Making Sense of Suffering- Lessons from Wisdom Literature and Elie Wiesel
"I don't know how I survived; I was weak, rather shy; I did nothing to save myself. A miracle? Certainly not. If heaven could or would perform a miracle for me, why not for others more deserving than myself? It was nothing more than chance. However, having survived, I needed to give some meaning to my survival." Elie Wiesel
In Wiesel’s book, Night he recounts the events of his time spent as a Jew under Nazi occupation. The quote above is an excerpt. Wiesel doesn’t appear to make sense of the events, but as a teenager, we find him detached from life. Life became a matter of fact. Food drove all desires and the mere questioning of God, like many others did, was replaced by a desire to have nothing to do with God.
His feelings align with Ecclesiastes wisdom literature. His fate was fixed, as were all Jew’s. They would die eventually. In several instances Wiesel flashes back to the deaths of loved ones and camp members. Their death was not mourned, but matter of fact. An old man on a traincar with 100 people died as he and his son fought over a piece of bread. When he died, he was cleared for space and like the teacher of Ecclesiastes says “his estate [bread] was left for the succeeding generation”. Life is meaningless.
Wiesel differs from the author of Ecclesiastes in his responsibility to testify to "this era of evil and darkness, so close and yet so distant . . . The witness has forced himself to testify. For the youth of today, for the children who will be born tomorrow, he does not want his past to become their future”. Ecclesiastes says that “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (1:9).
Wiesel doesn’t appear to share the hope in Christ that I have. But he doesn’t appear to show the bitterness towards the puppets of the Germans that I would have shown. The messages of Proverbs that show God will make retribution often comfort me. I don’t blame Wiesel for his lack of faith; it would test mine as well. I’m terrified to think how I might have responded. We do not experience extreme suffering as Christians in America. He may not have been as righteous as Job, but Wiesel was “a faithful boy” prior to the Holocaust. Why God allowed Him and others had to endure that torture troubles me. Many remained faithful to God though, amazing considering the rest of the world did nothing. Some even said the Jews deserved it, that God’s chosen race would always suffer. It’s like Job’s friends accusing of sin that didn’t exist.
The literature of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes provides different views of suffering. But they all agree on one thing: To fear God and be in awe of Him. That is the sole purpose of our lives. It provides hope that God is constant, never changing, always loving. There will always be evil as long as there are sinful human beings, but God will not disappear and He does truly provide for and love His people. To Him, there is more to us than our lives on earth.
The literature questions theodicy: why do evil things happen to good people? These readings prompted me to discuss that with a group of friends that all meet on Sunday nights. Someone pointed out that maybe the question should be: Why does good happen to anyone? We are all sinful. Why would a good God extend so much grace so as to bless people with anything good, when all we have “earned” is bad? It is grace that we mistake for “fair” and “good”. Wisdom literature testifies to the goodness of God and the shortcomings of man. As God replies to Job, “Where were you?” almost like “who are you to question”, the rest of the literature replies to us.
Two years ago my father lost his job. He had worked for years and our family enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. His company decided to close domestic operations and he was out of a job. We had enough emergency money to keep us going a few months but that would soon run out. The tension it placed on my parent’s marriage was the most troubling. I did cry out to God to provide a new job for my dad or a better one for my mom. It was scary as college was approaching. I felt like Job to have my financial security lost and live in fear of getting ill because it would be too expensive to get care. But having read Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes I have learned to keep going, God is meeting my family’s needs. Our new lifestyle is much different, but I wouldn’t trade it for what we had before. Chasing after wealth is “meaningless” and one is always unsatisfied. Considering all this, maybe this was for the best.
In Wiesel’s book, Night he recounts the events of his time spent as a Jew under Nazi occupation. The quote above is an excerpt. Wiesel doesn’t appear to make sense of the events, but as a teenager, we find him detached from life. Life became a matter of fact. Food drove all desires and the mere questioning of God, like many others did, was replaced by a desire to have nothing to do with God.
His feelings align with Ecclesiastes wisdom literature. His fate was fixed, as were all Jew’s. They would die eventually. In several instances Wiesel flashes back to the deaths of loved ones and camp members. Their death was not mourned, but matter of fact. An old man on a traincar with 100 people died as he and his son fought over a piece of bread. When he died, he was cleared for space and like the teacher of Ecclesiastes says “his estate [bread] was left for the succeeding generation”. Life is meaningless.
Wiesel differs from the author of Ecclesiastes in his responsibility to testify to "this era of evil and darkness, so close and yet so distant . . . The witness has forced himself to testify. For the youth of today, for the children who will be born tomorrow, he does not want his past to become their future”. Ecclesiastes says that “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (1:9).
Wiesel doesn’t appear to share the hope in Christ that I have. But he doesn’t appear to show the bitterness towards the puppets of the Germans that I would have shown. The messages of Proverbs that show God will make retribution often comfort me. I don’t blame Wiesel for his lack of faith; it would test mine as well. I’m terrified to think how I might have responded. We do not experience extreme suffering as Christians in America. He may not have been as righteous as Job, but Wiesel was “a faithful boy” prior to the Holocaust. Why God allowed Him and others had to endure that torture troubles me. Many remained faithful to God though, amazing considering the rest of the world did nothing. Some even said the Jews deserved it, that God’s chosen race would always suffer. It’s like Job’s friends accusing of sin that didn’t exist.
The literature of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes provides different views of suffering. But they all agree on one thing: To fear God and be in awe of Him. That is the sole purpose of our lives. It provides hope that God is constant, never changing, always loving. There will always be evil as long as there are sinful human beings, but God will not disappear and He does truly provide for and love His people. To Him, there is more to us than our lives on earth.
The literature questions theodicy: why do evil things happen to good people? These readings prompted me to discuss that with a group of friends that all meet on Sunday nights. Someone pointed out that maybe the question should be: Why does good happen to anyone? We are all sinful. Why would a good God extend so much grace so as to bless people with anything good, when all we have “earned” is bad? It is grace that we mistake for “fair” and “good”. Wisdom literature testifies to the goodness of God and the shortcomings of man. As God replies to Job, “Where were you?” almost like “who are you to question”, the rest of the literature replies to us.
Two years ago my father lost his job. He had worked for years and our family enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. His company decided to close domestic operations and he was out of a job. We had enough emergency money to keep us going a few months but that would soon run out. The tension it placed on my parent’s marriage was the most troubling. I did cry out to God to provide a new job for my dad or a better one for my mom. It was scary as college was approaching. I felt like Job to have my financial security lost and live in fear of getting ill because it would be too expensive to get care. But having read Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes I have learned to keep going, God is meeting my family’s needs. Our new lifestyle is much different, but I wouldn’t trade it for what we had before. Chasing after wealth is “meaningless” and one is always unsatisfied. Considering all this, maybe this was for the best.
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