Townhall
I am disgusted with a God who values suffering
I went for a walk through our local cemetery recently, and was stunned by the number of young people buried there just in the last few years. Ages ran from 13-30. I wrote down many of the names and was able to locate information on a number of them on the internet. Most had died in car accidents, one was murdered, and some of the others suggest that they may have been suicides or maybe accidental OD’s.
I've read a certain Book that had a story in it...
2 Samuel 12:13-23
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for[a] the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
15 After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth[b] on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”
19 David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.
“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”
20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.
21 His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”
22 He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
Revelation 20:12-13
"Then I saw a great White Throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and THE BOOKS WERE OPENED.
https://www.opentohope.com/rachels-cry-a-journey-through-grief/
Written by a friend of mine, Dr. Richard Dew
After the senseless murder of his son
Powerful collection of poetry
Only a century ago, 1:5 children died by age 6
That childhood mortality is now rare, is a very modern phenomenon
Historically speaking
“having talked to many parents who have lost children”
They didn’t lose them. It’s not like losing your keys.
The children died. “Losing them” implies a certain amount of culpability.
“If we knew the value of suffering, we would ask for more.” My wife died many years ago at age 41. I was left with a houseful of young children. It was hard to understand. A few years later, one of my sons died. Knowing that his mother had gone on ahead made his death much easier to bear. Not only that, I’m not sure how well she would have handled it had he gone before her.