homework assignment

For if He causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness
Lamentations 3:30

I’m currently reading a book which addresses the issue of God’s judgment through events today. Jeremiah has taught me much on this subject, as well as made me more confident and provided better reasoning for my views. This verse reminds me that God is just and compassionate. In fact, He is compassionate through His justice, not in spite of it. The grief that God had allowed Israel to go through was not for vindictive reasons, but to bring them back to Him. The text does not say that He causes ALL grief, only that IF He causes it, then He will use it to show His compassion. Nor does it say that there are griefs caused apart from God’s causing. I’m sure this is where concepts of God’s sovereignty battle out the difference between “allowing” and “causing.” I believe there is a difference. God allows hurtful things to occur as a consequence of our sinful world (such as tsunamis), but He causes some hurtful things to occur for the good of those who love Him and to bring Himself glory (such as the Babylonian captivity). This is not to imply that God can not, or does not, use the “allowed” events to bring Himself glory. We just can not claim for a fact that God “caused” something to happen unless He has personally claimed causation (through scripture). Otherwise we may misrepresent God or claim that He causes evil, and neither one of those paths are safe.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:24

How wonderful it is to be able to say in the midst of pain and affliction that God is “my portion.” He is all that we need; no more, no less; just exactly right. I wonder how many people can honestly say that daily.