To explore whether suffering is an indication that God isn t there, or that God doesn t care.

Transcription

1 The problem of pain 1 Ruth - Session 1 To explore whether suffering is an indication that God isn t there, or that God doesn t care. 2 Elie Wiesel is a holocaust survivor and writer. "Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing... And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "For God's sake, where is God?" And from within me, I heard a voice answer: "Where is He? This is where--hanging here from this gallows..." That night, the soup tasted of corpses." Q1. What questions does suffering raise for you, when it comes to God? Ruth 1 1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. 1 Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV, Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. 2 Elie Wiesel, Night, Hill and Wang, 2006, p62.

2 3 Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. 6 When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. 8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. 9 May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband." Then she kissed them and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people." 11 But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons- 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!" 14 At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her. 15 "Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her." 16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. 19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?" 20 "Don't call me Naomi, " she told them. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty [d] has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me." 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. To set the scene for this story, two things are helpful to know. Firstly, In the days when the judges ruled (Ruth 1:1) refers to a time in Israel s history, prior to the establishment of the monarchy (around 1000BC). What was life like in Israel at that time? The book of Judges tells us, In those days Israel had no king; and everyone did as he saw fit (Judges 21:25). In other words, it was a time of political and social chaos. Against this backdrop bursts the quiet story of Ruth and her family.

3 Secondly, the many references to Moab in Ruth 1. Moab was the land south-east of Israel3. As neighbours, they did not get along. God told the Israelites to stay separate from the Moabites, because of the way the Moabites treated the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to the promised land (which we call Israel). When it came to their relationship with the nation of Israel No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 23:3-5). Now, in an ironic twist of events, God is going to use Ruth the Moabitess to save His people! Returning to the story: Naomi, bereft of her husband and sons, hears that the famine in Bethlehem, Israel has ended. She decides to set out from Moab, where her family had taken refuge from the famine. Q2. Why is Naomi so insistent that Ruth her Moabite daughter-in-law returns home? Ruth 1:11-13: From what Naomi says it appears that the primary reason is because the only men her daughters-in-law could marry (& therefore have a means of support) would be future sons that she had. Naomi doesn t think this is likely. The options for her daughters-in-law are restricted to Naomi s offspring because no Israelite man would marry a Moabite woman in Israel (interesting that the author makes no comment about Naomi s sons marrying foreign women in Moab!). Q3. What impression do you get of Ruth and Naomi so far? (from Ruth 1:16-21) Ruth (Ruth 1:16-18): in staying with Naomi, Ruth is also embracing Israel s God she s making a decisive break with her Moabite heritage but also its gods. Note that Naomi understands that culture = family + gods (Ruth 1:15). Interesting that Ruth uses LORD in Ruth 1:17 LORD in capitals is the personal name of God. In some way Ruth has already attached herself to the Israel s God! We ll see as the story goes on that in many ways it s Ruth that is the model Israelite. Naomi (Ruth 1:20-21): Naomi is incredibly bitter over her time in Moab. She s lost her sons, her means of support, her future so much has been taken away from her and she s feeling so empty that she s even lost her name, her identity. She s no longer the person she once was because of all that s she s lost. Whereas once her life was full now it is only full of bitterness. 3 Map ref

4 Q4. Naomi s questioning is slightly different to Elie Wiesel s. Naomi knows exactly where God is in her suffering: The Lord has afflicted me, the Almighty has brought misfortune against me (Ruth 1:21, see also verse 13). How could God allow bad things to happen to His people? Atheism would say that since there is no God, suffering comes from blind physical forces and genetic replication, where some people get hurt, others get lucky, there s no rhyme or reason to it nor justice in other words we dance to our DNA (Dawkins). There s no question here, because there is no one to put the question to. The popular atheist position even uses suffering as a proof against the existence of God if God is all loving and all powerful then He would end suffering, and since evil and suffering exists therefore God can t exist. This reasoning isn t touted in academic atheist circles because it isn t a logical deduction. To use suffering to disprove the existence of God, you would need to prove that an all loving, all powerful God has no valid reason for suffering to continue somewhere serious atheists aren t prepared to go. One of the differences between Christianity and other religions, including atheism, is that Christianity invites the question of suffering and pain to be asked. Hinduism says that what happens is because of your karma, your deeds done in this or a previous life; Buddhism says that your suffering is proof that you are not enlightened and detached from your desires; Islam says it is blasphemous to question Allah. The psalmist says, Why have you forsaken me? (Psalm 22) the words Jesus himself utters on the Cross. 4 Here is one eminent Christian s position on God and suffering. I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the Cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzche ridiculed as God on the Cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have to turn away. And in imagination I have turned to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wretched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in 4 John Stott, The Cross of Christ, InterVarsity Press, 1986.

5 light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the Cross that symbolises divine suffering. The Cross of Christ... is God s only self-justification in such a world as ours. Q5. What would John Stott say to Elie Wiesel do you think? See the point highlighted above. The divine pain suffered on the Cross makes God believable in our world of pain. Q6. Getting back to the story: is the whole situation as negative as Naomi thinks it is? Naomi can t see the complete picture of what God is doing. There is hope! Naomi is not alone (she has Ruth with her), and the barley harvest is beginning which even Naomi knows God has provided (Ruth 1:6). Published 16 October Copyright, City Bible Forum 5 COPYRIGHT City Bible Forum (citybibleforum.org) is a ministry of Evangelising Commerce Inc (NSW), This material may be reproduced free-of-charge for non-profit use only as long as this copyright notice appears, and the content is not modified in any way. For any other use, or to modify the material, please contact us to arrange copyright permission, which may involve a small fee to help finance the production of such resources by the staff of City Bible Forum. Contact info@citybibleforum.org or tel: (02) or GPO Box 3266, Sydney NSW 2001.