Suffering - Is It Punishment From God?

LUZIA LIMPS ON HER LEFT LEG. As a small child, she contracted poliomyelitis,  a highly contagious disease that attacks the body's nervous system.  When she was 16, a lady whom Luzia worked for told her, "God punished you with paralysis because you were disobedient and nasty to your mother."  Years later, Luzia still remembers how devastated she felt.

WHEN DAMARIS LEARNED THAT SHE HAD BRAIN CANCER, her father asked her:  "What have you done for this to happen to you? You must have done something very bad.  That is why God is punishing you."  Damaris' spirit was crushed  by his comment.

The thought that sickness is punishment from God has a long history.  The book Manners and Customs of Bible Lands says that many  in Christ's time believed that "sickness was caused by either the sin of the sick person, or of his relations, and that it was sent as a punishment fro that sin. Medieval Medicine and the Plague says that in the Middle Ages "some people believed that God brought plagues to punish them for their sins."  So when millions throughout Europe died from the plague in the 14th century, was God executing judgment on wicked people?  Or was the plague simply caused by a bacterial infection, as medical researchers have since determined ?  Some may wonder, does God really use sickness to make people suffer for their sins? 

Consider:  Why would Jesus heal people who were sick if sickness and suffering were deserved punishments from God? Would that not amount to undermining God's justice and righteousness?  (Matthew 4:23, 24)  Jesus would never counteract God's actions.  He said:  "I always do the things pleasing to him" and,  "I am doing just as the Father has commanded me to do." - JOHN 8:29; 14:31. 

The Bible is clear.  Jehovah God "is never unjust." (Deuteronomy 32:4)  For example, God would never cause an airplane disaster, killing hundreds of innocent people, because he wanted to punish someone on board!   In harmony with God's righteousness, Abraham, a faithful servant of God, said that God would never "sweep away the righteous and the wicked."  That would be "unthinkable," he said.  (Genesis 18:23, 25)   The Bible also says that "God does not act wickedly; he does not "do wrong."  - JOB 34:10-12.

Next time: Suffering - Is It Punishment From God? - WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES US ABOUT SUFFERING

From the jw.org publications