Is God both wise and good? William Law, who lived a long time ago, back in the 1600s to be exact, wrote something about that question that is worth considering. Here’s what he wrote: “Whenever … you find yourselves … murmuring at anything that is the effect of God’s providence over you, you must look upon yourself as denying either the wisdom, or the goodness of God.”
Ouch! That hurts! Yet, sometimes we think, “God can’t be wise and still make me go through this situation!” or, “God isn’t good, or He wouldn’t let this happen to me!” That’s human logic, all right.
I’m so glad that God never gets on our case for asking why hard things happen in our lives. At least 19 times in the Bible, Job asked, “Why?” Here are some of the examples: Job asked God:
- “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.”
- “Why do you, [God], hide your face?”
- “Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?”
No, God doesn’t care if we ask, “Why?” for Job did it, and the Bible says of him, “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said” (Job 2:10).
