Healing Rays of Righteousness

Ray M. Geigley

This is a very troublesome question that we all struggle with at some point in our life’s journey. Last October, I was asked to share my understanding of the biblical response to this question in a weekend church retreat setting.  I do not pretend to have all the answers, but would like to share some reflections that have come to me during my many years of pastoral and chaplaincy ministries, and from my own journeying through several very significant and difficult “bad” experiences.  I plan to spread my thinking on this question over the next several weeks and hopefully build a more adequate biblical understanding that encourages your heart.

Read Genesis 1-3

For both Judaism and Christianity the understanding of this basic question comes from the Hebrew Scriptures, which we call the Old Testament.  It begins this way:  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  The story unfolds, describing the progression of creation, one event upon another.

Then human life is created.  First it is man, then as the Creator notes, it isn’t good for man to live alone, so he creates woman.  The two are given responsibility for overseeing the grand and beautiful world that God has created for their provision and enjoyment.

There are three important things to note in this beginning story of humankind and the wonderful perfect world they were placed in as partners and caretakers with God.

First, God alone created everything.  There is nothing other than God; there are no other gods, no other authority or power to which God is subservient.  All life came from his will and word alone.

Secondly, After creating the cosmos, God saw that it was good, and after creating humankind he pronounced his work as very good. There is no evil, no badness in all of this creation.

Thirdly, Human life is unique in that it bears the image of its Creator.  Though animal and plant life were also seen as good, only the human being was stamped with the likeness of the Creator.  This was God’s special work, the epitome of his desire to create a living creature with whom he could have an intimate relationship and be loved by.

From the beginning, it was God’s intent that in the harmony and balance of creation, human life would gladly and obediently carry out his will and concern as the supreme and sovereign Creator of all things.  In creating us humans he also empowered us with the ability and responsibility to participate with him as caretaker and stewards of all his good creation.

That’s the essence of the first two chapters of the biblical story of beginnings in Genesis.  But then the story takes a sad and ugly turn in chapter three.  Deception and disobedience are two earth-quaking events that pull shut the curtain on God’s “good” creation of all things.  Satan’s deception and mankind’s sin of disobedience brings “badness” and “death” into the human experience from that time forward.  The consequences were significant, immediate, and continuing:

1. Creation was cursed – both the serpent (v.14) and the ground (vv.17b-18).
2. Humans were driven out of the good garden into a life of sufferings; a life of shame, fear, blaming others, painful childbirth and difficulty in working for food to survive, ending in death.
3. Fellowship with God is broken.
4. Community with one another and with all creation is destroyed.

Living on this side of that cataclysmic break, it is hard to grasp the vastness of its consequence.  Humans entered into an entirely different way of life when they disobeyed God, losing their purity and intimacy with the divine. The devastation of that disobedience broke the harmony of creation and humanity, pitting one against the other, and changed the entire relationship of God to creation.

The resulting impact was global.  The man and woman were set at odds with one another and with creation. The principle of shared resources was turned upside down.  Resources became objects of greed and envy.  The powerful hoarded rather than shared.  Instead of care for the environment, abuse and pollution became accepted standards.

God’s human creation began to oppress others and their environment.  And God sent prophet after prophet to warn the people about their sin, and to invite them back into a relationship of forgiveness and love with himself, as was his intention in creating humans.

This is the world in which we live.  A world where bad things happen and keep on happening. Deception and disobedience not only opened the eyes of Adam and Eve but also the fountain of evil that spills over all the earth everywhere and every day.  Pain and suffering exists and we are continually seeking refuge and relief from it, all the while wondering what life would be like if sin had never been introduced into our world.

However, we are still left with the question, “Why do bad things happen to righteous, godly people?”  That will be our focus next week.  I hope you will prayerfully tune in.