Reasons why God permits the existence of trouble and calamity

In a previous blog post (Does God really help those who help themselves?), I discussed some of the sources of trouble and calamity. I want to follow-up on this subject by discussing in this post some of the main reasons why I perceive God permits and allows human beings to have troubles and sorrows.

First of all, it must be acknowledged that God permits suffering and troubles to affect both believers and unbelievers. Neither of the two groups may be exempt from suffering. However, both find themselves in difficult situations for distinct purposes.

For unbelievers, God permits them to have trouble in order to give them an occasion to encounter him. This comes out in Psalm 107's story of the rich merchants at sea. While the merchants set off on the sea to do business, God sends a storm to turn their trip into one where they lose themselves with fear (Psalm 107: 23-30). While it might seem in this case, that God gave them a wild amusement ride on the sea for the LULZ or to get a good laugh, in truth, the apparent motive in this story for God taking the merchants on a wild roller-coaster sea ride is for the purpose of introducing these rich and powerful merchants to their human limitations and inability to help themselves. This indeed allows one to recognise the need to believe and trust in God when one has no other source of help. Hence, unbelievers have trouble and sorrows as a megaphone to announce their need for a Saviour or Messiah.

But trouble does not stop there. Even when unbelievers become believers, they still face trouble. It is not sufficient to believe in God for all your troubles and woes to cease. Even those who believe in God still need and are faced with troubles.


For believers, the main reasons why we have trouble and sorrow are:

1. So that we won't forget God. We can forget God if our lives are too comfortable. (Deut. 8:11-14; Proverbs 30:9). When we have all that we want to eat and have nice homes to live in and much stuff and possessions, it is easy to think we have it all. Hence, from time to time, God has to send trouble to remind us that we must not take all that we have for granted.
2. So that he can prove if we truly believe in him. God gets glory out of us passing various tests of our faith. Our faith tried and tested prove that we are genuine (1 Peter 1:7). According to Apostle Paul, we are on display to the universe/multiverse (1 Corinthians 4:9). Earth is a laboratory that is being used to not only test us, but to reveal to other inhabitants of the universe/multiverse God's character and laws. We are being watched by other beings [angels and the different classes of angels] for our faith and how we respond to God as agents created with free will to settle a controversial matter about God (1 Peter 1:12). The story of Job also proves this (Job 1). In that story, God boasts to Satan about his servant Job. Satan therefore challenges God to a bet that Job is only serving God because God has been good to him. Hence, God takes the bet and let Satan bring trouble and calamities on Job so that he can prove to Satan that Job is a genuine believer and righteous man.

Hence, we are to count it joy when we have temptations, for as Jesus says, temptations must come (Matthew 18:7). As they say, 'you can't have a testimony without a test'. Just make sure that you trust in God so that you can past the test.

Does God really help those who help themselves? Some lessons from Psalm 107

There is a popular saying that "God helps those who help themselves". The mere popularity of this saying is evident in the fact that this proverb has its own Wikipedia page ("God helps those" 2014). However, this saying is not in the Biblical text. The question is, does God really help those who help themselves? My recent Bible study on Psalm 107 may be able to shed some light on this matter.


Psalm 107, in general, is a passage that describes the redeemed of the LORD. When I apply principles of literary or narrative analysis to the text, some interesting ideas emerge. While I shall not go into in-depth coverage here, I sum it all up to say that all the redeemed of the LORD encounter some event of misfortune, danger, affliction or crisis.

In fact, when I analyse the text, I see five groups of redeemed people:

1. Redeemed migrants/immigrants who get lost in deserted places where they cannot access food or water (verses 2-4).
2. Redeemed people who are prisoners either literally in chains or mentally as in depressed because they failed to listen to or rebelled against God's counsel or words (verses 10-16)
3. Redeemed people who are sick or afflicted because of their iniquities or sinful ways (verse 17-18)
4. Redeemed people who are business travelers (rich guys), who go to sea to conduct business and God decides to humble them by making their journey a scary one (verse 23-30)
5. Finally, there is a category of redeemed humble, hungry and poor folk, who become oppressed by princes or rulers or governments (verses 36-42).  

From these, I can see four main sources for troubling situations such as disasters. Human beings face troubling situations and circumstances because:

1. God created it. As in the vast earth with uninhabitable spaces through which the immigrants or migrants have to travel or in terms of the storm at sea that God used to scare business travelers and seamen .
2. God permits it. As in the case of the oppression by the princes of poor people, so that he can make the princes look bad and rescue the poor people
3. Our fault a). We do not listen to or rebel against God's counsel and word, as in the case of those redeemed who become prisoners.
4. Our fault b). We have sinful ways and iniquities that bring about diseases and problems upon us. In this regard, we may unintentionally or willfully do things that cause "hell" in our lives because we can't help sinning.

The good news though, is that despite all these sources for our troubles, when we are at our wits' end and have given up on our own ability to come out of the trouble, then God steps in. This he does so that he can get all the glory as the hero that saves us from our troubles. In the end all, God helps those who are in need, but only after they have exhausted all their efforts and call out to him for help.

References:

God helps those who help themselves. (2014, January 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=God_helps_those_who_help_themselves&oldid=591953194