Is Violent Crime Under God’s Providence?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | We end the week talking about providence.

00:00:06.900 | We started the week talking about providence

00:00:09.160 | and explaining the pains of life to children.

00:00:12.120 | Today a question from a grieving young woman,

00:00:14.480 | a new believer and a listener to the podcast

00:00:16.120 | who is now struggling to process

00:00:17.600 | a very deep trial in her life.

00:00:19.320 | We don't have her name, but here's her email.

00:00:22.080 | Hello, Pastor John, and thank you for APJ.

00:00:24.160 | I write because last year someone very close to me

00:00:26.600 | was assaulted and murdered.

00:00:28.200 | At the time of the tragedy, I had not devoted

00:00:30.440 | my life to Christ.

00:00:31.560 | The pastor at the funeral said, quote,

00:00:33.800 | "I don't think it was God's plan for this to happen,"

00:00:37.240 | end quote.

00:00:38.800 | I remember feeling so lost and angry.

00:00:41.200 | I gave my life to Christ a few months later,

00:00:43.520 | but I still don't understand why my loved one

00:00:46.380 | would be murdered if God is omnipotent.

00:00:50.400 | Does God allow sin to roam unchecked?

00:00:52.800 | Does the Bible say anything about God allowing

00:00:54.720 | such awful sin to happen and why?

00:00:57.920 | I am a new Christian with a lot to learn.

00:01:01.680 | Oh, how I wish I knew your name

00:01:04.040 | so that I could speak to you very personally and directly.

00:01:09.940 | But let's do the best we can.

00:01:11.600 | I am very sorry that you lost this close friend of yours,

00:01:16.600 | especially in such a brutal way.

00:01:19.720 | But it's good for me to know this because I can tell

00:01:24.280 | that your question is not theoretical.

00:01:27.720 | Lots of people ask this question in a very antagonistic

00:01:31.480 | and theoretical way, but yours is very personal,

00:01:34.180 | very urgent, and that's the kind of question I like,

00:01:37.120 | and I think it's the kind of question

00:01:38.600 | that God is very willing to hear.

00:01:41.900 | It's difficult for me to know what the pastor

00:01:46.160 | at your friend's funeral meant when he said,

00:01:50.400 | "I don't think it was God's plan for this to happen."

00:01:55.200 | Maybe all he meant was that God never does anything wrong

00:02:00.200 | and never sins against anyone.

00:02:06.040 | But it's one thing to say that God never does wrong,

00:02:10.720 | and it's a very different thing to say

00:02:12.800 | that God does not govern or oversee or direct

00:02:17.360 | or control the wrong that happens in this world.

00:02:22.040 | And if that's what the pastor meant,

00:02:24.940 | that God doesn't do that, I think he's mistaken

00:02:29.280 | because the Bible teaches from cover to cover

00:02:33.520 | that God does in fact govern all the details of the world,

00:02:38.380 | including the bad things that happen to us

00:02:40.880 | and to our friends.

00:02:43.320 | That in fact, I would argue, is what it means

00:02:45.800 | for God to be God.

00:02:48.360 | I say that because Isaiah 46, nine says,

00:02:53.360 | "I am God, and there is no other.

00:02:56.320 | I am God, and there's none like me,

00:02:59.600 | declaring the end from the beginning

00:03:01.340 | and from ancient times, things not yet done,

00:03:04.160 | saying, 'My counsel shall stand.

00:03:07.600 | I will accomplish all my purpose.'"

00:03:11.840 | So God's counsel, God's wisdom, God's purpose

00:03:16.040 | always comes to pass.

00:03:18.080 | That's what it means to be God.

00:03:20.240 | Not the devil, not nature, not fate,

00:03:23.680 | not chance, not sinful man.

00:03:26.440 | Nobody and nothing can thwart the plan of God.

00:03:31.440 | Job 42, verse two says, "I know that you, God,

00:03:36.860 | that you can do all things,

00:03:39.160 | and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

00:03:44.120 | And the apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1, 11,

00:03:47.840 | "God works all things according to the counsel of his will."

00:03:52.840 | All things includes the largest things,

00:03:59.160 | like the rise and fall of nations,

00:04:01.800 | and the tiniest things,

00:04:03.920 | like the fall of a bird out of a tree,

00:04:06.840 | or like the roll of the dice,

00:04:09.120 | for example, Daniel 2, 21 says,

00:04:11.760 | "He removes kings and he sets up kings."

00:04:16.160 | And Jesus said in Matthew 1, 29,

00:04:19.160 | "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

00:04:21.360 | And not one of them will fall to the ground

00:04:25.160 | apart from your father."

00:04:27.900 | And Proverbs 16, 33 says, "The lot is cast in the lap,"

00:04:32.400 | which is an old-fashioned way of saying

00:04:34.520 | the dice are thrown on the table,

00:04:36.440 | "but it's every decision is from the Lord."

00:04:40.600 | In other words, from the tiniest,

00:04:42.840 | most insignificant happening

00:04:45.280 | to the largest global happenings,

00:04:48.360 | God governs all things.

00:04:51.320 | Alongside that absolute sovereignty of God over all things,

00:04:56.320 | we need to embrace the teaching of Scripture

00:04:59.560 | that God is always just, always good.

00:05:04.320 | For example, beautiful statement in Deuteronomy 32, 4,

00:05:08.440 | "This rock," referring to God,

00:05:10.700 | "This rock, his way is perfect,

00:05:14.520 | for all his ways are justice,

00:05:17.500 | a God of faithfulness,

00:05:20.000 | and without iniquity, just and upright is he."

00:05:25.000 | Beautiful.

00:05:27.100 | And Psalm 34, 8 says,

00:05:28.940 | "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

00:05:33.720 | Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."

00:05:37.520 | He is good, he is wise, he's faithful,

00:05:40.800 | he's just, he's upright.

00:05:43.340 | There's no iniquity in him, no darkness in him at all.

00:05:48.340 | So we naturally ask,

00:05:51.280 | this is why I said your question was so good

00:05:53.920 | and right at the beginning,

00:05:55.900 | we naturally ask,

00:05:58.040 | why does God permit so much suffering and evil

00:06:01.800 | if in fact he's in control?

00:06:05.000 | Now, the Bible gives numerous answers to that question.

00:06:09.680 | If you go to Desiring God's website

00:06:12.800 | and just type in the search line,

00:06:15.120 | what are the purposes for suffering?

00:06:18.320 | You will find several articles right at the top of the list

00:06:21.920 | that point to those answers.

00:06:23.960 | But let me mention two of them,

00:06:26.240 | two answers just briefly.

00:06:28.340 | One of God's purposes for suffering

00:06:30.820 | is to show all of us the horror of sin.

00:06:35.820 | Suffering entered the world when mankind fell into sin.

00:06:41.300 | Genesis 3.

00:06:42.860 | Suffering is a trumpet blast to all humanity

00:06:47.860 | that just like pain is an outrage to the human body,

00:06:53.580 | so sin is an outrage against God's character and glory.

00:06:58.280 | The horrors of physical suffering

00:07:01.960 | are an echo of the horrors of humanity's belittling God

00:07:06.960 | by our disobedience and unbelief.

00:07:11.560 | But maybe most important for you as a newer Christian

00:07:17.200 | is to focus your attention on the death of Jesus.

00:07:21.480 | I assume that not long ago, because of what you said,

00:07:26.260 | God opened your eyes to see the death of Jesus on the cross

00:07:31.260 | for your sins as a compelling and true and beautiful reality.

00:07:36.620 | And you believed and you are saved today from guilt

00:07:43.020 | and from wrath and hell and meaninglessness

00:07:46.780 | because Jesus suffered on the cross in your place.

00:07:53.840 | Now, put the death of Jesus together with God's sovereignty.

00:07:58.840 | That's what Acts 4.27.28 do.

00:08:04.080 | The early church prayed in those verses like this,

00:08:08.480 | "In this city, Jerusalem, there were gathered together

00:08:12.220 | "against your holy servant Jesus,

00:08:14.060 | "whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate

00:08:18.400 | "along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel

00:08:21.740 | "to do whatever your hand and your plan

00:08:25.440 | "had predestined to take place."

00:08:28.600 | So Herod, Pilate, Gentile soldiers, Jewish mobs,

00:08:33.600 | all of them combined to kill Jesus.

00:08:38.680 | The murder of Jesus was like the murder of your friend,

00:08:42.640 | only worse because Jesus is the very son of God.

00:08:46.760 | And the Bible says that the sins of his murderers,

00:08:50.800 | Herod, Pilate, soldiers, mobs,

00:08:53.800 | their sins in murdering Jesus were predestined

00:08:58.680 | and planned by God.

00:09:01.680 | And he did this, God did this without himself sinning.

00:09:06.680 | He can govern, rule, oversee, control,

00:09:11.480 | guide the evils of the world without being evil.

00:09:15.340 | If God had not planned the death of his son,

00:09:19.600 | neither your sins nor mine would be forgiven.

00:09:24.400 | God orchestrated the worst sins that ever happened

00:09:29.360 | in the murder of his son so that you and I

00:09:33.040 | and millions of those who believe on Christ

00:09:36.320 | would be saved from destruction and given eternal joy.

00:09:41.320 | Romans 5, 8 says, "God shows his love for us

00:09:47.480 | "in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

00:09:51.760 | Which means that we simply could not know

00:09:56.320 | the depths of God's love without the death of Christ.

00:10:01.320 | And there would be no death of Christ

00:10:04.000 | without sin and suffering and the sovereignty of God.

00:10:09.000 | So when you feel that you can't understand

00:10:13.040 | why God does what he does, let your heart rest here.

00:10:18.040 | The worst suffering and the deepest sovereignty

00:10:22.800 | meet at the point of greatest love, the cross of Christ.

00:10:27.560 | So rest there.

00:10:30.600 | - Sobering, thank you, Pastor John.

00:10:32.600 | And thank you for joining us today on such a weighty question.

00:10:35.200 | We address a lot of heavy topics here.

00:10:37.880 | If you have one, you can go to

00:10:39.600 | desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn to ask it.

00:10:43.720 | And speaking of heavy questions,

00:10:45.320 | a man with a disabled friend

00:10:47.000 | writes in with a trio of questions next time.

00:10:49.760 | Number one, should we pray for healing

00:10:51.960 | for those with physical and cognitive disabilities

00:10:54.880 | such as Down syndrome?

00:10:56.680 | Number two, how should we encourage such a friend

00:10:58.880 | with the truth that they are made in God's image?

00:11:01.400 | And number three, will individuals in heaven

00:11:03.380 | retain some remnant of their disability?

00:11:06.040 | That's an interesting trio of questions

00:11:08.420 | all up on Monday when we return.

00:11:10.520 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:11:11.520 | Have a great weekend.

00:11:12.560 | We'll see you then.

00:11:13.560 | (upbeat music)

00:11:18.560 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Is Violent Crime Under God’s Providence?

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