BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION OF HUMAN SUFFERING: THE OLD TESTAMENT PERSPECTIVE

This paper is an attempt to survey, from biblical Old Testament perspective, the efforts made to come to grips with the question of human suffering. Here, the biblical concept of God as good, loving, just, faithful, and mighty is seen, just as in the case of theodicy generally, as making very difficult the work of explaining the problem of human suffering, especially when it comes to the cases of innocent suffering. The difficulty lies in trying to reconcile the known attributes of God with the suffering of humans. The paper discovered that beside the Old testament explanation of human suffering in terms of retribution (God’s reward for good and punishment for evil), there are other explanations that complement it. Such other explanations are classified as collective suffering, vicarious suffering, purificatory suffering, and medicinal suffering. The study concludes that humans should always work hard in order to conquer the world, but all hard work should be guided by the fear of God. Thus we should submit to God’s dealings in our lives even if we do not always understand them. Ultimate success and happiness lies with God. He alone can give perfect answer to all human existential problems.

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