June 4, 2025 • 30 mins
People have debated this question for thousands of years. We read about it many times in the Bible. We seem to be agreed on the general principle but divided as to how it applies to specific situations.
This is not just some abstract, philosophical discussion. It is very practical. It is very personal. And we will learn important lessons in the examples we will look at in this episode.
Read about this subject
- Scriptures: John 9:1-3; Luke 13:1-3; Job 4:7-8
- “Seven Ways Men Fight Against God”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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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.
In John chapter nine, verses onethrough three, we read these words:
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“Now as Jesus passed by, He sawa man who was blind from birth.
And his disciples asked Him saying,‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?’Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor
his parents sinned, but that the worksof God should be revealed in him.’”
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Is suffering caused by sin?
Are natural disasters likehurricanes and tornadoes punishment
from God for evil that people do?
There are many verses in the Biblethat talk about this, and one of them
is the story in John chapter nine.
This man was blind.
He was born blind.
People back in those days didn't havethe medical knowledge that we have today.
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But when certain things happened overand over, they began to take notice.
They knew about sexually transmitteddiseases, and they put two and two
together when they noticed thatbabies who were born blind were often
born of mothers who had contracteda sexually transmitted disease.
Medical Doctor, S.I. McMillen wroteabout this in his interesting book
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“None of These Diseases.” This view,however, although true in some or
even in many cases, was evidently socommon that when anyone was born with
this condition of blindness, it wasautomatically assumed that a disease
associated with sexual sin was the cause.
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That's why the disciplesasked Jesus this question.
They didn't ask Him, “Did sincause him to be born blind?”
That wasn't their question.
They assumed that sin was the cause.
Their question was more specific.
They wanted to know who hadsinned and caused this blindness?
Was it the blind manhimself or his parents?
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Now, it seems strange to us that theywould think the blind man himself could
have caused this condition of blindness.
How could he have sinnedbefore he was born?
Evidently, some ancient Jewish rabbisactually thought this was possible.
Exactly what kind of sin an unborninfant could have committed in
their thinking is hard to say.
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And whether the disciples had heardthat idea or not, we don't know.
Maybe that's what they werethinking, or maybe it was
something else they had in mind.
The Bible doesn't answer that part ofthe question, but we know that it is a
completely false idea because babies arenot guilty of sin before they're born or
after they're born [as infants, that is].
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And it is interesting thatJesus didn't stop to correct
them about this assumption.
He did teach in other passages atother times that little children are
innocent of sin [Matthew 18, one throughfour and Matthew 19:13 through 16].
But still this shows that thedisciples are thinking that
sin caused his condition.
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The other alternative they mentionedmakes more sense from their point of view.
That is, maybe the parents sinned.
It is true that a parent or parents whohave contracted sexually transmitted
diseases can cause health problems intheir offspring, and what a terrible
price children sometimes have to pay.
They pay for the sins of their parents,not because they are guilty, but
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because that is the nature of this life.
Innocent people sometimes sufferbecause of the sins of others.
So in the mind of the disciples,were the parents responsible
for this man's blindness?
His parents were still alive because weread about them later in the same chapter.
These are the two alternativesin the mind of the disciples.
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They don't mention any other people or anyother possible causes of this blindness.
It's easy for us to criticize thembecause we have so much medical
knowledge available to us today.
They were not that fortunate.
They saw people suffering andtried to figure it out and deal
with it the best they could.
Sometimes their assumptions were wrong.
Sometimes their conclusions were false.
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But the one thing they were fairly settledon was that sin causes this condition.
So here is a Bible example of aclear case of suffering, and the
question about it was definite.
And so was Jesus’ answer.
The first word He said,corrected their thinking.
He said neither—neither the blindman sinned nor did his parents
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sin to cause this condition.
Sin was not the cause of his suffering.
Sin may have been the cause inother cases of blindness, but it
was not the cause in this situation.
So this one passage shows that notall suffering is caused by sin.
We can't say that every timesomebody is sick or handicapped,
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that God is punishing that person.
Some suffering is directly caused by sin,but not all suffering is caused by sin.
That is, in a direct sense.
I say “directly” because you could saythat all our physical suffering goes
back to Adam and Eve's sin in the garden.
We don't inherit the guilt oftheir sin and our suffering is
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not punishment for their sin.
But we do suffer indirectlybecause of Adam and Eve's sin.
But the disciples we'renot talking about that.
They we're asking more than that.
They were looking at sin committedby someone much closer to the
situation, but Jesus didn't goany farther with their question.
He didn't explain the differentreasons why people suffer.
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Instead of looking at what causedthis man to be blind, He talked about
the purpose that his condition wouldserve in God's plan for His Son.
That purpose was that the worksof God should be revealed in him.
Jesus was about to give this blindman sight and that miracle would
glorify God and reveal His Son.
In Luke chapter 13 verses one throughfive, we read a similar story.
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There, the Bible says, “There werepresent at that season some who told Him
about the Galileans whose blood Pilatehad mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Doyou suppose that these Galileans were
worse sinners than all other Galileansbecause they suffered such things?
I tell you, no.
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But unless you repent, youwill all likewise perish.
Or those eighteen on whom the towerand Siloam fell and killed them, do you
think that they were worse sinners thanall other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you no, but unless you repent,you will all likewise perish.”
Jesus talks about two tragedies, andHe asked the same question about both.
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The first one was an execution.
The Bible doesn't tell us theirnames or why this happened,
but Pilate had them killed.
He mingled, the Bible says, theirblood with their sacrifices.
These were evidently Jews whowere offering their sacrifices
at the temple when Roman soldierssent by Pilate struck them dead.
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Some people told Jesus about this.
We don't know who they were or all oftheir motives for telling him about it.
Many Jews hated the Roman government.
A killing like this would'veinfuriated those Jews.
On the other hand, there were Jewsthat hated Jesus and they tried
to lure him into criticizing theRoman government so that they would
have something to use against him.
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But this was a public executionthat Pilate instigated, and it was
no doubt a news story of the day.
Jesus didn't comment on whetherPilate was right or wrong.
He didn't talk about what these Galileanshad done or were accused of doing.
Instead, He did the same thingwe just saw in John chapter nine.
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He used this story to teacha higher moral lesson.
The people that told Him about thisincident were focused on the people
involved, and especially the two groupsthey represented—the Jews and the Romans.
That's what most people do today.
When they hear about some calamity,they focus on the physical,
personal aspects of the situation.
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They talk about what happened,where it happened, how and why
it happened, whose fault it was,and what should be done about it.
Those things have a place no doubt, butGod-fearing people see higher principles
and they see deeper lessons in tragedy.
That's one of the lessons we ought tolearn from this story in Luke chapter 13.
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Now, it appears that the people who toldJesus about this killing had the idea that
these Galileans were bad people, perhapsworse than most people, and that was the
reason why they died this horrible death.
Jesus said, “Do you suppose thatthese Galileans were worse sinners
than all other Galileans becausethey suffered such things?” Was that
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the reason this happened to them?
And Jesus gave a quick reply.
He said no.
He said you can't draw that conclusion.
Just because something bad happens to aperson does not always mean he deserved it
or that he deserved it more than others.
Life is not equal in howjustice is administered.
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Sometimes people getwhat's coming to them.
Sometimes they don't.
Sometimes people deserve what happensto them, and sometimes they do not.
Now, that is why the human race criesout to God every da, “It's not fair.”
Then Jesus brought up anothertragedy that they did not mention.
A tower in Siloam fell on18 people and killed them.
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Jesus asked the same question about them.
“Do you think that they were worsesinners than all other men who dwelt in
Jerusalem?” In the first case about theGalileans Pilate killed, He asked, “Do you
suppose?” and this time “He asked, “Do youthink?” This seems to indicate that they
had the kind of idea that we're talkingabout—the view that most, if not all,
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suffering in life is caused by our sins.
Did God cause the tower in Siloam to fallbecause these 18 people were the worst
sinners in Jerusalem and deserved to die?
Jesus again answers no.
That was not the reason accidents happen.
Not everything that happens is an actof God in the way that people use that
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phrase, that is, an act of special divineintervention to bring justice on earth.
But again, Jesus didn'tdwell on these calamities.
He could have said manythings about both tragedies.
He could have explained many aspectsabout these situations, but He raised
the discussion to a higher plane.
These people talked about the physicalearthly trials that people experienced.
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Jesus made the whole discussionmore personal and more spiritual.
No, He said, is the answer to thequestion about whether these people
who died were any worse than others.
But He turned their attentioninwardly to themselves.
He said, “But unless you repent,you will all likewise perish.” The
people who told Him about othersneeded to look at themselves.
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They were sinners who needed torepent, and they still had time.
The ones who died in those calamitiescould not, and we need to remember
that when we hear people talking abouttragedies and they tend to stop short of
any kind of spiritual application withthem, it's all about the earthly side.
We need to train ourselves toremember the higher principles
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involved in these kinds of eventsand then teach them to other people.
It's interesting that many other people inthe Bible had the same view of suffering.
Do you remember the story of Joseph?
His brothers sold him intobondage and he ended up in Egypt.
But God was with him and blessed him.
He became a powerful man in Egypt.
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As a matter of fact, he became thesecond highest ranking man in the nation.
And when his brothers came beforehim looking for food over 20 years
later, they didn't realize thatthey were standing before their
brother that they had betrayed.
When they came before him thissecond time, Joseph was very stern
with them in Genesis chapter 42.
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They were naturally afraid of what thispowerful Egyptian might do to them.
It's almost human nature that whenwe are afraid and distressed, we
tend to look inside ourselves.
We examine our lives and feelguilty for things that we have done.
That's what happened withReuben, one of Joseph's brothers,
when they were before Joseph.
Genesis 42:22 says, “And Reubenanswered them saying, ‘Did I not speak
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to you saying, ‘Do not sin againstthe boy and you would not listen.
Therefore, behold, his blood isnow required of us.’” The guilt
of what they had done to youngJoseph was still weighing heavy on
their hearts all those years later.
We have to remember that God madeus with a conscience just as he made
Ruben and everyone else in the Bible.
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Even though we don't always followour conscience, and even though our
thoughts about right and wrong may notbe correct in every case, that God-given
capacity causes us to feel guilty.
We yearn for release fromthat guilt from inside us.
We even expect that we will have topay for what we've done in some way.
So when tragedy strikes, it's natural forus to wonder if it's because we've sinned.
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Now again, it may or it may not be.
I'm only talking about the feeling here.
It happened with Reuben,and it happens today.
Reuben thought that after all those years,their sin was about to catch up with them.
He was wrong, of course, because Josephtreated them very kindly after this.
But it does show that this isvery common to feel this way.
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Another story is inFirst Kings chapter 17.
When the son of the widow in Zarephathdied, she told Elijah, “What have I
to do with you, O man of God? Haveyou come to me to bring my sin to
remembrance and to kill my son?”That's First Kings 17, verse 18.
Being in the presence of aprophet of God may have inclined
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her to feel this way even more.
She thought the death of herson was punishment for her sin.
Little did she know, though, that Elijahwas about to bring her son back to life.
Another story is in Acts chapter 28when Paul and others suffered shipwreck
and were stranded on an island.
An interesting story occurred.
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The Bible says in Acts chapter28, verse one, “Now when they
had escaped, they then found outthat the island was called Malta.
The natives showed us unusual kindness,for they kindled a fire and made us
all welcome because of the rain thatwas falling and because of the cold.
But when Paul had gathered a bundleof sticks and laid them on the
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fire, a viper came out because ofthe heat and fastened on his hand.
So when the natives saw the creaturehanging from his hand, they said
one to another, “No doubt, thisman is a murderer, whom though he
has escaped the sea, yet justicedoes not allow him to live.
But he shook off the creatureinto the fire and felt no harm.
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However, they were expecting that hewould swell up or suddenly fall down dead.
But after they had looked for a longtime and saw no harm come to him, they
changed their minds and said that hewas a God [Acts 28, 1 through six].
These people were superstitious, buttheir idea of paying for sin in tragedies
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of life was really no different thanthe other stories that we've read.
What they said about Paul's snakebite was no different than what the
disciples asked Jesus about concerningthe blind man in John chapter nine.
Even though they were superstitiousto the point of saying that Paul
was a God after nothing happenedto him after he was bitten, they
had the same feeling, they had thesame view, about calamities in life.
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This kind of thinking is almostageless and universal among mankind.
And not surprisingly, we find anotherexample in the book of Job Job's
three friends were guilty of falselyaccusing him because this is what
they thought about his situation.
Eliphaz, who was the first tospeak to Job, told Job that he
was reaping what he had sown.
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He said, “Remember now, whoever perishedbeing innocent, or where were the upright
ever cut off? Even as I have seen, thosewho plow iniquity and sow trouble reap
the same” [Job four, seven and eight].
Throughout the book of Job, heheld his ground against his three
friends who said this about him.
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He maintained his innocence.
And in the end, God said that he wasright and his three friends were wrong.
But there is one statement Job madethat shows that he realized that
he had not lived a perfect life.
He accused God of punishinghim for those sins.
It's not that he was a hypocrite, but hehad done some things when he was younger
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that he thought God was punishing him for.
In Job chapter 13 verse 26, here'swhat he said to God: “For you write
bitter things against me and make meinherit the iniquities of my youth.”
But Job was wrong about that.
God was not behind his suffering at all.
Satan was the one who wastormenting Job, not God.
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We need to remember that Job was agood man, but he was still a man,
and when he was down and depressedwith all of his pain and loss and
grief, he began to look at his lifein ways that he never had before.
He felt that he had no future before him.
In fact, he wanted to die andput an end to all his suffering.
He couldn't figure out whyGod was allowing him to live.
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And we're no different.
When we reach a point in life wherewe think we have no future or very
little future left, and when we don'tenjoy the present, we tend to look
back over our shoulder at the past.
Now, this is very commonwhen you get older.
When you're young, your mindis oriented toward the future.
You think about everythingthat you want to do.
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It feels like the wholeworld is open to you.
When you're older, you tendto look back at the past and
sometimes think about it too much.
You may try to live in the past,or you might let the past burden
you with guilt and depression.
It can be hard even forChristians to escape this.
Our mind can go back like Reuben'smind did to something we did 20,
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30, or 40 years ago, and sometimeswe have to work hard to remind
ourselves that God has forgiven us.
As the old saying goes, wecan be our own worst enemies.
It can be easier to say tosomeone, “I forgive you” than
it is to forgive ourselves.
This takes a great deal of faith.
That's really what it comes down to.
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The devil will tempt Christiansto feel guilty about things that
they have already been forgiven of.
He does that to confuse,to discourage, to distract.
It's hard to get much done for theLord when you're chained to the past.
Even David in the Biblefaced this challenge of life.
When you read the book of Psalms, you'llnotice that two things go together.
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One of them is the trials andtribulations David is facing, and
the other is how he examines himselfand humbles himself before God.
That's the good side of thisstruggle we're talking about.
It causes us to examineourselves spiritually—our
hearts, our words, our actions.
When David was at his lowest point,he looked up to the Most High.
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When he felt the pain and sorrows oflife, he looked to God for comfort.
And when he was in great distress, healso looked inwardly to examine himself.
He didn't hesitate toconfess his sins before God.
In Psalm 51, which appears to havebeen written about his awful sins with
Bathsheba, we find a great example.
Psalm 32 is anotherPsalm about forgiveness.
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And notice also in Psalm 25 thatDavid had the same thought or feeling
that Job had about things that hehad done when he was a young man.
We don't know these specifics.
We don't know exactly what Job did orwhat David did when they were young,
but we do read in Psalm 25, verse seventhat David said these words to God.
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‘Do not remember the sins of my youth, normy transgressions according to your mercy.
Remember me for Your goodnesssake, O Lord.’ Again, here's the
same old feeling when trials come.
We don't enjoy them, obviously,but anyone who has an even halfway
healthy conscience, will look at hislife and ask himself if he caused the
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situation in some way, or if he isin some way reaping what he has sown.
How do we deal with that feelingwhen it gets out of hand though?
How can we keep that feeling fromcrippling our spiritual life?
David is a great example.
Just think about what he did.
He took another man's wife.
He committed adultery with her.
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When he found out that she was pregnant,he had her husband killed, and then he
took the woman to be his wife to tryto hide his sin, but that didn't work.
As a matter of fact, David did pay forwhat he had done for the rest of his life.
In second Samuel chapter 12, Nathanthe prophet told David that the sword
would never depart from his house.
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He said that God would raise upevil from his own house or family.
His own children, grown children,would give him all kinds of trouble.
That's exactly what they did.
One of his sons raped his half-sister.
Another one of his sonskilled that brother.
Absalom, one of David's sons, decidedthat he wanted to take the throne
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away from his father and be the king.
That started a war in Israelthat left many people dead and
almost wrecked that nation.
Then David's top military man Joab killedAbsalom, and that almost killed David.
He mourned and grieved for him fordays, even though he was the son that
was trying to take away everythingthat David had had and built.
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Have you ever wondered how Davidwas able to survive mentally,
emotionally, and spiritually after this?
In some cases in our life,we question whether we have
brought suffering on ourselves.
David didn't have to questionthis part of his life.
He knew that he had broughtthis suffering on himself.
So how did he make it through this?
In the book of Psalms, we find the key.
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Not every Psalm was writtenabout what his children had done,
but some of them probably were.
Even the Psalms where he talks abouthis troubles that didn't involve
his children still help us tounderstand how he made it through.
It's very simple, although itcan be very difficult to do.
He simply put his trustand his faith in God.
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There is no secret formula.
There is no magical trick that we cando to deal with this kind of pain.
It's simply and solely a matter of faith.
And that doesn't just mean thatDavid trusted in God to get him
through this situation until he died.
It means that David had faith that Godhad forgiven him of his sin that caused
these very problems that he was facing.
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Think about how difficult thismust have been for David when one
of his children gave him trouble.
He knew that it was punishmentfor his sins because Nathan
the prophet told him so.
In our lives, sometimes we knowthat we've not done the right thing
as parents and we pay a price.
But at the same time, there are othertimes where our children do things
on their own and it is in no waysome kind of punishment for our sins.
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Children that are grown are responsiblefor what they do, but even if we have
failed in some way as parents and we'repaying the price for that failure, we know
as Christians that we can be forgiven.
Not only that, we can know that weare right with God, even though that
situation keeps blowing up in our face.
That's exactly what happened with David.
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It seems that every time he turnedaround in the book of Second Samuel,
after he had sinned with Bathsheba,that one of his children gave him grief.
How in the world did David keepfrom going crazy, especially since
he knew that he was to blame?
He accepted God's forgiveness.
He trusted in God's mercy.
And we know this because of what'ssaid in Hebrews 11, verse 32.
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David is in glory now.
He's not feeling guilty anymore.
So in these verses, we see avery important lesson about the
problem of suffering in this life.
Sometimes we bring suffering on ourselves.
Sometimes the suffering comesas a result of our actions.
At other times, it's not trouble on theoutside, but the pain comes from within,
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from our memories and from our conscience.
Sometimes we are right in thinkingthat we caused some of the problems
and sometimes we are wrong in feelingthat the trial we're facing is some
kind of punishment for our sins.
We have to look at our livesand be honest about that.
But I can say this as a preacher,that after decades of preaching,
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it is very common for Christiansto feel unnecessarily guilty.
Christians are obviously moreconscientious than people who are lost.
There's a good side to beingconscientious, but there can
be a downside to it as well.
We must let God guide us in how we think.
That can be hard to do in a world wherepeople are always pointing fingers.
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It can be difficult when people judgeand even misjudge your situation,
especially when they've not beenthrough what you've been through.
We need to read and study the Bible more.
We need to pray and keep alevel head about these things.
We need to trust in God and have faith inhis forgiveness, and then patiently endure
the trials and tribulations of life.
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Sometimes we can go too farwith this question of why.
Sometimes we don't know the reason, andeven if we do, it may not help us to
know as much as we thought it would.
The most important thing to dois to deal with the suffering.
That's more importantthan why it's happening.
You can't always knowwhy a trial's happening.
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You may not even need to knowwhy, or at least some of the
time, you may not need to know.
But what you do need to know is how weshould deal with this problem and how
we should not deal with the problem.
Sometimes this same questionemerges on a larger scale.
What about diseases and naturaldisasters that affect a lot of people?
Are these calamities punishments from God?
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There's no doubt that the Bible showsGod using these troubles to punish men.
The great flood wasdefinitely punishment for sin.
Solomon prayed to God inFirst Kings chapter eight.
And he asked for mercy for thenation of Israel “when the heavens
are shut up and there is no rainbecause they have sinned against you.”
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That's First Kings eight verse 35.
In the Book of Job, the young manElihu said God uses the elements of
rain and wind for different reasons.
He said He causes it to come “whetherfor correction or for his land
or for mercy” [Job 37 verse 13].
Sometimes God sends drought andother disasters to humble men
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and bring them to repentance.
The prophet Amos said God sentnatural disasters upon Israel,
but they still wouldn't repent.
God said in Amos chapter four,also, “I gave you cleanness of
teeth in all your cities andlack of bread in all your places.
Yet you have not returnedto me, says the Lord.
I also withheld rain from you when therewere still three months to the harvest.
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I made it rain in one city.
I withheld rain from another city.
One part was rained upon and whereit did not rain the part withered.
So two or three cities wanderedto another city to drink water,
but they were not satisfied.
Yet you have not returnedto me, says the Lord.
I blasted you with blight and mildew.
When your gardens increased, yourvineyards, your fig trees, and your
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olive trees, the locust devoured them.
Yet you have not returnedto me, says the Lord.
I sent among you a plagueafter the manner of Egypt.
Your young man I killed with a swordalong with your captive horses.
I made the stench of your camps comeup to your nostrils, yet you have
not returned to me, says the Lord.”That's Amos four, six through 10.
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There are many other storiesin the Bible like this.
So the answer is yes, God does sendearthly calamities because of man's sins.
How and when He does this,we can't say for sure.
But there are definitely twoextremes that we need to avoid.
One is claiming that God never sendsthese kinds of afflictions today.
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Sometimes well-meaning Bible studentstake the examples Jesus gave in Luke
13 one through five and the caseof the blind man in John nine and
then they say that we can never saythat these things can be punishment
from God because of these passages.
But they're forgetting what a lotof other verses say about this.
Just because the suffering in thosetwo passages was not punishment
for sin does not mean that nosuffering ever is punishment for sin.
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The other extreme, of course, is to assumethat anytime you have a catastrophe,
it is punishment from God for sin.
This is the idea that all sufferingis the direct result of our sins.
That's what we spent most ofour time talking about today.
How could anyone know the mindof God on these things, though,
unless He were to reveal it?
Besides, the stories in Luke 13 and John9 show that this is not always the case.
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And the Book of Job certainly goesagainst making some kind of blanket
claim that wherever there is sufferingsin must be the direct cause.
Still, whether God intervenes ornot, the principle of sowing and
reaping is the general rule in life.
Whatever a man sows, that shall healso reap [Galatians six verse seven].
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We don't have to know whether God'shand was involved in a special way.
The important thing is that we repentof our sins, and that as Christians,
we grow in the grace and knowledge ofthe truth because of our suffering.
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
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or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate programs.
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.
In John chapter nine, verses onethrough three, we read these words:
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“Now as Jesus passed by, He sawa man who was blind from birth.
And his disciples asked Him saying,‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?’Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor
his parents sinned, but that the worksof God should be revealed in him.’”
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Is suffering caused by sin?
Are natural disasters likehurricanes and tornadoes punishment
from God for evil that people do?
There are many verses in the Biblethat talk about this, and one of them
is the story in John chapter nine.
This man was blind.
He was born blind.
People back in those days didn't havethe medical knowledge that we have today.
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But when certain things happened overand over, they began to take notice.
They knew about sexually transmitteddiseases, and they put two and two
together when they noticed thatbabies who were born blind were often
born of mothers who had contracteda sexually transmitted disease.
Medical Doctor, S.I. McMillen wroteabout this in his interesting book
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“None of These Diseases.” This view,however, although true in some or
even in many cases, was evidently socommon that when anyone was born with
this condition of blindness, it wasautomatically assumed that a disease
associated with sexual sin was the cause.
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That's why the disciplesasked Jesus this question.
They didn't ask Him, “Did sincause him to be born blind?”
That wasn't their question.
They assumed that sin was the cause.
Their question was more specific.
They wanted to know who hadsinned and caused this blindness?
Was it the blind manhimself or his parents?
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Now, it seems strange to us that theywould think the blind man himself could
have caused this condition of blindness.
How could he have sinnedbefore he was born?
Evidently, some ancient Jewish rabbisactually thought this was possible.
Exactly what kind of sin an unborninfant could have committed in
their thinking is hard to say.
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And whether the disciples had heardthat idea or not, we don't know.
Maybe that's what they werethinking, or maybe it was
something else they had in mind.
The Bible doesn't answer that part ofthe question, but we know that it is a
completely false idea because babies arenot guilty of sin before they're born or
after they're born [as infants, that is].
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And it is interesting thatJesus didn't stop to correct
them about this assumption.
He did teach in other passages atother times that little children are
innocent of sin [Matthew 18, one throughfour and Matthew 19:13 through 16].
But still this shows that thedisciples are thinking that
sin caused his condition.
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The other alternative they mentionedmakes more sense from their point of view.
That is, maybe the parents sinned.
It is true that a parent or parents whohave contracted sexually transmitted
diseases can cause health problems intheir offspring, and what a terrible
price children sometimes have to pay.
They pay for the sins of their parents,not because they are guilty, but
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because that is the nature of this life.
Innocent people sometimes sufferbecause of the sins of others.
So in the mind of the disciples,were the parents responsible
for this man's blindness?
His parents were still alive because weread about them later in the same chapter.
These are the two alternativesin the mind of the disciples.
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They don't mention any other people or anyother possible causes of this blindness.
It's easy for us to criticize thembecause we have so much medical
knowledge available to us today.
They were not that fortunate.
They saw people suffering andtried to figure it out and deal
with it the best they could.
Sometimes their assumptions were wrong.
Sometimes their conclusions were false.
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But the one thing they were fairly settledon was that sin causes this condition.
So here is a Bible example of aclear case of suffering, and the
question about it was definite.
And so was Jesus’ answer.
The first word He said,corrected their thinking.
He said neither—neither the blindman sinned nor did his parents
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sin to cause this condition.
Sin was not the cause of his suffering.
Sin may have been the cause inother cases of blindness, but it
was not the cause in this situation.
So this one passage shows that notall suffering is caused by sin.
We can't say that every timesomebody is sick or handicapped,
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that God is punishing that person.
Some suffering is directly caused by sin,but not all suffering is caused by sin.
That is, in a direct sense.
I say “directly” because you could saythat all our physical suffering goes
back to Adam and Eve's sin in the garden.
We don't inherit the guilt oftheir sin and our suffering is
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not punishment for their sin.
But we do suffer indirectlybecause of Adam and Eve's sin.
But the disciples we'renot talking about that.
They we're asking more than that.
They were looking at sin committedby someone much closer to the
situation, but Jesus didn't goany farther with their question.
He didn't explain the differentreasons why people suffer.
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Instead of looking at what causedthis man to be blind, He talked about
the purpose that his condition wouldserve in God's plan for His Son.
That purpose was that the worksof God should be revealed in him.
Jesus was about to give this blindman sight and that miracle would
glorify God and reveal His Son.
In Luke chapter 13 verses one throughfive, we read a similar story.
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There, the Bible says, “There werepresent at that season some who told Him
about the Galileans whose blood Pilatehad mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Doyou suppose that these Galileans were
worse sinners than all other Galileansbecause they suffered such things?
I tell you, no.
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But unless you repent, youwill all likewise perish.
Or those eighteen on whom the towerand Siloam fell and killed them, do you
think that they were worse sinners thanall other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you no, but unless you repent,you will all likewise perish.”
Jesus talks about two tragedies, andHe asked the same question about both.
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The first one was an execution.
The Bible doesn't tell us theirnames or why this happened,
but Pilate had them killed.
He mingled, the Bible says, theirblood with their sacrifices.
These were evidently Jews whowere offering their sacrifices
at the temple when Roman soldierssent by Pilate struck them dead.
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Some people told Jesus about this.
We don't know who they were or all oftheir motives for telling him about it.
Many Jews hated the Roman government.
A killing like this would'veinfuriated those Jews.
On the other hand, there were Jewsthat hated Jesus and they tried
to lure him into criticizing theRoman government so that they would
have something to use against him.
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But this was a public executionthat Pilate instigated, and it was
no doubt a news story of the day.
Jesus didn't comment on whetherPilate was right or wrong.
He didn't talk about what these Galileanshad done or were accused of doing.
Instead, He did the same thingwe just saw in John chapter nine.
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He used this story to teacha higher moral lesson.
The people that told Him about thisincident were focused on the people
involved, and especially the two groupsthey represented—the Jews and the Romans.
That's what most people do today.
When they hear about some calamity,they focus on the physical,
personal aspects of the situation.
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They talk about what happened,where it happened, how and why
it happened, whose fault it was,and what should be done about it.
Those things have a place no doubt, butGod-fearing people see higher principles
and they see deeper lessons in tragedy.
That's one of the lessons we ought tolearn from this story in Luke chapter 13.
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Now, it appears that the people who toldJesus about this killing had the idea that
these Galileans were bad people, perhapsworse than most people, and that was the
reason why they died this horrible death.
Jesus said, “Do you suppose thatthese Galileans were worse sinners
than all other Galileans becausethey suffered such things?” Was that
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the reason this happened to them?
And Jesus gave a quick reply.
He said no.
He said you can't draw that conclusion.
Just because something bad happens to aperson does not always mean he deserved it
or that he deserved it more than others.
Life is not equal in howjustice is administered.
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Sometimes people getwhat's coming to them.
Sometimes they don't.
Sometimes people deserve what happensto them, and sometimes they do not.
Now, that is why the human race criesout to God every da, “It's not fair.”
Then Jesus brought up anothertragedy that they did not mention.
A tower in Siloam fell on18 people and killed them.
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Jesus asked the same question about them.
“Do you think that they were worsesinners than all other men who dwelt in
Jerusalem?” In the first case about theGalileans Pilate killed, He asked, “Do you
suppose?” and this time “He asked, “Do youthink?” This seems to indicate that they
had the kind of idea that we're talkingabout—the view that most, if not all,
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suffering in life is caused by our sins.
Did God cause the tower in Siloam to fallbecause these 18 people were the worst
sinners in Jerusalem and deserved to die?
Jesus again answers no.
That was not the reason accidents happen.
Not everything that happens is an actof God in the way that people use that
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phrase, that is, an act of special divineintervention to bring justice on earth.
But again, Jesus didn'tdwell on these calamities.
He could have said manythings about both tragedies.
He could have explained many aspectsabout these situations, but He raised
the discussion to a higher plane.
These people talked about the physicalearthly trials that people experienced.
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Jesus made the whole discussionmore personal and more spiritual.
No, He said, is the answer to thequestion about whether these people
who died were any worse than others.
But He turned their attentioninwardly to themselves.
He said, “But unless you repent,you will all likewise perish.” The
people who told Him about othersneeded to look at themselves.
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They were sinners who needed torepent, and they still had time.
The ones who died in those calamitiescould not, and we need to remember
that when we hear people talking abouttragedies and they tend to stop short of
any kind of spiritual application withthem, it's all about the earthly side.
We need to train ourselves toremember the higher principles
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involved in these kinds of eventsand then teach them to other people.
It's interesting that many other people inthe Bible had the same view of suffering.
Do you remember the story of Joseph?
His brothers sold him intobondage and he ended up in Egypt.
But God was with him and blessed him.
He became a powerful man in Egypt.
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As a matter of fact, he became thesecond highest ranking man in the nation.
And when his brothers came beforehim looking for food over 20 years
later, they didn't realize thatthey were standing before their
brother that they had betrayed.
When they came before him thissecond time, Joseph was very stern
with them in Genesis chapter 42.
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They were naturally afraid of what thispowerful Egyptian might do to them.
It's almost human nature that whenwe are afraid and distressed, we
tend to look inside ourselves.
We examine our lives and feelguilty for things that we have done.
That's what happened withReuben, one of Joseph's brothers,
when they were before Joseph.
Genesis 42:22 says, “And Reubenanswered them saying, ‘Did I not speak
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to you saying, ‘Do not sin againstthe boy and you would not listen.
Therefore, behold, his blood isnow required of us.’” The guilt
of what they had done to youngJoseph was still weighing heavy on
their hearts all those years later.
We have to remember that God madeus with a conscience just as he made
Ruben and everyone else in the Bible.
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Even though we don't always followour conscience, and even though our
thoughts about right and wrong may notbe correct in every case, that God-given
capacity causes us to feel guilty.
We yearn for release fromthat guilt from inside us.
We even expect that we will have topay for what we've done in some way.
So when tragedy strikes, it's natural forus to wonder if it's because we've sinned.
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Now again, it may or it may not be.
I'm only talking about the feeling here.
It happened with Reuben,and it happens today.
Reuben thought that after all those years,their sin was about to catch up with them.
He was wrong, of course, because Josephtreated them very kindly after this.
But it does show that this isvery common to feel this way.
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Another story is inFirst Kings chapter 17.
When the son of the widow in Zarephathdied, she told Elijah, “What have I
to do with you, O man of God? Haveyou come to me to bring my sin to
remembrance and to kill my son?”That's First Kings 17, verse 18.
Being in the presence of aprophet of God may have inclined
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her to feel this way even more.
She thought the death of herson was punishment for her sin.
Little did she know, though, that Elijahwas about to bring her son back to life.
Another story is in Acts chapter 28when Paul and others suffered shipwreck
and were stranded on an island.
An interesting story occurred.
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The Bible says in Acts chapter28, verse one, “Now when they
had escaped, they then found outthat the island was called Malta.
The natives showed us unusual kindness,for they kindled a fire and made us
all welcome because of the rain thatwas falling and because of the cold.
But when Paul had gathered a bundleof sticks and laid them on the
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fire, a viper came out because ofthe heat and fastened on his hand.
So when the natives saw the creaturehanging from his hand, they said
one to another, “No doubt, thisman is a murderer, whom though he
has escaped the sea, yet justicedoes not allow him to live.
But he shook off the creatureinto the fire and felt no harm.
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However, they were expecting that hewould swell up or suddenly fall down dead.
But after they had looked for a longtime and saw no harm come to him, they
changed their minds and said that hewas a God [Acts 28, 1 through six].
These people were superstitious, buttheir idea of paying for sin in tragedies
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of life was really no different thanthe other stories that we've read.
What they said about Paul's snakebite was no different than what the
disciples asked Jesus about concerningthe blind man in John chapter nine.
Even though they were superstitiousto the point of saying that Paul
was a God after nothing happenedto him after he was bitten, they
had the same feeling, they had thesame view, about calamities in life.
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This kind of thinking is almostageless and universal among mankind.
And not surprisingly, we find anotherexample in the book of Job Job's
three friends were guilty of falselyaccusing him because this is what
they thought about his situation.
Eliphaz, who was the first tospeak to Job, told Job that he
was reaping what he had sown.
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He said, “Remember now, whoever perishedbeing innocent, or where were the upright
ever cut off? Even as I have seen, thosewho plow iniquity and sow trouble reap
the same” [Job four, seven and eight].
Throughout the book of Job, heheld his ground against his three
friends who said this about him.
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He maintained his innocence.
And in the end, God said that he wasright and his three friends were wrong.
But there is one statement Job madethat shows that he realized that
he had not lived a perfect life.
He accused God of punishinghim for those sins.
It's not that he was a hypocrite, but hehad done some things when he was younger
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that he thought God was punishing him for.
In Job chapter 13 verse 26, here'swhat he said to God: “For you write
bitter things against me and make meinherit the iniquities of my youth.”
But Job was wrong about that.
God was not behind his suffering at all.
Satan was the one who wastormenting Job, not God.
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We need to remember that Job was agood man, but he was still a man,
and when he was down and depressedwith all of his pain and loss and
grief, he began to look at his lifein ways that he never had before.
He felt that he had no future before him.
In fact, he wanted to die andput an end to all his suffering.
He couldn't figure out whyGod was allowing him to live.
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And we're no different.
When we reach a point in life wherewe think we have no future or very
little future left, and when we don'tenjoy the present, we tend to look
back over our shoulder at the past.
Now, this is very commonwhen you get older.
When you're young, your mindis oriented toward the future.
You think about everythingthat you want to do.
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It feels like the wholeworld is open to you.
When you're older, you tendto look back at the past and
sometimes think about it too much.
You may try to live in the past,or you might let the past burden
you with guilt and depression.
It can be hard even forChristians to escape this.
Our mind can go back like Reuben'smind did to something we did 20,
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30, or 40 years ago, and sometimeswe have to work hard to remind
ourselves that God has forgiven us.
As the old saying goes, wecan be our own worst enemies.
It can be easier to say tosomeone, “I forgive you” than
it is to forgive ourselves.
This takes a great deal of faith.
That's really what it comes down to.
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The devil will tempt Christiansto feel guilty about things that
they have already been forgiven of.
He does that to confuse,to discourage, to distract.
It's hard to get much done for theLord when you're chained to the past.
Even David in the Biblefaced this challenge of life.
When you read the book of Psalms, you'llnotice that two things go together.
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One of them is the trials andtribulations David is facing, and
the other is how he examines himselfand humbles himself before God.
That's the good side of thisstruggle we're talking about.
It causes us to examineourselves spiritually—our
hearts, our words, our actions.
When David was at his lowest point,he looked up to the Most High.
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When he felt the pain and sorrows oflife, he looked to God for comfort.
And when he was in great distress, healso looked inwardly to examine himself.
He didn't hesitate toconfess his sins before God.
In Psalm 51, which appears to havebeen written about his awful sins with
Bathsheba, we find a great example.
Psalm 32 is anotherPsalm about forgiveness.
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And notice also in Psalm 25 thatDavid had the same thought or feeling
that Job had about things that hehad done when he was a young man.
We don't know these specifics.
We don't know exactly what Job did orwhat David did when they were young,
but we do read in Psalm 25, verse seventhat David said these words to God.
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‘Do not remember the sins of my youth, normy transgressions according to your mercy.
Remember me for Your goodnesssake, O Lord.’ Again, here's the
same old feeling when trials come.
We don't enjoy them, obviously,but anyone who has an even halfway
healthy conscience, will look at hislife and ask himself if he caused the
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situation in some way, or if he isin some way reaping what he has sown.
How do we deal with that feelingwhen it gets out of hand though?
How can we keep that feeling fromcrippling our spiritual life?
David is a great example.
Just think about what he did.
He took another man's wife.
He committed adultery with her.
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When he found out that she was pregnant,he had her husband killed, and then he
took the woman to be his wife to tryto hide his sin, but that didn't work.
As a matter of fact, David did pay forwhat he had done for the rest of his life.
In second Samuel chapter 12, Nathanthe prophet told David that the sword
would never depart from his house.
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He said that God would raise upevil from his own house or family.
His own children, grown children,would give him all kinds of trouble.
That's exactly what they did.
One of his sons raped his half-sister.
Another one of his sonskilled that brother.
Absalom, one of David's sons, decidedthat he wanted to take the throne
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away from his father and be the king.
That started a war in Israelthat left many people dead and
almost wrecked that nation.
Then David's top military man Joab killedAbsalom, and that almost killed David.
He mourned and grieved for him fordays, even though he was the son that
was trying to take away everythingthat David had had and built.
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Have you ever wondered how Davidwas able to survive mentally,
emotionally, and spiritually after this?
In some cases in our life,we question whether we have
brought suffering on ourselves.
David didn't have to questionthis part of his life.
He knew that he had broughtthis suffering on himself.
So how did he make it through this?
In the book of Psalms, we find the key.
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Not every Psalm was writtenabout what his children had done,
but some of them probably were.
Even the Psalms where he talks abouthis troubles that didn't involve
his children still help us tounderstand how he made it through.
It's very simple, although itcan be very difficult to do.
He simply put his trustand his faith in God.
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There is no secret formula.
There is no magical trick that we cando to deal with this kind of pain.
It's simply and solely a matter of faith.
And that doesn't just mean thatDavid trusted in God to get him
through this situation until he died.
It means that David had faith that Godhad forgiven him of his sin that caused
these very problems that he was facing.
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Think about how difficult thismust have been for David when one
of his children gave him trouble.
He knew that it was punishmentfor his sins because Nathan
the prophet told him so.
In our lives, sometimes we knowthat we've not done the right thing
as parents and we pay a price.
But at the same time, there are othertimes where our children do things
on their own and it is in no waysome kind of punishment for our sins.
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Children that are grown are responsiblefor what they do, but even if we have
failed in some way as parents and we'repaying the price for that failure, we know
as Christians that we can be forgiven.
Not only that, we can know that weare right with God, even though that
situation keeps blowing up in our face.
That's exactly what happened with David.
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It seems that every time he turnedaround in the book of Second Samuel,
after he had sinned with Bathsheba,that one of his children gave him grief.
How in the world did David keepfrom going crazy, especially since
he knew that he was to blame?
He accepted God's forgiveness.
He trusted in God's mercy.
And we know this because of what'ssaid in Hebrews 11, verse 32.
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David is in glory now.
He's not feeling guilty anymore.
So in these verses, we see avery important lesson about the
problem of suffering in this life.
Sometimes we bring suffering on ourselves.
Sometimes the suffering comesas a result of our actions.
At other times, it's not trouble on theoutside, but the pain comes from within,
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from our memories and from our conscience.
Sometimes we are right in thinkingthat we caused some of the problems
and sometimes we are wrong in feelingthat the trial we're facing is some
kind of punishment for our sins.
We have to look at our livesand be honest about that.
But I can say this as a preacher,that after decades of preaching,
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it is very common for Christiansto feel unnecessarily guilty.
Christians are obviously moreconscientious than people who are lost.
There's a good side to beingconscientious, but there can
be a downside to it as well.
We must let God guide us in how we think.
That can be hard to do in a world wherepeople are always pointing fingers.
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It can be difficult when people judgeand even misjudge your situation,
especially when they've not beenthrough what you've been through.
We need to read and study the Bible more.
We need to pray and keep alevel head about these things.
We need to trust in God and have faith inhis forgiveness, and then patiently endure
the trials and tribulations of life.
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Sometimes we can go too farwith this question of why.
Sometimes we don't know the reason, andeven if we do, it may not help us to
know as much as we thought it would.
The most important thing to dois to deal with the suffering.
That's more importantthan why it's happening.
You can't always knowwhy a trial's happening.
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You may not even need to knowwhy, or at least some of the
time, you may not need to know.
But what you do need to know is how weshould deal with this problem and how
we should not deal with the problem.
Sometimes this same questionemerges on a larger scale.
What about diseases and naturaldisasters that affect a lot of people?
Are these calamities punishments from God?
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There's no doubt that the Bible showsGod using these troubles to punish men.
The great flood wasdefinitely punishment for sin.
Solomon prayed to God inFirst Kings chapter eight.
And he asked for mercy for thenation of Israel “when the heavens
are shut up and there is no rainbecause they have sinned against you.”
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That's First Kings eight verse 35.
In the Book of Job, the young manElihu said God uses the elements of
rain and wind for different reasons.
He said He causes it to come “whetherfor correction or for his land
or for mercy” [Job 37 verse 13].
Sometimes God sends drought andother disasters to humble men
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and bring them to repentance.
The prophet Amos said God sentnatural disasters upon Israel,
but they still wouldn't repent.
God said in Amos chapter four,also, “I gave you cleanness of
teeth in all your cities andlack of bread in all your places.
Yet you have not returnedto me, says the Lord.
I also withheld rain from you when therewere still three months to the harvest.
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I made it rain in one city.
I withheld rain from another city.
One part was rained upon and whereit did not rain the part withered.
So two or three cities wanderedto another city to drink water,
but they were not satisfied.
Yet you have not returnedto me, says the Lord.
I blasted you with blight and mildew.
When your gardens increased, yourvineyards, your fig trees, and your
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olive trees, the locust devoured them.
Yet you have not returnedto me, says the Lord.
I sent among you a plagueafter the manner of Egypt.
Your young man I killed with a swordalong with your captive horses.
I made the stench of your camps comeup to your nostrils, yet you have
not returned to me, says the Lord.”That's Amos four, six through 10.
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There are many other storiesin the Bible like this.
So the answer is yes, God does sendearthly calamities because of man's sins.
How and when He does this,we can't say for sure.
But there are definitely twoextremes that we need to avoid.
One is claiming that God never sendsthese kinds of afflictions today.
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Sometimes well-meaning Bible studentstake the examples Jesus gave in Luke
13 one through five and the caseof the blind man in John nine and
then they say that we can never saythat these things can be punishment
from God because of these passages.
But they're forgetting what a lotof other verses say about this.
Just because the suffering in thosetwo passages was not punishment
for sin does not mean that nosuffering ever is punishment for sin.
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The other extreme, of course, is to assumethat anytime you have a catastrophe,
it is punishment from God for sin.
This is the idea that all sufferingis the direct result of our sins.
That's what we spent most ofour time talking about today.
How could anyone know the mindof God on these things, though,
unless He were to reveal it?
Besides, the stories in Luke 13 and John9 show that this is not always the case.
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And the Book of Job certainly goesagainst making some kind of blanket
claim that wherever there is sufferingsin must be the direct cause.
Still, whether God intervenes ornot, the principle of sowing and
reaping is the general rule in life.
Whatever a man sows, that shall healso reap [Galatians six verse seven].
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We don't have to know whether God'shand was involved in a special way.
The important thing is that we repentof our sins, and that as Christians,
we grow in the grace and knowledge ofthe truth because of our suffering.
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
(30:17):
or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate programs.
Study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
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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.