the dread I have of justice and holiness

Why did the Holocaust happen? Why did that kid die? Why do criminals seem to be unstoppable? Hard, age-old questions of which we demand an answer.

I’m studying Lamentations at the minute, which is an old testament book detailing the writer’s, Jeremiah, response to the fall of Jerusalem (c. 586 B.C.) at the hands of the Babylonians. Lamentations is an easy book to read, reasonably simple to understand but a hard book to take in. Everything that is talked about sounds so horrid, so wrong.

Recently, the thing about the writing that I have found most staggering is that God permits it all. God permits the slaughter of young and old (2:21). God permits the starvation of children (2:12). God permits the cannibalism (2:20). God permits all this to happen to his chosen people. Many will use this as reason to give up on God, they might say he’s not worthy to follow for that. Some might be disbelieving that a good God can be behind such bad things.

I’m no prophet, but I do wonder… September 11th, the Tsunami, Bali bombings, the Troubles… might these be divine justice acted out? After all, none of us are innocent (Romans 3:23) so none of us should have anything to complain about. (Easy to say, I know…)

Thinking again about Lamentations, the writer reminds us that Jerusalem’s fall was a result of its sin. Sin. A little word with a lot of meaning, most of which has been watered down by “modern”, “progressive”, “21st Century” ideas. I wonder if we had more of a comprehension of just how bad, immoral and grotesque sin really is (in God’s eyes) – what it really means – if it would affect how we react to suffering when (and not if) it comes?

God’s justice and holiness are scary things for me, which makes me all the more desperate and thankful of God’s grace. “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)