Hi.
Here are a few thoughts.
1- God is very involved. Psalm 139, and Jeremiah 1.
It appears that he chooses, out of millions of sperm, which gets access to the egg. Just because we cannot identify any specific patterns, does not mean he’s not.
2- Genesis 3.
Man kicked God to the curb, according to Genesis 3. We see that man would die, and indeed does die. According to Romans 1, there are those who simply do not want anything to do with God, and so God leaves them be.
3- Hosea 4:6.
This one leaves me reeling. God’s people perish for a lack of knowledge. And because the priests ignore the knowledge of God, God will forget their children.
I.e., people who ignore God will be ignored by God.
4- All of this leads to one very fundamental idea…
Ecclesiastes 9:1-2.
All things come to all alike. Those who pray, offer sacrifices, honor God, vow to God, the same thing that happens to them, happens to the wicked, and ungodly-- those who ignore God, those who refuse, and reject God.
What if the issue here is that God is intimately involved, but because we’re so incredibly finite, and limited, we are not able to recognize the infinitude, and unlimited nature/perspective of God. Isaiah 55.
As for my background. 41 years following Jesus. An AS in Math, and undergraduate studies in physics. I am also a stage 4 metastatic melanoma survivor, with 6 surgeries, 4 years of a clinical drug trial- chemo. 5 weeks of radiation, over 60 MRI’s of the brain, 60+ whole torso CT scans, 13-14 whole body PET scans.
Simply put, we live in a fallen world. Humans opened the door to giving God the boot, resulting in his giving us exactly what we want. Sadly, the consequences are far more convoluted, and complicatedly painful than is easily explained.
We have however brought this all on ourselves, because of our sin.
Now… for a couple of classic meme’s…
The issue is not “why hasn’t God stopped evil, pain, etc… Rather, why would God let us live, when we violate his laws with impunity, and he plainly stated— in the day you eat thereof, dying, you shall die.” Genesis 2.
I don’t think this is an easy issue by any stretch of the idea.
I do however think it’s quite simple.
God gave us life. We blew God off, so he gave us what we wanted. Now we’re griping because life is so filled with heartache, grief, pain, misery, etc…, and we’re looking for someone— anyone except for ourselves— to blame, and God is the easiest one.
Thankfully, God does not leave us to our own devices. He gave his own son, allowed him to be miserably treated, manhandled, viciously and brutally murdered.
THere was a man in John 9 who was born blind. Indeed a miserable thing. The disciples asked who’d sinned that he was born blind— parents, or the child…?
Jesus said neither- but so that God may be glorified.
Huh? That’s a new one. How can God be glorified? Apparently by Jesus healing him, and giving him his sight back!
Here’s another. Some people came to Jesus and complained about a really gruesome, and heinous act against the Jewish religious practices of animal sacrifices.
Jesus responded— are you bothered that Pilate had some men killed, and then mingled their blood with sacrifices?
He then responds— No… I tell you that unless you repent, you too will perish.
Then he mentions a recent earthquake, where a tower fell on some people and they were killed. Again, he said— I tell you that unless you repent, you too will perish!
Now… think about these two events. They’re incredibly random, and seemingly vicious-- in the case of the first event.
What surprises me is Jesus’ response— unless you repent, you too will perish.
It strikes me that he’s acknowledging the randomness of life, and saying that there are simply some things we have no control over, but those things we do have control over, we must deal with! There’s no escaping death, but we can escape judgment for our sin.
So… as stated… some thoughts. I’m older now, and have experienced a lot in life. Some quite heinous, some quite nice. God however has been faithful to me through it all.