General Bible Study Learn About God

GOD’S CHARACTER

Why Does God Allow Suffering Part I

If you know anything about history or regularly watch the news, you would have heard many horror stories of suffering people. Throughout history, evil men and women have treated people as nothing more than a toy to play with or forced into submission. People have been tortured, impaled, beheaded, enslaved, experimented on, dismembered, pulled apart, beaten, burned alive, and for what? Most of the time it was just for the mere enjoyment of those watching or to force them to follow their agenda/beliefs.

Even today we hear about parents leaving their babies in trashcans to die, teenagers beating an elder with a hammer, young kids lighting other kids on fire with gasoline, governments taking part in genocides, young girls (and probably boys too) gang-raped crossing the border, parents caring more about looking good in front of other people than the safety of their children, and so much more. I could literally go on and on and on.

We could never write down all of the atrocities that happen because the atrocities never stop. Someone is always getting hurt or abused. And we never hear about most of them. We only know about the ones that have been found out, but what about those that are done in secret? The ones that are never in the news, that are never found out, and that leave the victims to suffer alone?

When people think about these atrocities, or live through them and escape to tell the tale, they might wonder how God can be good. How could a good God allow so much evil and suffering in the world? Why doesn’t He kill the wicked? Why doesn’t He spare the powerless? How could He be loving and turn a blind eye to their pain?

These are very legitimate and valid questions that I feel should be answered. How do you tell a woman who has been physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by her husband that God is good and that He loves her, and yet God sees everything that happened to her and He did nothing? How does that make sense?

Lord willing, I will answer these questions through a 3 part series in my blog to give you a more in-depth answer. There is so much to say on this topic that it would be a disservice to those reading to not have more information. To understand how to correctly answer and understand this question we must have knowledge of 3 things: what is God’s character, how sin changed everything, and what the future holds.

In this blog post, we will be talking about God’s character in relation to suffering.

What Are The Basics Of God’s Character?

Since we are humans with finite minds, we are unable to completely fathom who God is. All we know about Him is what He has chosen to share with us in His Word, the Bible. There are many things about Him that are still a mystery. That being said, there are many characteristics about Himself that he has decided to show us. I am not going to name them all but I’m going to share with you some that I feel are very important to know when it comes to people suffering and not squashing wickedness right away.


The first basic characteristic of God is

God never changes.

(Numbers 23:19)(Psalm 102:25-27)(Revelation 1:8)(Hebrews 13:8)(Malachi 3:6)(James 1:17)

Who He was at the beginning of time is still the same now. He wants to be a part of our lives and take care of us. He has loved us since the beginning. He gave Adam and Eve, the first of His human creation, everything they could need. He freely gave them food, love, fellowship, comfort, and peace of mind. He treated them kindly and like family. He treats us the same today, as a father.

God never changes in His hope for our salvation, His desires for the world, and His plans for the future. He remains the same. This is one reason why I believe it is so important to know the Old Testament and not just the New Testament in the Bible. We are not under the law and required to follow the sacrifices and traditions that the Jews had to do, Christ changed all that, but there are a lot of good boundaries that God gave which would benefit us today as well.

Because the God who told the Israelites to not kill, to not covet another’s wife, to not hate their brother, or that it is good to discipline their child, is still the same God today and holds to these same principles.

His hope for us is to live a good life and to come to His saving grace is still the same. His desire for the world to be in peace and for everyone to love their neighbor is yet never changing. A world with no wars, or bloodshed. And His plans to help us navigate the difficulties we go through, and trust in Him so that when we die we can go to Heaven. A place where there are no tears, no pain, and no regret. It is a true utopian world that is perfect in God’s care.


The second basic characteristic of God is

God is righteous or morally perfect.

(Psalm 11:7)(Ephesians 4:22-24)(Romans 3:21)(Romans 1:17)(Isaiah 41:10)(Psalm 119:137)(Psalm 145:17)

Since God is the creator of all the world, He is also the one who gets to decide what is right and wrong. He created what is moral and immoral. We live in His world, not the other way around. He has determined what is love and what is hatred, what is scientifically accurate and what is false, and what is kindness and what is mean. It is not up to the world and those within it to define it based on their own limited knowledge because as we’ll see later, God is all-knowing.

Our culture and the world are always changing what they believe is right and wrong. It was only until 1865 that slavery was deemed wrong. Before that, it was seen as right and ethical. It was only 70 years ago when doctors believed it was good for a mother to smoke and drink with a baby in their belly. In fact, it was almost encouraged. Children were allowed to be used as cheap labor and work like horses up until the 1930’s.

When that person hurts you, it is not of God. It is because of man’s free will to sin and the evilness that sin has brought into our hearts. It is Satan who desires for us to hurt each other and commit heinous acts because he knows it hurts God to see us do these things. He enjoys watching others suffer and feeling the power that comes with causing them to listen to what he says. It makes him feel like a god.

The Bible says that God is light and in Him is no darkness (I John 1:5). So if God is the light, one who is spiritually pure, then Satan is the opposite. He is the darkness who spiritually tempts us to do impure things. He wants to be God but he doesn’t want to be like God so he must be the opposite. It is Satan who wishes for everyone to suffer and proactively seeks to make it happen and not God.

Today we know and have decided that all of these things previously said about history were wrong but God knew that since the beginning. Because it was He who said they were wrong. It causes my mind to wonder what else the world has deemed as ethically good that is, in actuality, wrong and goes against God’s righteousness. And know this, if the world’s beliefs are different than God’s then it is we who are wrong, not God, for He is the creator of morals.


The third basic characteristic of God is

God is holy.

(I Peter 1:16)(I Samuel 2:2)(Isaiah 6:3)(I Peter 1:15-16)(Leviticus 19:2)(Psalm 99:9)(Exodus 15:11)(Rev. 15:4)

To be holy is a lot like being righteous but there is a slight difference. While being righteous means to have no impurities or flaws (to be perfect morally), to be holy is to be devoted to being righteous. You are spiritually pure and have decided to stay that way forever. Because God is devoted to being pure He can’t do evil. God is not capable, even if He wanted to, to do wrong and wicked things, because he is holy.

It is not his will for you to be molested or abused. It is not because of him that people turn into serial killers and perform sick and twisted tortures on people. God is not capable of doing those bad things, nor encouraging someone to do it. Everything that God embraces is righteousness and to do these evil things would go against the very principles that He holds dear. It would stain his righteousness and destroy the holiness that He has devoted himself to.


The fourth basic characteristic of God is

God is good.

(Mark 10:18)(Psalm34:8)(Luke 18:19)(Psalm119:68)(I Chronicles 16:34)(Nahum 1:7)(Psalm 136:1)(Ezra 3:11)

God is the standard, the definitive authority, and the epitome of excellence in what is considered good. His intentions, His motivations, His reasons, and even His punishments towards us are always for the outcome to be good for our lives. Because God is good He can only create good things. When He created the earth and everything in it, every single day, He looked back and saw that it was very good. This phrase is everywhere in Genesis 1.

And not only does He create everything and embodies everything that is good, He also wishes for us to experience His goodness. He wants us to experience His peace that comes from trusting in Him, His comforting love that comes from being with Him, and His saving grace from a place of torment and anguish. We will never regret seeking His goodness or desiring to have favor with Him. God doesn’t promise us an easy life, but He does promise us that He will be good to us all the days of our life and beyond.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man that trusts in Him.

Psalm 34:8

But none of these attributes mean a thing to those who have suffered unspeakable terrors. They cannot see His goodness from slavery, they do not care about His righteousness and holiness if it doesn’t help them. He is not a great and loving God in their eyes.

We have to start with a knowledge of God before we can see how He interacts with victims and oppressors. We have to know and understand that these evil things did not come from God, for He is morally perfect and good and without flaws. We can trust in Him because He never changes and what He says will hold the same no matter the era, the culture, or the society we are in.

And once we know simple qualities about Him we can greater understand the characteristics He shows towards the victims and oppressors.

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What Is God’s Character Towards The Victims?

God is everywhere, at all times, and see’s everything.

(Psalm 139)(Hebrews 4:13)(Matthew 10:29-31)(Job 34:21)(Jeremiah 23:24)(Jeremiah 16:17)

(Proverbs 15:3)(Job 11:11)

Stuck in a school where your other students beat and degrade you? God sees it and remembers. Kidnapped from the street and left where no one can find you? God is there with you. Nothing is hidden from his sight. Tricked into sex trafficking because of someone close to you and now you are used as nothing more than an object for profit and pleasure? God feels your pain and hears your heart. He will make these people who have hurt you give an account for the wrong things that they have done. They will be punished for their deeds but we may need to be patient until God’s time to punish them.

God tells us to look at the sparrows in the sky, to man, they hold no importance and are not worth very much. Yet God takes care of them and there is not a single one that falls to the ground that He does not know and see what has happened. (But notice He also allowed it to happen.) He tells us in Matthew that if He cares so much for these “worthless” birds then how much more does He care for us? Those who were made in His image and whom He gave a soul.

We can never be too far away or too lost for God. He knows where we are at all times. The Bible even says He knows the amount of hair you have on your head. If He is that knowledgable about your hair, how much more does He know about your life and heart. He never leaves our side. He is with us through everything. He keeps a record of what happens to you, and He is making plans for your future. Take comfort in knowing that you are never alone. You can always call to Him, He will hear and He wants us to search for Him.

God is all-knowing on every topic, object, and person in this world and beyond.

(Psalm 147:5)(I John 3:20)(Isaiah 44:7)(Isaiah 55:8-9)(John 10:15)(Job 21:22)(Romans 11:33-34)(Psalm 147:4)(I Samuel 2:3)(Jeremiah 29:11)

God is the creator of science, the founder of mankind, and the one who formed history as we know it. He knows how your oppressor is going to respond, what they will do next, and what their punishment will be. He knows what it is that you are facing and how you will respond as well. To some, He will send a rescuer to save you from the depths of despair. To some, He will allow harm to happen for a reason only He can know. And to some, He allows them to die, sometimes in His mercy and sometimes because they have a much better home in heaven.

Even if you are not in a bad situation or being hurt yet, stay close to God. He can see each choice and action that will happen in your future and He will prompt you to do or not do things to keep you safe. To stay safe we must follow His leading. We must talk to Him and make sure this is where He wants us to go or what He wants us to do.

One way people become victims is because they did not heed His warnings. They felt they knew better or they were ignorant of the danger. Either way, the result became the same.

However, there are times when it is God’s will for you to become a victim. It might be to cause you to finally be willing to acknowledge and see Him. It might be so you can better help other victims and be used greatly by Him. It might be to put you in the same place as someone else so you can lead them to Him as well.
Only God can know why He allows something to happen. But know this. God sees you and God knows what you will do in every situation. He knows the dangers, He knows the wicked, He knows how each of you will respond in the situation. He knows each act that will happen and each pain inflicted. He does not wish for it to happen. But because He has allowed each of us to have free will in our lives, to choose what we want to do and where to go, He does not always prevent the bad. Let this be a warning. A life without God, a life without His promptings, can more easily lead to harm.

God is compassionate to their suffering.

(Exodus 33:19)(Psalm 40)(Lamentations 3:22)

God does not take joy in the suffering of others. He is also not wishy-washy. He hates to see us suffer. He hates to see bad things happen to us, things that He doesn’t want to happen.

But while we’re in the suffering, even if we deserve it or could have easily prevented it if we had been wise, he is still compassionate and cares for us through it all. He is especially compassionate to the orphans and widows and those who were innocent of sin. But God decides who He will be compassionate to and whom He will not. Let’s be honest, some people that suffer a wrong deserve it. Will God show compassion to these? Maybe, but also maybe not.

God’s compassion for us will never run out. We will never be so far away from His grace to no longer receive His compassion. There will be a time when a person hardens their heart so many times that they will no longer be given God’s intervention but that is a different topic for a different day.

They will also be new compassions, not recycled or someone else’s. They are specifically for us and our situation. It is tailored to our needs and His desires for our life.

It is also through God’s compassions that we can keep going through the suffering, even if we are not rescued from it. It might not be His time yet to save us from grief. So while we wait, His compassions will give us hope. They will give us strength and they will keep life worth living.

In Psalm 40, David was going through great distress in His life. He says,

“I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.”

Notice the process he takes through his suffering. First, he waits for God. Second, although he is waiting he continues to plead with God to help him and get him out of this distress. Third, at God’s timing, He brings David out of this hardship and plants his feet solidly. He doesn’t just leave him helpless, out of his problems but not sure how to prosper. He helps him have a firm foundation to rebuild his life upon. And fourth, David praises God and fears and trusts in him.

This was a time when God used suffering to bring David closer to Him. To help him see that what He truly needed was God and that if He would only ask, God would help.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)

God is just to those who have been wronged and seeks justice against those who have been oppressed.

(Isaiah 30:18)(Isaiah 61:8)(Job 34:12)(Psalm 99:4)(Psalm 9:7-8)(Colossians 3:25)(Deut. 10:18)(Psalm 140:12)(Psalm 103:6)

The Lord loves justice for He is the God of justice. He wants to see those who have committed any form of sin be given the punishment they deserve. And He must use justice equally upon all who sin against His rules of conduct. This means, of course, that He must even punish those who are oppressed for their sins. Even victims do not get a pass to sin.

But He will never pervert justice. His judgments of people are never flawed or incorrect. How He decides to punish a person is exactly what they deserve. In reality, there are no sins that are worse than other sins. God sees all sin as the same. But the number of sins and the knowledge behind sins change the outcome. In other words, when someone commits more sins their punishments are worse. Or if they sin knowing that it is wrong in God’s eyes their punishment is harsher.

However, God does not always give bad people their punishment while they live on earth. Sometimes he waits until they die to then punish them. And yet other times, He greatly punishes those on earth while they are yet alive. But when you think about it there is nothing we can do on earth that is worse than what God can do after death.

He also punishes those who go against his morals equally and fairly. It doesn’t matter how much wealth you have, how social power you possess, what race you are, if you are caught in the act, or if your culture and society believe it’s right or wrong. He judges based on His standards and on His morals which never change. That is why it is so extremely important to know what God’s standards and morals are.

In the end, although God will seek justice for those in oppression, we mustn’t forget that He judges everyone. He is not partial. But God gives us a command in Isaiah 1:17. He says,

“Learn to do good. Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

He tells us to do well too. We should be using our influence, time, and energy to do His work in seeking justice for the wounded and giving earthly punishments to the oppressor. Just as God cares, we should care.

But even if no one else cares for those who are oppressed, they are always on God’s mind and He is constantly doing work to help them. He is never silent, nor permissive to the abuse. But since we don’t know His ways we cannot always see Him working behind the scenes.

God will seek vengeance on their behalf and it will be far worse than anything we could ever imagine.

(I Thessalonians 4:6)(Leviticus 19:18)(Deuteronomy 32:35)

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.

Romans 12:17-19

When we have been harmed and afflicted in any way our first thought might be to avenge ourselves. Or maybe the harm wasn’t even towards us but instead to a loved one and we wish to seek vengeance for them. That would be me. I have always been a huge seeker of justice for those who are being bullied or abused. But I need to remember it is not my job to seek vengeance. God will repay.

We should follow what He commands of us, to seek justice within the law of our country, but if it fails us, don’t be discouraged. Don’t ruin your life by killing or causing harm to the oppressor just to land yourself in jail. Don’t hurt your own soul and spirit by committing a sin because now you have sin on your hands as well. Be patient. God will avenge. And His vengeance will make ours look like child’s play.

God does not play around when it comes to punishments. His are fierce and unforgettable. There have been many cities and entire nationalities that he has utterly destroyed within a matter of moments. So horridly that there was not a single survivor. Know this, the wicked will never win.

On earth, they might serve a life sentence in jail, be given capital punishment, or be murdered by other inmates. But once dead their punishment is complete, eternal separation from God. (But this is true not only for oppressors but even the oppressed who reject God. What a great mission we have to not only save these people from the terror they live through on earth, but to give them a perfect future in Heaven through God’s salvation.) We will talk more on this topic later in the series.

What Is God’s Character Towards The Wicked?

God is all-powerful.

(Job 12:13-25)(Matthew 19:26)(Jeremiah 32:17)(2 Samuel 22:33)(2 Chronicles 20:6)(Job 26:7-14)(Matthew 22:29)

It took a tremendous amount of power to create the universe and everything within it, but God says that it was a small fraction of His might. What seems hard to us is extremely easy for Him. Even today, we are staying on the ground because of gravity but what caused gravity to be? God created it and He can easily get rid of it and have us all be thrown into space. The massive storms that terrify us all come to be because of his power, it is He that stirs them up. The mightiest of the beasts on earth are under God’s mighty power and listen to His commands.

God laughs at our nuclear weapons, He smirks at our belief that we can overthrow Him. How could we possibly be so arrogant to believe that we will best God? We are arrogant in our ignorance. And no matter how great or powerful your abuser is, God is even greater. He could easily crush them with just a look in their direction. There is nothing impossible for God.

God desires all to repent.

(Ezekial 18:21-32)(2 Peter 3:9-10)(I Timothy 2:4)(Romans 10:13)(Ezekial 33:11)(I John 1:9)

God is not lazy. He is not overlooking the sins of the wicked because He is tired and doesn’t want to have to deal with them right now. He gives them time to repent. Because, crazily, God loves us all. He hates the sin but He loves the person. So even if you are a murderer or a molester or a bully or a drug dealer, or any type of sinner, He still wants you to give up your sin, understand the truth, and ask for forgiveness. He still wants us to desire fellowship with Him and try to live the life God desires of us. Anyone that calls on His name will be saved. He loves even the most wicked because He takes no pleasure in seeing anyone be tormented for eternity.

Do you think that is not fair? So did Jonah when God asked him to preach to the Ninevites to be saved. The Ninevites were an especially cruel people. They ripped apart bodies, impaled people, flayed people alive and cut off people’s heads, and left them rotting on spears in front of their cities. Jonah felt their sick and twisted ways of life did not deserve God’s mercy.

But God knew that the Ninevites would repent. He knew they would turn from their sin and that is what He wishes for all of us. If He can forgive our sins of lying, stealing, cheating, lusting, envy, etc… why can He not also forgive their sins? If you were made righteous through Christ’s blood then so could they. That is God’s wish for all of mankind.

God is merciful.

(Romans 9:15-16)(Lamentations 3:22)(Psalm 145:9)(Exodus 34:6)(Psalm 136:26)

Every sin committed deserves to be punished. God has every right to judge us but He is a merciful God. He knows that we have not always had the best treatment in life. He knows that we were all born with the urge to do what is wrong. He knows that there was not always someone in our life to show us the right way to turn.

Also, it is not up to us to decide who gets God’s mercy. We cannot see the heart, nor the future. We are blinded by our own hatred and desire for vengeance. Mercy extended to others is only for God to decide.

Our hearts will be a huge factor in if we receive His mercy or not. A heart that refuses to change and see God’s light might be cut off from mercy. But a heart that is open and willing to change might be extended a future for God. Remember, God knows how our hearts will respond. He might be slow to punish us and show us mercy because He knows what we will do in the end.

God is slow to anger.

(Isaiah 54:10)(Psalm 103:8)(2 Peter 3:9)(Psalm 86:15)(Joel 2:12-13)(Exodus 34:6)(Psalm 145:8-9)

This goes kind of along with God’s mercy and desire for others to repent. Not giving a punishment right away is a form of mercy but it is also God being slow to anger to try to bring them to repentance. He is giving them time to see the error of their ways. But it is also giving them time to increase the torment of their punishment in the future.

But The Greatest Of These Is…

God is love.

(I John 4:7-8;16)(Ps. 86:5)(Romans 5:8)(John 3:16)(Ephesians 2:4-5)(Zepheniah 3:17)(John 13:34)

This character trait of God is what makes all of his other attributes work in harmony with each other. This is the core of who God is and what He is all about. God is love. He loves everyone unconditionally. We do not have to love Him back, nor serve Him. He loves you no matter what you do. Just as a child will turn away from the will of their parents, do they stop loving them? Honestly, some do. But God does not. He will still be watching us, wishing we were with Him and waiting to see if we will follow Him.

God’s love is not the world’s definition of love. I Corinthians 13 shows us God’s definition of love.

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.”

The only reason we can love is because God loved us first. He showed us what that meant.

So can the wicked stop their sinful behavior and repent and change? Yes, through God’s love they can.

Can the victims lead a life of healing and also be able to forgive those who have wronged them? Yes, through God’s love they can.

Through God, we can do the impossible. Look to Him for guidance. He will always be there, ready to reach out.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off. 
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways. 
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it. 
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139

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