• “ Theodicy” is the term given to a defense of God’s goodness in the face of evil. It attempts to answer the age-old question: “ How could God let this happen?” The body of scholarship relating to theodicy is immense and ancient in origin. I’m not going to touch it. Instead, I’d like to chisel away at a premise that is hidden in the question, namely, that God’s treatment of humankind is the standard by which we ought to judge him.
• Please read this carefully. If God’s conduct violates our sensibilities, and our sensibilities are legitimate, doesn’t that imply our own ethics are divine and God’s depraved? Once we begin to question his behavior we suggest there is a standard above him by which he must be evaluated. We’re saying, “God has violated the obvious standards of decent conduct.” If that standard is ours (think with me) then we are the gods and he is the creature. We walk the high road. But God, well, he has issues.
• The entire enterprise of evaluating God’s behavior is dubious, if not blasphemous. From the perspective of simple reason, it makes much more sense to deny God and walk away from him, than to say we believe in him while simultaneously judging him. It’s the same as saying, “He is God and He is not God.” Because once you agree there is a God worthy of worship — meaning he is good and all-powerful and we are depraved and impotent — to critique his conduct is an offense to both God and reason.
• So what can we do? In the anguish of the moment, as now in the Philippines, we are permitted to complain about what God has allowed. “ I pour out my complaint before him; I tell him my trouble” (Ps 142:2). He does not require you to like or understand what he has done, indeed, it would be bizarre in many cases. You can see this in Moses who, in a dark hour, is frighteningly bold: “ Why have you dealt ill with your servant? … if you will treat me like this, kill me at once”
(Nu 11:11,15). Far from rebuking him, God answers Moses’ complaint and reveals the plan going forward (v.16ff), even explaining himself (“…my word will come true for you…” v.23).
• The key is that, for Moses, God is still God. He doesn’t like what God is doing, but he never presumes to judge him, as we do so often and effortlessly. Moses thinks like Job: “the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. ” He’s not so dishonest as to say the Lord has never taken anything from him, but he allows that, as God, it is his right to give and take as he chooses. He is God.
• Finally, all this probably means we should pray more honestly. Fear God and tell him what’s on your mind. Reverence and boldness ought to go together. Remember Abraham, “ Let not the Lord be angry… suppose thirty are found there? ” Humility and honesty. We submit to him completely, but we don’t pander to him as though he were insecure and sensitive to being slighted. Take a deep breath, rest, pray in confidence:
“ The Lord…appears in his glory; he regards the prayer of the destitute, and does not despise their prayer” (Ps 102:16-17).