“Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?” (Luke 13:4)
Or the terrible earthquake that hit Myanmar yesterday and killed—well, I haven’t heard a figure yet. But it was tragic and our prayers go out to all the people who suffered because of it.
Skeptics like to try to make capital of such events—“why does a good, loving God let such things happen?” I find Luke 13:4 above interesting. Jesus doesn’t try to explain why it happened, He doesn’t try to “defend” God in any way against critical attacks. He accepted the world as it is, and He knew it isn’t going to change. We do know, from Genesis 3:17, that when man sinned, God cursed “the ground for your [man’s] sake”—the perfect creation “was subjected to futility,” and that “the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now” (Romans 8:20, 22). Man’s sin brought destruction upon the earth as well. That’s the ultimate reason, whether we comprehend it fully or like it at all. God isn’t really terribly concerned with what we like or don’t like. That isn’t the standard by which He acts.
Deciphering every such tragedy—a tower in Siloam falling on, and killing eighteen people, an earthquake in Myanmar doing untold damage, and countless other such events—explaining, in the purposes of God, why such incidents occur is absolutely impossible for a finite, incredibly limited, human mind. This is the world we live in, and it’s useless to try to illuminate God’s reasons for everything that happens that we don’t like. Or even do like.
But Jesus, as always, gets the priority right: quit worrying about those eighteen people in Siloam who died: “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5). And He is speaking of eternity here. We’re all going to die, physically, some day. We don’t know when or how, but it will happen to every one of us. Our response to that fact is not to blame God or try to understand His reasons for what He does; our response is to repent and get ready to meet Him. Because, regardless of why God does what He does, we all will stand before Him in judgment someday, and wise we are if we use our time to prepare for that greatest event we will ever encounter.