From the Editor Jul/Aug 2021
Who among us, at one time or another, has not questioned God? Why, Lord, did You let my baby die? Why didn’t You heal my child? Why do You allow Christians to be slaughtered for their faith? Why did You allow the Holocaust?
Some people face unbearable heartache. Conservative Rabbi Harold Kushner struggled to understand God’s ways in 1977 when his son, Aaron, died in his mother’s arms of an incurable, genetic disease two days after he turned 14. He weighed 25 pounds.
The result of Rabbi Kushner’s effort became his bestselling book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Though the work has helped many deal with suffering, it draws an unbiblical conclusion. God is loving and good, Kushner says, but He is unable to prevent tragedy. In other words, He is not all-powerful.
Though we may feel that way in our anguish, everything in God’s Word says the opposite. Not only is God all-powerful, but He even determines events: “I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. . . . Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it” (Isa. 46:9–11).
This issue of Israel My Glory tackles the subject of suffering in the book of Job. Unable to understand why he was enduring such agony, Job longed to question God. Yet throughout his ordeal, he glorified the Lord: “Though He slay me,” Job said, “yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God” (19:25–26).
The book of Job stresses God’s omnipotence. Being human, we are incapable of fully understanding the Almighty. He tells us plainly, “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD” (Isa. 55:8). But because of what Jesus did for us at Calvary, there’s one thing we know for sure: God loves us.
None of us is truly good. We’re all sinners deserving punishment. But Jesus endured that punishment for us and arose from the dead, guaranteeing our resurrection to eternal life. He is the lifter of our heads (Ps. 3:3). His are the everlasting arms (Dt. 33:27). And our refuge is “in the shelter of [His] wings” (Ps. 61:4).
I hope this issue encourages you to cast all your care on Jesus because, truly, He cares for you.
Waiting for His Appearing,
Lorna Simcox
Editor-in-Chief
