The story in I Samuel chapter 15was after he had sinned by not
(02:57):
waiting for Samuel like the prophethad told him in I Samuel 13.
It was in spite of his rash and harshtreatment of his own son, Jonathan, in I
Samuel chapter 14 in I Samuel chapter 15.
God through the Prophet Samuelgave Kings Saul a simple command.
Go and destroy the Amalekites.
(03:20):
These people had attacked the Israelitesas they were traveling toward Canaan.
The attack was entirely unprovoked,and God said to Moses that someday he
would take vengeance on these people.
Hundreds of years later, Saul wasselected by God to be the one to
execute God's judgment upon thesepeople, and the instructions were clear.
(03:43):
Samuel told Saul to kill the Amalekites.
He was not even to spare the animals.
So Saul, the commander in chief,took his forces to battle these old
enemies of Israel, but this king whogave orders to everybody else didn't
follow the orders that God gave him.
He went to war with the Amalekites,but he spared the king and saved
(04:07):
the best of the sheep and oxen.
When he returned, God sentSamuel to confront him.
The first thing Saul didwas to boast to the prophet.
“I have performed the commandment ofthe Lord.” Samuel replied, “What then
is this bleeting of the sheep in myears and the lowing of the oxen which I
(04:27):
hear?” That should have embarrassed Saul.
It ought to have shamed him.
He heard the command that Samuel gave him.
He didn't misunderstand or forget.
He deliberately disobeyed.
And to make matters worse, he actedlike that he had done what God
told him to do, so he tried to setthe record straight with Samuel.
(04:48):
That was a bad idea.
He said that they had carriedout God's command to slay the
Amalekites with one exception.
That was Agag the king.
His reasoning was that Godgave him a rule, but he could
make an exception to that rule.
Sound familiar?
He also said that they brought backthe best of the sheep and oxen.
(05:10):
His army had evidently killedthe rest of the animals.
Now again, God didn't give him theright to make that exception, but he
was the king of Israel and evidently hethought that he had the authority or he
convinced himself that he had that right.
When the prophet of God sawhow stubborn Saul was, he told
him to be quiet and to listen.
He shared with the king what Godhad said to him the night before.
(05:33):
God said when he was a littleman in his own sight, God
made him king over all Israel.
Then we see that piercing questionthat begins with one word in
verse 19 of I Samuel chapter 15.
“Why?” “Why did you not obey thevoice of the Lord?” Why didn't
you do what God told you to do?
(05:55):
Now, of course, Samuel is notasking to get an answer out of Saul.
He's rebuking him.
If you're a parent, haven't you saidthe same thing to your children?
When you've told them not to do somethingand they do it anyway, how many times
have you said, “Why did you do that?”
You want to know whatyour child was thinking.
Now, of course, they're not goingto give you a sensible answer most
(06:18):
of the time because they don't evenunderstand themselves why they did it.
Now, I'm not saying it's asilly question to ask them why.
We know that it's proper because God isasking Saul that very question, knowing
that he's not going to get an honestanswer out of him, at least at first.
When God asks man, why he's not lookingfor information; he's giving correction.
(06:41):
That's a question we needto hear God asking us.
Instead of secretly criticizing Godand being angry with Him because
of what's happened, instead ofasking Him why, we might need to
ask ourselves the same question.
That's especially true ifwe're having trouble because
of sinful decisions we've made.
(07:01):
The Bible says in Galatians six,verse seven that we reap what we sow.
In Proverbs 13, verse 15, the Biblesays the way of transgressors is hard.
When we sin, we pay for it.
We suffer because of sin.
We feel guilt and pain in life,and we ask God “Why?” When we
(07:21):
should be asking ourselves why.
Of course, I'm talking about theproblems we have because of our sins.
I realize there are other timeswhere we're not directly responsible.
Not all suffering in this lifeis the direct result of our sins.
We will talk about that more inlater lessons, but even then, if
(07:43):
we're not directly responsiblefor the hardships that we endure,
we are still sinful people.
We're prideful people.
And if we know that we have sinnedand we're suffering because of it, we
certainly don't need to complain to God.
We need to ask ourselves whyon earth we said what we did
or committed what we have done.
We need to ask, “Why did I do that?” andthen learn from it and if need be, repent.
(08:10):
But God also asked Saulanother why question.
He said, “Why did you swoop down on thespoil?” Now the spoil of war here was
the good livestock of the Amalekites.So the real answer to the question,
“Why did you do all this and not obeyme?” is because Saul was being selfish.
He didn't do God's will.
(08:32):
He followed his own will.
Now, this kind of correction from aprophet of God should have brought
him to his knees, but it didn't.
Incredibly, he was so stubbornthat he still insisted that he
had done what God told him to do.
In verse 20, he said, “But I haveobeyed the commandment of the Lord.”
(08:52):
As we look at that story, we wonder“What's wrong with this man's thinking?
Has he lost his mind?” But the way he'sarguing is no different from anyone
today who's trying to justify his sin.
People say ridiculousthings when they're caught.
They're not rational when they'retrying to justify their behavior.
(09:13):
After Samuel rebuked Saul again,the king finally gave in and
admitted what he had done.
He admitted and confessedthat he had sinned.
Now the sad part is that it wasnot a clean confession because he
blamed the people for pressuring him.
This man's life was full of troubleuntil the day that he took his own life.
(09:34):
So in his case, the answer to the question“Why?” was staring him in the mirror.
Ironically, God posed the samequestion to the next king of
Israel who was a much better man.
David's life was a sharpcontrast of blessings and curses.
He was a loyal and brave youngman, and the people loved him.
(09:55):
He was a man of faith.
A man, God said, was aman after his own heart.
And the more he trusted God,the more he accomplished.
But Saul was jealous of Davidand he did his best to kill him.
Some of the Psalms appear tohave been written during this
uncertain time in his life.
No one had to teach Davidthat life is unfair.
(10:16):
He lived it.
And you see that in some ofthe Psalms that he wrote.
He cried out to God in Psalm 13 andsaid, “Why, Lord?” But when Saul
died, David's burden was lifted.
He went from being huntedlike an animal to sitting on
the throne of Israel as king.
He had wealth, power, fame,and the loyalty of his army.
(10:38):
God gave him victory over his enemies.
So in the life of this great man, we seea lesson that applies to each one of us.
Life is not all good, butlife is not all bad either.
If life were always good, we wouldn'tappreciate what we have, but if life had
only bad days, our spirit would faint.
(10:59):
God designed this mixture.
He keeps it in place.
In Ecclesiastes seven, verse 14, theBible says, “In the day of prosperity,
be joyful. But in the day of adversity,consider; surely God has appointed the one
as well as the other, so that man can findout nothing that will come after him.”
(11:20):
So now that things are better,what did David do in this more
blessed stage of his life?
He made the biggest mistake of his life.
You see, before, while he wasgoing through so much trouble,
he was alert spiritually.
He had his guard up.
That was necessary to protect his life.
But now that he had the securityof being the most powerful man in
(11:43):
the world, he dropped his guard.
It happened on that fatefulevening in II Samuel when he saw a
beautiful woman from his housetop.
He took her and committedadultery with her.
She was the wife of oneof his loyal soldiers.
As a result of this affair, shebecame pregnant with his child.
Almost unbelievably, he came upwith a plan to avoid embarrassment.
(12:06):
He gave the husband of this woman leave togo and be with his wife so that it would
appear that he was the father of the childand no one would think anything about it.
But this husband, whose name was Uriah,was the better man in this instance.
He refused to go home and enjoytime with his wife because the
security of David, the king and thenation depended on men like him.
(12:31):
As a result, David even moreincredibly told Joab, the ruthless
captain of his army, to set up Uriahin battle so that he would die.
David then took the man's wife,Bathsheba, and he married her.
Here again, we see a principlethat we must remember in the
study of the problem of evil.
It's that same principle of sowing andreaping in Galatians six, verse seven.
(12:56):
Whatever a man sowsthat shall he also reap.
God rewarded David for his goodnessbefore, and now he's about to
repay him for the evil that he did.
The prophet Nathan came to David afterthis with a story in II Samuel chapter 12.
He told the king about a certainpoor man that had a special lamb.
(13:18):
He loved and cherished this pet.
A certain rich man in the same citywho had a great abundance of livestock
was being visited by a traveler.
So instead of killing one of hisown animals for the meal he took
the poor man's one little lamband killed it for his guest.
David had been a fair manin general in his life.
(13:40):
He saw right and wrong in termsof black and white, and when he
heard this story, he was furious.
He was so angry at the rich manin this story that he prescribed
a penalty that was beyond whatthe law of Moses even required.
The law said that a man who hadstolen sheep was to pay the owner
four times what he had stolen.
(14:02):
But David said in this case,the rich man would die in
addition to paying this amount.
He was oblivious to the meaning of thestory, but his heart was pierced when
the prophet told him, “You are the man”[second Samuel chapter 12, verse seven].
The rich man in the story was David,The king saw evil in someone else, but
(14:26):
he was blind to sin in his own life.
Nathan went on to explain, “You are theman, Thus says the Lord God of Israel,
I anointed you king over Israel. Idelivered you from the hand of Saul.”
Now, here we find again, a remarkable yetnot so surprising aspect of our nature.
(14:47):
When times are hard, we pray to God,but when times are better and we have
it good, we forget God and we forgetquickly what he had done for us.
A soldier in the Civil War kepta diary like many of them did.
He wrote that when there was apause in the fighting, the soldiers
would cuss and gamble and drink, butwhen the cannons started firing at
(15:09):
them again, they would pray to God.
A Vietnam soldier said it this way.
In his diary, he said, “I am anatheist until the shooting starts.”
David was not an atheist or a drunkard.
But he did forget what God had done forhim when he was being chased by Saul.
He thought that he was going to die.
(15:30):
In fact, in his mind hewas quite sure of it.
He said, “I will perish somedayby the hand of Saul” [First Samuel
27, verse one]. He even said,“There is but a step between me and
death” [I Samuel 20, verse three].
That's how David felt, but he was wrong.
(15:50):
God spared his life.
God gave him his lifeback and much, much more.
God said through the prophet Nathan,“I gave you your master's house and
your master's wives into your keepingand gave you the house of Israel and
Judah. And if that had been too little,I also would have given you much more.”
(16:12):
How amazing.
God said I gave you all this and ifthat wasn't enough, if you wanted
more, I would have done it for you.
Then comes the question from God.
Why?
“Why have you despised the commandmentof the Lord to do evil in his sight?
You have killed Uriah, theHittite with the sword.
(16:33):
You have taken his wife to beyour wife and have killed him with
the sword of the people of Ammon.
Now, therefore, the sword shall neverdepart from your house, because you have
despised me and have taken the wife ofUriah the Hittite, to be your wife.”
How do you explain this?
David had cried out to God “Why?”when he was down and afraid.
(16:56):
Now God is asking him the same question.
If we think that the problem ofevil is a great mystery, then
how do we explain human behavior?
Centuries later, the people ofJudah had turned away from God.
They served idols and lived sinful lives.
God sent the prophetJeremiah to warn them.
(17:16):
He preached to these people for 40 years.
He told them their nation wouldfall to the enemy and even named
the enemy—the Babylonians—butthese Jews mocked Jeremiah.
They put him in prison.
They threatened his life.
This godly man had trouble understandingwhy God sent him on this mission.
He brought up the problem of evil to God.
(17:38):
When he asked, “Why does the way ofthe wicked prosper—that's in Jeremiah
chapter 12—he even accused God ofdeceiving him about what he would
experience at the hands of the Jews.
He reached the point where he wasso discouraged that he decided to
quit, but he couldn't because hisconviction in the word of God, he said,
(17:59):
was like a burning fire within him.
After 40 years of rejecting Jeremiah'swarnings, the Babylonians attacked.
They broke down their walls.
They burned their houses.
They killed the old peopleand the little children.
They raped the women.
They left others to starve.
War truly brings out the worst in people.
(18:20):
Some read the Bible and ask how a lovingGod could bring such suffering on people.
But the real question is, why didn'tthey listen to God who gave them
every good thing that they had?
They could have avoided this calamity.
They had plenty of time to turn thenation around, but they only grew worse.
The prophet Jeremiah alsowrote the Book of Lamentations.
(18:43):
This book is about the terrible sufferingof the people left in Jerusalem.
After the war buildings were on fire,dead bodies were in the streets, little
children were crying out for help.
The people were starving.
Some of the women evenate their own children.
Hear some of the versesthat talk about this.
“Arise, cry out in the night atthe beginning of the watches.
(19:06):
Pour out your heart like waterbefore the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward him for the lifeof your young children who faint from
hunger at the head of every street.
See, oh Lord, and consider,to whom have you done this?
Should the women eat their offspring?
The children, they have cuddled.
(19:27):
Should the priest and prophet be slainin the sanctuary of the Lord, young and
old lie on the ground in the streets.
My virgins and my young menhave fallen by the sword.
You have slain them inthe day of your anger.
You have slaughtered and not pitied”[Lamentations two verses 19 through 21].
In Lamentations four verse four, the Biblesays, “The tongue of the infant clings
(19:53):
to the roof of its mouth for thirst.
The young children ask for bread,but no one breaks it for them.” Verse
six in Lamentations four says, “Thepunishment of the iniquity of the
daughter of my people is greater thanthe punishment of the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment.”
Verse eight says, “Now theirappearance is blacker than soot.
(20:15):
They go unrecognized in the streets.
Their skin clings to their bones.
It has become as dry as wood.”
“Those slain by the sword are betteroff than those who die of hunger.
For these pine away, stricken forlack of the fruits of the field.”
“The hands of the compassionate womenhave cooked their own children. They
(20:39):
became food for them in the destructionof the daughter of my people.”
In the middle of these horrifyingimages, chapter three goes to
the heart of the situation.
Here Jeremiah talks aboutthe problem of evil.
This is a great chapter to rememberwhen you think about this subject
in Lamentations chapter three.
Jeremiah seems to be speakingon behalf of the whole nation.
(21:03):
Their pain and suffering is great,and it's interesting that several
verses in Lamentations three arevery similar to the Book of Job.
The book of Job in chapter six,verse four says, “The arrows of
the Almighty are within me.” In Jobchapter seven, verse 20, he said
that God was using him for a target.
(21:23):
Now this sounds very much like whatwe read in Lamentations chapter
three, verse 12, where Jeremiahsaid he has “bent his bow and set
me up as a target for the arrow.”
Job said, “You hunt me like afierce lion.” Jeremiah said God
was like a lion waiting to ambushhim in Lamentations three verse 10.
(21:44):
Job said the people taunted himand his name was a by word to
the people [Job 30 verse nine].
Jeremiah said, “I have become the ridiculeof all my people, their taunting song all
the day” [Lamentations three verse 14].
Job said we receive good and evilfrom God [Job chapter two, verse 10].
(22:07):
Jeremiah also said, “Both wellbeingand woe proceed from the mouth of the
Lord” [Lamentations three, verse 38].
If you want to learn more about theproblem of sin and suffering, read and
learn all you can in these two booksof the Bible about these two men.
One of the themes that Jeremiahmentions in Lamentations three
(22:29):
is the fact that God is a God ofmercy as well as a God of wrath.
Romans 11, verse 22 says,“Behold therefore the goodness
and the severity of God.”
God is both good and severe.
He is both loving and just.
Jeremiah teaches great lessonsabout suffering in this chapter.
One is that there is a good sideto suffering at the hand of God.
(22:54):
“The Lord is good to those who wait forhim, he says to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should hope and waitquietly for the salvation of the Lord. It
is good for a man to bear the yoke in hisyouth” [Lamentations 3:25 through 27].
Another tremendous pointis in verses 32 and 33.
(23:17):
“Though He causes grief, yet Hewill show compassion according to
the multitude of his mercies, forHe does not afflict, willingly nor
grieve the children of men.” God getsno pleasure out of causing us pain.
He does it for our good.
And here's the point that we've beenlooking at in verse 39, he asked,
(23:39):
“Why should a living man complain, aman for the punishment of his sin?”
You talk about a “why” question.
This is certainly one here.
Instead of pointing the finger at God andasking God why, and even criticizing God,
there are many people in the world todaythat need to ask themselves this question.
What am I complaining about?
(24:01):
Why am I complaining when Ibrought this suffering on myself?
Again, I want to qualify this andadmit that not all suffering, not
all trouble in this lifetime, isthe direct result of our sins.
But some of it is, and when that's thecase, instead of turning away from God
in anger, we need to turn toward him inhumility and in the fear of the Lord.
(24:25):
Now in regard to these Jews in the daysof Jeremiah the prophet, we find that they
were complaining about their calamities.
We see that in the book of Ezekiel.
Even these Jews were complainingabout what had happened
when they were responsible.
Why should the Jews complainabout their calamities?
They were the ones who caused them them.
(24:45):
And yet this is the very thingthat many people do today.
So here are three pointed examplesof God asking men, “Why did you
do that?” He asked King Saul this.
He asked David this.
He asked the Jews this and bringsit up in Lamentations chapter three.
And I would urge you, as you readthe Old Testament, especially
(25:06):
to keep your eye out for that.
Look and see how many times thepeople of Israel fell into sin, and
God asked them (25:12):
Why did you do that?
Why did you turn away from meafter all that I've done for you?
After all that you have seen allthe miracles that I have done in
your presence, all the power andlove that I've shown, how could
you and why would you disobey me?
It's a funny thing about human naturethat man will complain about what's
(25:33):
happening to him and yet at the sametime he doesn't notice the things
that he's doing willfully in his life.
So this question is a powerful questionthat needs to be turned on mankind, and
we can do that and be more humble andlearn to live for God and have a better
attitude if we'll just sometimes do this.
But let's take what we'redoing a little bit further.
(25:55):
Look at this question whyfrom some other points of view
that I believe will help us.
There are other ways in whichwe need to ask the question why.
When we're tempted to be angry withGod, for instance, instead of asking
the question, “Why are all thesebad things happening to me? I don't
deserve this,” maybe we need to askthe question, “Why are all these
(26:19):
good things happening in my life?
I didn't deserve them either.” Oftentimeswe talk about what we don't deserve
when we're talking about or thinkingabout something bad, and we don't ask
the question (26:31):
Did I deserve all the good things that I have in my life?
We need to count our blessings.
We need to realize that life isnot about getting what you deserve.
It's not about fairness and equality.
Eternity will take care of that,In this life, there will always be
inequality, there will be unfairness,there will be things that we deserve.
(26:54):
There will be things that wedon't deserve in this life.
That's the nature of this life.
So again, instead of focusing onthe question why do I have these
bad things in my life, maybe we needto ask the question why do I have
all these good things in my life?
And that might turn usa little closer to God.
When we ask the question, “Why me, Lord?”maybe we need to turn that around and
(27:19):
ask the question, “Why not me?” Whatmakes me any different from anybody else?
Why should I not have to go through this?
Other people do.
Why should I be the exception?
Sometimes we get so focused and fixedon our own problems that we fail to
see other people around us, even rightnext to us that are going through
(27:40):
the same thing or even worse in life.
Sometimes we have that kindof self-centered attitude
in view of ourselves.
Here's another way to lookat this “Why” question.
Sometimes we wonder why Godeven made this universe.
We question why He put us hereknowing that we would go through all
this pain and all this suffering.
(28:00):
Why would God do that?
So in other words, we sometimes can getto the point to where we question or even
criticize God for his decision to create.
You talk about man getting out of hisplace to question not just how God
manages the world presently, but toquestion and even criticize him for
(28:21):
making the decision to create all this!
And yet sometimes that iseither done or it's insinuated.
There was a man named Job that wasquestioning God along this line,
and God had some questions for himin Job chapters 38 and following.
Now we're going to talk about thatlater, Lord willing, in our studies.
But for now, I just want you to thinkabout how arrogant really that is—for
(28:46):
a human being to question God and tocriticize God about that kind of decision.
But if we wonder out of pain and outof sincerity why God made the world and
put us here, knowing that we would gothrough all this pain and suffering, maybe
we need to turn that question around.
Maybe we need to, as parents, askourselves the same kind of question.
(29:07):
Why do we as parents bring children intothis world knowing that they will suffer
pain and great heartache in their lives?
Why would man question God and notquestion himself about the same thing?
Are you beginning to see that it'snot a good idea to ask God questions
without being ready to answer His?
(29:29):
Thank you for listeningto my God and My Neighbor.
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite, and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate programs.
(29:49):
Study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com