Where is God when rape happens? Doesn’t he care enough to prevent it?

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, especially when we have been faithful to him. 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.

Genesis 37:28When the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.

Like Joseph, sometimes we may suffer because of the sins of others.

John 9:1-3As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”

Sometimes the suffering that comes to us is not our fault, as is the case with rape. It is a consequence of living in a sinful world filled with sinful people.