Free God's Problem by Bart D. Ehrman Page B

the Hebrew Bible had a ready explanation for why people had to suffer the excruciating agonies of war. For them—at least with regard to Israel and the nations surrounding Israel at the time—war came as a judgment from God for the sins of the people. I should emphasize that the actual suffering in war in antiquity was no less hair-raising than it is in modern times. Hand-to-hand combat with swords, spears, and knives is just as terrifying as sitting in foxholes with bullets whizzing by and destroying your buddies. For the prophets, God sometimes brings war to teach his people a lesson and force them to repent. I suppose that if there are no atheists in foxholes, then on the individual basis the strategy works.
    It would be a mistake, however, to see this perspective on suffering as a view of only a few random authors in the Hebrew Bible. In fact, it is the point of view of the majority of authors who produced the biblical texts. In terms of literary genre, on the opposite end of the spectrum from the prophets were the writers of Hebrew “wisdom.” Whereas the prophets spoke “the word of God” to a specific crisis situation, indicating what God wanted his people to do when faced with some concrete problem, the speakers of wisdomdelivered wise advice that was to be applicable in a wide range of situations. These authors were concerned with universal truths that could help guide one into a happy and prosperous life. They learned the truths they conveyed not by a special revelation from God but by way of human experience that extended over many generations. There are several books of “wisdom” in the Hebrew Bible—including the books of Job and Ecclesiastes, which we will be considering later—but none of them is more typical of the genre than the book of Proverbs, a collection of wise sayings that, if followed, will purportedly lead to a good and happy life. 1
    Consisting almost entirely of pithy sayings of the wise that need to be reflected on and digested, the book of Proverbs is arranged for the most part (there are a few exceptions) in no discernible pattern. It is the kind of book you can just dip into and not worry about the literary context or the narrative flow because, for the most part, there is none. What is striking is that even though Proverbs is very different from the writings of the prophets, it shares with them the basic view that a life lived righteously before God will be rewarded but that suffering comes to the wicked and disobedient. This is not so much because God punishes sinners as it is that the world has been established in a certain way by God, so that right living leads to happiness but wicked behavior leads to suffering. This is a constant refrain throughout the book. Consider the following examples:
     
    The L ORD’S curse is on the house
of the wicked,
but he blesses the abode of the
righteous. (3:33)
     
     
    The L ORD does not let the
righteous go hungry,
but he thwarts the craving of
the wicked. (10:3)
     
     
    The righteous are delivered from
trouble,
and the wicked get into it
instead. (11:8)
     
     
    Whoever is steadfast in
righteousness will live,
but whoever pursues evil will
die. (11:19)
     
     
    No harm happens to the
righteous,
but the wicked are filled with
trouble. (12:21)
     
     
    Misfortune pursues sinners,
but prosperity rewards the
righteous. (13:21)
     
    This is the classical view of the prophets writ large in Wisdom. Why do people go hungry, experience bodily harm and personal misfortune, come under God’s curse, get into trouble, and die? Because they are wicked: they do not obey God. How does one avoid suffering? How does one guarantee the blessing of God, a full stomach, prosperity in life, deliverance from trouble and harm? By obeying God.
    Would that it were true. But historical reality is never so neat. All one needs to do is look around to see that the wicked often thrive and the righteous often suffer, sometimes in horrifying and repulsive ways. Nonetheless,