Ruler and Provider

The story of creation in the first chapter of the book of Genesis tells us that "God saw all that he had made and indeed it was very good".

When we look around at the world today, we see that it is far from good. We see much evil, much cruelty, much suffering and this is a problem for anyone who believes in God. Mary Craig, mother of two severely handicapped children, states the problem very vividly in her book, Blessings.

Shaking our fists, pounding the air, we ask that despairing and futile question, why. Why, why, why? Most of all, why ME? What have I done to deserve it? If I were God, I wouldn't allow such awful things to happen. How can there be a God of love when the world is full of suffering? The very idea is a mockery. So we give ourselves two frightful alternatives: either God is cruel, unjust, without mercy, a super-being who delights in the affliction of his creatures; or there is no God and we are adrift in total absurdity, in uncharted and unchartable seas. It's a classic double-bind, a catch-22 situation. Heads nobody wins, tails we all lose.

We will discuss these three questions in order. The first one raises the question of providence, the second one raises the question of evil, and the third one raises the questions of suffering. This week we will look at two of the three questions: Providence and Evil. In next weeks column, we will look at the difficult problems of suffering.

Providence

The word "providence" is used to describe God's loving care in directing the course of events for the good of his people. We have seen that God is at work in all things that happen, giving them existence and guiding them in accordance with his plan. When we consider God's plan as it affects our own lives, we call it providence.

The most beautiful description ever given of God's providence was given by Jesus in his sermon on the mount. It includes these words:

Think of the flowers growing in the field; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you men of little faith? (Matt 6:25-30)

Yet, as Jesus himself reminds us, we cannot see this loving care if we are people of little faith. It is through faith alone that we can know God's providence. In this world, it sometimes seems that good is being defeated by evil and that God has deserted his people. Not until the end of time will we be able to see how God's plan has worked out. Until that day comes, we are like people looking at the back of a tapestry: we see the crisscrossing of threads, but we cannot perceive the design they are making until the front is shown to us.

Occasionally, God acts in a way which is outside the ordinary course of nature and which makes us directly aware of his action: we call this a miracle. But almost always, he works through the laws of nature and through the co-operation of man and woman.

Nature always obeys God's laws but humans have free will, which means they have the power to disobey God's laws. Humans can refuse to play their part in God's plan but they cannot defeat the plan itself, for God uses even humans disobedience for his purpose. As the old proverb says, God writes straight with crooked lines.

It is our dignity and our privilege as human beings to co-operate freely in God's plan. We do this by our actions, when we act in accordance with God's commands. We do this by our prayers, when we pray that God's will be done. This includes prayers for our own welfare and the welfare of others, since God loves us all and our welfare is part of his plan.

Our prayers are always answered, though not always in the way we hoped: for sometimes we ask for things that would harm us in the long run. In the same sermon on the mount, Jesus said:

Ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will have the door opened to him.

Is there a man among you who would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or would hand him a snake when he asked for a fish? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matt 7:7-11)

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve;
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for things, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for by everything I hoped for;
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men most richly blessed.
Anonymous

2. Evil

God made the world good and rules it with his wise and loving providence; how then does it contain evil? God made man in his own image and likeness, the noblest being in the universe; why then does man so often lower himself to the level of the beasts?

It is true that man has advanced in many ways throughout the course of the ages. But all the advances of science and technology do not seem to have made him any better or any happier. When we look at the world today, we see human rights trampled under foot, greed and cruelty and selfishness flourishing, justice and peace denied to countless millions. When we look into our own hearts, we find there the same dark forces of selfishness and greed. There must be something twisted in the human race, some deep wound in the nature of every man.

This theme is found in many modern works of literature. One of the best-known is William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies. It tells of a group of English schoolboys who are cast away on a beautiful uninhabited island. They gradually turn into a gang of bloodthirsty savages, hunting down and killing those boys who refuse to join the gang. When the rescuers arrive, the island has been devastated and only one boy, Ralph, has remained uncorrupted.

The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island, great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.

We have been free - free to choose evil courses as well as good. Free will, which is our glory, distinguishing us from the animals, has also caused our sorrow. We needed no divine interference to turn our world upside down, to destroy our own harmony and rhythmic at-one-ness with that world, to sow the seeds of dissonance and discord. We could do it, did it, and continue to do it ourselves through our greed, pride, ambition, envy, blindness, stupidity and through the ignorance which we can only gradually overcome. There is a fatal flaw in man which makes his affairs go awry. (Theologians have called it original sin, but the phrase is not a popular one today). It is not God but men who have made wars and devised ever more devastating weapons of destruction or enslavement. Why should we blame God for the concentration camps, or for the new and terrifying concept of mega death by radiation?

There is a good deal of discussion at present about the exact meaning of the Adam and Eve story. The traditional view is that Adam and Eve were historical figures, the very first humans that appeared on earth and the ancestors of the entire human race. On the other hand, some modern scholars think that they are allegorical figures and that they stand for the human race: the story is telling us that the sins of mankind are the barrier that prevent us from reaching the happiness and innocence that God intended for us.

Whichever way we understand Adam and Eve, the basic meaning of the story is the same. It is not God who is responsible for evil but humans. Our sinfulness goes back to the very origin of the human race and it is so ingrained in us that it is passed down from one generation to the next. Even as new-born babies, we carry within us the seeds of selfishness and rebellion against God.

The story of Adam and Eve tells us that our sinfulness does not only affect other people: it affects the whole earth. God says to Adam:

Accursed be the soil because of you.
With suffering shall you get your food from it
Every day of your life.
It shall yield you brambles and thistles,
And you shall eat wild plants.
With sweat on your brow
Shall you eat your bread,
Until you return to the soil,
As you were taken from it.
For dust you are and to dust you will return
(Gen 3:17-19).

The material universe is so closely inter-linked, inter-balanced, that the catastrophe in its highest part spreads damage downwards through all its parts. We have fallen into the naïve habit of thinking of matter as wholly self-contained, affected by material causes. But it is created by spirit, preserved in being by spirit, wholly under the control of spirit; and there is no reason to think that what happens to spirit at any level leaves it unaffected.