Episode 2301 - Lesson 7 - Sunday Feb. 09 - How long, O Lord?

The problem of evil is voiced not only in contemporary contexts but also in Scripture itself. Read Job 30:26, Jeremiah 12:1, Jeremiah 13:22, Malachi 2:17, and Psalm 10:1. How do these texts bring the problem of evil to the forefront of human experience? These texts raise many questions that are still with us today. Why does it seem as though the wicked prosper and those who do evil bene­fit from their evil, perhaps not always but still often enough? Why do the righteous suffer so much? Where is God when evil occurs? Why does God sometimes appear to be far from us, even hidden? Whatever we say about these questions and the problem of evil more generally, we should be sure not to trivialize evil. We should not try to resolve the problem by downplaying the kind, or amount, of evil in the world. Evil is very bad—and God hates it even more than we do. Thus, we might join in the cry that rings throughout Scripture in response to the many evils and injustices in the world: “How long, O Lord?” Read Matthew 27:46. How do you understand these words of Jesus? What do they convey about how evil touched God in the most striking of ways? On the cross, Jesus Himself voiced the question: “ ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ ” (Matt. 27:46, NKJV). Here especially we see that God Himself is touched by evil, an amazing truth powerfully highlighted in the suffering and death of Christ on the cross, where all the evil of the world fell upon Him. But even here there is hope. What Christ did on the cross defeated the source of evil, Satan, and will eventually undo evil entirely. Jesus quoted those words from Psalm 22:1, and the rest of the psalm ends in triumph. On the cross, Jesus looked forward to a hope that, at the time, He could not see. How can we draw comfort from His experience when we, too, cannot see hope before us?