Pray

Read: Ecc 3:16.

Meditation

One of the most common objections to Christianity you will ever hear is this question: If there is a God, why does he allow suffering? Nobody likes it when things hurt. Perhaps people have raised this question with you before. There are unbelievers who deny God, and then the reason they give is because they think he should not or would not allow suffering if he really existed. Maybe you’ve asked this question yourself.

So what do we say? What is our answer? Why does God allow suffering?

I want to reframe the question slightly. When someone says, “Why does God allow suffering?”, the assumption is that we should not have to suffer. In other words, an injustice has occurred. We are assuming that the suffering should not have happened in the first place. And so the question of suffering is, more fundamentally, a question of injustice.

Solomon tackles this question head on in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and in the verse we are meditating on particularly. He doesn’t address it academically or theoretically. He takes on the question in all its grim reality. As we think of starvation in some countries, oppressive dictatorships, and things like the slave trade, this question looms large. More personally, as we consider the wrongs we have suffered at the hands of others, our faith may be tested. And so the question is there: Why does God permit suffering to exist?

This is a big topic and a challenging question.

In previous meditations I have likened Ecclesiastes to a labyrinth, a giant maze that is puzzling and perplexing. As Solomon addresses the problem of suffering here, we are faced with another enigma. This question leads us into a part of the labyrinth where it is easy to get lost and despair. There are many twists, turns, and dead ends when it comes to this issue. Solomon is going to lead us down a series of paths to help us understand it in the next section of chapter three, and this is a journey that we need to take to understand how we may fear God in a fallen world.

In this meditation, we set out on that journey. The first thing we need to do with the problem of suffering and injustice is to admit that it is a reality, and we see this in verse 16. We need to admit that injustice is real, come to terms with it, be honest and say that it exists. A Christian cannot answer the question by pretending it’s not there. This is exactly where Solomon begins in verse 16: “Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.”

Solomon does not pull any punches or deny the truth. Injustice is a reality. We certainly see this in the world around us. Over the last hundred years (at the time of writing) we have seen the injustice of the Nazi regime, or Russia under Stalin as he robbed and oppressed his citizens. We see it in Australia today. We see the injustice of abortion. We see it on a very personal level too. In chapter 4 verse 1 Solomon says: “Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.”

There are many people crying in the world in this moment. Sex slaves and paupers, orphans with nowhere to go. There are bruised and battered women and children living under the roof of tyrannical Australian husbands and fathers. There are husbands living under the constant oppression of the sharp tongues of their wives. Perhaps you yourself have been abused in some way. Injustice is everywhere. Even something as simple as being teased by someone, even a friend, or being accused unjustly can hurt deeply.

As Christians, we do not try to hide from the truth. We do not pretend that life is all roses and butterflies. One of the strengths of Ecclesiastes is that it tackles the issues of life head on. We must face up to this painful reality: there is profound suffering and continual injustice in the world today.

But there is a flip-side to this coin. We ought to admit that there is injustice, but you cannot have injustice unless justice itself is both real and possible. We see this clearly in verse 16: “in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.” There actually is a place of righteousness. But how do we know what justice really is?

The answer is simple: God is the standard of justice, and he reveals that standard to us in his word. As Psalm 33:4 says, “the word of the Lord is upright.” Without the word of God, there is no standard of justice. So as soon as we confess that injustice exists, we must also affirm that God is the standard of justice. Fearing God in a fallen world does and must include a humble submission to God, and an acknowledgment that he is and has set the standard and measure of justice.

If you reject God, you do not have a standard of justice. You are left with billions of different opinions about what justice is. If there were no God, injustice would not be possible, because justice itself would not be real.

This insight should equip us in evangelism. An unbeliever may say that if God existed, there would be no suffering. But without God, the idea of injustice and suffering does not make sense, because there is no standard. So when a non-believer asks, “Why is there suffering and injustice in the world?”, you can respond lovingly, patiently, prayerfully, but firmly, by asking: By what standard are you measuring justice? SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

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