Why Doesn't God step in and Eliminate all our Suffering?

The answer is so easy that to repeat it over and over makes no sense; or does it?  Each moment we enjoy bliss or are recipients of prosperity our praise of God and thanks should be heard even by ourselves.  

Look for a moment at the Exodus when God performed so many blessings on the nation of Israel as they journeyed out of Egypt.  During the trek from Pharaoh’s control, he changed his mind and set out after them.  When the Israelites caught sight of the Egyptians they complained to Moses who brought them out.  God led them to the Red Sea and saved Israel by destroying the captors.  Next the people came to Moses complaining because they were hungry  God told Moses that he would rain down bread from heaven.  But, even after all this as God provided quail in the evening and flakes like hoarfrost in the morning they still were not satisfied.

Give to men all they crave and their joy remains until a new challenge occurs.  It seems to be the common quest in humanity as long as we are pleased, happiness is the word of the day.

Take each blessing we receive from God and find within the reason to worship and give praise to our Creator.  But, as soon as we are confronted with hardships our praise changes quickly to accusing God of forgetting us.  See Psalm 13:  “How long Lord?  Will you utterly forget me?  How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I carry sorrow in my soul, grief in my heart day after day?  How long will my enemy triumph over me?  Look upon me, answer me, Lord, my God!  Give light to my eyes lest I sleep in death, lest my enemies say, I have prevailed, lest my foes rejoice at my downfall.  I trust in your faithfulness.  Grant my heart joy in your help, that I may sing of the Lord, How good our God has been to me.”   (Psalm 13: 1-6).  A psalm of distress but as most psalms do ending in praise of God whom they know will help through prayer.

We may ask how long will God forget us during the current Covid 19?  Will God seemingly hide his face from us during this pandemic?  I ask Lord, how long must I carry the inability to feed my family?  Give hope to me Lord that I may see a light out of this quandary of doubt.  Yet, I know that you God never forget your children and pray that my heart will leap for joy knowing you won’t betray the love you have for me and my family.  

Lets look again at the heading as to why God doesn’t always step in at each problem that may confront us.  The next question could be why have not our prayers been heard?

Remember the puppet show Punch and Judy?  There was violence in this show but it is to remind us that the puppeteer was in total control and could make the puppets do as he decided.  If the characters could suddenly come to life would they have respect for the master that created them?  Not likely since they were not responsible for their actions, super-imposed on them from the one who created them.  If God controlled every movement of ours would we appreciate the final step of our journey to heaven?  Absolutely not!  We never would have the opportunity to respect God since He made every move of our lifetime.  If anything, we would be looking for more pleasurable moments and expecting God to hand us our petitions.  

Understanding God is to accept his love not the Christmas stocking filled with treasures because we deserve them.  God does give us gifts and without our doing anything to receive them.  However, the treasures we enjoy are not to be put in our pocket for our own pleasure, but as a way to reach out to our fellow-humans.  Without a little effort on our part and some suffering along the way if everything was given to us as a puppeteer controlling our actions, we would never appreciate and love God as we should.  

Ralph B. Hathaway, May 2020