I was moved by an article I read this week by Rabbi Jonathan Romaine about the recent death by drowning of his 34-year-old son. In that situation I suspect that I would have asked the question that Jonathan Romaine says never entered his head: “Why? Why did a God who is supposed to look after us and reward the righteous – or at least not punish the innocent – allow this to happen?”.
Jonathan Romaine did not ask that question because he believes that “so much of life is due to chance and random events”. This often happens positively, as when two single people meet in a chance encounter and go on to live a happy life together; or it can happen negatively, as with the death of his son. The gift of life, says Romaine, “is full of both beauty and danger”.
So where was God in this tragedy? The Old Testament story of the fiery furnace may help. King Nebuchadnezzar had defeated Jerusalem, and ordered the finest of the Israelites to be brought before him. He commanded them to worship a gold idol that he had built of himself. Three young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, refused. Furious, Nebuchadnezzar had his furnace stoked to seven times its normal heat, and had the three thrown in. But in the searing flames, Nebuchadnezzar saw not three men but also a fourth, looking like “a son of the gods”. Nebuchadnezzar called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego out of the furnace, and they emerged unharmed.
God did not save the men from the flames: it was Nebuchadnezzar who called them out. But God was there, by their side, in their ordeal.
It seems that we have a choice: we can rail against God, shaking our fists and asking “Why?”; or we can strive to accept what is beyond our control – the beautiful and the dangerous – allowing God to be there with us.
Duncan McCall
