If God is so powerful, then why doesn't He . . .?
- by Andy Wulff
When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” (Genesis 50:15 
, ESV)
Some hard questions do come up when we take a look at scripture. Not just the trivial pursuit, head-stratching, conundrum kinda questions (like: what was the ‘mark of Cain’?) but real deep and difficult theological questions. Things like: if God is good and sovereign then why does evil exist? Is He just not powerful enough to take care of it? Or if He’s really powerful, then why doesn’t He get rid of it?
In fact, this question has been pondered on for so long that it has been given a name, ’theodicy’ (the word for God, theos, and the word for justification, dikaios. Hence, a theodicy is an attempt to justify God for the existence of evil).
This week, in the next episode of The Story, we are going to confront this question head-on as we look at the end of Genesis and the story of Joseph. The beginning of his life goes down hill fast and just when things seem to be improving, they plummet down again and again. What are we to make of this? Has God lost control? Has he forgotten about Joseph? And if so, what in the world does that mean for us?
I encourage you to take some time and review Genesis 36-50 . This next episode in the Story is giving us a front row seat to God’s character and plans.
Also, if you have missed anything, the sermon section of Hope’s web site contains everything you need (including discussion questions) to continue to journey along. Keep going!
