We all remember the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. As a
result a book was published, entitled "Where was God at 9:02 am? Good question, right?

One morning in July 587 B.C., the Israelites were asking the same question. The reason... that was the day Jerusalem fell. It was a day that none would escape and few would survive...a day not unlike the days that the Jews endured Hitler's Germany...a day shockingly similar to the days that defiled Bosnia & Croatia a few years ago.

Sometimes I wish we could avoid the accounts of Jerusalem's destruction. They're haunting, and offensive, but these stories of suffering remain in the scriptures for a reason. Through them, we can gain a glimmer of insight into dealing with our own sufferings.

So let's take a look at the men and women who suffered in Jerusalem. Let's learn of their sorrows and our own. Everyone in Jerusalem knew that the Babylonian army was coming. Jeremiah, God's prophet, urged King Zedekiah to surrender. Zedekiah believed that God would again rescue Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 21:2, 38:17)

For over a year Jerusalem held out. Food ran out and God hadn't bailed out the people yet. One poet illustrated, "those feasting on delicacies perish in the streets. The hands of the compassionate woman have boiled their own children." (Lamentations 4:5a & 10a) After 19 months, the Babylonians breached the walls. Within minutes the temple and the palace were plundered. Not only did the buildings suffer, women were raped in Zion as well as the virgins in the towns of Judea. Princes were hung by their hands. No respect was shown to the elders. (Lamentations 5:11,12) For a month terror rushed unchecked throughout the city.

Finally a Babylonian official arrived and the exile would begin. As they left, the Babylonians burned everything...the temple, palaces, homes, and yet still it was not over. God had not intervened, not even once. The proud citizens of Judea became a pain-wracked procession of exiles. They were prodded northwest toward Babylon.

Jeremiah and his friends were allowed to choose their dwelling place. Those chose to stay in Jerusalem. With Jeremiah and his friends, the Babylonians left a governor and a few poor farmers (2 Kings 25:12). Still, Judea's stubborn streak remained intact. A hot-tempered rebel murdered the governor. Realizing how Nebuchanezzar would respond, the followers of the rebels prepared to flee to Egypt. The refugees wanted God's blessing, so they asked Jeremiah to seek God's will for them. They even made a promise, whether it, is good or bad, "we will obey the voice of the Lord." (Jeremiah 42:6)

It was 10 days later before God answered them, telling them to stay in Jerusalem. The people, however, refused to listen. Worst of all, they forced Jeremiah, now 70 years old to go to Egypt. There again the people turned to another god, “the queen of heaven.” Why? They didn't want a deity who allowed them to suffer. So they turned to a deity that offered wealth and ease instead. (Jeremiah 44:18)

No one knows what happened to Jeremiah in Egypt. According to one Jewish tradition, his own people stoned him to death. To the very end no one listened to him. He died hated...alone… far away from the land he loved.

So what are these stories telling us about suffering? Let's take a look. First, that some who suffer were sinners. King Zedekiah despised God's messenger. Those folks who fled Egypt defied God. When serving God became difficult they turned to other deities. They were rebellious sinners who deserved God's discipline. If only folks like these suffered, life would be a lot simpler. (You will note I did not say easier.) But ungodly rebels aren't the only who suffer.

Second, some who suffer are Christians. Jeremiah served his Savior faithfully, yet his own people mistreated him. More than a few of the young woman who were taunted and abused by the Babylonian soldiers had never bowed to a foreign god. Not every citizen slaughtered in Judea despised the God in Israel. Were these people perfect? No. They had continued to trust God despite the idolatry around them. Yet they...like millions of others throughout the centuries...suffered alongside innocent sinners. Jesus put it this way...those 18 who were killed when the tower of Silgam fell on them, do you think they were any worse than the other offenders who lived in Jerusalem? No. (Luke 13:4,5)

A bumper sticker (in my revised version) says "bad stuff happens" and yes, some of it happens to saints through their tragedies. Some learn to hate. In Babylon, one exile penned the bitter words in Psalm 137:8,9 "Oh daughter of Babylon, you devastater! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock." Obviously, this writer wasn't listening too closely to the ancient sages advice,” do not say, I will do unto others as they have done unto me, I will pay them back for what they have done." (Proverbs 24:29)

Psalm 137 also teaches us that the Psalms weren't simply songs. They were prayers. And alongside our sweet hours of praise-filled prayers, there are often hours of pain-filled pleas for relief. Psalm 137 also shows us that when we say the scriptures never err, we don't mean that everything that was recorded in the Bible is good. Instead, the Bible rightly records what happened even when what happened wasn't right. Were the Psalmist's words good? No, but they did accurately express what one anonymous exile, haunted by a past that was too close for comfort, had prayed.

Was the writer a mother who saw soldiers smash her infant’s skull against a rock? Or a teenage boy who was helplessly watching the jeering Babylonians rapes his sister? We don't know, but, if our only answer to the problem of unjust suffering is the stark command "love your enemies" then I can't blame the Psalmist for writing those words.

When suffering swallows us alive "love your enemies" rings hollow in our hearts. What are the alternatives to hatred? Some learn to wonder. In their darkest moments, David, Jeremiah, and a slew of exiles wondered if God had forgotten them completely. (Psalms 113:1 & Lamentations 5:20) Yet in the end, each embraced Gods enduring presence among them, why? Some saints learned to wait. Yes they prayed, "Why have you forgotten us?" Yes they screamed, "how long oh Lord?" but then these were not cries of doubt. These were cries of faith in God's ultimate justice. They believed that their suffering was not the last word. So they waited and God didn't answer the exiles prayer immediately. In fact, God didn't answer their questions in their lifetime.

Eventually God did answer and that answer was Jesus. Through Jesus, God lived among us. God experienced things from our perspective. On the cross, God was violated, humiliated, abandoned and abused. (Isaiah 53:3-7) In the words of the Apostles' Creed, "he descended into hell" and with God's people in every age, Christ cried out, "My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34) Christ's cry from the cross isn't an easy answer to the problems of pain and disproportionate suffering. But it does remind us that God's people never suffer alone. The one who suffered was the Savior. In Him God amended the covenant that Jeremiah predicted. (Jeremiah 31:31) In Jesus, God became the victim. In Jesus, God shared our sorrows. (Hebrews 2:17-18, 13:11-12) His empty tomb reminds us that suffering is never the final word. For in resurrection, even suffering and death have been conquered.

In the movie Forrest Gump, Jennie and Forrest, now adults are wandering through the paths that they traveled through together as children. Suddenly, Jennie is confronted by a battered building. It was the house where she grew up--the house where her father had abused and violated her--the house where she lost her ability to love. Enraged, Jennie hurls her shoes at the house. She grovels in the dirt, grabbing rocks and heaving them at the windows. Finally one window shatters and Jennie collapses. Forrest remarks slowly, "Sometimes I guess there just ain't enough rocks." Even with his I.Q. of 75, Forrest Gump was right. Sometimes the rocks of hatred and revenge run out and we still hurt. When there aren't enough rocks, there is a Savior.

So where was God at 9:02 am on April 19, 1995? The same place He was in 587 B.C. God was ruling the universe in wisdom and in love. Even then God didn't take suffering lightly. For even then, God saw the cross where a Savior would share our sorrows. If we feel like crying out, "why have you forsaken me?" we can remember the one who cried out from the cross, who knows how we feel. But, there is one difference. He is with us now...to strengthen us. No one was there to strengthen Him.............