Trauma - who's responsible?

What misery and sadness!  What grief and suffering!  No!  I’m not talking about the war in Ukraine or the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.  I’m thinking of ordinary garden varieties of misery that sometimes overwhelms us.  Our Bible Study group copped more than its fair share of trouble recently.  In one family: a daughter took off and went missing.  In another: a man is in hospital with serious heart issues.  A third couple struggles with the breakdown of their son’s marriage and all the pain and trouble that creates.  In a fourth family an adult son battles leukaemia.  We have some who struggle with mental health issues in their wider family and others who have some serious surgery coming up.

Some word from Psalm 27 seem appropriate: “When troubles fill my day, when fears and dangers throng...!”  That’s a realistic picture of life for those with chronic pain for which the medical profession has no answers; for those for whom “normal” is daily cancer treatment – or living with a severely autistic child.

The question that often arises in such situations is: where is God in all of this?  Years ago a friend of mine accused the devil of causing all these problems.  And he didn’t find it hard to argue his case from the Bible.  Wasn’t it the devil who made life miserable for Job back in Old Testament times?  And didn’t the apostle Paul speak of his “thorn in the flesh” – whatever that was – as a messenger from Satan to harass him?  My friend argued that God merely allows these negative things to happen.  I suggested that it’s a little more complicated than that and that the Lord God so directs things that the prophet Amos could ask: When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?  Is it not true that God is totally in control – also of the negative things in life?  He protested – but had no answer to Amos.

At that time I still had young children and, as usual, I read a children’s Bible to them after dinner.  That night we “just happened” to be reading the story of Jonah.  While washing dishes afterwards, my friend suddenly announced, “That reading from Jonah convinced me.  It was not the Devil who sent the storm or the whale.  It was God.  I’m going to have to rethink this bit about God’s sovereignty in misery and grief.”

Well, Jonah certainly affirmed God’s active sovereignty in the prayer he prayed from the belly of the big fish.  He said, “You hurled me into the deep... all your waves and breakers swept over me.”  The Psalms repeatedly acknowledge God’s role in the troubles that fill our day.  In Psalm 39 the songwriter laments to God, “You are the one who has done this.  Remove your scourge from me.”

To avoid us seeing God as a Santa Clause figure who only gives us good things and to avoid us assigning too much importance to the Enemy let’s remember three things.

First we must clearly affirm with Scripture that God is indeed sovereign in these matters.  That may make us squirm at times but Scripture leaves us in no doubt.  Through Isaiah the Lord says, “I form light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I the Lord, do all these things” (45:7).  God’s involvement in the traumatic things of life is more than merely permitting the devil to do his dirty work.

Secondly, there is the mystery of evil, personified in the devil.  The story of Job does indeed show us that he is at work in the trials and tragedies of the saints of God.  At times the Lord does allow the ‘messenger from Satan’ to harass us as he did the apostle Paul.  But Job also shows that in those instances our sovereign God not only sets the boundaries but clearly works out his plans and purposes through it all.  So, yes, it is indeed appropriate to speak of God at times permitting things to happen.

Thirdly, there’s the matter of perspective.  Things that seem negative to us may actually have very positive results.  Think of the words of Joseph to his brothers.  In their spite and hatred they had made sure that Joseph’s days were filled with trouble and trauma.  Yet Joseph could see the bigger picture.  So at the end he reassures them, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20).

John Westendorp