Does God Really Care?

Over the course of time just about all of us are confronted with the reality of suffering
and abuse not just on newscasts but in our own personal world where we live day by day.
Why are small precious children abused? Why do many of them not have a chance from
the get go? Why do old people often get in such horrible conditions as you find them in
almost without exception in substantial numbers in nursing homes? Why are people born
with physical or mental disabilities, deformities of body or mind? Why earthquakes that
kill thousands including infants and toddlers, why cyclones, why starvation? And the list
could go on and on.

Does God care? It is easy to give up on God as one contemplates what he has seen and
heard. It is easy to lose faith. What is the answer? This is a subject that is important to
study because there has probably never been a person who at some point in time in his or
her life who has not thought about these things. It is important that people do not lose
faith. When one loses faith in God what is left? Only suffering without hope. So, it is an
important study.

I would like to say contemplating all of this that it helps immensely to rephrase the
question and ask does Christ care. I grant you that Christ is God. Jesus says, John 10:30
(NKJV), "I and My Father are one." In John 14:9 he says, "He who has seen me has seen
the Father." (NKJV)

Other passages teach the same thing. (1 Tim. 3:16 NKJV), "God was manifested in the
flesh." (Acts 20:28 NKJV), "Shepherd (feed in the old KJV) the church of God which he
purchased with his own blood." (Matt. 1:23 NKJV), "'Behold, a virgin shall be with
child, and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,' which is translated, 'God
with us.'"

I think we relate to Jesus who lived among us, suffered himself, and died from it, easier
than to God in heaven although they are one. Jesus suffered ridicule, hatred, continual
persecution from his enemies in so far as they were able to do it, was continually judged
to be evil, and finally was betrayed, beaten, and murdered without justice. What a life to
live. Put yourself in his place. During his lifetime every move he made, every word he
spoke, was cast in the worst light possible by his enemies. As far as they were concerned
he could do no good. How would you like to have people dogging you like that everyday
of your adult life? Would it wear you down? Jesus himself suffered both emotionally
and physically.

His agony in the garden was such that the Bible says (Luke 22:44 NKJV), "And being in
agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood
falling down to the ground." Vine's Dictionary of New Testament Words says of the word
agony, denotes severe emotional strain and anguish. That is most certainly a definition
of suffering. Isaiah says, in Isaiah 53:3, in reference to Jesus, that he was "a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief."
We too must suffer. I would like to read a paraphrase that I believe to be accurate in
terms of expressing the meaning of Rom. 8:17 from the New Living Translation. "And
since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of
God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering." I hope
you got the last sentence, "if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering."

Jesus knew suffering. We too must come to know it if we are to "be glorified with Him"
as the NAS puts it.

In Hebrews 5:8 (NAS) the Bible says, speaking of Jesus, "although He was a Son, He
learned obedience from the things which He suffered." Albert Barnes has an excellent
comment in his discussion of this verse. He says, "Some of the most valuable lessons of
obedience are learned in the furnace of affliction; and many of the most submissive
children of the Almighty have been made so as the result of protracted woes."

He further says, "one of the objects of affliction is to lead us 'to obey God.' In prosperity
we forget it. We become self-confident and rebellious. 'Then' God lays his hand upon us;
breaks up our plans; crushes our hopes; takes away our health, and teaches us that we
'must' be submissive to his will." Jesus is our example. Suffering should draw us nearer
to God.

Suffering did not begin in the 21st century nor has God not experienced it himself. In
Genesis 6:6 we read that due to the evil of mankind the Bible says of God that "he was
grieved in his heart." In the Old Testament prophets we read time and again of God's
sorrow and pleading after Israel to turn from sin and evil and return to him. In fact, why
could not God justly turn the question around on us and ask does man care? We ask does
he care about us. He could justly ask if we care about him.

But our subject for now is does God care? Lets take a look back at the Old Testament.
When God created man he placed him in the Garden of Eden. We might well call it a
Garden of Paradise for in it man could live forever in the most wonderful circumstances
and most beautiful surroundings anyone could imagine. God meant for man only the
best. He cared. He did not place man in a slum of sorts. He did not place man in dire
poverty. He did not give man a body that would suffer illness and pain but was capable
of eternal life by eating of the tree of life which was not denied him until he sinned
(compare Gen. 2:9, Gen. 3:16-17, and Gen. 3:22-24). God cared about his creation. We
were his and he took great joy in man that he had created, created in his own image.

The Bible says he “blessed them.” (Gen. 1:28 NKJV) They were to be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth (Gen. 1:28), an earth that had they been faithful to God would
have been entirely a Garden of Eden worldwide. While in the Garden prior to their sin
God would speak directly with them, he himself walked in the Garden. Pain, suffering,
and sorrow were unknown and could not be comprehended. This was and remains God’s
intent for man, that man be blessed with all the blessings God can give.
That blessing will now, due to man’s sin, be obtained in heaven rather than on earth, a so
to speak heavenly Garden of Eden figuratively if you will. John speaking by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit says of that time and that life to come that “God will wipe away every
tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be
no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4 NKJV) Suffering will
be done away once for all.

God has always cared for his people and one can add to that all of mankind from the very
beginning, not just the Jews. It was sin that brought pain and suffering into the world.

Yes, there was much suffering in the Old Testament. Why? A lot of it was God
punishing sin. God is so good, so pure, so holy, and so righteous that he cannot tolerate
sin. The Psalmist says, “God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Psalms 7:11 NKJV)
In reference to Jesus the Psalmist further states, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You love righteousness and
hate wickedness.” (Psalms 45:6-7 NKJV)

We often see Jesus as just a New Testament personality but Paul in 1 Cor. 10:4 in talking
about the children of Israel coming out of Egypt says that they all “drank the same
spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock
was Christ.” (NKJV) Jesus existed and was just as much God as he is in the New
Testament so when we look back and see God doing this or that in the Old Testament we
are talking about Jesus just as much as we are about God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

God’s nature is such that he cannot abide sin. He simply cannot tolerate it. On a human
level there are things you and I cannot tolerate also. I cannot tolerate snakes; I cannot
tolerate being up high. In either instance if I find myself in the proximity of either a
snake or height something has to give immediately. There will be no abiding either.

Thus when God punishes sin and it brings suffering it is just a natural consequence of
who he is the same as it is with you or me when our nature prevents us from putting up
with that which goes against our nature.

Is God then an uncaring God who brings about suffering because of man’s sin and does
not care about man? No. Why not? There are two reasons. (1) When we are warned
about a consequence that will follow an action and yet we go ahead and do the thing
whose fault is it when the negative consequence results? Say we are warned not to ignore
a stop sign in our driving and we choose to disregard the warning. Whose fault is it when
we are hit by another car? Who brought on the suffering? Was it the person who warned
us to stop at a sign or was the fault with us for ignoring the warning.

(2) In the second place God begs and pleads with us through his word to repent and turn
from disaster and avoid the suffering. Peter says the Lord is “longsuffering toward us,
not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” He has given
us a time to repent, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2 NKJV) He pleads with us. Hear the apostle Paul, “Now then, we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on
Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20 NKJV)

Read the Old Testament prophets to see God’s great love for his people even after they
have turned from him. He says, Hosea 11:8 (TEV), “How can I give you up, Israel?
How can I abandon you? Could I ever destroy you as I did Admah, or treat you as I did
Zeboiim? My heart will not let me do it! My love for you is too strong.”

Then in Joel 2:13 (TEV), “Come back to the Lord your God. He is kind and full of
mercy; he is patient and keeps his promise; he is always ready to forgive and not punish.”
And, here is the same verse from the ESV, “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over
disaster.”

Jeremiah in the book of Lamentations is expressing sorrow over what has become of
Jerusalem and his nation the result of sin but then says, “He may bring us sorrow, but his
love for us is sure and strong. He takes no pleasure in causing us grief or pain.”
(Lamentations 3:32-33 TEV) The ESV translates verse 33 with these words, “for he does
not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.” In verses 21 and 22 of the same
chapter Jeremiah says, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast
love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.” (ESV) And, by the
way, who wrote the book of Lamentations expressing sorrow as one who does care? In
reality was it not the Holy Spirit?

God has always cared but he has sometimes brought on suffering and sorrow for people’s
well being in order to bring about repentance and grant life eternal. A good example is
found in Amos 4 beginning in verse 6 and going through verse 11. Here is a little flavor
of the teaching of those verses, without quoting them all, taken from Today's English
Version.

“I was the one who brought famine to your cities, yet you did not come back to me.”
(verse 6) "The locusts ate up all your gardens and vineyards, your fig trees and olive
trees. Still you did not come back to me." (verse 9) "I sent a plague on you like the one I
sent on Egypt … Still you did not come back to me." (verse 10).

Clearly, the purpose of this suffering God brought upon his people was for their eternal
benefit. When bad things happen to us if we are willing to learn from them we can grow
spiritually stronger and have a better outlook and attitude on life and on our fellowman.
The most compassionate man, as an example, is often the man who has himself suffered.
The man with the most tender heart is often a man who has himself experienced sorrow,
pain, and personal suffering. The most uncaring are those who have no idea what these
things even are.

The Hebrew writer tells us quoting from the Old Testament, "My son, do not despise the
chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom
the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." (Heb. 12:5-6
NKJV)

Then in verse 11 of Heb. 12 he says of this chastening that God does it "for our profit,
that we may be partakers of His holiness." God does not chasten a person for that
person's righteousness but for his sins. Albert Barnes the commentator says, and I agree,
"the idea is, not that God will afflict his people in general, but that if they wander away
he will correct them for their faults." Since we all sin we all need correction from time to
time. Part of our suffering is to make us more what we ought to be rather than what we
have been.

So we can explain much suffering that occurs. We know of man's sin and of man's
cruelty and injustice to his fellowman. We know we need chastening and will receive it
for our good. But, no man alive can explain all the suffering that occurs in the world. If
God had not told us by inspiration who could have possibly of known why Job a
righteous man in no need of chastening suffered like he did? Job himself did not
understand it and was questioning God.

In Job chapters 38 - 41 God speaks to Job without directly answering the question as to
why. In summarizing he says who is man to question God's wisdom and power. God has
his reasons often behind the scenes where we will never see them in this life. Who is to
say but that it was God's intent to make Job an enduring example of perseverance for all
generations to come? That is certainly what he became. James says, James 5:10-11, that
Job is just such an example.

Why did Joseph suffer so? Betrayed by family, sold into slavery, put unjustly into prison
he had lost the love of family and hope appeared to be nonexistent. His faith carried him
through but his suffering could have caused him to give up on God. He did not. Neither
should we.

But, why did Joseph suffer? He tells his brothers years afterwards that while they had
meant evil against him God meant it for good "to preserve many people alive." (Gen.
50:20 NASU) There was a great famine that came and through Joseph's leadership and
the wisdom God gave him food was stored up so that thousands of people were saved
from starvation including Joseph's own family. God knows what he is doing even when
man suffers. He is able to bring good even from evil, even from suffering.

In this life we will never have the answers we desire as to why there is all the suffering
there is in the world. Earthquakes that kill tens of thousands, cyclones that do the same,
babies dying, things we will never understand while in this life. But, God knows what
and why and who? And, I would add one other thought. Death is not always the tragedy
it may seem. Who knows how glorious heaven will be? Infants and children who die in
their youth will be eternally in heaven, happy, safe, and free. Do we believe heaven is a
better place than here? If so, then they are happy who depart this earth while children.
As for Job and his suffering, James says this, "You have heard of the perseverance of Job
and seen the end intended by the Lord - that the Lord is very compassionate and
merciful." (James 5:11 NKJV) The Bible says, Job 42:12 (NKJV), that "the LORD
blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning." God does care. Peter instructs us
to cast all of our care or anxiety upon him, "because He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7 NAS)

In closing I ran across a song on YouTube the other day that hit home and opened my
eyes to a Bible verse in a way I had never known it before. The song was entitled "His
Eye Is On The Sparrow."

You remember the verses, Luke 12:6-7 (NKJV), "Are not five sparrows sold for two
copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many
sparrows."

If God does not forget even the sparrow, if he cares, then God cares for me. As the song
goes, "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me." What a wonderful
comforting thought. God does care. Do not let the suffering and sorrow that comes your
way discourage you. Remember Jesus too suffered and he knows. God's eye is on the
sparrow and he watches over you.

I would like you to know how this song came to be by the person who wrote the words -
a Mrs Martin.

"Early in the spring of 1905, my husband and I were sojourning in Elmira, New York. We
contracted a deep friendship for a couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle—true
saints of God. Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for nigh twenty years. Her husband was
an incurable cripple who had to propel himself to and from his business in a wheel chair.
Despite their afflictions, they lived happy Christian lives, bringing inspiration and com-
fort to all who knew them. One day while we were visiting with the Doolittles, my hus-
band commented on their bright hopefulness and asked them for the secret of it. Mrs.
Doolittle’s reply was simple: “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”
The beauty of this simple expression of boundless faith gripped the hearts and fired the
imagination of Dr. Martin and me. The hymn “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” was the out-
come of that experience.” *

Civilla Martin

Bedridden for 20 years and a husband confined to a wheel chair and yet she believes
God cares for her and has faith. We complain and say God does not care and yet our
suffering is generally far less severe than was hers.

"And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With
everlasting joy on their heads, They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and
sighing shall flee away." (Isa. 35:10 NKJV)

God does care and has great and wondrous plans for you and me.
* Source of quote: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/i/hiseyeis.htm