How could God allow sexual assault to happen?
Isaiah 53:3-5He [the Messiah] was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
Matthew 27:28-31They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.
John 11:32-35When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Then Jesus wept.
How could a good God allow horrible evils such as rape? This is a deep question—not just intellectually, but emotionally. Before moving forward, let us remember one thing: Our God is not some distant God, content to watch us suffer from his heavenly throne. We worship Emmanuel, “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). Jesus stepped into the worst evil and suffering humanity had to offer, and he endured it all because of his love for us. God suffers when we suffer; God weeps with us when we weep; and he can do that because he truly knows what suffering is like. As we explore this question, remember this above all else.
Isaiah 42:3“He [the Messiah] will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged.”
Isaiah 61:1-3The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.
These passages from Isaiah prophesy about Jesus the Messiah (Matthew 12:17-21; Luke 4:17-21). Jesus truly cares for those of us who are grieving and who feel imprisoned or broken by our trauma.
Genesis 1:31Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
Romans 5:12When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
Romans 8:18-23Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.
God’s original creation was very good—but now, all creation groans in pain and longing. Adam’s sin brought death into the world, and humanity’s sin continues to fester. Logically, why would God allow humanity to do such evil? Couldn’t he have stopped it? God has chosen to give humanity free will, not because this will prevent evil, but because it will allow for greater good. If God made a world full of robots, nobody would suffer. But at the same time, nobody would truly love God or love each other. In order for love to exist, it must be a free choice, and in order for free choice to exist, there must be the possibility of choosing evil.
Job 1:8-12The Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!” “All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan.
Job 1:19“Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead.”
Job 2:7So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.
Why does God allow terrible things to happen to innocent people? The book of Job answers this question, but not in the way we might expect. Job is the most righteous man on earth, yet God allows Satan to test Job and Satan takes away Job’s wealth, his children, and even his health. Job never rejects God—but Job does ask God to show him why he deserved such suffering (Job 31:4). God answers Job by asking, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4). In chapters 38-41, God asks Job question after question about the inner workings of creation, things that Job could not possibly know answers to. In the end, Job withdraws his question. He acknowledges that God’s ways are beyond his understanding, and he accepts that God allowed what happened to him even though he doesn’t understand why. To us, God’s response may come across as harsh, but it’s a truth we need to hear. This is a key message of the book of Job: God’s plans are beyond our understanding, and even in situations of undeserved suffering, God is good and in control. Ultimately, Job’s suffering was redeemed. Countless suffering believers have been encouraged by this ancient book.
Jeremiah 51:24“I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem,” says the Lord.
Lamentations 3:17-24Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!” The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”
Lamentations 5:11Our enemies rape the women in Jerusalem and the young girls in all the towns of Judah.
Jeremiah was a faithful prophet, yet the people persecuted him and ignored his warnings. As a result, God’s judgment came down on Jerusalem, and the nation was conquered by Babylon. The Babylonian army committed many evils, including rape, which Jeremiah grieves deeply in the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah asks the same question we ask today: Why, God? How could you allow this? Yet in the center of the book of Lamentations, in the middle of his grief bordering on despair, Jeremiah expresses faith in God’s goodness. Even after experiencing the horror of human evil to an extent most of us can only imagine, Jeremiah dared to hope in God’s faithfulness. Ultimately, God repaid Babylon for the evils they committed, and God restored his scattered and enslaved people even when it seemed impossible. Though Jeremiah did not live to see all these events, he trusted in God’s promises. Thousands of years later, we can do the same.
Isaiah 53:3-5He [the Messiah] was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.
We serve a God who truly understands the grief, pain, and evil of this world. While we may never understand why God allows what he allows, we know that he grieves and suffers with us. Jesus the Messiah endured the most humiliating and excruciating torture humanity could devise because of his love for us. We can trust in that love during our own suffering.
Psalm 10:17Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
Psalm 55:17Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice.
Psalm 118:5In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free.
Psalm 119:76Now let your unfailing love comfort me, just as you promised me, your servant.
We don’t know why God allows tragedies to enter our lives. But we can know that God hurts deeply with us and loves us more than we will ever know. God didn’t create sin and evil, nor does he condone it. As long as humans live on this earth, our sinful nature will cause some to do sinful and evil acts. God has chosen to allow sin to run its course for now, but that will not be the case forever. God cares so much for humanity that he offers anyone who follows him a future place where sin and evil will never exist again. In the meantime, he comforts us and gives us the strength to work through our pain.
