Q&A: Our Interpretation of Things That Happen
Our Interpretation of Things That Happen
Question
Why do people relate to things that happen in the world as defining God’s actions?
For example, if God does something that appears bad to us, who are we to judge the act and draw conclusions from it about the One who did it? And even if we do judge and infer, is our inference necessarily correct? After all, not all the details are revealed to us.
This happens even among really brilliant people.
An example from the Wikipedia page for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
“News of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 brought Goethe to his first crises of faith, because in his view, ‘God struck the righteous and the sinners alike, without distinction, and in so doing did not demonstrate His fatherly qualities.'”
Could it be that this comes from an emotional place?
It’s a bit hard for me to understand the arguments about God’s actions. I would appreciate an explanation.
Thank you
Answer
According to your approach, there would be no point in telling us that God is good, since that concept too is only ours. But the verses tell us that “the Lord is good in all His ways, and gracious in all His deeds,” and so on. Good and evil are exactly as we understand them. Of course, here and there there may be some mistake, but our basic understandings are correct.
Goethe’s claim does not come from an emotional place. Many great people asked this question, and even more great people said there is no answer to it (that is, they too recognized the validity of the question).
Discussion on Answer
“Righteous” according to His own principles??? And “good” according to your principles??
Most likely the intention was the verse, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are upon all His works.” But even in the verse that was quoted, “The Lord is righteous… etc.,” certainly everything is according to the principles of the Holy One, blessed be He.
And about this it is said, “This is my God and I will glorify Him” — be like Him: just as He is merciful, so you be merciful; just as He is gracious, so you be gracious. According to your principles?? No! Absolutely not!
Your principles—you could have learned modesty from a cat, theft from an ant, and sexual restraint from a dove, as the Talmud says.
The whole idea is to learn the attributes of the Holy One, blessed be He, where true good lies. (And indeed, we will not always understand the calculations of Heaven.)
[In that verse it says “righteous,” not “good.” That is, righteous in His judgment according to His own principles. In other verses in the Hebrew Bible it says, “The Lord is good to all.”]