I can see your negative reaction and it is understandable with your interpretation of events at face value. You are putting the blame on God without understanding the big picture....but please bear with me......no matter what happens in this life....no matter how tragic....no matter how heart wrenching...the devil has demanded to test us all out....he wants to prove that humans will only serve God when things are going well....but if satan was permitted to make the going tough, he claimed that we would all curse God and abandon him.....
Job 2:3-5.....God said of Job.....
“He is still holding firmly to his integrity, even though you try to incite me against him to destroy him for no reason.” 4 But Satan answered Jehovah: “Skin for skin. A man will give everything that he has for his life. 5 But, for a change, stretch out your hand and strike his bone and flesh, and he will surely curse you to your very face.”
By saying “
a man will give everything he has for his life” satan included all of us....Job represented the whole human race, but not those who would take the devil’s side in cursing God for their problems and abandoning him.
In Job’s case, God showed us why he has allowed us all to prove who we are, and whether we are only “fair weather Christians” or whether our love for God could weather the storms he would permit satan to bring on the human race? Satan laid down the gauntlet and God accepted the challenge because he had to....our peaceful, trouble free future depended on it.
We then have the choice to take sides here.....but we need to know what the real issue is.......so, given the truth of the matter, whose side will we chose? It’s up to us.
This is why we need to “know God” as Jesus said. (John 17:3)
If we really know him as Job did, nothing will separate us from him......(Romans 8:38-39)....you see, understanding the issues that were raised in Eden means realising what was challenged in the first instance.....the devil did not challenge God’s power....how could he? God’s power is something he personally witnessed in creation......snuffing out the rebels would only have proven that God is more powerful.....NO! Satan challenged God’s Sovereign right to make rules and to set reasonable limits for his intelligent, free willed creation.
God allowed the devil to test us all out because he needed to answer his challenge in a way that would test our faith, reveal our motives in serving his interests here on this earth, and give him reasons to reward those who pass this test, with an amazing future. (Hebrews 11:6) If we want no part in that, it’s our choice.
Then, when the dust has settled after the final showdown with all opposers, (both human and angelic) God’s first purpose will be restored, with free will intact as the gift it was meant to be, and all who come through the end times will then get to be rewarded with the life that we were meant to live in the first place. God’s Sovereignty is vindicated....the devil is proved a liar, and because precedents are set, these issues can never be raised again.
But what of the trauma such as that which haunts victims of abuse and the violence of war or terrorism? Isaiah addresses that in prophesy...
Isaiah 65:17...
“17 For look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth;
And the former things will not be called to mind,
Nor will they come up into the heart.“
All that we have been through, no matter how traumatic, or heartbreaking, will be erased from our heart, never to come back and haunt us again. All that was lost, will be restored....with no lasting harm.
The operation is indeed painful, but the results will more than compensate for the pain......a short lifetime of suffering is nothing compared with an eternity in paradise conditions with loved ones from whom we will never be separated again.
I hope you can put aside your prejudices and see it from God’s perspective......there are always two sides to every story.