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Where is God when evil first manifests itself?

The question of where God is when evil manifests itself is identified with the question of theodicy. People have wondered that why we have evil in this world in spite of the fact that almighty, righteousness and benevolent God exists. Why does not God remove evil, which gives much suffering to his people? Does not the existence of evil conflict with the goodness of God? By answering to these questions, I will show my own understandings of the problem of theodicy.

I do not think that the existence of evil in the world conflicts with the goodness of God. Rather, it can be used to prove the righteousness of God. Of course, God does not create evil in the world. Also, God is so omnipotent that He can remove all evils from the world. But He sometimes shows His revelation through evil or sufferings of human beings. We can find such several examples in the Bible.

At the age of the Old Testament, Job was blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil. Nevertheless, God gave him muberless sufferings in order to test his love for God and uprightness. Facing the sufferings, Job did not blame God but he became more humble before Him and tried to understand His will and providence. Job’s friends, holding to a rigid theology of retribution, attributed Job’s misfortune to his personal sin. But Job rejected their assessment of his guilt, arguing that his suffering was not God’s punishment for his sin. The Book of Job shows the human limitation to understand God’s wisdom. He is free and beyond human comprehension. The sovereign God is not captive to a rigid law of retribution, but rather is free to do what appears mysterious to humans. Although God allowed Satan to give sufferings to Job, he also used the very crucible sufferings that Satan intended for destructive purpose to strengthen Job’s personal godliness. He wanted the integrity of Job to be mature through his adversity. Thus, as he confessed “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold” in 23:18, Job, through harrowing experience, came to understand that he is mere mortal, affirm God’s wisdom and to acknowledge the reason why God has given such tribulation to him. In this meaning, we can say that the sufferings of Job were positive and profitable to him.

Apostle Paul also confessed that God gave him a thorn in his flesh to torment him lest he should become conceited because the revelation he got from God was surpassingly great. Through his physical sufferings, Paul could understand that God’s power is made perfect in his weakness, and delight in hardships and persecutions for Christ’s sake (2 Cor 12:7-10). In Rom 8:28, he also said “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” In this passage Paul does not mean that everything we face in our life is good. There is evil or sufferings in our life, of course. But God will accomplish his salvific purposes, which are good, for his people even though and when they suffer greatly.

In Carroll’s essay, “Grace Under the Fire,” we find that Walter Bromwich, a young private who participated in World War I, referred to God’s purpose that he allowed his people to suffer from such a terrible war. In a short letter to his pastor back in Pennsylvania, Bromwich wrote as following.

“What I would like to believe is that God is in this war, not as a spectator, but backing up everything that is good in us. He won't work any miracles for us because that would be helping us to do the work He's given us to do on our own. I don't know whether God goes forth with armies but I do know that He is in lots of our men or they would not do what they do.” (Carroll, p. 24)

God does not remove evil from us, but he is in the middle of evil with us and helps us to overcome it. As he did for Job and Paul, through sufferings God wants us to realize that we are only weak and mortal things, to be humble before him, and to be mature enough that we may participate in his salvific work.

In my case (Jun-Soo Lee), I believe that my physical disability has a special meaning in the will and providence of God. Through my physical disability, God has called and allowed me to know and trust him. Though I have faced so many obstacles in my life due to the physical handicap, it has never driven me to despair. Rather, because of the handicap, I have wholly depended on God and obeyed him much more than other people. My disability is neither shame nor misfortune in my life but God’s grace to let me close to Him. Now I believe that God will use my physical disability as a tool to show his limitless love and power to many people who do not know him yet. He will be praised and glorified through my physical disability. For this belief, like Paul, I can confess I am proud of my weakness.

In conclusion, as stated above, I suppose that God can use evil and sufferings to prove His righteousness or to offer big grace and happiness to human beings. If one can understand God’s will toward him and glorify God through his sufferings, he wins victory over the sufferings as well.