“God, Where Are You?” (or, A Theodicy Odyssey)
INTRODUCTION – Genesis 3:1-19 – I have long appreciated Vera Hall’s 1937 version of “Trouble So Hard.” The line “Don’t nobody know my troubles but God” is intensely comforting. Some people know some of our troubles, but God knows all of them. For Vera Hall, many others, and me, this truth is a great encouragement. However, others might be even more troubled and question why God does not intervene to prevent difficulties. When we are distressed, it is easy to ask “God, where are You?” As the alternate title suggests, this message is a theodicy, a defense of the ways of God in the face of the existence of evil. Regarding the above passage, we might well wonder why God did not step in earlier.
- GOD HAD ALREADY SPOKEN CLEARLY
Genesis 2:16-17 – Adam and Eve were not children; they were adults with powerful intellects and mature reasoning skills and should have recognized the temptation of Satan (the serpent is Satan; see Revelation 12:9, 14-15; 20:2). God had provided a definite, specific, authoritative warning about the inevitable consequences of disobedience. Note that Eve left out “freely” in her response (Gen. 3:2) and added “touch” (v.3). We should always focus on exactly what God has said, for as Jesus, God the Son, said in Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” God had spoken clearly to Adam and Eve; thus, He had intervened well before their sin. The fault did not rest with God.
- MANKIND WAS AND IS CREATED IN GOD’S IMAGE
Genesis 1:26-27 – Man was created by God. Evolution is unsatisfactory at every level. First, it cannot explain the existence of matter. Second, it fails to provide a mechanism whereby inorganic material becomes organic. Third, its belief in increasing organization is contrary to the Law of Entropy and to the fact that available genetic material is decreasing in diversity. Fourth, evolution has no answer for (and can have no answer for) irreducible complexity. DNA tells RNA what to do with proteins, but both DNA and RNA are made of proteins. The question is not “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” No, the question is “What came first, DNA, RNA, or proteins?” The only logical, reasonable, scientific answer is that all three existed simultaneously in fully-functioning form. Right now in each cell in our bodies, this sub-cellular miracle is occurring. Truly, as Psalm 139:14b says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” We are made “in the image of God.” Of course, we are not gods, for some of God’s attributes cannot be granted to us (for example, His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and what I call His omniomniness). Some of God’s characteristics are communicated to us: thought (remember that Jesus died to take away our sins not our minds), love, and will. It is crucial that we understand the importance of the will. Without will, we would be no more than biological manikins, mere automatons, part of a cosmic video game with a bored and petty tyrant operating the controls. We cannot be human without a will. Both Adam and Eve used their wills to rebel against the goodness of God. Our will needs to be exercised in obedience to the perfect will of God; only then do we find what it is to be fully human.
- ACCOUNTABILITY IS PART OF ANY GOOD RELATIONSHIP
Genesis 1:31 – Throughout this chapter, we find that God’s work of creation is called “good.” It is only when Adam and Eve are created for each other in a marital relationship that God labels His work “very good.” Both Adam and Eve were created in God’s image; both were warned clearly of the dangers of sin; both had each other. They should have and could have used this relationship to reject temptation. I Thessalonians 5:11 says, “Comfort yourselves together and edify one another.” Galatians 6:2 states, “Bear ye one another’s burdens , and so fulfill the love of Christ.” We cannot have any good relationship without reliability, without accountability; we cannot have a good relationship with God without the same.
CONCLUSION – Obviously, these points are only a partial theodicy. However, we can be assured even by this limited study that, in the face of evil, God remains good. This intrinsic goodness is most powerfully and convincingly demonstrated when God the Son, Jesus Christ, came into our darkness, bore our sin on the Cross, and stared down evil even as He died… and rose again. Each one of us must exercise the will to respond to Jesus’ offer of salvation. As Augustine said centuries ago, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”