This question is present in one shape or another in any debate with an gnostic or atheist friend. This is a valid question for someone who is trying to understand who Yahuah (God) is and there is not a perfect answer, but we can do our best! ;)
When I am asked this question, I centre my answer in three points:
Yahuah (or God) is not only good - he is infinite and impossible to be fairly described, so to say that he ‘is love’ or that ‘he is good’ is an overly simplistic description of our Creator, for he is also fair, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, long-suffering, all powerful, etc. and he created EVERYTHING, so he knows us because he MADE us. He knows how we think, how we will act, he knows our decisions before we decide them. The fact that He is good doesn’t mean that we will always agree with his plan or that we will like what comes our way. And He might not care whether we agree or not, so let’s get over it.
Everything that exists in the world was created to give Yahuah his well-deserved glory. We can’t understand righteousness if we don’t see wickedness. Even an evil person, who was created to be evil and to be a vessel of wrath, when they do their evil deeds, the contrast makes good necessary and longed for. We would not be able to truly value virtue without its opposite.
Evil happens because we kind of ASKED for it.
Allow me to elaborate.
For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. (Genesis 3:5-7)
Could the forbidden fruit be forbidden because it would bring us evil, misery and death? was it Yah's way to tell us 'don't play with fire or you will get burned'?
The knowledge to distinguish between good and evil could only happen to Adam and Eve if they were exposed to both. Our experience in this Realm is very difficult, some of us face unbelievable amounts of evil and we all are eventually exposed to it. When Eve and Adam decided to ‘eat of the fruit’, they made a conscious decision to know good and evil – enticed by the serpent that this would make them be like gods. You know the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’.
To ‘eat’ the fruit is to incorporate it, to make it part of you. Adam and Eve decided that they wanted to see how good and evil were, they were curious and wanted to be ‘like gods’. The gods who have more knowledge and are ‘more powerful'.
Good and Evil became part of our nature and we died spiritually. We are born with a mission on this Realm and we are constantly tested – or punished – with evil or setbacks. Our lives are like a heartbeat machine, with ups and downs that only gets flat when we die.
Scriptures tell us that when everything is going well in our lives, we forget Yahuah and take it all for granted. Hardship and a closer look beyond the veil of evil is the opportunity to bring us to our knees and ask for Yahuah.
“Then it shall come about when the Yahuah your Elohim brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)
So next time we face evil we can decide to trust in Yahuah and pray, or rebel against him and blaspheme. You know what… Yahuah already knows what you will do.
What about the sick children?
One of the saddest things is to see a young child die of sickness. A full life ahead made short, the parents’ descendance gone and that’s not to mention the physical suffering. A child still full of innocence – so how is that fair?
A child who existed for a short period of time or even worse, who dies in the womb, is fulfilling their own individual mission in the lives of their parents and others. Their life and death changes everything around them and we are not allowed to know the Father's reasons, all we know is that everything that happens to us and to others, happens with his permission. Of course this will not make it any easier for the one grieving. Who can comfort a parent who lost his/her child? Their comfort can only come from the one who gave the child – and took it away.
''Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there.
Yahuah gave and Yahuah has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahuah.”
(Job 1:21)
Where there is full submission, there will be trust that we are here for his glory and that we can count on his promises beyond the world. May we have the strength to give Him praise in all things, halleluYah!
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