As Sure As the Sunrise

All you have to do is watch the news to see that our world is full of hurt and suffering. Most of the time, however, it doesn't even take a television. Everyone knows the pain of the world by our own stories, our own personal experiences. 

I discovered an interesting passage in the book of Hosea this week, which caused me to contemplate these things. The first few verses of Hosea 6 say this: 

6 “Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us;
he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
2 After two days he will revive us; 

on the third day he will restore us, 

that we may live in his presence.
3 Let us acknowledge the Lord; 

let us press on to know him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear;

he will come to us like the winter rains, 

like the spring rains that water the earth." 

Is this saying that God tears, that God injures? Is it possible that God actually causes pain in this way? It reminds me of the age old question, why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

It's a valid question, kind of. There is a problem even within the question. We assume that good people deserve good things and bad people deserve bad things. But what makes a person good? The Bible teaches that God is a righteous, holy, and supreme God who has laid down a standard for us to live by - a standard that, by the way, no one has completely obeyed and no one will ever be able to. He is our ultimate authority, yet no one is able to fully uphold his commands. "No one is righteous," Romans teaches us, and "the wages of sin is death." We have broken God's law and deserve death, which places us in an awful mess. 

So a better question is this: why does God do anything good for bad people?

To solve our sin problem, God wrote the great story of salvation by sending Jesus, his own son, to take our punishment. His death on the cross paid for our sins, and his resurrection defeated death forever. What good news for a world full of such bad people! And what great love! This salvation story is free and available to all who will except it and believe, no matter how many good or bad things each person has done. 

Yet the generosity of God does not even stop there. He is so gracious to continue to do good things for us in our lives because of how much he loves us. Really, he only wants what is best for us, and he knows that what is best for us is himself. He will do absolutely anything to help us discover the satisfying gift of having a close relationship with him. If going through "tearing" and "injury" (as Hosea wrote) helps us draw closer to God, then of course he will allow it to happen, knowing that we will ultimately receive what our hearts are hungry for - himself. He may withhold what we think is good in order for us to obtain what is best.

Therefore, what Hosea wrote about it true. When God tears, he heals. When he injures, he also restores. And at the end of it all, we are blessed by a greater knowledge of God and deeper closeness with him. The point of it all is found at the end of the passage, "Let us acknowledge the Lord. Let us press on to know him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear." 

Even on the hardest days, the sun rises. Even in the most difficult times, God is near.