The personal endurance of suffering is not something from which God remains aloof. As Job prophesied many hundreds of years before Christ: "as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth" (Job 19:25). His redeemer and ours "bore our griefs", "carried our sorrows", "was pierced through for our transgressions" (Is. 53 :4-5), suffering more rejection, loneliness, loss and physical pain than any of us will ever have to bear. And all this innocently, and for our sake.

Some thinkers, however, have offered radically new solutions to the problem. Both Emil Fackenheim and Irving Greenberg suggest that the Holocaust was a revelatory event, which changes Judaism. Interestingly, perhaps the most radical post-Holocaust theologian, Richard Rubenstein, maintains that the terms of the covenant cannot be amended. Since the Holocaust contradicted the covenantal reality, we can only deduce one thing: God must be dead.  

In the book of Job God’s answer to the problem of suffering is to present the mysteries of Creation. 

This solution (or non-solution) is articulated in rabbinic literature as well. In Avot 4:19, Rabbi Yannai says: "It is not in our powers to explain either the well-being of the wicked or the sufferings of the righteous." 

Indeed, in the Middle Ages mystics and philosophers gave much attention to the problem of suffering and evil. Medieval thinkers tried to reconcile four claims: God is perfectly good; God is all-powerful; God is all-knowing; evil is real. As Byron Sherwin has pointed out, most medieval solutions to this problem denied or modified one of these claims.

And Not Just Moral Evil, But Physical Evil As Well

But, someone says, “Okay, free will can explain the presence of moral evil, but how do you explain the presence of physical evils such as birth defects, disease, and death?” The answer is: All physical evils are ultimately the consequence of sin, but, and this is very important, they do not all derive from sin the same way.

First of all, the introduction of moral evil into the original pristine environment of God's creation by Adam and Eve implanted an element of corruption into the universe that will remain until the second coming of Jesus. Therefore, much of the evil that is in the world today can be traced directly back to the events that took place in Genesis 3:1-6. And although man is to blame, the curse actually came from God (Genesis 3:14ff). This, of course, does not make God “responsible” for natural evil, for it is a consequence of man's sin. What it tells us, though, is something about the seriousness of sin. The God who loves His creation had to curse it. Why? Because, the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13). When man does this, God is able to “bless” him, when he does not do this, God is judicially obligated to “curse” him (cf. Deuteronomy 11:26-28; James 4:12). Sin is serious business! Sin is terrible! Sin is devastating! If God is going to remain just, then sin, the violation of His law, must not go unpunished!

When God executes wrath, vengeance, and punishment, it is only in a judicial sense that He does so. When God, as Lawgiver, executes judgment, justice demands that one either be vindicated or punished, that is, one receives either a “blessing” or a “curse” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28; James 4:12). In this sense, punishment is retribution (i.e., “the wages of sin,” Romans 6:23) to vindicate Law and satisfy Justice, and is, therefore, an action based upon the principle of Righteousness. Without reward and punishment, there is no justice. Without justice, there is no judgment. Without judgment, there is no law. Without law, there is no lawgiver. Finally, if there is no lawgiver, then there is no God like the one described in the Bible.

The skeptic may ask, “Is it not unreasonable to think that a good God would so order His universe so as to make his subjects happy?” And maybe the thought is not really unreasonable, even for a Christian. How can free-will worship possibly be worth the excessive amount of evil that exists in the world? We just do not really know. But, if the loving, kind, merciful, and all-wise God of the universe thinks there are more important ends to be gained from this fallen world than our unbroken enjoyment of life on this earth, then we will have to either trust Him or rebel.