Rio Vista Church

21 Questions “Why Does a Good God Allow Suffering? (Part 3)”

21 Questions “Why Does a Good God Allow Suffering? (Part 3)”

21 Questions “Why Does a Good God Allow Suffering? (Part 3)”

21 Questions “Why Does a Good God Allow Suffering? (Part 3)”

Summary

Last week, Pastor Sam Kastensmidt considered Job, who suffered because of extreme loss. Now he looks at Solomon, who suffers because of extreme gain and finding it meaningless. The rise in depression, anxiety, and suicides show how real this suffering is.

Scriptures

[Ecc 1:1-3, 12-14 ESV] 1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? … 12 I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

[Ecc 2:10-11 ESV] 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

[Ecc 1:8-10 ESV] 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.

[Ecc 3:10-11 ESV] 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.