The age-old question of how a good God can allow suffering is addressed by several authors in this compilation. The root of all suffering is explored, as is the way suffering is categorized and dealt with in Scripture. The final chapters, written from lessons learned in personal suffering, were of great value. Although this book can be a bit academic at times, it is a helpful resource for those desiring to give thought to this question. 

If we are to gain a balanced view of the problem of pain and suffering, it must be considered in the context of the goodness of God. [48]

It is possible, of course, to bring suffering on ourselves by disregarding the wisdom God has given to us by his common grace for everyday living...In such cases, it is difficult to blame divine providence for the resultant suffering. In effect, the pain comes because we insist on going against the grain of the universe. When we fail to use the benefits and resources given to us by virtue of common grace, and we rebel against the order God has placed in the world, we must bear the brunt of our own foolishness. We cannot look for some mysterious reason in divine providence that excuses our own stupidity. [58]

(referring to Psalm 77) What started out with despair that was leading to doubt (a word, incidentally, that never appears in the Hebrew Bible), has now moved to worship and adoration of the One and only true God who helps us in our distress, despair, hurt, and suffering. No, we are not forgotten by God, for his love and mercy are real and his promises are true. God does care; in fact, history has shown that this is the very hallmark of God. [61]

In ways that we cannot fully comprehend, Almighty God suffers along with His people. None of those who are united to him be covenant, then, suffers alone. He not only knows and cares, but he suffers with them. And, as the Almighty, he offers his repentant people his presence, power, and help. How, then, can we doubt the goodness of God? [62]

Our sins have injured and ruptured our relationship with God. So great and serious is the effect of our misconduct that our lives have been put at risk. If there is no expiation or propitiation, we will remain isolated from the God who made us, loves us, and who wishes to restore us back to his favor and presence. Christ’s work on the cross is God’s answer to our predicament. It involved Christ’s suffering to take the pain we should have endured but were totally unable to due to our own spiritual bankruptcy. [72] 

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Many believe God only reached out to the non-Jewish world after the time of Christ, but as Kaiser deftly demonstrates, God’s eternal plan has involved “all nations” (a concept bookended in Gen 12 and Rev 7). In this brief book, Kaiser hones his focus on showing that part of Israel’s function was to propagate God’s truth to their neighbors, and he also develops how God was at work among the Gentiles during the Old Testament period.

The goal of the Old Testament was to see both Jews and Gentiles come to a saving knowledge of the Messiah who was to come. Anything less than this goal was a misunderstanding and an attenuation of the plan of God. God’s eternal plan was to provide salvation for all peoples; it was never intended to be reserved for one special group, such as the Jews, even as an initial offer! [10]

God had not blessed Israel and been kind to them because they were His pets, His favorites, or because His grace was limited to them for the period of the Old Testament. Instead, God’s mode of dealing with Israel was to communicate to them a message that they in turn were responsible for disseminating to all the peoples of the earth. [32]

Missions cannot be an afterthought for the Old Testament: it is the heart and core of the plan of God. [38]

Mission is one of the means God uses to provoke those who claim to be His people to jealousy and repentance. The images of thousands of heathen casting off their former way of life and crying out to God in repentance is to shame mediocre believers into repentance and mending of their ways. Such is one of our Lord’s final and loudest calls to repentance. God is no respecter of persons. [71]

The Gentile mission was not some sort of ab extra, an add-on; it had always been at the heart of all that God had wanted to do and had called Israel and all believers to do. This was why God was working through His Son. It was on behalf of the truth, which truth was to confirm His promise made to the ancient fathers of the nation of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. [81] 

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